Gay Marriage

[Destiny]

Do you see, at any point, the current iteration of evangelicals / fundamentalists letting go of being anti gay marriage? It seems to me, from the outside, as though it has become less of a hill to die on for them in the last several years. 

(Disclosure: this issue, and women's issues, are my hill to die on.)

[cstroop]

1 minute ago, Destiny said:

Do you see, at any point, the current iteration of evangelicals letting go of being anti gay marriage? It seems to me, from the outside, as though it has become less of a hill to die on for them in the last several years. 

I know that some Evangelicals have moderated on this issue. A couple years ago (as far as I recall) Time Magazine vaunted a statistic that 40% of Evangelicals under 35 would support same-sex marriage - but that's still a minority, and that doesn't mean they all consider it "Biblical." There's always this idea that Evangelicals are changing generationally, but the Pew figures never seem to back it up--this narrative will not die, despite not being supported by statistics. One thing that you see a lot now to "prove" Evangelicals are changing/moderating on social issues is sleight of hand whereby Evangelicals of color (who vote very differently from the white ones) are lumped in with white Evangelicals. Isolate white Evangelicals, and an overwhelming proportion of them still oppose same-sex marriage and consider all same-sex relationships sinful.

Anecdotally, I can say some of my relatives have come around on this. But in some cases, it doesn't change how they vote, and they want brownie points for just being okay with other people's "lifestyle." It doesn't really matter when you vote for an administration that will overturn both Roe and Obergefell, right?

Here's a piece I wrote that addresses LGBTQ issues somewhat extensively:

http://www.salon.com/2015/07/09/this_is_not_love_but_abuse_why_i_abandoned_evangelicalism_partner/

[Destiny]

Anecdotally, a few of mine have as well, but, I also avoid talking politics with them because otherwise I would be cutting even more family out of my life than I already have, so I'm not sure if that talk has become action. My family has a LOT of Trumpets in it. Facebook has been a shitshow of late. :/

[cstroop]

I hear you. That's hard. I'm having issues with Trump voting relatives too. Solidarity. 

[Curious]

We see some of the same types of...rhetoric...with the people we follow, but for the most part second/third generations haven't fallen into less strict lifestyles so far.  We always hope for them to at least head into what we call fundie light territory, but we don't see a lot of it yet.   Many of the families we follow are first generation with second generation just now getting married/having kids. 

We have seen a few people escape altogether or break from family and are slowly starting to get more "liberal"

[cstroop]

It's a really hard thing, as you know. Breaking away comes with extreme social cost, and, as I said in a podcast appearance with Blake Chastain on "Exvangelical," you end up feeling "weird everywhere." You end up playing catch-up because of arrested development and the isolation of the subculture. As for the generational shift, my intuition is more that those who would liberalize end up just being totally driven out. Some people are definitely leaving. How quickly the nones are rising is pretty amazing. Evangelical Protestantism/fundamentalism is just an unwelcoming place for dissenters - better to just leave. How the roughly 15-20% of moderate to liberal white Evangelicals keep defining that way, when most of their community is just toxic, I really don't understand.