Who still thinks being gay is sinful?

White evangelical Protestants are particularly likely to believe that homosexuality is a sin. In 2013, a Pew Research Center survey found that about eight-in-ten white evangelicals (78%) said it is a sin to engage in homosexual behavior, similar to the percentage saying the same 10 years earlier (82%). In 2013, about eight-in-ten black Protestants (79%) also said homosexual behavior is a sin, but far fewer white mainline Protestants (38%), Catholics (33%) or religiously unaffiliated people (18%) agreed. Overall, among the general public 45% said homosexual behavior is a sin.

In the same 2013 survey, six-in-ten white evangelical Protestants (59%) said homosexuality should be discouraged by society and 74% said there was a conflict between their religious beliefs and homosexuality, both more than any other major religious group besides black Protestants. In another 2013 survey, we found that 66% of white evangelicals said homosexuality is morally unacceptable. Overall, only 37% of Americans said this.

Young people tend to express more positive views of homosexuality and more support for same-sex marriage as compared with older generations. And the same pattern seems to be true of young evangelicals. In aggregated polling from 2012 to February 2014, 29% of white evangelicals under the age of 30 expressed support for allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally, compared with 24% of evangelicals age 30-49, 19% among evangelicals age 50-64, and 14% of evangelicals age 65 and older.

But young evangelicals tend to look much more like other evangelicals than like other young people on this question. Among all adults under age 30, fully 67% expressed support for same-sex marriage in our aggregated 2012-2014 data, more than doubling the level of support from young white evangelicals.