CNN’s Belief Blog recently posted an article about the Public Religion Research Institute’s survey on the attitudes of young adults toward abortion and same-sex marriage. The article painted a pessimistic picture for social conservatives. With regard to abortion, the views of young adults are similar to those of their parents. Many young adults dislike abortion and are receptive toward pro-life arguments, but feel uncomfortable with banning abortion entirely. Even worse, most young people, even those who identify themselves as Christian, seem sympathetic toward same-sex marriage.
However, pro-lifers need not worry. The results of this survey are inconsistent with other survey research on the attitudes of young people toward abortion. The General Social Survey has been collecting opinion data on abortion using the same battery of questions since the 1970s. In most years, respondents between the ages of 18 and 29 tend to be the least sympathetic toward the pro-life position. However, starting around the year 2000, those between the ages 18 and 29 were on average more pro-life than those from other age cohorts.
What is interesting is that one would not expect the current generation of young people to espouse pro-life views. Today’s young adults tend to be less religious and more secular, and have more liberal attitudes toward sex than previous generations. Furthermore, social scientists have not arrived at a consensus as to why this current generation of young people is more pro-life. Various theories include 1) the development of ultrasound technology, the 1990s debate over partial-birth abortion, and popular culture’s depiction of single motherhood as non-disruptive in television shows like Friends and Murphy Brown and movies like Juno.
Now, on the issue of same sex marriage, social conservatives certainly have their work cut out for them. However, the picture is not as bleak as the article indicates. Young people have always been more sympathetic toward same-sex marriage than their older counterparts. However, in the years following the Goodridge decision, which legalized same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, UCLA’s annual survey of college freshmen indicated that support for same-sex marriage fell slightly. This is despite the fact that the decision received plenty of favorable media attention and granted same-sex marriage mainstream political legitimacy.
For a number of years, the mainstream media has been predicting the demise of social conservatism as a political force. This is because historically, young people have been more socially liberal than their parents and grandparents. However, despite this, social conservatism has proven to be quite resilient. In fact, during the past 15 years the pro-life movement has made impressive gains in the court of public opinion. Advocates for traditional marriage certainly need to consider strategies for engaging younger voters. However, social conservatives should take heart. Plenty of data indicates that as people get older, they become more conservative on social issues. And there is a very good chance that the current generation of young adults will prove to be no exception.
— Michael J. New is an assistant professor of political science at the University of Alabama and a fellow at the Witherspoon Institute in Princeton, N.J.
"popular culture’s depiction of single motherhood as non-disruptive in television shows like Friends and Murphy Brown and movies like Juno."
This is an example of social conservative views being mainstreamed? Really?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseLeftist depictions of single motherhood as non-disruptive are irrational.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseGiving birth is to the right of abortion, so in this context, yes. Glad you bring it up, since this is an example of just how ruthless and absolute the left enforces its control over our culture, that we have been forced to move our goal posts just a fraction of an inch from the absolute left end of the scale. Yet it's still not enough for you - you ask "why do you want to impose your morals on me."
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI agree: I hear people all the time in their twenties and thirties, on the bus and in the elevator, talking about how they based their key life decisions, political beliefs and personal morality on TV sitcoms and romantic comedies. (Not.)
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbusePart of the reason may be all the failures the left has had including Obama still whining about Bush. They see there lives being sold to foreign countries like China & they know the left cannot pay for what is going on. So they question the social issues to & are right to do so. It reminds me of a Dean at my college. She said she wanted me to question authority but not her in the same conversation. I mean like a minute apart.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"Even worse"? Sympathy toward same sex unions is worse than tolerance of abortion? Did I misread your post?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI'd like to know the answer to that question too. If that comment accurately reflects Prof. New's views, I'd love to see his rationale.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWe certainly should, given that they have been educated exclusively by leftists when they have not been raised by leftists. Their knowledge of history is nonexistent, of economics superstitious, of philosophy limited to whatever infuses reality TV. Of their religious devotion we shall not speak because they will not either.
A generation too ignorant to realize that the Baby Boomers have already spent their paychecks upon themselves is not likely to become conservative but through the bitter experience of losing what they would have sought to save. Their education is yet to come and it will be an ugly---if thorough---one.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMy conservative partner and I are laughing at you.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHow special for you.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"Educated exclusively by leftists." That statement is patently false.
We'll be much better off once right-wing educational standards become the norm, including equal standing of creationism with evolution, denial of climate science and that the notion that America is unique because God ordained it so.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseCan't you at least try to accurately describe conservative views towards science?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI did, at least on these issues. You're welcome to enlighten me.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYou certainly did not. The conservative position is to remove the federal government from public spheres where it is not competent, such as education, and push decisions to a lower level. Your notions are no different than liberal indoctrination.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAs usual, your opinion regarding your competance is over rated.
Only a tiny fraction of conservatives have ever argued that creation should be taught on the same level as evolution.
How can those who are right, be the ones in denial. There isn't a shred of evidence that CO2 is causing any problems, or will at any time in the future.
As to your last point, you have the origin of the contention reversed.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI consider social conservatives my stalwart political allies, but I would appreciate it if you would make an effort to keep this alliance cordial.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhat's so wonderful about your reply---beyond the topic sentence without supporting argument, thereby essentially appealing to your own authority----is how many fallacies you manage to shoehorn into the paragraph which follows. In order: the notion that "right-wing educational standards" include "equal standing of creationism with evolution",
"denial of climate science", and "the notion that America is unique because God ordained it so"; the notion that conservatives believe evolution in the sense of the liberals belief in materialistic creation ex nihilo to be on an equal footing with creation (one is true, one is false; we have it on the highest authority which is which); the notion that the euphemistic reference to the hoax of Global Warming somehow makes the false and discredited true; and the notion that America isn't unique and that in any case God has nothing to do with her (no doubt because you believe there to be no God, yourself having accreted through random secretions over geologic time).
You won't find a conservative who claims that the superset of these three concepts is what determines their educational standards. (Perhaps because you don't know any). Conservatives rather uniformly view education as the imparting of knowledge to make one a better citizen and person in such measure as such things are possible, to be pursued with respect for truth and the liberty of the individual conscience. Reeducation camps are what you people on the other side embrace---isn't that what Political Correctness was all about?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseGiven the success our armed forces have enjoyed recruiting volunteers to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan, I am skeptical about the idea that leftists can indoctrinate our children to any significant degree.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"For a number of years, the mainstream media has been predicting the demise of social conservatism as a political force. This is because historically, young people have been more socially liberal than their parents and grandparents."
This assumes that a person's social views are fixed in their teens and twenties and never change. While it is true that some adolescents never grow up (and some of these become congressmen from New York), most people's opinions will shift over time as life experience puts their views into context.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAs a mom of two young adults and two teens I agree that this generation sees little problem with gay marriage. They grew up with massive divorce after all. We never taught them the sanctity of marriage. But abortion is different. They are the babies of the first sonograms. They have seen themselves in the womb. It has been my experience that they are very pro life.
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