Help the 'Sistas'! - "Faithful Catholic Contraception Poll"

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Slight flaw in this poll.

If you are only accepting answers from ‘faithful’ Catholics then you are only going to get one response, correct? How is that going to be a reliable statistic of anything?
 
Did you read the article?
The point of the article in the link is to *CLARIFY *this “98% of Catholics use contraception” notion.
What does “being Catholic” mean? Does it mean you *actually *go to Mass every week? Where did that 98% statistic actually come from?

Yes, we realize this is going to be a tiny little poll (but we’re doing our best to get as many responses as possible)… but that’s not the point. The point is that the 98% statistic that’s flying through the news media is absolute garbage and meaningless. Morality isn’t decided by popular opinion.
 
Emily,

How will you determine or even demonstrate that your respondents aren’t only from the purported “2%”?
 
Em_in_FL said:
Did you read the article?
The point of the article in the link is to *CLARIFY *this “98% of Catholics use contraception” notion.
What does “being Catholic” mean? Does it mean you *actually *go to Mass every week? Where did that 98% statistic actually come from?

Yes, we realize this is going to be a tiny little poll (but we’re doing our best to get as many responses as possible)… but that’s not the point. The point is that the 98% statistic that’s flying through the news media is absolute garbage and meaningless. Morality isn’t decided by popular opinion.
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But if you only ask for ‘faithful’ Catholics then you’re only going to get those who don’t use contraception, obviously.

If you asked for all practicing Catholics, that would be different. Those who actively go to Mass, confession etc are still Catholics, but may not be 100% faithful.

Besides, if we were all faithful, there would be no need for confession.
 
Gorgias said:
Emily,

How will you determine or even demonstrate that your respondents aren’t only from the purported “2%”?
Click to expand...
Again, not the point.
Morality isn’t decided by popular opinion.

Obviously you can use statistics to say anything you want.

We’re starting to become a rather popular blog picked up by some decent-sized Catholic News Sites… we’re just trying to get a voice heard on the subject… with some numbers to back up reality.
 
LemonAndLime said:
But if you only ask for ‘faithful’ Catholics then you’re only going to get those who don’t use contraception, obviously.

If you asked for all practicing Catholics, that would be different. Those who actively go to Mass, confession etc are still Catholics, but may not be 100% faithful.

Besides, if we were all faithful, there would be no need for confession.
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Sorry… my bad on getting the wording right… :cool:

But thanks to anyone who is willing to help out with the poll! 🙂
 
No true catholic would use contraception.

And the poll isn’t random. You’re soliciting responses from people who frequent catholic blogs and forums. I suspect you will find people who take their faith more seriously than even your weekly mass goer.
 
That 98% statistic is totally bogus, too:

Figure That 98% of Catholic Women Use Birth Control Debunked

Basically, they polled women age 15-44 who self-identify as Catholic, are sexually active, and are not pregnant, post-partum, or seeking to become pregnant.

So they asked only women who are having sex but don’t want a baby whether they are using contraception. There’s a representative sample!

And then they just subtracted the 2% using NFP from the 100% total to get 98%, which completely ignores the 11% who aren’t using any method at all of preventing pregnancy.
 
KostyaJMJ said:
No true catholic would use contraception.

And the poll isn’t random. You’re soliciting responses from people who frequent catholic blogs and forums. I suspect you will find people who take their faith more seriously than even your weekly mass goer.
Click to expand...
That’s exactly the point.

If the news media wants a true statistic on Catholic opinion… then give them a TRULY CATHOLIC opinion… not just the opinion of people who call themselves catholic.
 
Joe_5859 said:
That 98% statistic is totally bogus, too:

Figure That 98% of Catholic Women Use Birth Control Debunked

Basically, they polled women age 15-44 who self-identify as Catholic, are sexually active, and are not pregnant, post-partum, or seeking to become pregnant.

So they asked only women who are having sex but don’t want a baby whether they are using contraception. There’s a representative sample!

And then they just subtracted the 2% using NFP from the 100% total to get 98%, which completely ignores the 11% who aren’t using any method at all of preventing pregnancy.
Click to expand...
:yup:
Hence… our poll…:newidea:
 
Emily,

Here’s the other thing: The Guttmacher poll asked “have you ever used birth control?”. You’re asking “do you use birth control?”.

The figure cited by the administration isn’t saying that 98% of all Catholic women are using, but that 98% have used. By demonstrating that more than 2% of Catholic women aren’t using contraception now, you aren’t meeting their assertion head on…
 
I’m the creator of Catholic Sistas.

While I completely agree with the valid points brought up with the poll, the idea behind the poll is mainly to give the faithful an opportunity to be heard.

If you read the body of the post, you will see that it is not designed ONLY for the faithful, but rather an inclusion of those who understand and adhere to the teachings of the Church, not just the non-Mass goers of the original poll.

To my knowledge, the poll has been sent out to friends and family, faithful and non-Mass going, so we are not just looking for the faithful. We want a balanced representation and hope to, at the very least, get something that is more honest than the skewed sampling the White House came up with.

I’m confident we’ll accomplish that. No poll is perfect, true. But we have to start somewhere and we will consider followup polls to further delve into the mindsets that drive the contraceptive mentality.

Most who are aware of Church teaching on contraception probably already know that catechesis on this subject has been sorely lacking. We are using this poll as an opportunity to open eyes and hearts from both ends…the faithful and the lapsed/poorly catechized.

With charity, we need to strive to be mindful that we are ALL sinners and none is above another. I think the poll gives us a platform to start those conversations.

If you’ve participated in the poll, THANK YOU! In less than 24 hours we are almost at our capacity sampling and could not have done this without so many women who are committed to having their voices heard. 🙂

There’s still time to take the survey. Click on the bright yellow button on the homepage at www.catholicsistas.com and have your voice heard and counted!
 
I think it’s good however if you emphasise “practicing” Catholics rather than “faithful”, as discussed on another thread. It just makes it clear you’re not just expecting people who adhere to the Church 100% of the time.
 
Joe_5859 said:
That 98% statistic is totally bogus, too:

Figure That 98% of Catholic Women Use Birth Control Debunked

Basically, they polled women age 15-44 who self-identify as Catholic, are sexually active, and are not pregnant, post-partum, or seeking to become pregnant.

So they asked only women who are having sex but don’t want a baby whether they are using contraception. There’s a representative sample!

And then they just subtracted the 2% using NFP from the 100% total to get 98%, which completely ignores the 11% who aren’t using any method at all of preventing pregnancy.
Click to expand...
Wow, that’s a great article.
 
Gorgias said:
Emily,

Here’s the other thing: The Guttmacher poll asked “have you ever used birth control?”. You’re asking “do you use birth control?”.

The figure cited by the administration isn’t saying that 98% of all Catholic women are using, but that 98% have used. By demonstrating that more than 2% of Catholic women aren’t using contraception now, you aren’t meeting their assertion head on…
Click to expand...
Well, that is what the poll said, but if you read the news and the statements people are quoting it as “use” instead of “have used.”

And this is exactly the point. A poll that asks if one has ever used contraception has no meaning. It is like asking a bunch of pregnant women if they have ever had alcohol. What does it matter if they have ever had alcohol? when what you really want to know, is how many have had alcohol while they were pregnant. It is this sort of sloppy, apply (bad/poor) numbers where they don’t belong which leads to misinformation and propaganda, of the same sort that the administration and media is using now. Just like we can draw no conclusions from the question about pregnant women and alcohol, we can draw no conclusions from Catholic women and contraception.
 
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