Christian Headlines Blog Christian Blog and Commentary

Get guidance on Bible study from C.S. Lewis - Free Course!

Poll: Majority of Religious Americans Support Gay Marriage

  • Amanda Casanova

    Amanda Casanova is a writer living in Dallas, Texas. She has covered news for ChristianHeadlines.com since 2014. She has also contributed to The Houston Chronicle, U.S. News and World Report and…

    More
  • Updated Feb 10, 2017

A new poll shows that the majority of Americans who identify as religious say they support allowing gays and lesbians to legally get married and are opposed to laws that allow business owners the right to refuse services to same-sex wedding ceremonies.

The poll data, which comes from the Public Religion Research Institute, found that 63 percent of white Mainline Protestants and white Catholics supported gay marriage. About 62 percent of Hispanic Catholics and 59 percent of Orthodox Christians said they were in favor of gay marriage.

"[M]any Americans in religious traditions that affirm only the union of man and woman as marriage have accepted legalized same sex marriage. They have acceded to the largely secular notion that societal and legal affirmation of a sexual and domestic arrangement is an intrinsic human right," Mark Tooley, president of the D.C.-based think tank Institute on Religion & Democracy, told The Christian Post on Wednesday.

Also as part of the survey, 61 percent of Americans said they oppose allowing “small business owner in your state to refuse to provide products or services to gay or lesbian people if doing so violates their religious beliefs.”

Recently, business owners have been fined or sued for refusing to provide services for gay marriages after saying that doing so would violate their religious beliefs.

According to the poll, 42 percent of white evangelicals said they oppose allowing business to refuse services. Fifty-two percent of Mormons, 53 percent of Jehovah’s Witnesses, 60 percent of Muslims, 63 percent of Hispanic Catholics, and 72 percent of Jews said they are against allowing small business the right to refuse services.

 

Photo courtesy: Thinkstockphotos.com

Publication date: February 10, 2017