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[Valhelm]

I'm surprised and disappointed at the rise in homophobia. Maybe it's an issue of standard deviation more than anything else?

I wonder if a lot of this is casual bigots doubling down as gay marriage becomes a reality in more and more states. There's a narrative of persecution among many very Christian people, so it's possible many conservatives are becoming more conservative in light of this "secular homosexual oppression".

 

[Cheesecakebobby]

I would love to live in the Netherlands. Sadly, I would need to go back to school and learn Dutch as well, I assume.

I studied for a year in Amsterdam, can't speak more than a few words of Dutch. Hobos on the street speak better English than half of England.

 

[studyguy]

Curious at how pew polls. Still probably doean't matter though since the responders are prob that same demo that head out to the polls every year in larger numbers. Disappointing to say the least.

Group I guess I fall into, Hispanic catholic seems super liberal in comparison to alot of things tho.

 

[jonnyp]

Talk about intellectual regression....

 

[Madness]

WE'RE GOING BACKWARDS

Human history is always cyclical in a sense. The biggest misconception people make is to think the passage of time always means progression and not regression. That's why I always shake my head when people say it's 2014, I thought we moved past this. Everytime social change moves at a rapid pace, there is always blowback. Just wait till birthrates in the West stay low, immigration numbers go up, and visible minorities start becoming majorities. You'll start to see/read more racist views become mainstream.

But this is just a random polling. Nationwide support for gay rights has never been higher, and the US is even using its influence internationally challenging Russia, putting sanctions on Uganda for its anti-gay policies. It's not even about civil unions anymore, across the country, legal marriage for LGBT couples is happening.

Additionally, immigrants tend to be more conservative in the US than liberal. I wouldn't be surprised if a large number of religious Indians, Hispanics, Africans, Filipino, skewed such polls. I remember reading how a lot of the growth of the catholic church in the US is by Hispanic or Latin Americans etc.

 

[CharminUltra]

By more support for religion in politics they mean any religion, right? Cuz I'd love to see a satanist president one day.

 

[Miles Quaritch]

The share of Americans who say churches and other houses of worship should express their views on social and political issues is up 6 points since the 2010 midterm elections (from 43% to 49%). The share who say there has been “too little” expression of religious faith and prayer from political leaders is up modestly over the same period (from 37% to 41%). And a growing minority of Americans (32%) think churches should endorse candidates for political office, though most continue to oppose such direct involvement by churches in electoral politics.

That's not worrying at all. You'd think all the sexual abuse scandals would be enough to diminish the power the church has over some people...

t finds a slight drop in support for allowing gays and lesbians to marry, with 49% of Americans in favor and 41% opposed – a 5-point dip in support from a February Pew Research poll, but about the same level as in 2013. It is too early to know if this modest decline is an anomaly or the beginning of a reversal or leveling off in attitudes toward gay marriage after years of steadily increasing public acceptance. Moreover, when the February poll and the current survey are combined, the 2014 yearly average level of support for same-sex marriage stands at 52%, roughly the same as the 2013 yearly average (50%).

The new poll also finds that fully half (50%) of the public now considers homosexuality a sin, up from 45% a year ago. And nearly half of U.S. adults think that businesses like caterers and florists should be allowed to reject same-sex couples as customers if the businesses have religious objections to serving those couples.

Oh dear. What are you doing? Stop going backwards.

 

[soul creator]

I always find it amusing (especially from liberal religious believers) to be against believers invoking god/religion in politics and being against "legislating morality", even though that's pretty much exactly what politics and government is effectively supposed to be an expression of.

If someone genuinely feels that god or their religion communicates the best way for human beings to live our lives, then of course they should try to express that through their government. If there was actually a god out there concerned about us like religious believers claim, then his observations would be pretty fucking important to take into account when deciding policy!

But the reason I oppose religion and god in government is not arbitrarily because "religion should never be mixed with politics"...it's because religion is almost always a laughably and wildly inaccurate way of viewing the world, and is almost always based on complete fantasy...and things that are wildly inaccurate and fantastical should not be used as a basis for decision making in the real world. I'm against wildly inaccurate and fantastical ideas influencing politics in general...religion just happens to be the most popular of wildly inaccurate and fantastical ideas (which is why I'm a baby eating atheist, of course)

So I'm not really "mad" at religious believers for wanting their government to reflect their religion (and the morals that often come from it). That's how I expect them to feel, since it makes total sense if someone genuinely believes in their religion. But that does mean that as soon as they bring their ideas into the public square, they should prepare to be criticized if those ideas are flawed (which they pretty much always are)...

 

[norinrad]

People who think being gay is a threat to the human race, should all be shot. Thank God its their opinion and the law should come down hard on them if they are caught discriminating.

 

[Jedeye Sniv]

It's really strange right now how lots of these issues are split on an almost 50/50 basis. You'd think the scales would tip one way or the other more definitively.

Hurry up and die, old bigots.

 

[waypoetic]

Just move to Sweden

 

[Ikael]

Yes, let's mingle religion with politics. This is the best idea ever. It has worked wonderfully in the Middle East, so why not in the USA as well?

 

[DJKhaled]

This is weird, polls with results like this would be unheard of in most Western countries. America baffles me when it comes to this type of stuff.

 

[Massive Duck. C.M.]

I always find it amusing (especially from liberal religious believers) to be against believers invoking god/religion in politics and being against "legislating morality", even though that's pretty much exactly what politics and government is effectively supposed to be an expression of.

If someone genuinely feels that god or their religion communicates the best way for human beings to live our lives, then of course they should try to express that through their government. If there was actually a god out there concerned about us like religious believers claim, then his observations would be pretty fucking important to take into account when deciding policy!

But the reason I oppose religion and god in government is not arbitrarily because "religion should never be mixed with politics"...it's because religion is almost always a laughably and wildly inaccurate way of viewing the world, and is almost always based on complete fantasy...and things that are wildly inaccurate and fantastical should not be used as a basis for decision making in the real world. I'm against wildly inaccurate and fantastical ideas influencing politics in general...religion just happens to be the most popular of wildly inaccurate and fantastical ideas (which is why I'm a baby eating atheist, of course)

So I'm not really "mad" at religious believers for wanting their government to reflect their religion (and the morals that often come from it). That's how I expect them to feel, since it makes total sense if someone genuinely believes in their religion. But that does mean that as soon as they bring their ideas into the public square, they should prepare to be criticized if those ideas are flawed (which they pretty much always are)...

Is there any safe path for the liberal who also believes in a god?

 

[Valhelm]

This is weird, polls with results like this would be unheard of in most Western countries. America baffles me when it comes to this type of stuff.

Most, not all. The US is unfortunately much more homophobic than many developed nations, but shockingly ahead of Greece, Brazil, Poland, and Israel.

 

[Aiii]

USA != Planet.

Most, not all. The US is unfortunately much more homophobic than many developed nations, but shockingly ahead of Greece, Brazil, Poland, and Israel.

All highly religious countries, coincidentally.

 

[The Dennis System]

Well this is bad news. I thought the percentage of people identifying as secular and/or not religious was on the rise in the US.

 

[Vestax]

Religion should definitely not have anything to do w/politics

Agreed. If history has shown us anything is that political governments and religious organizations do not mix. And when they do mix it is bad for people, as most rights are taken away and such. The founding fathers wanted a separation of church and state because of what had previously happened in Europe.

As far as gay rights, the constitution definitely does not prohibit gay marriage and such. People just need to deal with it...

 

[NEO0MJ]

Finally, we will become the nation the founding fathers intended it to be. God bless the United States of America.

 

[Kettch]

It's quite sad how many people don't realize that separation of church and state is there to protect the religious as much as the non-religious. How are Catholics going to feel living under Protestant rules? How about the other way around if a Catholic wins an election? How about when Islam gets popular in the US?

It's not there to repress religion, it's there to protect everyone.

 

[ICKE]

It feels like one reason for this is that homosexuality has been heavily politicized over the past decade. A lot of people did not really feel one way or the other but are now annoyed at the culture wars and expressions of sexuality. This is the case with some older people I know. They didn't really mind what people did inside their homes but now have this "it is on my face constantly" - sentiment.

This same dynamic works within race relations as well. Some people are simply getting tired of reading the same news and talking points over and over again even though people are only doing it to raise awareness as there are still huge problems. Eventually a sort of siege mentality starts to fester and instead of steady progression we have a lot of people, especially young males, who feel that people need to tone down the rhetoric.

 

[waypoetic]

It's quite sad how many people don't realize that separation of church and state is there to protect the religious as much as the non-religious. How are Catholics going to feel living under Protestant rules? How about the other way around if a Catholic wins an election? How about when Islam gets popular in the US?

State and church ain't separated in America If they were that country would look a lot different.

 

[teruterubozu]

Human history is always cyclical in a sense. The biggest misconception people make is to think the passage of time always means progression and not regression. That's why I always shake my head when people say it's 2014, I thought we moved past this. Everytime social change moves at a rapid pace, there is always blowback. Just wait till birthrates in the West stay low, immigration numbers go up, and visible minorities start becoming majorities. You'll start to see/read more racist views become mainstream.

But it's 2014! Yup humanity is not an upward trajectory. Racism/bigotry comes in waves and cycles. If anything, the US is more racist against Middle Easterns compared to 20 years ago, for example.

 

[RoadHazard]

You don't have to leave the planet bro, just America. Most other western countries aren't nearly as backwards and nutty when it comes to religion. Here in Sweden opinions like these would be way, way outside the norm.

 

[Soriku]

Human history is always cyclical in a sense. The biggest misconception people make is to think the passage of time always means progression and not regression. That's why I always shake my head when people say it's 2014, I thought we moved past this. Everytime social change moves at a rapid pace, there is always blowback. Just wait till birthrates in the West stay low, immigration numbers go up, and visible minorities start becoming majorities. You'll start to see/read more racist views become mainstream.

But this is just a random polling. Nationwide support for gay rights has never been higher, and the US is even using its influence internationally challenging Russia, putting sanctions on Uganda for its anti-gay policies. It's not even about civil unions anymore, across the country, legal marriage for LGBT couples is happening.

Additionally, immigrants tend to be more conservative in the US than liberal. I wouldn't be surprised if a large number of religious Indians, Hispanics, Africans, Filipino, skewed such polls. I remember reading how a lot of the growth of the catholic church in the US is by Hispanic or Latin Americans etc.

I'm not sure blowbacks necessarily mean a regression. It could just be that people who were silent are coming out the woodworks. Now, if blowbacks are frequent and significant enough to cause an overall regression, then that's a different issue.

 

[teruterubozu]

I'm not sure blowbacks necessary mean a regression. It could just be that people who were silent are coming out the woodworks. Now, if blowbacks are frequent and significant enough to cause an overall regression, then that's a different issue.

Blowbacks have caused wars and genocides. It still happens on this planet, believe it or not.

 

[Escape Goat]

Its not possible to continue the steep climb of support year after year so wouldn there be periods where it levels off?

 

[MrCookiepants]

Maybe the US and Russia should be BFF after all.

Quotes likes those make me sad to be me. 5% of Russia wants me killed? It just hurts to read it.

 

[soul creator]

Is there any safe path for the liberal who also believes in a god?

Define "safe path". I mean, especially if you're defining god on a super personal level, and ignoring the major religions, then that person is less susceptible to those criticisms I suppose. If your god is simply "some generic deistic force that started the universe way back when and that's about it", then there's not really anything to discuss. People make up their own personal definition for God all the time. Rock on.

But I do think it's weird if someone is like "God is real! God has a great effect on my life! God inspires us! God wants us to love others! God did X Y Z! God wants us to do X Y Z! But you know what, God should be kept separate from politics..."

If something like that was truly real and has an effect on the world we all live in, then of course it should be a part of politics. Saying it shouldn't is like indirectly admitting that it's all just in one's head, lol.

 

[Dude Abides]

State and church ain't separated in America If they were that country would look a lot different.

Check out this expert on all things American.

 

[Wilsongt]

Somewhere Huckabes just jizzed all in his pants. I expect the right to take this data and run with it.

 

[HylianTom]

It feels like one reason for this is that homosexuality has been heavily politicized over the past decade. A lot of people did not really feel one way or the other but are now annoyed at the culture wars and expressions of sexuality. This is the case with some older people I know. They didn't really mind what people did inside their homes but now have this "it is on my face constantly" - sentiment.

This same dynamic works within race relations as well. Some people are simply getting tired of reading the same news and talking points over and over again even though people are only doing it to raise awareness as there are still huge problems. Eventually a sort of siege mentality starts to fester and instead of steady progression we have a lot of people, especially young males, who feel that people need to tone down the rhetoric.

The "it's in my face people" should know by now.. we won't stop fighting until we get the Equal Protection we're very plainly guaranteed. There's no putting this genie back into the bottle. And what's more: their kids and grandkids will not look kindly on their words and deeds.

 

[Ponn]

Amount of people who have not read the Constitution has also increased apparently.

Like the bible people pick and choose the parts that work for them.

 

[waypoetic]

You don't have to leave the planet bro, just America. Most other western countries aren't nearly as backwards and nutty when it comes to religion. Here in Sweden opinions like these would be way, way outside the norm.

In Sweden, we've got mouth frothing feminists instead who wants to get rid of genders and our military! Yay..