Gay religious survey debunks ‘godless’ myth

Gays eh?, Christian bashing, sex-obsessed hedonists out to destroy the sanctity of marriage and ordainment…er, hang about…a new survey conducted by respected evangelical pollster George Barna reveals some surprising results…gays are a lot closer to god than you may think.

Being gay and Christian makes for a bumpy ride, not only do you have to contend with hell and damnation as a thank you for your loyalty to God, heaven help you should you have any designs on joining the clergy and spreading the ‘good’ word.

It may come as quite a surprise then, to gays and clergy alike, that a recent survey of 9,000 gay, lesbian and bisexual Americans showed that 70% of gay adults identify themselves as Christian with 60% saying that their faith is “very important” to them. In further, pollster Barna, a best-selling author of books about faith and culture has concluded from his findings that there is “less of a spiritual gap between straights and gays than many Americans would assume”.

“People who portray gay adults as godless are not working with the facts” he says, “A substantial majority of gays cite their faith as a central facet of their life, consider themselves to be Christian, and claim to have some type of meaningful personal commitment to Jesus Christ in their life today”

Despite their faith taking a divine hammering, separate research has found lesbian and gay congregants present within even the most conservative churches, with the evidence pointing to Christian gay men often being more committed to the church than their straight brethren.

The ordination of gay and lesbian clergy remains a highly contentious issue world wide. Today, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (America’s 5 million strong Lutheran denomination) votes on a proposal to repeal its ban on non-celibate gay pastors.

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