Poll: White Evangelicals Only Group that Strongly Wants Anti-gay Discrimination

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Having followed far right evangelical Christian "family values" groups for over two decades, one of the twin pillars of their fundraising efforts have long been disseminating ant-gay lies and deliberate falsehoods.  Bogey men have long been a prerequisite to Christofascists to fundraising efforts.  Only when a group is falsely defined as a threat to children, religious belief, etc., will the ignorant and gullible hand over large sums of money. Abortion supporters and now Muslims are also favorite bogey men used to keep the cash flowing.  The downside of this effort is that evangelicals are now hysterically anti-gay.  As Think Progress reports, a new PPRI poll shows that only white evangelicals - who comprise 17% of the population - are the only group that strongly supports anti-gay discrimination and that are loudly applauding the anti-gay jihad of Der Trumpenführer/Mike Pence/Jeff Sessions.  White mainline denominations are largely divided on the issue.  Meanwhile Catholics (other than the Church hierarchy) favor the enforcement of non-discrimination laws.   So why are Trump and at least four Supreme Court justices in favor of allowing dicrimination.  Here are highlights from the Think Progress piece:

With the Supreme Court set to consider the case of Jack Phillips, a Colorado baker who refused to sell a wedding cake to a same-sex couple, it might seem as though religious-based discrimination remains a highly contentious issue across the country. But a new poll suggests that only one group is actively pushing to use “religious freedom” to justify discrimination: white evangelical Protestants.

According to the latest numbers from the Public Religious Research Institute (PRRI), 53 percent of Americans oppose allowing wedding vendors to refuse to serve same-sex couples, with only 41 percent in support.

While white Americans are fairly evenly divided on the question, 61 percent of black Americans and 68 percent of Hispanic Americans stand opposed.

White evangelical Protestants are the only major religious group with a majority that supports the idea. Americans of every other religious affiliation overwhelmingly reject the notion that religious beliefs justify wedding vendors’ discrimination.

These findings contradict the message conservatives are trying to send to the Supreme Court. For example, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), along with a variety of other Catholic organizations, recently filed an amicus brief siding with Phillips. But as was the case when the USCCB was one of the leading national opponents of marriage, it doesn’t actually speak on behalf of what American Catholics themselves believe.

PRRI’s findings when it didn’t limit the question to wedding vendors were even more telling. A larger majority overall opposed religious refusals, and black and Hispanic respondents were far more likely to oppose allowing small businesses to refuse service to gay and lesbian customers because of their religious beliefs.

If the Supreme Court is convinced to side with Phillips and other anti-gay vendors, it will do so in stark contrast to the American public’s views on these issues and will effectively impose one set of religious beliefs on everybody else.

How do we stop this effort to grant special rights to discriminate to evangelicals?  Vote Democrat in every election until the GOP realizes that supporting the bigotry of an extreme minority is self-inflicted electoral suicide.