The American Voter And The Catholic Church Evolve On The LGBTQ Community-- While The GOP Devolves

 

Undue Influence by Nancy Ohanian

A new national survey by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) found that "the vast majority of Americans (70%) favor allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry legally, compared to 28% of Americans who oppose it. Majorities of Democrats (80%) and independents (76%), as well as half of Republicans (50%), support same-sex marriage."

It will probably surprise no one that white evangelical Protestants are the only major religious group in which a majority opposes allowing gay and lesbian couples marrying (34% favor, 63% oppose). Majorities in every other major religious group support marriage equality, including 90% of the religiously unaffiliated , 79% of white mainline Protestants, 78% of Hispanic Catholics, 72% of members of non-Christian religious groups, 68% of Hispanic Protestants, 67% of white Catholics, 57% of Black Protestants, and 56% of members of other Christian religious groups. Further, "more than eight in ten Americans (83%) favor laws that would protect gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people against discrimination in jobs, public accommodations, and housing, compared to only 16% of Americans who oppose such laws. Majorities of Democrats (94%), independents (85%), and Republicans (68%) favor nondiscrimination laws that protect LGBTQ people."

Trump, as you know, chose a vicious homophobic bigot from a weird Bronze-Age-oriented religious cult for the Supreme Court, Amy Coney Barrett. The Republican-controlled Senate is rushing through her confirmation against the wishes of most Americans.

More in touch with the kind of Christianity that is related to Jesus Christ, Pope Francis, has taken a big step towards ending the systemic homophobia that has helped turn people off to the Catholic Church. Reporting for the Washington Post yesterday, Chico Harlan and Michelle Boorstein wrote that in a new documentary Pope Francis "has called for the creation of civil union laws for same-sex couples, in what amounts to his clearest support to date for the issue... Francis has long expressed an interest in outreach to the church's LGBT followers, but his remarks have often stressed general understanding and welcoming-- rather than substantive policies. Priests in some parts of the world bless same-sex marriage, but that stance-- and Francis's new remarks-- are a departure from official church teaching. The documentary, Francesco, is premiering this week in Rome and then in the United States. The pope gave an interview to the filmmaker, Evgeny Afineevsky, saying that 'homosexuals have a right to be a part of the family. They're children of God and have a right to a family,' the pope said. 'Nobody should be thrown out, or be made miserable because of it.'"





Biden has evolved from being a homophobic bigot into someone who at least professes to be pro-LGBQT. Trump, meanwhile, has devolved from being someone who didn't care one way or the other to being a vicious transactional homophobe. Yesterday, Alexander Burns and Jonathan Martin reported that most voters prefer Biden's positions over Trump's on virtually every major issue. On all other subjects tested in the poll, voters preferred Biden over Trump. Biden is favored over Trump to lead on the coronavirus pandemic by 12 points, and voters trust Biden over Trump to choose Supreme Court justices and to maintain law and order by six-point margins. Americans see Biden as more capable of uniting the country by nearly 20 points.





"Trump," wrote conservative activist George Will in his Washington Post column yesterday, "is as much a mess and a disgrace now as he was when he began his illegitimate, divisive presidency. "As the Donald Trump parenthesis in the republic’s history closes, he is opening the sluices on his reservoir of invectives and self-pity. A practitioner of crybaby conservatism-- no one, he thinks, has suffered so much since Job lost his camels and acquired boils-- and ever a weakling, Trump will end his presidency as he began it: whining.

His first day cloaked in presidential dignity he spent disputing photographic proof that his inauguration crowd was substantially smaller than his immediate predecessor’s. Trump’s day of complaining continued at the CIA headquarters, at the wall commemorating those who died serving the agency. His presidency that began with a wallow in self-pity probably will end in ignominy when he slinks away pouting, trailing clouds of recriminations, without a trace of John McCain’s graciousness on election night 2008." ...Subsequently, the Republican Party has eagerly surrendered its self-respect. And having hitched its wagon to a plummeting cinder, the party is about to have a rendezvous with a surly electorate wielding a truncheon. The party picked a bad year to invite a mugging, a year ending in zero: Approximately 80 percent of state legislative seats will be filled this year, and next year the occupants, many of them Democrats wafted into office by a wave election, will redraw congressional districts based on the 2020 Census.

After Democrats controlled the House for 40 years (1954-1994), control of it changed under four presidents (Bill Clinton in 1994, George W. Bush in 2006, Obama in 2010, Trump in 2018). Trump’s legacy might include a decade of Democratic control of the House.