Yesterday the Christian Institute said in a press release that attitudes in America towards marriage were overwhelmingly in favour of the traditional view. According to a poll taken on behalf of a Christian organisation 62% of American people think ‘marriage should be defined as a union between one man and one woman’ with only 35% disagreeing. The poll was released to support the view that the law should not change in order to allow same-sex marriages. With a majority this strong among the general population the government should surely take heed and desist from taking any move away from the traditional religious stance.

Except that in real life things are rarely that simple. In recent weeks two other polls have painted a somewhat different picture. These were undertaken by two major research organisations and what sets them apart from the one mentioned above is that they have been monitoring the situation in the US over many years. And the general picture is that attitudes about marriage have been changing gradually over time – moving away from the traditional view.

Gallup first questioned people’s views on marriage back in 1996 and found that 68% were against same-sex marriages and 27% in favour. This year, however, 53% said they were in favour of legalising such unions – though there was a significant difference between age groups, with the younger generations more in favour than the older. The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life have also been tracking attitudes for a number of years and in 2001 found that there was a 57-35% split in favour of traditional marriage. However, in their latest survey taken this year the gap had closed to 1%, though in this poll it was the traditional view that still had the lead. I’ve been unable to find any significant detail on the methods of the research reported by the Christian Institute but it is well out of kilter with the other more established ones to the extent that it raises some questions of validity.

Such surveys showing strong support for the Christian view of this or that issue are important if the church is intent on imposing its views ‘from above’ on society. Using might to insist that private morals are covered by law has long been a modus operandi of Christendom. In days past it would be physical violence that was used; today it is democratic power. This is why there was such an argument over the question on religion in the 2011 Census to remain unchanged from 2001 – the 70% of UK citizens being ‘Christian’ statistic was an essential tool in the church’s armoury when debating any changes in the law on moral issues. The ‘Christian country’ argument is a powerful point when backed up by such a figure.

But that argument only works – if it is valid to use it at all – when the figures stack up in your favour. Once you lose public support you have to find different ways of engaging society with what you consider to be truth. In this post-Christendom era when the church has become so small and marginalised surely the time has come for us to do just that. And pinning your hopes on a questionable survey probably isn’t the way to go.


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