Surprising Data on Same-Sex Marriage

There was lots of chatter in the religion-politics blogosphere this week about blogger Mark Silk's examination of data showing that the more Catholic a state's population, the more likely its residents are to support same-sex marriage.


By combining a new study that ranks states according to public support for same-sex marriage and civil unions with the 2008 American Religious Identification Survey, Silk finds that six of the eight states where 50 percent or more of the public supports same-sex marriage are the states with the highest proportion of Catholics.

"In other words, support for same-sex marriage is directly related to the proportion of Catholics in a given state. Way to go, bishops!" said Silk, who directs the Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life at Trinity College.