No need to despair

Many, many of us worry that our culture has turned irreversibly to the dark side.  We fear there will never again be a day when moral sanity on marriage will return to a majority of Americans.

In a recent op-ed sociologist Michael New argues we have reason to hope for better days.

He says things looked just as bleak in the first years after the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision of the U.S. Supreme Court.  Opinion surveys showed growing support for legal abortion, especially among young people.

“Someone analyzing the General Social Survey (GSS) in 1975 might have gotten the impression that in the pro-choice position lay America’s future. In fact, countless surveys showed that young adults were far more likely to support legal abortion than the elderly.”

But then in the 1990s public sentiment started changing big-time.  Why?  Part of the reason was the public debate about partial-birth abortion, which showed millions that babies were being ripped apart just a few months or weeks shy of their due date.  Another reason was that women and men were coming forward to testify that they regretted their abortions.

The change in public opinion was dramatic.  A September 1995 Gallup poll showed that only 33 percent of Americans identified as “pro-life.” But that figure shot up to 51 percent in a Gallup poll taken in May 2009, and has continued to register a majority of American ever since.

The shift among young people is the most surprising — and encouraging.

“Throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, the GSS survey results consistently revealed that eighteen- to twenty-nine-year-olds were more supportive of legal abortion than was any other age cohort. But starting around the year 2000, this group became the most pro-life age cohort—more pro-life, even, than senior citizens.”

New thinks the same thing might happen over the next years as the results of Obergefell  begin to be felt.  Pro-gay-marriage Americans will see their Christian friends lose jobs and businesses because they refuse to violate their conscience.  They might see churches lose their tax exemptions, religious universities lose accreditation because they do not offer spousal benefits to same-sex couples, and students lose financial aid at these schools.

Because so many Americans are devoted to their churches and synagogues, they will feel the tension between same-sex marriage and religious freedom.

There will be data down the road on the results of these marriages, and the impact on children.  Personal stories by people like Robert Oscar Lopez and Katy Faust will explain why growing up with same-sex parents caused them to feel they missed out on something essential.

People tend to get more conservative as they get older.  And whole societies can change their views of something after they have had personal experience with it.

New is optimistic.

Let’s hope he is right.