Only 13% of white evangelicals supported gay marriage in 2001. While only 23% support gay marriage for same-sex couples 12 years later, the increase has come mainly in the last four years. Figures among black Protestants has remained essentially the same, with 30% supporting marriage in 2001, a steep drop in 2004, and then 32% supporting marriage equality now. Meanwhile, Catholics and mainline Protestants have shown steady increases in their support for marriage equality since 2009. Among Catholics, 54% support marriage equality, up from 40% in 2001. 55% of mainline Protestants support marriage equality, up from 38% in 2001.
The high rate of acceptance for gay marriage by Catholics is a failure of catechism on so many levels: in the schools, in the churches, and in the homes. In this blog, I have been very explicit about the extreme lack of religious training that I had as a child and teenager from kindergarten all the way through high-school. For, in the 1970s and 80s, some in the Church felt that the time for rote memorization and a strict adherence to moral dogmas had come to an end. They were shooting for the lofty goal of children having a more intimate and friendly relationship with God. But, it all backfired: when they made Jesus all too ordinary. He no longer seemed to be God, but just a man. His words were no different than ours: or Buddha's, or Confucius', or any New Age psychic. Now, we are living with the results: adults who never learned their Faith, children who have been brought up by adults who never learned their Faith, and confused kids who wander into every sort of alternative lifestyle looking for the love, assurance, and belief system that they should have found in the Church.