Poll: PCUSA Members Increasingly Favoring Same-Sex Marriage

According to a recent survey by Presbyterian Research Services, support for same-sex marriage among Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) members and pastors has considerably increased since 2005, the Christian Post reports. In 2005, 23 percent of PCUSA members supported same-sex marriage; in 2012, the number had increased to 34 percent. Among pastors, support for same-sex marriage in 2005 was 35 percent; in 2012, it is at 49 percent. "This result indicates a broad-based shift in opinions across the church in only a few years," said Jack Marcum, coordinator of research services at Presbyterian Mission Agency and author of the published findings. Though the PCUSA's General Assembly voted this summer to keep the traditional marriage definition in the denomination's constitution, "longer term, the effect of generational change will be felt: 75 percent of young adult advisory delegates at the General Assembly supported the redefinition of marriage," Marcum said. "Hence, the next effort to change the marriage definition might well succeed. Indeed, it's possible that this year's effort would have succeeded, save for arguments that such a radical redefinition was too much change in the denomination, too soon."