POLLAGE: MANY EVANGELICALS OPPOSE FMA: From the Baltimore Sun

As President Bush reaches out to his conservative Christian base by supporting a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, a poll released yesterday shows that more than half of the nation's white evangelicals oppose such a measure.

According to the survey, 52 percent would prefer to rely on state laws to prevent gays from marrying rather than altering the U.S. Constitution. In addition, only 48 percent of white evangelicals said a candidate's support for gay marriage would disqualify him from receiving their votes. ...

"Their concerns are multidimensional," said Anna Greenberg, vice president of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research Inc. in Washington, which conducted the poll for Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly, a PBS television show, and U.S. News & World Report. "Evangelicals are just not that different than the rest of America."

The survey of 1,610 respondents was done between March 16 and April 4. It has an overall margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points. The survey will be highlighted in a four-part series, "America's Evangelicals," whose weekly segments will be broadcast on PBS stations beginning this weekend. ...

The survey defined evangelicals roughly as whites over 18 who described themselves as "born-again," fundamentalist, evangelical, charismatic or pentacostal. The definition did not include Roman Catholics, Orthodox or Mormons.

Under the survey's definition, pollsters estimate that 23 percent of U.S. adults--or about 50 million people--are evangelical.

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posted by Eve at 3:42 PM | link

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