(RNS) While the Vatican and U.S. bishops maintain a hard-line stand against most gay rights causes, American Catholics are more supportive of gay rights than other U.S. Christians, according to new research released Tuesday (March 22).<\/p>\n
A report by Washington-based Public Religion Research Institute found that 74 percent of Catholics favor legal recognition for same-sex relationships, either through civil unions (31 percent) or civil marriage (43 percent).<\/p>\n
That figure is higher than the 64 percent of all Americans, 67 percent of mainline Protestants, 48 percent of black Protestants and 40 percent of evangelicals.<\/p>\n
Less than one-quarter (22 percent) of Catholics want no legal recognition of same-sex partnerships, while a majority (56 percent) believes that same-sex adult relationships are not sinful.<\/p>\n
The analysis was based on polling conducted by PRRI and the Pew Research Center last fall. In almost every category, Catholics scored 5 to 6 percentage points higher on supporting gay rights than other U.S.
\nchurches.<\/p>\n
Neither Jews (who are generally among the most supportive of gay rights issues) nor Muslims were included in the data because of their small sample size.<\/p>\n
The PRRI analysis found notable generational differences on gay rights — more than half (56 percent) of Catholics under age 35 favor same-sex marriage, compared to only one in five (21 percent) of Catholics age 65 and older.<\/p>\n
Church attendance is also a notable factor — the report found that about 25 percent of Catholics who attend services weekly or more favor same-sex marriage, compared to 43 percent who attend a couple of times a month, and 59 percent of Catholics who attend a few times or less a year.<\/p>\n
-RICHARD YEAKELY<\/strong>, Religion News Service<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (RNS) While the Vatican and U.S. bishops maintain a hard-line stand against most gay rights causes, American Catholics are more supportive of gay rights than other U.S. Christians, according to new research released Tuesday (March 22). A report by Washington-based Public Religion Research Institute found that 74 percent of Catholics favor legal recognition for same-sex…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":345,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,8,3,9],"tags":[2206,49,50,52,51,46,2202,2203],"class_list":["post-2625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","category-news","category-research","category-rns","tag-catholic","tag-catholicism","tag-gay","tag-gay-rights","tag-homosexual","tag-research-2","tag-rns","tag-vatican"],"yoast_head":"\n