Yahoo! News - Survey Finds Church-Going Americans Less Tolerant
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Church-going Americans have grown increasingly intolerant in the past four years of politicians making compromises on such hot issues as abortion and gay rights, according to a survey released on Saturday.

At the same time, those polled said they were growing bolder about pushing their beliefs on others -- even at the risk of offending someone.

Those surveyed were nearly all Christians, not by design but because the sample reflected the makeup of the population, the group said. A 2002 Pew Research Council survey found that 82 percent of the U.S. populace considered itself to be Christian, while 10 percent identified with no religious group.

On the question of whether elected officials should set their convictions aside to get results in government, 84 percent agreed in 2000. However, four years later that had dropped to 74 percent. There was a sharper decline on the same question among weekly church-goers from 82 percent in the first survey to 63 percent in the second.

In the survey, 32 percent of those who attended church once a week said they were willing to compromise on abortion issues -- a 19-point drop in four years. Among the same group the question of compromising beliefs on gay rights was acceptable to only 39 percent, down 18 points from 2000.

The poll also found that 37 percent overall felt that deeply religious people should be careful not to offend anyone when they "spread the word of God," a decline from 46 percent four years earlier.

Didn't need a survey to tell you this. They've turned me off from Christianity so much that I don't even read the "Religion" section in the paper anymore. In my personal dealing with the fundies I've known, I've always found it amusing (and disturbing) when they say something to the effect of "those gays are always in my face", but yet they have no qualms about pushing their religion, and their judgement, on me. They always have to make it known that they don't agree with my "lifestyle". (whatever that is) I wonder if they do that with everyone they find "sinful". Do they come right out and say things to divorced people? How about greedy people? The obese? Those full of pride? Doesn't it become tiring to have to point out everyone's "sins"?

The turnoff comes when it seems to be always about judgement, rarely about love. So busy worrying about other people's lives, never a focus on their own.