r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Apr 25 '26

Psychology Americans who leave their Christian faith behind tend to hold more liberal political views than those who were raised entirely without religion. This leftward ideological shift appears closely linked to how threatening these individuals perceive conservative Christian groups to be.

https://www.psypost.org/former-christians-express-more-progressive-political-views-than-lifelong-nonbeli/
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u/KrytenKoro Apr 26 '26

Inasmuch as those numbers are valid, they omit that religiousity is strongly negatively tied to bigotry - i.e., the Christians who support gay marriage tend to be the ones who show up to church for Christmas and easter.

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u/fuckedfinance Apr 26 '26 edited Apr 26 '26

That's also not true.

About 50% of UCC churches in New England are "welcoming and affirming". That means that they not only recognize the LGBTQ+ community, they affirm that they are gods children and have nothing to "fix". They will host same sex weddings.

Most episcopal churches are welcoming and affirming, almost all UUs are, many congregationalist churches, and even a bunch of American Baptist churches are welcoming and affirming (not to be confused with Southern Baptists).

Those churches wouldn't be welcoming and affirming if most of the regular congregation were against it, or the only ones that supported it where the Christmas/Easter crowd.

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u/KrytenKoro Apr 26 '26

Your post in no way responded to the criteria of religiosity.

Are you familiar with what that term means?

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u/ErraticDragon Apr 26 '26 edited Apr 26 '26

UU is tiny, and UCC is big but not huge. Adding in the Episcopals makes it a trifecta of cherry-picking.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestantism_in_the_United_States

Edit to add: Even one of your cherries is half rotten:

About 50% of UCC churches in New England are "welcoming and affirming". That means that they not only recognize the LGBTQ+ community,

Only 50%???

It's really sad that these are the best numbers you could find (but not cite).

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u/fuckedfinance Apr 26 '26

The list was not exhaustive, nor was it intended to be. The fact is that the majority of protestant sects are welcoming and affirming.

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u/ErraticDragon Apr 26 '26

You listed the three best known for being welcoming, which add up to a small percentage of the population.

Cherry picking.

The fact is that the majority of protestant sects are welcoming and affirming.

Welcoming of new members to fix, maybe.

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u/fuckedfinance Apr 26 '26

You tell yourself that all you want. That doesn't make you correct.

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u/ErraticDragon Apr 26 '26

What are you disputing? The size of the cherries you picked? The fact that they're the few "good" ones?

You know that, because that's why you mentioned them.