Why Anglican church (and Jews and Catholics) support homosexuals

By Douglas Todd
07-17-2009

Anglicans are far more gay-positive than the general North American population, suggests a poll.
As Vancouver-area Anglicans await the judge’s ruling on a court dispute over who controls four valuable church properties, a surprising poll shows that North American Anglicans are more gay-supportive than the population as a whole.

No wonder North American Anglicans have been among those leading the cause for homosexual rights. The polling results help explain the headline-making vote this week by Episcopalians to formally allow the ordination of homosexuals, an issue which has been disturbing some of the world’s 70 million Anglicans since openly gay cleric Gene Robinson (below) was elected an Episcopal bishop.

The Pew Forum for Religion and Public Life found 70 per cent of U.S. Anglicans, known as Episcopalians, believe society should accept homosexuality as a way of life.
That compares to only 50 per cent support among the general U.S. population.

The level of Episcopalian (Anglican) support for homosexuality as a way of life is almost three times higher higher than the support offered by U.S. white evangelicals, only 26 per cent of whom are ready to accept it.

There is a huge gap between what appears to be the majority of liberal and moderate Anglicans who accept homosexuality, and those Anglicans who have adopted a largely evangelical approach to interpreting the Bible, which they see as gravely condemning homosexual behavior.
The Pew Forum often does the kind of innovative religion polling I’d like to see performed in Canada. Still, I suspect the American results are highly indicative of the way things are among different religions in Canada.

For instance, even though Canada has far fewer white evangelicals than in the U.S. (eight per cent compared to at least 25 per cent), surveys done by scholar Sam Reimer for his book, Evangelicals and the Continental Divide: The Conservative Protestant Subculture in Canada and the United States, show evangelicals’ beliefs and values are often the same on each side of the international border.

Curiously enough, the Pew poll shows that although American evangelicals and Muslims differ strongly on many theological and political issues, they firmly agree their opposition to homosexual relationships.

Gays and Religion poll:
These are the results when the Pew Forum asked people whether society should accept or discourage homosexuality as a way of life:
ACCEPT (with highest rate of acceptance at top)
Jews ………………………..... 79 per cent
Secular ……………………..... 75 per cent
Episcopalians (Anglicans)... 70 per cent
Catholics ……………………... 58 per cent
Mainline Protestants ………... 55 per cent
U.S. population (general) .... 50 per cent
Muslims …………………….... 27 per cent
White evangelicals ………… 26 per cent

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