Are You Willing To Fight To Win On Same-Sex Marriage?

There's a new Associated Press and GfK poll on people's views of same-sex marriage and related religious liberty issues. I recommend reading the whole story. According to the poll, Americans seem to be less liberal on same-sex marriage and religious liberty than you'd think from watching the mainstream media, listening to Republican political analysts who claim that their party needs to change, etc. For example, here's an excerpt:

Overall, if there's a conflict, a majority of those questioned think religious liberties should win out over gay rights, according to the poll. While 39 percent said it's more important for the government to protect gay rights, 56 percent said protection of religious liberties should take precedence.

According to the poll, 42 percent support same-sex marriage and 40 percent oppose it. The percentage saying they favor legal same-sex marriage in their state was down slightly from the 48 percent who said so in an April poll. In January, 44 percent were in favor.

Asked specifically about the Supreme Court ruling, 39 percent said they approve and 41 percent said they disapprove.

Most Americans don't know much about homosexual issues and can be persuaded to change their views without much difficulty. So far, Christians and their allies on these issues haven't made much of an effort to be persuasive. That's consistent with the sort of intellectual apathy and anti-intellectualism we see on so many other issues. If you don't say much of intellectual substance, then the media, Hollywood, and other sources who tend to be liberal will seem to have the more credible side of the argument. Just because it's common to cite intellectually substantive sources, like Robert Gagnon, in conservative Evangelical apologetic circles (a tiny percentage of the population), that doesn't mean the average Christian parent, Christian pastor, or Jewish rabbi, for example, is addressing the issue at that level. Instead, what we typically see among conservative Christians and their allies is something far more shallow, if the issues are even addressed at all. If you don't have the will to fight to win, you'll often lose, even when the battle could so easily be won.