Religiosity, Spirituality, and Attitudes Toward Same-Sex Marriage

Abstract

Attitudes toward same-sex marriage have changed dramatically over the last decade. U.S. adults are becoming more supportive of same-sex marriage, and there are a number of reasons for this change. Our research examines the relationship between cohort, religiosity, spirituality, and attitudes toward same-sex marriage. Using data from the 2012 and 2014 General Social Surveys, we examine the differential impact of religiosity and spirituality by cohort on attitudes toward same-sex marriage. We present models for four separate cohorts: The Millennials, Generation X, the Baby Boomers, and the Silent Generation. The Millennial cohort exhibits significant differences from the other birth cohorts. The results of our analyses locate various changes in these attitudes and provide directions for future research.Keywords same-sex marriage, religiosity, cohort, spiritual but not religious, attitudes toward same-sex relations by guest on June 5, 2016 Downloaded from

Religion, Support of Equal Rights for Same-Sex Couples and the Australian National Vote on Marriage Equality

“…Consistent with expectations, results for our Australian sample revealed that identifying with a religion (Hypothesis 1a) and higher levels of religiosity (Hypothesis 1b) were associated with a lower likelihood of supporting equal rights for same-sex couples. This finding is hardly surprising, as it fits squarely with those from a well-developed body work in the US (Gay et al 2015;Whitley 2009) and emerging cross-national research (Adamczyk and Pitt 2009;Adamczyk 2017), as well as with results from smaller, Australian community samples (Sloane and Robillard 2017;Smith 2016). These results go to show that strong religion/religiosity associations emerge also in a highly developed country in which progressive attitudes prevail.…”

“…US scholarship on attitudes towards LGBTIQ+ issues typically compares the 7 groups contained within Steensland and colleagues' (2000) RELTRAND classification (see e.g. Gay et al 2015;Schnabel 2016). The situation is similar in cross-national comparisons; e.g.…”

Conflicted Religionists: Measuring political backlash on salient issues

“…Third, both issues have been shown to be significantly important to people, politically (Schnabel 2016;Hoffmann and Johnson 2005;Jelen and Wilcox 2003;Manza and Brooks 1997;Olson et al 2006). Fourth, examining these two issues provides a comparison between an issue that has seen rapid attitudinal change (same-sex marriage) (Baunach 2012;Gay et al 2015;Powell et al 2010;Schnabel 2016;Sherkat et al 2010) and one that has seen little attitudinal change in the aggregate over the past few decades, but has become increasingly sorted along partisan lines (abortion) (Bolzendahl and Brooks 2005;Hoffmann and Johnson 2005;Jelen and Wilcox 2003). Fifth and finally, religion plays a major role in shaping attitudes about both issues (Adamczyk and Pitt 2009;Bolzendahl and Brooks 2005;Ellison et al 2005;Jelen and Wilcox 2003;Olson et al 2006;Wuthnow 1988).…”

“…With far-reaching changes over the past few decades, social scientists have given special attention to differences in attitudes between age groups (Voas and Chaves 2016;Baunach 2012;Fischer 2014, 2002;Powell et al 2010;Schwadel 2010). The general trend reflects a younger population that is unprecedentedly tolerant, especially in regard to samesex issues, and an older population that is still widely in opposition to abortion (Jelen and Wilcox 2003) and same-sex marriage (Baunach 2012;Gay et al 2015;Sherkat et al 2010). Younger Americans show lower levels of religious activity in several regards: they are more likely to report no religious preference Fischer 2014, 2002;Schwadel 2010); their church attendance is lower; they pray less often; and, they are the least likely to hold a literal interpretation of the bible (Gay et al 2015).…”

“…The general trend reflects a younger population that is unprecedentedly tolerant, especially in regard to samesex issues, and an older population that is still widely in opposition to abortion (Jelen and Wilcox 2003) and same-sex marriage (Baunach 2012;Gay et al 2015;Sherkat et al 2010). Younger Americans show lower levels of religious activity in several regards: they are more likely to report no religious preference Fischer 2014, 2002;Schwadel 2010); their church attendance is lower; they pray less often; and, they are the least likely to hold a literal interpretation of the bible (Gay et al 2015). Some scholars have pointed to an increased value of autonomy among younger Americans, which leads to the fading of authoritative influence (e.g.…”