Religious Groups View on Same Sex Marriage

[KeithE]

(enlarge or read in link above)

Note the breakout of several denominations as being either “evangelical" or “mainline"

Let me ask what ya’ll think the difference between evangelical and mainline is in this context. I’ll share my guess after some others chime in.

[Tim Bonney]

Hauro, for Methodists it is largely north versus south.

[Haruo]

"Hauro" in, I imagine, the sense of "Keith"?

[Haruo]

I am inclined to guess that Methodists aren't alone in that divide.

[Tim Bonney]

[KeithE]

I think the dividing line is belief in biblical inerrancy. Mainliners take the bible straightforwardly (as human testimony of faith matters, some history, some legend, some personal experience with God, some ethical instruction, recollections of Jesus...) while evangelicals take it as God’s intended words and perfect in all regards.

Now I do not know how this poll was conducted in terms of assigning for example a Baptist as a “mainliner” or “evangelical” - I’ll assume it was a self-identification. I do think there is a great dividing line that affects both interpretation/application of scripture and our politics. I think it is insightful to categorize people thusly when reporting on poll results or issues that have a religious dimension (like this one).

Some things to note about the poll results themselves:

Overall Americans are 54% favor legalizing same-sex marriage, 38% oppose it, with 8% undecided.

The differences within one church group was never 100% vs 0% in any category (telling us a good thing- we are not all slaved to church prescribed views). White Mainliners Protestants favor same-sex marriage 62% vs 30% opposed while White Evangelicals Protestants oppose same-sex marriage 66% vs 23% favoring.

The N column can serve as a rough guide to church body membership. The largest group is Catholic, with Unaffiliated coming in second and White Evangelicals Protestants as third. If they had grouped all Protestants together, Protestants would be by far the largest.

[Dave Roberts]

I'm not certain that it is easy to pin down the positions in denominational and philosophical groupings. I wish their definitions had been more precise, but the most important statistic may be the fact that the shift that has come has come in favor of gay marriage. It will be interesting to see how SCOTUS rules on this one and then what the reactions of church groups will be.

[Sandy]

[KeithE]