Churches' acceptance of gay Christians--a long way to go

One of the drawbacks of blogging from a Canadian perspective is that we often lack relevant data on Canadian people, places, and things. Resorting to the American equivalent is sometimes helpful but often is not, because of our different culture or demographics. For instances, while nearly half of Canadians claim Roman Catholic affiliation, only about a quarter of Americans do. Just under 30% of Canadians label themselves as Protestants of all types, but evangelical Protestants alone account for almost the same percentage in the U.S. African-American church members represent 7% of American religious affiliation. This is not a statistic that would have any Canadian equivalent.

Consequently, the information that became available lately from the U.S. National Congregations Study, supervised by Prof. Mark Chaves of Duke University (yes, they do more there than just play basketball) has to be used with care in coming to any conclusions about the Canadian experience.

Nevertheless, it makes for interesting reading, and gives us a look at what is happening among places of faith in America (see http://www.soc.duke.edu/natcong/Docs/NCSII_report_final.pdf). Keep in mind that this study is of congregations, not individuals. A congregation could have 10 members, or 10,000, so one has to understand the findings for what they are.

I was particularly interested in the number of congregations that accept gay Christians, either as members or even in leadership positions. Here are their findings for membership:

Notice that the only congregations in a distinct minority position (24%) are the white conservative, evangelical, or fundamentalist Protestants. In the National Congregations Study, such churches represented just under half of all those that responded to the survey.

Of congregations overall, irrespective of religious affiliation/traditions, full membership was extended to the following:

• Someone who drinks alcohol in moderation - 71% of individuals, 53% of congregations
• An unmarried couple who live together -        31                            28
• An openly gay or lesbian couple in a committed relationship -                                                                                                                                23                            19
• Someone who publicly supports a woman’s right to choose -                                                                                                                                  41                            41

• Someone who publicly supports the right to life -                                                                                                                                                    86                            82

23% of congregations permitted gays to provide lay leadership.