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US Study Shows Greater Differences Between 'Traditionalist' and 'Modernist' Co-Religionists than Between Catholics and Protestants

Majority of both favour embryo research.

September 10, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life says that the relationship between religious affiliation and political views is more complex than at first appears.

Evangelical Christians, Mainline Protestants and white Roman Catholics were polled for their opinions on a variety of political issues for Pew's Fourth National Survey of Religion and Politics. In general the results show what pro-life activists have known by experience. What are referred to as 'religious traditionalists,' those who adhere closely to the official teachings of their religions, are more likely to hold similar beliefs between religious groups.

Tradition-minded Catholics and Protestants are often found making common cause over abortion and marriage issues, and frequently say they find more in common with each other than with more 'liberal' members of their own faiths. The Pew study found that what it called 'modernists' in the various religions experience the same trend.

The study shows that the two groups, religious traditionalists and religious modernists are sharply divided on the issue of abortion, but a large majority is in agreement over the use of embryos for stem cell research. Among Evangelical Protestants, traditionalists are overwhelmingly pro-life (84%-to-16%), while modernists favor the pro-choice position (63%-to-37%) while Catholics as a whole are more 'pro-choice.' However the same split does not occur over embryo experimentation. This disconnect is perhaps unsurprising since the advance of embryo research, IVF and cloning has been extremely rapid and has been paced by misinformation and confusion in media reporting. Majorities of only two groups, traditionalist Evangelicals and traditionalist Catholics, favoured a ban on embryo research.

The study also shows that there was almost universal support of indeterminate 'gay rights,' but it was when those rights were considered to include 'gay marriage' that differences arose. The biggest supporters of homosexual 'marriage' are atheists and agnostics, Jews, modernist Catholics, modernist Mainline Protestants and modernist Evangelical Protestants. Interestingly, the study showed a decline in support for 'gay rights' among black Protestants, (44%-to-40%), who until as recently as four years ago were 56% in support. "But many black Americans," the study's authors say, "are social conservatives and the recent controversy over same-sex marriage may have reduced their support for gay rights."

Read the Fourth National Survey of Religion:
http://pewforum.org/publications/surveys/green.pdf

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