Mirror of Justice

A blog dedicated to the development of Catholic legal theory.
Affiliated with the Program on Church, State & Society at Notre Dame Law School.

Friday, October 28, 2005

"More Catholic than the [Catholics]"?

A new Harris Poll has some interesting numbers on public opinion concerning various "healthcare policies, programs, and practices."  Major pattern: "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."  On these issues, it looks like more evangelical Protestants than Catholics are reading the encyclicals:

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.

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

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."

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.

I know that Harris has a reputation as a "liberal" poll, which may lead it to overstate overall support for some of these measures.  (Among "healthcare policies," they include "abortion rights" and get a pretty high number of support (63 percent) for that undefined term.)  But it seems less likely that any bias in the poll affects the relative numbers of Catholics, the overall public, and evangelicals.

Tom

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