The Gallup Poll, as Bill Cork pointed out, has revealed that Church-going Catholics are far more likely that Church-going non-Catholics (almost all Protestant) to accept immoral behavior.
I do not find this surprising. Other polls I have seen over the years reveal similar patterns.
This data helps explain Notre Dame’s invitation to Obama. Many Catholics accept Obama’s positions.
Why?
The failure of catechesis over the past two generations is one of the principal reasons. Making felt banners does not help produce a reverence for God and the moral law. Catechesis may have improved in the schools, but fewer Catholic children are going to Catholics schools or to religious education classes. Instead they are picking up their attitudes from their poorly-catechized parents, among whom are prominent politicians.
But this still does not fully explain the difference. Why are Church-going Protestants better able to resist accepting prevalent secular attitudes to morality? Catholics once submitted to the teaching authority of the Church; many Catholics, even those who regularly attend church, have clearly rejected that, and have nothing to replace it except the standards of American society. Perhaps Protestantism, built upon a veneration of the Bible, has been better able to resist the moral acids of secularism. Catholics claim that the living authority of the magisterium is better able to meet moral challenges, but this does not in fact seem to be the case. Roma locuta est, but very few Catholics are listening. When the Bible speaks, (and it does speak clearly on many issues) many Protestants listen.
This is really surprising to me. As a Protestant (and closet Catholic) I find it puzzling. Protestants do not typically have a formal catechesis (or if they do it is minimal) so I don’t think that this is the answer. Perhaps the answer can be found in your last sentence:
“When the Bible speaks, (and it does speak clearly on many issues) many Protestants listen.”
I teach an adult Sunday school class and have seen many former Catholics come through. They always remark how they didn’t get the chance to study the Bible when they were Catholic like they now do as (of all things) Methodist. I always thought they exaggerated. Is this the underlying issue after all?
Of course whenever I see polls I’m reminded of a book from my university days when I took PR classes, “How To Lie With Statistics,” and the professor who reminded us that you can prove anything with statistics. But perhaps I’m being cynical..
I’m confused about the “death penalty” as an issue. The bible is for it.
It could be that Catholics have concluded that they very much like their congregation and even like their priest, but that they really have no reason to listen to their bishop trying to force them to do something that the bishop cannot defend and no longer has the moral standing to persuade from his position of authority.
Well it depends on what one means by Catholic. My mom is an atheist from a deeply Catholic country but she considers herself Catholic and has many siblings in the clergy.
I understand that you folks wouldn’t consider her to be a Catholic at all. But she doesn’t care what you think. As far as she is concerned she is as indelibly Catholic as a Jew is Jewish; it’s stamped into her heritage and her background and her upbringing. Americans view religion as a marketplace of theologies where you pick the most convincing “product.” Indeed, there are multiple denominational options in your town, like bank branches or grocery stores.
In Catholic countries, the local religion is just part of the cultural geography of your world, whether or not you are a believer.
Gallop Poll says Protestants more Othodox in belief/practice « Worship360
[…] theology, strong hierarchical system and teaching don’t translate into life for Catholics. Lee Podles isn’t surprised since most Catholics have already rejected the Catholic church as the […]
To understand this, perhaps you need to distinguish between belief and action. For example, the idea of divorce may be more acceptable to Catholics than to Protestants, yet Catholics’ divorce at a rate significantly less than Protestants. So, perhaps, Catholics live their faith more but accept that other people may not be able to. This would explain the discrepancy.
In Spain, we are all Catholics, even the atheists!