New Harris Poll on Evangelical, Catholic and other groups on sex and medicine

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prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/10-20-2005/0004174122&EDATE=

ROCHESTER, N.Y., Oct. 20 /PRNewswire/ – A new Harris Poll finds that
large majorities of the U.S. adult public support each of 12 different
healthcare policies, programs and practices, including some which are highly
controversial. However, people who consider themselves “very religious” or
born-again Christians and, particularly, those born-again Christians who
describe themselves as Evangelicals, have very different attitudes on some of
them.
These are the results of a nationwide Harris Poll of 2,242 U.S. adults
surveyed online by Harris Interactive(R) between September 6 and 12, 2005.
In total, the survey measured attitudes to the following 12 issues, listed
in order of their overall popularity (i.e. the percentage of all adults who
strongly or somewhat favor them).

 1. Medicare (health insurance for the elderly and disabled). Fully 96
    percent of adults support Medicare, including 92 percent or more of
    all religious categories.
 2. Birth control/contraception is supported by 93 percent of all adults,
    including 90 percent of Catholics and 88 percent of born-again
    Christians, the "very religious" and Evangelicals.
 3. Condom use to prevent HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases is
    supported by 92 percent of adults, including 93 percent of Catholics,
    82 percent of born-again Christians, 83 percent of the "very
    religious" and 81 percent of Evangelicals.
 4. Medicaid (health insurance for people with very low incomes) is
    supported by 91 percent of all adults, including 88 percent of all
    religious categories.
 5. Sex education in high schools is supported by 87 percent of the
    public, but only by 76 percent of born-again Christians, 77 percent of
    the "very religious" and 72 percent of Evangelicals.
 6. Funding of international HIV prevention and treatment programs is
    supported by 87 percent of the public, including not less than 82
    percent of all religious categories.
 7. Universal health insurance is favored by 75 percent of all adults,
    including 63 percent or more of all religious groups.
 8. Embryonic stem cell research is favored by 70 percent of all adults,
    including 70 percent of Catholics.  However, it is supported by only
    45 percent of born-again Christians, 38 percent of Evangelicals and 51
    percent of the "very religious."
 9. Funding of international birth control programs is supported by 70
    percent of the public, including 66 percent of Catholics, but only 53
    percent of born-again Christians and 48 percent of Evangelicals.
10. Withdrawal of life support systems/food for those in a vegetative
    state is supported by 68 percent of the public, but by only 47 percent
    of born-again Christians and 45 percent of Evangelicals.
11. Abortion rights (which were not defined) are supported by 63 percent
    of the public, including 56 percent of Catholics, but by only 30
    percent of born-again Christians, 39 percent of the "very religious"
    and 28 percent of Evangelicals.
12. Abstinence from sex before marriage is supported by 63 percent of the
    public, but by fully 85 percent of born-again Christians, 85 percent
    of the "very religious" and 91 percent of Evangelicals.

The Big Picture
With a few exceptions, majorities of all the different religious groups

favor all the listed policies, programs or practices. However, the exceptions
are striking.
One very interesting finding is that the attitudes of Catholics are
generally very similar to those of all adults and, on some issues, very unlike
the official position of the Pope and the Church. For example, overwhelming
majorities of Catholics favor contraception (90%), condom use to prevent HIV
and STD infections (93%), the funding of international birth control programs
(66%), embryonic stem cell research (70%) and the withdrawal of life support
for those in a vegetative state (68%). A majority (56%) also supports abortion
rights.
On the other hand, born-again Christians, adults who think of themselves
as “very religious” and Evangelicals are much less supportive of all of these
programs and policies, with Evangelicals being the least likely to support
them. For example, only 28 percent of Evangelicals support abortion rights
(compared to 63% of all adults) and only 38 percent of Evangelicals support
embryonic stem cell research (compared to 70% of all adults).

Given what I have been learning about Catholism here, I was very surprised about many of these poll results. Numbers 8 and 11 particularly concerned me. Hopefully this trend will be reversed in the near future.