Gay Americans less likely to be Christian
July 7th, 2009
70% of gay and lesbian people in the USA identify themselves as Christians, compared to 85% of heterosexuals, according to a new study of over 9,000 adults.
For people with strong faith the difference is even more stark: 75% of heterosexuals said their “personal commitment to Jesus Christ” is important to their daily life, compared to 58% of gays and lesbians.
Straight adults were also nearly twice as likely to be born again Christians and to strongly agree to the statement “the Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches”.
71% of heterosexuals were revealed to have an orthodox, biblical perception of God, compared to just 43% of homosexuals. An equal percentage (43%) of homosexual people have a pantheistic view of God, believing ‘God’ to be an abstract term interchangable with ‘nature’ or ‘the universe’.
The survey is based on telephone interview conducted by a Christian research firm The Barna Group.
“People who portray gay adults as godless, hedonistic, Christian bashers are not working with the facts,” said George Barna of The Barna Group.
“The data indicate that millions of gay people are interested in faith but not in the local church and do not appear to be focused on the traditional tools and traditions that represent the comfort zone of most churched Christians.
“Gay adults clearly have a different way of interpreting the Bible on a number of central theological matters, such as perspectives about God. Homosexuals appreciate their faith but they do not prioritize it, and they tend to consider faith to be individual and private rather than communal.”
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