The California Supreme Court today upheld Proposition 8, which repealed an existing California law allowing marriage between same-sex couples by amending the state constitution to restrict marriage to heterosexual couples. The role of religion in that vote has been the subject of much interest and debate, but solid data on religion has been scattered.

Last December, the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) conducted a state-wide poll to provide a more nuanced picture of the general election and Proposition 8 vote in the state. Public Religion Research worked with PPIC analysts to produce findings for major religious groups that were not made available in their initial data release.  We have released a new memo summarizing these findings, along with summaries of the NEP Exit Poll findings on religion and the Prop 8 vote.

The full memo can be found here:
http://www.publicreligion.org/research/published/?id=131

The following are the key findings regarding major religious groups and the Proposition 8 vote:

• The data show a more complex picture among religious groups than stereotypes often portray. For example, while white evangelicals were strongly supportive of Prop 8 (88%-12%), white mainline Protestants evenly split their vote (50%-50%). This finding resonates with the Clergy Voices Survey PRR released just last week of white Mainline Protestant clergy, which showed Mainline clergy more supportive of gay rights than the general population and largely in line with Mainline Protestant people in the pews. That study can be referenced here.
• The largest group of religious voters, those who occasionally attend religious services (46% of CA voters), opposed Prop 8 (54%-46%). Only those voters who attend religious services weekly or more (32% of CA voters) supported Prop 8 (84% - 16%).
• Supporters and Opponents of Prop 8 brought different motivations and value frames to the ballot box.  Supporters felt more strongly that the vote was important and were driven primarily by the desire to “preserve marriage” and by religious objections to same-sex marriage. Opponents felt less strongly that the vote was important and were motivated primarily by a desire to extend equal rights and freedoms to gay and lesbian people.

Overall, this analysis cautions against an overly simplistic view of the role of religion in the Proposition 8 vote.