changing evangelical attitudes on same-sex unions?

From Mark Bergin in World...

Richard Cizik, the longtime vice president for governmental affairs at the National Association of Evangelicals, made waves in the evangelical world last month when he expressed support for same-sex civil unions on a national radio program. NAE president Leith Anderson promptly asked for Cizik's resignation...

But Cizik's comments did not emanate from a vacuum. His new position reflects that of an emerging evangelical bloc, one eager to disassociate from the old guard of the Christian right. So just how many evangelicals did Cizik actually represent?...

Bergin then quotes Barrett Duke of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission:

"I have no doubt that there are Southern Baptists who do support civil unions for homosexuals and probably also support same-sex marriage. But I can tell you that they are at best in the single digits percentage-wise compared to all Southern Baptists and it might even be a fraction of a digit percentage-wise...."

But according to research over the past several years from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, about a third of white evangelicals and black Protestants likely would have cheered upon hearing Cizik's statement. A Pew survey from 2006 revealed that 30 percent of white evangelicals and 35 percent of black Protestants favor same-sex civil unions. Another Pew study from last year found that 14 percent of all white evangelicals and 15 percent of all black evangelicals support the more radical same-sex marriage.

What's more, a Greenberg Quinlan Rosner survey conducted for Religion and Ethics NewsWeekly in September found that 58 percent of white evangelicals ages 18 to 29 support either gay marriage or civil unions. For those 30 years and older, the number dipped to 46 percent....

The demographic shift is certainly interesting. Bergin continues by asking whether the new reflections are a function of a reconsideration of Scripture vs. shifting social norms influencing the Church. The answers there are less clear, although one suspects the latter to carry more weight than the former.

In any case, it is difficult to make a Biblical and practical case for Christians spending energies to fight against "civil unions". It is far easier to make a case for tacit disapproval or neutrality.