The Pew Research Center has issued a new report, U.S. Becoming Less Religious. Go figure. Chapter 4 of the report, “Social and Political Attitudes,” contains some interesting numbers on shifts in Catholic and Orthodox political-party affiliation since 2007. The short and the long of it is that Catholics have begun stepping away from the Democratic Party to align with Republicans while the Orthodox have defected from both parties (albeit mostly from the Democrats) to become more independent or have no affiliation. Both Catholics and Orthodox have increased their support for smaller government . . . and same-sex marriage. There are other interesting factoids to glean from the report; those are the ones that jumped out to me.
Broadly speaking, Catholics and Orthodox match-up fairly well when it comes to contemporary American liberal values. In other words, both confessions are packed full of dissenters from fundamental Christian morality. Although I have repeatedly stated that, on average, American Orthodox bishops and priests are less heterodox than their Catholic counterparts, it doesn’t appear to have significantly influenced their faithful. Why that is the case is difficult to say, but a fascinating question nonetheless.
November 3, 2015
That small government thing really hurts. And the gov-aid-to-poor thing. I think those are both reactions to some of the failures of Obamacare (which are largely Republicans’ fault – the failure of the Medicaid expansion will surely haunt some people at the last judgment). Ouch.
Look at the Orthodox on abortion.