Religion, not politics, shifting on marriage

If you read headlines or your Facebook feed this week, you may have wondered if you somehow woke up in 2009.

The two major gubernatorial candidates turned back the clock to engage on the not-so-pressing issue of marriage. Specifically, one guy says the other guy won't support same-sex marriage, which has been the state standard and, at least in my opinion, settled law since the Iowa Supreme Court said wording in the Iowa Code was a violation of the state's equal protection clause.

Even if lawmakers were brazen enough to put discrimination to a popular vote, the process is onerous. It would take between three and seven years before arriving on a ballot near you. And, as a national study out this month makes clear, when politics finally catches up with religious trends, the people probably won't care.

SHIFTING TRENDS

Duke University's National Congregations Study has been collecting church data since the mid-1990s and has released three national white papers with its findings. The latest report, released just this month and scheduled for publishing in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion this winter, shows attitudes toward gays and lesbians to be significantly shifting in certain religious circles.

For instance, 48 percent of congregations now allow openly gay members, and 27 percent allow those members to serve in volunteer and leadership church roles.

While those figures don't seem like a great deal on the surface, they constitute a significant change over time. Each segment has increased by about 10 percent over the past seven years.

And while it is true that acceptance has not been uniform - only four percent of white, conservative Protestant churches allow gays to volunteer, even while 24 percent now welcome them as members - it is undeniable that change is underway across a broad spectrum of religiosity.

The study is based on interviews with representatives (typically clergy) from nearly 1,500 congregations throughout the nation and includes the viewpoints of Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Jewish and other faiths. The authors chose to highlight five distinctive trends:

' Increased ethnic diversity

' More acceptance of gays and lesbians

' Increasingly informal worship styles

' Declining size

' Declining denominational affiliation

None of the trends chosen for their interest and importance bode well for politicians who use a foundation of religious faith as the basis of their distaste for same-sex marriage.

Even today's predominantly white, conservative congregations are less predominately white and conservative than they were in 1998, when the first survey was released. Their demographics have shifted to include at least some Latinos, Asians or African Americans. Although 22 percent of churchgoers were in all-white congregations in 1998, now only 11 percent have no diversity.

While most American congregations remain predominantly homogeneous - mostly white, black or whatever - all congregations are trending toward diversity.

More people are attending relatively informal worship services that include drumming, jumping, shouting or dancing. Technology in the form of visual projection equipment is more commonplace. There are fewer organized choirs and written programs.

All that said, however, fewer overall people are choosing to attend services at all. But, when they do turn out for church services, fewer types of congregations are being considered. This has resulted in an overall decline in church sizes, but growth for the already larger congregations. And 24 percent of the congregations surveyed do not formally affiliate with a specific denomination.

BETTER COMMITTED

Tucked within the data is another interesting tidbit regarding the acceptance of gays and lesbians within religious communities: participation in committed relationships is valued.

This has, of course, always been a factor. Churches want their members to be part of families, to have strong relationship ties. But while such a value has been implicit among the general populace, it is explicitly noted for gays and lesbians.

The survey asked whether or not openly gay or lesbian couples in a committed relationship would be permitted to be full-fledged members of the congregation, and whether or not such people would be permitted to hold all volunteer leadership positions open to other members. Do the results change for openly gay and lesbians who are not a part of such relationships? The survey didn't seek an answer to that question, but the connection between relationships and trust within religious communities for non-gays provides insight.

Having a partner is valued and members within longer term relationships are more apt to be tapped for volunteer and leadership positions. The stronger the relationship is viewed by society, the larger amount of trust bestowed on the individuals.

In this sense our churches have become advocates of laws that support gays and lesbians entering into legally binding relationships like marriage.

MOVING ON

It is rare for change to arrive without resistance. And God knows Iowans have seen more than their fair share in relation to the state's marriage law. It not only drove people to the polls, but had them opening their wallets. Both are mighty big incentives to the politicians among us, who are always on the lookout for niche issues that appeal to emotional activists.

Perhaps it will just take time for Iowa politics to catch up with religion. Perhaps we should pray about it.

l Comments: @LyndaIowa, lynda.waddington@thegazette.com, or (319) 339-3144.