Last Monday (June 26), same-sex marriage was legalized nationwide in the United States after a Supreme Court historic ruling.
In the two years since same-sex marriage was legalized nationwide, it appears that support for it has grown even among groups that until recently had been broadly opposed.
The Pew Research Center (a survey company which I often consult because of its integrity and accuracy) found that, for the first time, a majority of blacks and baby boomers support allowing gays and lesbians to wed.
Pew also found that Republicans now appear to be split almost evenly, a marked shift from 2013, when 61 percent opposed gay marriage.
In the immediate aftermath of the Supreme Court’s judgment, there were some flare-ups of defiance. A county clerk in Kentucky, Kim Davis, refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Alabama's chief justice, Roy Moore, ordered probate judges to stop issuing such licenses.
But, now just two years later, such acts of resistance have largely faded way, and same-sex marriage is now treated as a routine occurrence across the U.S.
According to the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law (so take this with a grain of salt), there are now more than 547,000 same-sex married couples in the U.S., including at least 157,000 couples who married in the past two years.
However, there are a few staunch opponents of gay marriage who are focusing their efforts on trying to provide legal protections to civil servants, merchants and other business people who do not want to provide services to same-sex couples.
Mississippi, for example, has passed a law — now the subject of litigation in federal court — that would let businesses and government workers deny some services to gay and lesbian couples.
And, at present, there is a case pending before the Supreme Court involving a Colorado baker who was found guilty of discrimination for refusing to sell a gay couple a wedding cake. Depending upon the outcome of that case, a florist in Washington State also may appeal her conviction and fine for violating that state's anti-discrimination law because she would not provide flowers for a same-sex wedding.
Among the findings of the recent Pew Research Center survey are these.
Overall, 62 percent of Americans now support same-sex marriage, the highest level in 20 years of Pew polling on the issue. As recently as 2010, support was at 42 percent.
Support is more than 70 percent among Millennials aged 18 to 36, and among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents. Support is only 35 percent among white evangelical Protestants, while it is 67 percent among Roman Catholics.
Earlier this week, I published a post about Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield in Illinois who issued a decree stipulating that gays and lesbians in same-sex marriages should not be provided with communion or Catholic funeral services.
Already, the voices in support of the LGBT lifestyle have condemned the Bishop for his policy.
Francis DeBernardo, head of an organization of LGBT Catholics called New Ways Ministry, addressed an open letter to Paprocki last Friday in which he stated: "Many gay and lesbian couples are leading lives of heroic devotion to each other, their children, and their communities. I hope and pray that you will reflect not only on the harm that this decree will cause but also the good that can occur if you withdraw it.
It is clear that Bishop Paprocki has and will continue to suffer the ire of those pushing the homosexual and transgender agenda.
I predicted that the Bishop will receive so much criticism and abuse that he will be forced to resign because he will no longer be able to effectively minister to the Catholics of Springfield. While I hoped that prediction was wrong when I made it, it unfortunately appears to show the signs of being correct.
And it appears that the Church’s moral authority regarding homosexuality as well as marriage (heterosexual or otherwise) has been compromised beyond redemption.
How sad for this and future generations of Catholic believers!
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