Almost a decade after the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage across the country, most pastors remain opposed, and the supporting percentage isn’t growing.
One in 5 U.S. Protestant pastors (21 percent) say they see nothing wrong with two people of the same gender getting married, according to a
Lifeway Research study. Three in 4 (75 percent) are opposed, including 69 percent who strongly disagree with same-sex marriage. Another 4 percent say they aren’t sure.
Previous Lifeway Research studies found growing support among pastors. In
2010, 15 percent of U.S. Protestant pastors had no moral issues with the practice. The percentage in favor grew to 24 percent in
2019. Today, support is statistically unchanged at 21 percent.
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Consensual adult content including nudity and sex is now OK on X, formalizing an unstated practice allowed when the platform was called Twitter.
Pornographic images and acts may be shared whether they depict actual humans, cartoons, anime or hentai – a sexualized form of anime – or are photographic or generated by artificial intelligence, X said in
announcing the policy in May.
ethicist Jason Thacker called the policy “extremely disturbing and dangerous for all involved – especially minors and women,” but said it simply formalizes a longstanding policy at Twitter/X regarding pornography.
“This policy change is no surprise to those working on these issues, especially in light of the false connections drawn between free speech and pornography in contemporary law and society,” Thacker, senior fellow and director of the research institute at the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), told Baptist Press.
The formal change comes as X’s usage has dropped 30 percent since 2023, with 19 percent of the U.S. population using the platform in 2024, a decrease from the 27 percent who used the platform in 2023 and 2022, Edison Research
reported in March. The numbers refer to active users, not those who simply hold accounts that are mostly dormant.
Hershael York, dean of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary School of Theology, tweeted plans June 4 to end his account.
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Daniel Bouchoc writes, “Young adults face new life stages and challenges. They have questions about dating, marriage, finance, politics, culture, and more. They often no longer rely on their parents or tradition for answers. They need deep, robust, and coherent doctrine that addresses the complexities and hardships of life. You might get away with shooting from the hip in youth group, but young adults will suss out a run-of-the-mill answer in a heartbeat. Not only this, but as a generation coming of age amid heightened turbulence (American political context, COVID) and lack of solidity (social media), they long for rootedness and concreteness. A concreteness only deep doctrine can provide. YAs need mature doctrine so they can mature into adulthood (
Hebrews 5:11-14).”