You probably have to weigh this against an increasing number of people with no religious affiliation.

So as people leave organized religion, you might hypothesize that those remaining are more diehard conservative.

And "Jewish" is many things including variegated culture, an ethnicity, and a religion with many branches.

Wait, so Dan, it seems you are implying that you don't like anti-Christian hate groups. This is interesting. Hopefully you can expand on this philosophy in 200+ posts the rest of the year. I feel like I'm learning so much, but not sure what.

@2 Do you think pushing for a cause (say, rights for gay people) is the sort of thing were one says their piece and let's it stand at that?

Jon Stewart had an amazing line, I believe:

Santorum won't be at your gay wedding, but he'll be at your wedding night.

@3
that's even more interesting, maybe whenever Dan speaks his piece on hate groups, it will always be a "comments closed" post?

@1: If the people leaving organized religion entirely are the ones who support marriage equality and left because they are turned off by the bigots, then the jump in support over the last decade among those remaining is even more remarkable.

Something else to consider, however, is that evangelicals who leave the fold often want to stay in a faith community. Recovering evangelicals will often join the more liberal Protestant denominations, which may explain the increase in support for LGBT rights among those identifying as Mainline Protestants. No statistics to back it up, but I have been among liberal Christians my entire adult life and many of us are ex-evangelicals who couldn't stand it any more.

Dan, I have just watched the clip from All In, and you claim that American Catholics are the most progressive among all religious groups. I beg to differ. I think Unitarian Universalists ( uua.org ) can lay claim to that title. We are not merely tolerant, we affirm the dignity and worth of ALL human beings. (I find this tough when it comes to persons like Ted Cruz and Rick Santorum, but I try to abide by this principle.) Our congregations are full of LGBTQ etc. members. Our ministers and staff are also LGBTQ and even straight. Our congregations are full of refugees from other sexually-repressive religious organizations like Baptists, Catholics, etc. In my congregation, probably half of us are atheists and humanists. Our congregations are democratic and non-dogmatic.

We aren't the only progressive denomination; among Christians, there is the United Church of Christ ( ucc.org ). We wouldn't mind a shout-out from you when you speak of progressive religion. If anyone reading this is fed up with the negative messages coming from conservative religious institutions, check out the UUs and UCCs.

@8 ahem. Don't forget the Episcopal church! Yes, you can worship And keep your brain intact!

16% of Buddhists oppose gay marriage? Why???

Seems to be more of a measure of how urban a religion is. Judaism and Buddhism are extremely concentrated in urban areas, with hardly any followers in rural areas.

Well, now. This is from the _Guardian_: "The Vatican has been dragging its feet on the approval of France’s ambassador to the Holy See, raising suspicions that it has effectively rejected the nomination of Laurent Stéfanini because he is gay."

And this is from ANSA_English :ANSA) - Vatican City, April 15 - Gender theory aims to make everyone the same by eliminating differences, and this is actually "the problem, not the solution," Pope Francis said Wednesday. Gender theory, according to Francis, aims to try to eliminate sexual differences but that instead may give rise to frustration and resignation, Francis said in his general audience in St. Peter's Square."

@10: I suspect that the 16% of non-supportive Buddhists are older, ethnic Buddhists (e.g. Chinese, Vietnamese) who are more influenced on this issue by their culture than their religion.

Anyway, I was also about to bound in here and humblebrag that we Buddhists were easily going to beat out all the other religions, but I forgot about the UUs! According to the statistics from the quoted study (http://publicreligion.org/2015/04/attitu…), the UUs do indeed win with a whopping 94%. After the Buddhists in second at 84%, Jews and "Unaffiliated" tie for third with 77%, and "Other Religions" round out the top 5 at 75%.