Sydney Morning Herald: Catholics Are Least Anti-Gay

This is in-line with numerous threads by DUers where personal
experiences were compared with similar conclusions. One recent
one is at Catholic & Orthodox Discussion Group. I suspect a U.S.
study would reveal similar results. Interesting...

* * *

Catholics are least anti-gay: study

Sydney Morning Herald
July 26, 2005 - 2:15 PM

Catholics are among the least homophobic people in Australia,
despite the church's leaders railing against gay rights, a new
study has found.

The Australia Institute study, Mapping Homophobia in Australia,
released today, shows two-thirds of Baptists and evangelical
Christians believe homosexuality to be immoral.

But Catholics, Anglicans and Uniting church members are the most
tolerant, with only a third saying homosexuality is immoral.

( ... )

"However, it turns out that, among those who declare a religious
affiliation, Catholics are the most tolerant in Australia," Dr Williams said.

"These counter-intuitive findings suggest that the Catholic Church
has less doctrinal authority over its congregation than some other
Christian and non-Christian churches."

( ... )


Full story at Sydney Morning Herald

many Catholics are also pro-choice and favor priests marrying.

The more straight-laced the Protestant, the more fun-hating they are. It's some kind of bizarre self-fulfilling proposition to make sure life sucks even more than it tends to so people will focus on the big dreamy fantasy reward.

In a way, the Catholic philosophy tends to accept human behavior more than Protestants do, and accomodation makes sense to people after they incounter people who are different.

Of course, these are broad-strokes generalizations, but I think it stands up. Could you imagine a Catholic sect banning smoking or drinking?

... That's been my experience with actual Catholics, themselves (yes anyone can point to some whacked out but, one will find crazies in any large group)