Pew Research: American Christians Becoming More Accepting Of Homosexuality

Pew Research reports that acceptance for homosexuality among American Christians has risen by 10 points in the past 8 years.

Acceptance of homosexuality is rising across the broad spectrum of American Christianity, including among members of churches that strongly oppose homosexual relationships as sinful, according to an extensive Pew Research Center survey of U.S. religious beliefs and practices.

Amid a changing religious landscape that has seen a declining percentage of Americans who identify as Christian, a majority of U.S. Christians (54%) now say that homosexuality should be accepted, rather than discouraged, by society. While this is still considerably lower than the shares of religiously unaffiliated people (83%) and members of non-Christian faiths (76%) who say the same, the Christian figure has increased by 10 percentage points since we conducted a similar study in 2007.

It reflects a growing acceptance of homosexuality among all Americans – from 50% to 62% – during the same period. Among Christians, this trend is driven partly by younger church members, who are generally more accepting of homosexuality than their elder counterparts.