Poll Shows American Catholics Go With Their Faith Over Their ReligionBy Mary Kate Cary, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
A new Gallup poll is out that finds almost no difference between mainstream American Catholics and non-Catholics when it comes to deciding the moral acceptability of abortion (a majority of both say no) and embryonic stem cell research (a majority of both say yes).
When you look further into it, the poll shows that rank-and-file American Catholics—whether they go to church on a weekly basis or not—are not as conservative as regular churchgoers from other religions, which I assume means observant Jews, Muslims, and Christians.
According to the poll:
Regular churchgoers who are Catholic are significantly more liberal than churchgoing non-Catholics on gambling, sex before marriage, homosexual relations, having a baby out of wedlock, and divorce. Committed Catholics are at least slightly more likely than devout non-Catholics to say that abortion and embryonic stem-cell research ... are morally acceptable. Only on the death penalty are committed Catholics more conservative than regular churchgoers who are not Catholic.
I'm not surprised at all by these findings. I consider myself a mainstream American Catholic—I attended Catholic schools until college, but we don't send our kids to a Catholic school, although we do attend Mass as a family every week (well, nearly every week). We're parishioners at a Jesuit church known for its very activist commitment to social justice and service to others. In the old "faith vs. good works" argument, we like both. Apparently that makes us less conservative than other churchgoers. Why? I think I have an explanation.
Read the explanation (here)
Here is an alternative opinion on abortion polling from Fr. Frank Pavone of Priest for Life (here)
This poll claims 90% of all Americans want limits on abortion, read the results (here)
4 comments:
"This poll claims 90% of all Americans want limits on abortion"
Are you sure, Joe?
In South Dakota, a Republican and conservative State, all ballot measure that would limit or ban abortions was rejected by people.
The poll asked respondents to state which of six statements came closest to describing their opinion on abortion.
Only 8% of U.S. residents chose the statement saying abortion should be available to a woman any time she wants during her entire pregnancy.
That same percentage said abortion should be allowed only during the first six months of pregnancy. Twenty-four percent moved the abortion limit to the first three months of pregnancy.
The largest percentage -- 32% -- chose the statement saying abortion should be allowed only in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother.
Fifteen percent chose the fifth option: that abortion should be allowed only to save the life of the mother.
And 13% affirmed that abortion should never be permitted under any circumstance.
From the Zenit article linked to in the original post
I read the poll, but people, conservative people, voted otherwise.
What do you think about South Dakota?
South Dakota is attempting to drive the issue to the Supreme Court to overturn Roe.
I thought that the original articles author was very flippant in her assessment of the polling data, polls have consistently shown less support for abortion in the US.
JMJ
Joe
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