Which is why this poll is needed. It lays the cards on the table. I’m not surprised by most of the material from this survey, but you have to admit how jarring it is to see the quantitative separation in values. Let’s review.

Executive Summary Highlights:

These are just some highlights. The report itself details gender, age, community, church attendance, importance (or lack of importance) of scripture, and on and on. It’s thorough. The random samples of 4,200 progressive activists and 3,000 conservative activists tells us what we may have presumed. Progressives’ interests are spread out while conservatives have their sights almost unanimously locked. For instance, conservatives have been pitted in the fight against Row v. Wade for almost 40 years now. Moving toward a half century means little, however, other than proving the issue remains an unclosed wound in the side of conservative Christians. Its sticking to an issue like that, for better or worse, that lends one a reliable and established voice. This is not to say progressives have not been doing the same on the reverse end. It’s simply that conservatives round the troops much more efficiently. There is always power in consensus. And this quite possibly is where the progressive position stumbles. Do we sense in that lack of consensus a lack to effective argument also?

More commentary on the report:
The Christian Post
The Center for Progressive Christianity