Homosexuality Should Be Accepted by Society
While gay marriage remains a divisive issue, a 58%-majority of Americans say homosexuality should be accepted, rather than discouraged, by society.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
While gay marriage remains a divisive issue, a 58%-majority of Americans say homosexuality should be accepted, rather than discouraged, by society.
Nearly two-thirds of white evangelical Protestants (64%) say helping to protect Israel should be a very important policy goal for the U.S. in the Middle East, compared with 34% of white mainline Protestants and 36% of white Catholics.
Among possible candidates for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, four (Romney, Huckabee, Palin and Gingrich) are supported by more than 10% of Republican voters and none garners the support of more than one-in-five GOP voters.
In 2010 surveys, 42% of Americans favored same-sex marriage — up from 37% just in 2009 — while fewer than half (48%) opposed gay marriage for the first time in Pew Research Center polling.
While 16% of Americans are unaffiliated with any particular religion, not a single member of Congress lists his or her religion as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular.”
More than four-in-ten Catholics do not know that their church teaches that the bread and wine used in Communion do not merely symbolize, but actually become, the body and blood of Christ.
Throughout human history, poets, balladeers and songwriters have celebrated the idea that there’s just one true love for every living soul. Only 28% of today’s Americans agree.
On a quiz of religious knowledge, on average, Americans answer 16 of 32 questions correctly.
Roughly a quarter of former Catholics who are now religiously unaffiliated say the clergy sexual abuse scandals were a reason for their leaving the Church.
Seven-in-ten Americans say Pope Benedict has done a poor (44%) or only fair (24%) job in addressing the child sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church.
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ABOUT PEW RESEARCH CENTER Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts.
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