Bill Donohue
The Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), a left-wing organization with a reputation for producing politically biased surveys, released a new poll on LGBT rights. Its most dominant scholar, psychologist Robert P. Jones, is well known for demonizing so-called Christian nationalists.
PRRI just released its 2023 American Values Atlas report, “Views On LGBTQ Rights In All 50 States”. It provides more evidence that the deficiencies discussed exist. As a psychologist and a Catholic leader, I have great interest in this subject.
First off, a word about LGBT people (it’s unnecessary to add a “Q” because it refers to Queers and is thus a redundancy).
A typical LGBT person is a Democrat without any religious affiliation. This makes perfect sense.
Transsexuality, the ideology that erroneously holds that men and women are identical, is a historically induced trend that is more attractive to young people than older Americans. Democrats are generally progressives, and as such they have an expansive view of sexuality. Enlightenment-minded persons reject nature, and nature’s God, and are therefore easy bait for transgender influencers.
To put it differently, the older a person is, the less likely he is to buy into this mad plan. Republicans are more resistant to cool trends that are disconnected from reality because they tend to be conservative. Spiritual Americans appreciate nature, and nature’s God, and are thus hostile to radical liberal ideas.
There are two components of the study that merit a retort.
One of the questions posed to interviewees was whether they were in favor of or against “allowing a small business owner in your state to refuse to offer products or services to gay or lesbian people if doing so would violate their religious beliefs.”
This is a misleading question. In fact, it is a red herring designed to make religious people look bad.
Because PRRI is aware that this matter, which was raised in two similar Colorado cases that ended up in the Supreme Court, had nothing to do with denying gay people products or services because of their sexual orientation. It had to do with Christians being denied their religious freedoms because they were asked to perform actions that they couldn’t in good conscience perform.
Never once did Jack Phillips or Lorie Smith deny that a gay or lesbian customer was served. Smith maintained their websites and Phillips sold them sweets. However, he declined when two men asked to specifically design a wedding cake. In a proactive move, Smith publicly stated that she would not provide website services for gay weddings. The Supreme Court accepted them, taking into account the pressing issues with religious liberty.
Following Jones’ obsession with Christian nationalism, PRRI asserts that those who believe that America was a Christian nation and that it should return to its roots pose a danger to democracy.
Would it be fair to say that someone who claimed that America was a secular nation and that it should become even more secular is a threat to democracy? Of course not. It might not be entirely agreeable, but it would be equally foolish to claim that Christian nationalists are about to establish a theocracy.
PRRI is setting the political agenda for liberals, not merely reporting survey results.
For instance, Politico, a largely centrist liberal media outlet, seems to go off the rails when it comes to Christian nationalism. It was stated last month that if Trump were to win in November, his supporters would be willing to infuse Christian nationalism into his second administration. It claimed to have the proof to support its claim, but it also acknowledged that “Policies obtained by Politico do not describe specific Christian nationalist policies.” That’s because there aren’t any.
Heidi Przybyla’s article for Politico next month set off the alarms. The issue was the belief, shared by millions of Americans, and encoded in the Declaration of Independence, that our rights come from God, not from the government (that was what Stalin, Hitler, and Mao believed). She managed to circle back after making this straightforward observation. Now it would have come as a shock to Jefferson, who was not exactly a religious person, that he was a Christian nationalist.
PRRI knows what it is doing. None of what they did was a mistake. Which is why it is impossible to trust them.
Contact Robert P. Jones: rjones@prri.org
