| |  Americans think it’s OK to have gay or lesbian relations, but even more of them think it’s OK to have a baby outside of marriage. Polygamy, however, is |
| | reprehensible — one of the few opinions Americans likely have held constant for at least 130 years, I’m guessing. And forget about having an extramarital affair. Only 6 percent, down 1 percent from 2001, think that’s OK. It’s hard to pin down exactly how many Americans are cheating on their spouses. Academic researcher Tom Smith has said there are few questions for which more worthless statistics exist. I’m guessing 6 percent may be a good indication of how many are doing so, at least without remorse. These figures come from Gallup’s recently released poll on America’s view on morality. (Read it here.) They show some significant shifts over the past 12 years. They also show people aren’t thinking clearly. For instance, you could fill a good-sized room with the academic studies that show how bad it is for kids, generally speaking, to be born to, and raised by, an unwed mother. Those children tend to be low-income and have a host of other behavioral and academic problems. Of course there are exceptions, and of course not every single mother sets out to be so, but it would be foolish to deliberately create a child out of wedlock and irresponsible to label it as morally acceptable. And yet, while only 45 percent approved of having a baby outside of marriage in 2001, 60 percent do today. Gallup says this is an example of “attitudes following behavior,” since a growing percentage of children are being born outside of wedlock. We like to think whatever we’re doing is morally correct. Guilt can be so unpleasant. Interestingly, only 42 percent believe it’s morally acceptable to have an abortion, which stayed constant over the 12-year span. Polygamy’s 14 percent approval rating means those practitioners who are trying to gain traction from the growing support for gay marriage (approved of by 59 percent) have a long way to go. Apparently, there are limits to marriage equality, at least for now. Our approval of the death penalty remains virtually unchanged at 62 percent, which is just a little higher than our acceptability of animal clothing made from fur. The concept of death equality hasn’t caught on yet, either, apparently — at least not beyond our own species. |
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