I see now that Time reported on a pretty large scale international poll of Catholic attitudes to various sensitive issues earlier this month. The results are pretty interesting, and on issue after issue, the really outstanding conservative Catholic attitudes are shown in the results from Africa and the Philippines.
On gay marriage (a more specific issue than mere acceptance of gay relationships) look at the results:
Well, there's not going to be any movement on that issue if the Africans have their way!
(And I see that while the Pew poll indicated the Philippines accepted gay relationships, they apparently don't go as far as accepting gay marriage.)
But look at the other issues on which the Pope is trying to hold a firm line. On contraception, the results are pretty clear that the Church has lost everyone (except, oddly, a lot of Filipinos):
I think the figures for those opposed to contraception in the US are also unusually high, but perhaps the political argument over the contraception mandate in Obama's health plan has heightened feelings against it.
But even on abortion, clearly, Catholics pretty much do not follow the straight-down-the-line teaching by a pretty big margin:
Mind you, that question is a pretty broad brush one and allows for some confusion.
In any event, the main point I take from this is that Catholicism has the same issues as the Anglican Church: it is pretty fractured on some key teachings on matters of sexuality.
Update: William Saletan talks about the same polling, and notes that it reveals big age differences on matters such as gay marriage, indicating that the Church's position on sexuality generally is going to face continuing strains.
2 comments:
Steve, If Catholics accept the bible then the ACT of homosexuality is a sinful practice just like adultery or fornication.
Therefore no Catholic who believes in the bible could accept gay marriage.
On the other hand a 'gay' man who does not indulge in sex is in a similar position to a heterosexual man who does not indulge in sex!
Last paragraph is definitely right.
Agree with the first two paragraphs in that Biblical teaching appears pretty clear and hard to work around.
But - there is no doubt at all that there is a large body of Catholics, even relatively conservative ones, who are starting to nuance away the simplistic Biblical injunctions.
The matter is complicated, but as I used to say at Catallaxy, I have no doubt that a major theological revision of the way sexuality as a whole is understood by the Church has really started already, and will eventually reach higher and higher within it.
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