Most Mainline Protestants Accept LGBT People

In a post last month, I said that the wind is at our backs when it comes to LGBT civil rights. A new survey by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life further confirms my optimism.

The U.S. Religious Landscape Survey was conducted by Pew in 2007. The survey “explores the shifts taking place in the U.S. religious landscape” (hence the clever survey title). Key findings were released in 2008, such as how many Christians (78.4%) are in the U.S. population, etc.

Additional survey data are just seeing the light of day, including LGBT-related questions. The following quote is amazing to me:

“Among mainline Protestants overall, 56% say homosexuality should be accepted, compared with only about one-in-four evangelical Protestants and four-in-ten members of historically black Protestant churches.”

Most mainline Protestants accept LGBT people. Let that marinate. And that was two years ago. Even the fact that about 25% of evangelical Protestants and about 40% of black church members accept LGBT people is remarkable.

There’s no doubt that this is great news for the future of LGBT civil rights. What I also pray for from these shifting attitudes is that the diminishing homophobia results in fewer HIV infections. Hope just keeps on marching forward.

Here’s a chart from Pew that breaks down the results: