June 26, 2009
By Michelle Garcia
Six in 10 gays and lesbians say that faith is an important part of their lives, according to a Christian research group. Conversely, about 72% of straight adults describe their faith as being an integral part of their lives.
"People who portray gay adults as godless, hedonistic Christian-bashers are not working with the facts," said George Barna of the Barna Group, which conducted the study. "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 active in their life today."
The study's authors wrote that the findings were "surprising. "In the wake of those controversies and the spotlight aimed at gays, Americans have developed numerous assumptions about the lives of the homosexual population."
Additionally, about 60% of straight Christians said they were completely devoted to their faith, compared to 40% of gay responders identifying as Christian. The study also revealed that straight adults were nearly twice as likely as gays to qualify as born-again Christians (47% compared to 27%, respectively).
In the study, conducted between January 2007 and November 2008 by phone interviews, researchers asked 9,232 people about their sexual orientation.
http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid93744.asp
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