It Turns Out the Laity Are an Embarassment, Too

The latest Gallup numbers on the beliefs of American Catholics on abortion, stem cell research, and other issues are sickening.

The accompanying chart shows the percentage of Catholics and non-Catholics who find each of nine moral issues morally acceptable. Catholics are at least slightly more liberal than non-Catholics on the issues of gambling (an issue to which the Catholic church is not totally opposed), sex between an unmarried man and woman, homosexual relations, and having a baby out of wedlock. Catholics are essentially tied with non-Catholics on the moral acceptability of abortion, divorce, and stem-cell research using human embryos. Only on the death penalty are Catholics slightly less likely than non-Catholics to find the issue morally acceptable.

As much as I've enjoyed the recent commentary from our shepherds on this Obama thing, I hope very much that they will turn their collective resources to reforming and purging the laity next. Something tells me, though, that the laity swinging the numbers to the side of The Adversary here are not prone to listening.