Religious Right Denies Claim Evangelicals Embracing Same-Sex Marriage – With A Regnerus Study

To refute a claim by Politico that evangelical Christians are slowly embracing same-sex marriage, the religious right trots out the author of the most widely excoriated anti-gay parenting study in history: Mark Regnerus.

Earlier this week Politico published an in-depth article, “Evangelicals Are Changing Their Minds on Gay Marriage.” The crux of the argument is this paragraph:

Over the past decade, evangelical support for gay marriage has more than doubled, according to polling by the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute. About a quarter of evangelicals now support same-sex unions, the institute has found, with an equal number occupying what researchers at Baylor University last year called the “messy middle” of those who oppose gay marriage on moral grounds but no longer support efforts to outlaw it. The shift is especially visible among young evangelicals under age 35, a near majority of whom now support same-sex marriage. And gay student organizations have recently formed at Christian colleges across the country, including flagship evangelical campuses such as Wheaton College in Illinois and Baylor in Texas.

Politico also points to the $2 million deficit on the National Organization For Marriage’s 2012 tax return, and the $4.5 million deficit on the American Family Association’s 2012 return, as an indication theocratic extremists are losing their main battle. 

Of course, actual science — especially science with which Evangelical leaders disagree — is anathema to the entrenched religious right.

Enter Russell D. Moore and Andrew Walker, leaders among the southern Baptist convention. In the National Review (Maggie Gallagher’s online home,) early this morning, the pair published a defiant refutation of Politico’s report.

“A Sexual Revolution for Young Evangelicals? No,” the op-ed insists. “Defying the secular culture, churchgoing Christians are sticking to Biblical teaching,” they claim.

To prove their point, the Southern Baptists trot out none other than Mark Regnerus, author of the most widely-discredited “study” — purportedly, but almost totally not — of gay parents. They also posted a video of Regnerus explaining his most-recent claims. 

The New Civil Rights Movement alone published over 75 articles chronicling and often leading the charge proving just how false the Regnerus study was.

When Regnerus testified in a federal court case on same-sex marriage the judge in his ruling called Regnerus’ testimony before the court, “entirely unbelievable and not worthy of serious consideration.”

Moore and Walker in their National Review op-ed, point to “research, to be fully released in September,” that was, they say, “introduced in Mark Regnerus’s presentation ‘Sex in America: Sociological Trends in American Sexuality,’ unveiled at a recent gathering of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission’s leadership summit. According to Regnerus, when compared with the general population and with their non-observant peers, churchgoing Evangelical Christians are retaining orthodox views on Biblical sexuality, despite the shifts in broader American culture.”

Politico, as mentioned above, quotes “polling by the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute,” which finds “among young evangelicals under age 35, a near majority … now support same-sex marriage.”

Moore and Walker write that Regnerus’ research finds “only 11 percent of young Evangelicals actively expressed support for same-sex marriage.”

Whose science should we believe?

 

Previously:

Watch: Evangelicals Franklin Graham And Ralph Reed Bash Gays For Easter (Video)