New Poll on Churches and Homosexuality

The Public Religion Research Institute released a poll that shows four in 10 Americans say that their churches present a negative view of homosexuality, and finds that, "Catholics were the most critical of their own churches' messages on  homosexuality." Further, "Only five out of 100 people gave churches generally an A for their  handling of 'the issue of homosexuality' in the Public Religion Research Institute survey, while 28 percent said their own church handled it well."

It is interesting to note that Catholics are the most critical of how our church deals with this sensitive issue, as church leaders often try to walk prudently in the middle, affirming the dignity of all individuals while admonishing gays and lesbians for their actions. The "love the sinner but hate the sin" approach does not seem to be effectively winning over the faithful. On issues of marriage, employment rights, and nondiscrimination laws, Catholic laity, both white and Latino cohorts (which tend to be polled separately) are more accepting than church leaders would like them to be (see the recent New Yorker column). But what does this poll tell us? It asks participants what messages the church sends about gay and lesbian people (see my post about messages). Catholics hear the second part of the church's formula-hate the sin-loudly and clearly it seems,  but what about the first directive, love the sinner? Is that getting lost in the heated rhetoric? Might we strive as Catholics to remind people more often that we are called to love all, that we all are worthy of respect? Even if the hate-the-sin remains teaching, we can choose to focus more intentionally, if not exclusively, on the former.