Catholics defy church leadership to become biggest backers of same-sex marriage: poll

Aug 26, 2017 by Jill

by Michael Koziol, Sydney Morning Herald:

A majority of Catholics, Christians and other religious groups support same-sex marriage and are inclined to vote for it in the forthcoming postal survey, according to new polling commissioned by advocates.

The “yes” side starts the campaign with the backing of 66 per cent of all Australians, with support among the non-religious at 79 per cent, compared with 58 per cent among people of faith, the research shows.

Catholics and non-Christian religions were more likely to support same-sex marriage, with two thirds of both those groups indicating they were in favour. For Anglicans, Uniting Church and Church of England, the figure was 59 per cent.

Marriage equality advocates will use the findings to encourage Australia’s 5 million Catholics to ignore directives from the church’s leadership and instead vote with their conscience.

The polling was commissioned by the Equality Campaign. It was conducted last week by Jim Reed of Newgate Research, formerly of Liberal-aligned Crosby/Textor, and surveyed 1000 people online.

They were asked: “If you were to vote, do you think that you would vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to allowing same-sex couples to marry in Australia?” Respondents had to choose between “yes” and “no”.

Read here