Abomination

Watch and pray take heed

Pope Francis takes a trip to America

Wine of Babylon

Many popes have visited US, but this will be Pope Francis first time.  Roman Catholic Pope Francis plans 10 day visit to Cuba and the United States. He is looking to arrive at the Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Tuesday. Francis  tour will consist of the nation’s capital, Washington D.C., several other places and  states including New York City and Philadelphia. He plans to visit the several cites including the Trade Center, St Patrick Catholic Church, Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, St Patrick Cathedra, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington and United Nations, Our  Lady Queen of Angels Cathedral Elementary, Independence Mall, The Cathedra Basilica of St Peter and Paul, St Charles Borromeo, Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility. Several botuique shops are set to carry his statues in honor of the Roman Catholic Pope Francis.

Francis brings us hope.Wow Deceived!

Exodus 20:3 KJV  Thou shalt have no other gods before me.  According to several reports and video statement of  the pope calls Jesus and the bible a lie? 1 John  1:22 KJV  Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ.   

  While the world is awe of the catholic pope’s  meeting of a world peace treaty?, and that might sound good, but the Bible says   1 Thessalonians 5:3 KJV (ref) For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.    Only the prince of peace can establish the peace this world so desperately needs.

AP/Yahoo NEWS reports

A look at the sites Pope Francis will visit while in the United States:

ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE

Pope Francis will arrive in the United States on Tuesday afternoon through Andrews Air Force Base.

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama will travel to the base in Maryland, just outside Washington, to greet the pope. The base is home to Air Force One and the president travels there regularly for his out-of-town trips, but he hardly ever goes there to welcome a visiting dignitary.

One exception came last year when Obama met French President Francois Hollande at Andrews. When Pope Benedict XVI visited in 2008, then-President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, greeted him at Andrews.

 

In this photo taken Aug. 31, 2015, the Catholic Charities building in Washington. While in Washington..

THE WHITE HOUSE

Pope Francis will visit the White House on Wednesday morning, becoming only the third pope to visit the home. The others were Pope Benedict XVI in 2008 and Pope John Paul II, who visited President Jimmy Carter in 1979.

Francis will be greeted as most heads of state are, with his car pulling slowly up the South Lawn’s driveway to the spot where a red carpet will be rolled out and the Obamas will be waiting.

Thousands of invited guests, including many Catholics, will gather on the lawn to receive Francis.

Shortly after he arrives on the South Lawn, the anthems of the U.S. and the Vatican will play, following military honors that include a 21-gun salute and band members dressed in colonial garb. Obama will welcome the pope with remarks followed by a reciprocal address from Francis. They will then head inside the White House and reappear on the balcony.

Inside, Francis will sign the official guest book. He and Obama will exchange gifts before meeting in the Oval Office.

Following the visit, the Pope will travel in the Popemobile along streets near the White House.

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In this photo taken Aug. 31, 2015, the nave of St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington. While in Washi …

CATHEDRAL OF ST. MATTHEW THE APOSTLE

The domed cathedral where Pope Francis will meet with all the U.S. bishops is best known as the site where Washington mourned the death of the first Catholic president, John F. Kennedy. He is memorialized with a marble plaque in the cathedral floor at the site of the 35th president’s funeral.

The parish dates back to 1840 as the fourth Catholic church established in the District of Columbia.

St. Matthew’s is the mother church or seat of the Archdiocese of Washington, and the current church hosted its first Mass in 1895. It was designated a cathedral in 1939 when the combined Archdiocese of Baltimore and Washington was created. The two regions were later separated. The cathedral was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

Inside the cathedral, Pope Francis and the bishops will say the midday prayer.

BASILICA OF THE NATIONAL SHRINE OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

Next to Catholic University stands the largest Catholic church in the United States and North America, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. The basilica is located in Washington’s Brookland neighborhood, which is nicknamed “Little Rome” for its numerous seminaries, monasteries, convents and other Catholic sites.

Ground was broken for the church in 1920, and the shrine was dedicated in 1959. The massive basilica now stands as one of the 10 largest churches in the world. It was designed in a Romanesque-Byzantine style with a colorful dome, but church officials say it was not designed to imitate or duplicate any other church in the world.

Pope John Paul II became the first reigning pope to visit the church in 1979 and elevated it to the status of minor basilica in 1990. Pope Benedict XVI visited in 2008 to worship and meet with the U.S. bishops. A church spokeswoman says about 1 million people visit the basilica each year.

Pope Francis will celebrate Mass with a crowd of about 30,000 from the basilica’s east portico, facing the campus of Catholic University.

The Mass will serve as a canonization for Franciscan missionary Junipero Serra to make him a saint. The elevation of the California missionary will give the U.S. its first Hispanic saint. Serra died in 1784

Stellar Star Awards 2013

When Kirk Franklin fell off the stage he lost something. They did not checked him thoroughly. He has never been the same. Something is for sure off balance. All he needed was the mothership cause thats all he’s doing.

In the above photo of the gospel Stellar Awards notice there is a demonic face which most people would not even notice being so caught in the performers. Don’t be deceived.

Bishop Al Hobbs makes room to wear his loop earring. The platform is representative of the stellar awards and the fans supporting it. The church act more worldlier than the world. That means some people that are not even professing to be a Christian have more standards than the ones professing to be one.

The actual Stellar Awards is not free; tickets are sold for the event.

Stellar Star Awards

Deutoronomy 4:19 And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the Lord thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven
Deut 17:3 And hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded;

These awards many of which are named in the honor of the deceased Thomas Dorsey, and James Cleveland.

Thomas Dorsey Most Notable Achievement Award to be received by
Td Jakes based on attributes including being called Americas best preacher by who?! Time Magazine. He has produced movies with Sony the “Sparkle” (inspiration the R&B group TheSupremes); he has “Jumping the Broom” all the filth of the world. Td Jakes operates in a first-look deal with Sony Pictures which he makes reference their relationship has spanned over a 20 year with the company. He’s listed as the next Billy Graham. Td Jakes is sold his allegiance a long time ago.
Jakes says when they are throwing dirt on top of him, he wants to look at the dirt and say he did what he wanted to do before he left.
2 Corinthians 4:4KJV In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not

SET UP STELLAR AWARDS
The show the lights go out and the stage fills up with smoke, depicting the person gospel performer as a star in the galaxy, and the fans worshipping the star.


CEO Don Jackson of the Stellar Award seen doing multiple pyramids with his fingers. Stellar Awards is not exactly a star, but a flame of stardom

How the awards make people act. Not Christ like at all.

How the awards make people act

Byron Cage was ready to fight. It is already on the mantle and it aint going nowhere. These things are not going to mean anything at when you stand before God. The bible says Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth. Artist as such really serious need to examine the purpose which is materialism. Their lives are opposite of who they claim to represent. Jesus should be the center. Many artist will try to hold up Stellar Awards and say name on their names were on gospel list, hall of fame. Lord I have won possessions and gold awards at the Stellar Awards, and he will say depart from ye worker of inquity. It is vanity. You will notice in the video he chose to make light of the Lord’s grace regarding off as he could act a fool, and will be forgiven of it later. The gospel should not be presented that way. Byron cage also recently got tattoo marking speaking of by the stripes of Jesus and just make up excuses to mark of the flesh and they are literally disregard the scriptures. Sad fans will pay any amount to be entertained by them. People will pay various prices $60, 100 and $200 for certain seats and many will pay more. One attendee spoke on she ridiculously paid $200 for seats and could not see on the stage, until she stood up to see these performers.

 

The Kings Men Tour

Livenation

Live Nation Partners with Kirk Franklin for First Major U.S. Gospel Tour Featuring ‘The King’s Men’, Kirk Franklin, Marvin Sapp, Donnie McClurkin and Israel Houghton

 ‘The King’s Men’ Tour

Four of the most successful performers in gospel music history, Kirk Franklin, Marvin Sapp, Donnie McClurkin and Israel Houghton, announce today that they will share the same stage for the very first time when they embark on The King’s Men concert tour this fall. The historic U.S. tour will hit major venues in 15 U.S. cities beginning on Sunday, September 16th at Comerica Theatre in Phoenix, AZ, and culminating in Brooklyn, NY at Barclays Center on Sunday, October 14th.
Produced by Live Nation Entertainment, tickets for The King’s Men concert tour will go on sale beginning on Friday, May 11th at Ticketmaster.com and LiveNation.com. Citi cardmembers will have access to presale tickets beginning on Tuesday, May 8th at 10:00 AM ET through Citi’s Private Pass Program. For complete presale details visit http://www.citiprivatepass.com/.
“In the Gospel world, this is like Springsteen, McCartney, Prince and Elton hitting the road together,” said Kevin Morrow, Senior Vice President of Touring at Live Nation. “It’s going to be a once in a lifetime event for music fans.”
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Between these four gospel music giants, The King’s Men have taken home over a hundred GRAMMY®, Dove, Stellar, BET, Soul Train, NAACP and American Music Awards. They have appeared on countless mainstream television shows and moved millions of fans at their sold-out live concerts nationally and internationally. Now, for the first time ever, The King’s Men bring all of their incredible and inspirational talents together under the same roof for gospel, R&B and pop music fans across the country.
Kirk Franklin commented: “The opportunity to partner with Live Nation is a GREAT honor and responsibility. The genre of gospel music having this kind of massive marketing support is monumental, and the talent on this tour makes it a must-see event! I’m very proud of this relationship and I expect it to be a new groundbreaking platform for inspirational entertainment.”
Exclusive artist meet & greet and VIP ticket packages are available. Please visit http://vipnation.com for details.
KIRK FRANKLIN
For nearly two decades, Kirk Franklin has been a multi-platinum-selling purveyor of majestic fusions of gospel and contemporary music. Franklin is a pioneer in gap-bridging musicianship, uniting audiences across gospel, hip hop, pop and R&B. His irresistible rhythms and rhapsodies have resulted in albums that consistently top both Billboard’s Gospel and Christian charts, as well as ascend in to the Top 10 of the mainstream R&B/Hip Hop chart. Franklin is also the host and executive producer of the gospel talent show “Sunday Best,” the highest-rated gospel program in BET network history now heading into its fifth season. To date, Franklin has garnered nine GRAMMY® Awards, an American Music Award, 39 Stellar Awards, 16 Dove Awards (CCM), eight NAACP Image Awards, two BET Awards, a Soul Train Award, and numerous others.
MARVIN SAPP
Since his debut release in 1996, Marvin Sapp has been thrilling Gospel audiences everywhere with his acrobatic vocals and deep-within-the-heart delivery. He made history with his seventh album, Here I Am, which was the all-time highest charting gospel album in Billboard history, debuting at Number 2 on the Billboard 200 chart. His latest release, his ninth solo effort, is entitled I Win. He has won two BET awards, seven Dove Awards, multiple Stellar Awards and numerous others.
DONNIE MCCLURKIN
For a man who has declared that he may at any moment cease making music to concentrate fully on his passion for ministering, Donnie McClurkin has never stayed away from recording profoundly uplifting music for the soul for very long. Born in 1959, McClurkin was encouraged at an early age by the legendary Andrae’ Crouch, after his aunt became a singer in the Gospel great’s choir. Fighting through a rough home life and a battle with cancer, Donnie was eventually discovered and recorded a solo album. After an appearance on Oprah Winfrey’s top-rated television show, Donnie’s solo debut was catapulted to the upper regions of the Gospel charts and his career was born. Donnie has won three GRAMMY® Awards, as well as BET, Soul Train and Dove awards.
ISRAEL HOUGHTON
Israel Houghton is known by thousands for his day job as a worship leader at Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. But since 1997 with the release of his debut album Whisper It Loud, Houghton has been recording and performing his music for Gospel fans all over the world. Since then he’s performed with such pop icons as Alicia Keys, performed at the 50th Annual GRAMMY® Awards, racking up two gold albums, six Dove Awards, two Stellar Awards, a Soul Train Award and four GRAMMY® Awards in the process.
About Live Nation Entertainment:
Live Nation Entertainment is the world’s leading live entertainment and ecommerce company, comprised of four market leaders: Ticketmaster.com, Live Nation Concerts, Front Line Management Group and Live Nation Network. Ticketmaster.com is the global event ticketing leader and one of the world’s top five ecommerce sites, with almost 27 million monthly unique visitors. Live Nation Concerts produces over 22,000 shows annually for more than 2,300 artists globally. Front Line is the world’s top artist management company, representing over 250 artists. These businesses power Live Nation Network, the leading provider of entertainment marketing solutions, enablingtap into the 200 million consumers Live Nation delivers annually through its live event and digital platforms. For additional information, visit http://www.livenation.com/investors.

Sunday’s Best & Gospel music officially belongs to Baal

By Tetaun Moffett, EX Times

Sunday Best is a nationwide talent search that visits storefront churches, parishes and mega-churches across the country to find the best undiscovered singers in America. The top five finalists are coached by artists from the gospel and secular worlds as they strive to win the Sunday Best title. The winner  receives a gospel recording contract, a brand new car, as well as cash and prizes for their home church. This year Sunday Best is in its fourth season and its host, Kirk Franklin, continues to lead the largest exodus into the world that the Church has seen to date. Unless you’ve been living under a brick, you should have seen this day coming. Since Sunday’s Best  first aired we witnessed alcoholics, LGBTs, thugs, night crawlers an all kinds of worldly folks compete with inspiring gospel artist for a ‘gospel’ recording contract. Yet nobody consider the unsaved souls as priority. “Just sing lil jimmy!” But this years competition by far is the worst. Today many artist have nearly abandon their excuse for singing (to reach the world) but are now singing with world. This recent episode of “LOVE” songs is a prime example why the world has reached most churches. The secular artist are now singing gospel songs and the churches are sing secular songs.(both in church) We have become like dogs, chasing our own tails. Its bad enough a Luther Vandross  song could potentially win a christian a gospel recording contract. But why would  you bring Jill Scott out to serenade church folks?

Are you kidding me! This woman needs Christ, she don’t need to be singing to  the so called Saints. Scott is crying out for help! according to a quote from her biography  “… I believe that all of the religions have merit and that it’s man that messes it up. I am more spiritual than religious. Sometimes I feel like a Buddhist and I need to chant; sometimes a Baptist and I need to holler and shout and sometimes I need to be a Catholic and need to purge my sins and confess. It just depends on where I am. But, I know I need to get there.”  Not to mention, her 2011 album “The Light of the Sun” track number 6 “So Gone (what my mind says) ” is a song about how she lusts after the width of  a male’s phallus. The song is straight porn. In a recent interview she boast about being addicted to phallus so much, it  inspired her to write about one. But yet you have ‘passa’ Donnie McClurklin sitting up giggling, talking about “gut-bucket singing..eww” and Mary Mary who also boast about their perverted desire to sing with Nate Dogg and other gangsta rappers; Kim Burrellwho recently re sung music on her “Love” album from.

Kim Burrell sexing It up in Lingerie for her recent Video.

Earth Wind & Fire and has publicly expressed her ultimately goal to record with that thing called “Prince” But wait, let’s not forget Yolanda Adams a few years back she recorded a gospel song with Bone Thugs and Harmony! Come on people, you don’t need a bunch of scriptures to see that something is wrong here.  What kind of message does this send to our children? How does Christ view his bride? The good news is, this is not the TRUE CHURCH, this is the Apostate church.  No wonder Sunday’s Best is produced by Strange Fruit Films.. go figure. There’s no such thing asthe gospel industry as we knew it. It’s all now worship music unto Baal.

 

INCLUSION LINKAGE: BET Network and Matthew Knowles control gospel music now?

If you win this contest you have to sell your soul to the devil by default.

Source: Exministries

Music World Gospel and BET Networks Sign an Exclusive Recording Agreement for Sunday Best Season Three and Four Winners

Sunday Best Season Three Winner Le’Andria Johnson Set to Release First Project Under New Deal Debut Album In Stores September 6

HOUSTON, July 18, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Music World Gospel entered into an exclusive recording agreement with BET Networks and its premiere brand, Sunday Best, the award-winning weekly gospel music competition program.  The agreement will include the release of debut albums for the show’s third and fourth season winners and other music and entertainment product releases featuring “best of” compilations and a variety of specialty brand projects. Sunday Best season four premieredSunday, July 10 at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT.

Musicworld artists

The first release scheduled under the new agreement is Sunday Best’s third season winner, Le’Andria Johnson.  Her debut project, The Awakening of Le’Andria Johnson will be released on September 6, 2011. Le’Andria’s new single “Jesus,” produced by GRAMMY® Award winner Chuck Harmony (Rihanna, Fantasia, Chrisette Michele), will impact radio on July 25.

More Musicworld artists

“Securing BET and the Sunday Best brand is an important and monumental milestone for the label,” said Mathew Knowles, founder, President and CEO of Music World Entertainment. “BET is one of the largest brands in black America.  We look forward to partnering with BET and exploring the many marketing opportunities to further develop and bring greater exposure to theSunday Best brand.  Sunday Best is very important to the faith-based and African American communities.  As we prepare for our first release under the new deal, the Music World team is extremely excited about Le’Andria Johnson.  She is one of a few artists who come along in a lifetime who possess that special uniqueness. Beyond her vocal talent and skills, she has that raw and rare stage presence that illuminates power and grace.”

“BET Networks is thrilled to work with the Music World Gospel label in continuing to build our Sunday Best brand as the leading platform for the discovery and launch of extraordinary gospel music talent including our Sunday Best Season 3 winner, Le’Andria Johnson” said Loretha Jones, President of Original Programming, BET.  “We believe the new relationship with Music World Gospel and Mathew Knowles will further the vision to share our ‘Sunday Best’ with the world.”

In June 2010, Le’Andria was crowned Sunday Best winner, with over 2 million votes from the network’s faithful viewers. Each week she wowed viewers and captured the hearts of millions, including Sunday Best‘s host Kirk Franklin, judges, Mary Mary,Donnie McClurkin, and Yolanda Adams and celebrity mentor Kim Burrell. For the finale, she performed a medley of three songs, “I Love the Lord,” “He Was There,” and “In the Midst of It All.”

Le’Andria is a living testimony of faith. Prior to being crowned Sunday Best, Le’Andria auditioned for the gospel competition a day before she lost her home in foreclosure. Deciding to let nothing stand in her way, the then Sunday Best hopeful traveled toNew Orleans and auditioned in flip flops and gym socks, she was almost eliminated because she did not look the part, according to show judge Erica Campbell [Mary Mary]. After her rendition of “This Is the Day the Lord Hath Made,” she was on her way to fulfilling her life-long dream of a career in music.

Only 20% of the church is active but why???!!!

Churches’ Dilemma: 80 Percent of Flock Is Inactive

Source: bible.com

There is a secret inside many churches. According to researchers Scott Thumma and Warren Bird, most churches – mega-sized and small, black and white – are actually run by 20 percent of the congregation. The other 80 percent, they say, tend to act like spectators: they are minimally involved and attend infrequently or not at all.

A National Congregation Survey shows the Southern Baptist Convention had a membership of 16,160,088 people in 2008, but a yearly attendance rate of 38 percent. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America had a membership of 4,542,868 in 2009, but the yearly attendance rated rested at 28 percent.

Though many churches are struggling to boost attendance and participation, Thumma states, pastorsand church leaders rarely address the issue.

“So many pastors that I’ve talked to recognize the problem, don’t know what to do about it and then instead of trying to tackle it, they kind of put it aside,” described Thumma.

He and Bird traveled to 12 different churches, interviewing congregants to learn why some are involved in church ministry and others are not. Thumma said they found that “almost all congregations were operating below their potential because they (the churches) weren’t finding ways to invigorate and keep their own membership interested, involved and committed.”

In the book The Other 80 Percent, the researchers use their findings to help church leaders find the root of the problem.

Pastors, Thumma says, put too much of their ministries’ focus on bringing new people in to the church.

According to a 2010 Barna survey, 46 percent of 600 senior pastors reported that outreach/evangelism is the area their church or ministry would like to develop in 2011. The poll also showed that outreach/evangelism ranked higher in priority than any of the other nine areas.

Those churches that focus primarily on the new people walking through the front door may be leaving the back door wide open, Thumma cautions.

“If you’re not thinking about hospitality at the front door as well as at the back door, they (members) will all just flow through, and that’s not what God is calling the church to do,” he states.

The authors refer to the parable of the good shepherd as an ideal example. The good shepherd is troubled by one stray sheep and pursues that sheep until he is able to bring it back to the 99 members in his fold.

However, the book portrays most pastors as shepherds who dismiss the lost sheep because they think “Not to worry … I still have ninety-nine.” As the number of sheep decreases, the pastors of today try to entice sheep from their neighbor’s flock or search after wild rams to enter into their folds rather pursuing their lost lambs.

The book calls on pastors to pay greater attention to the 80 percent of the congregation who are lost and uninvolved. To do that, Thumma recommends pastors refocus their church to offer continued spiritual growth through greater engagement.

Only 28 percent of pastors reported that spiritual growth was an important area of development in 2011 in the Barna poll. Even fewer pastors –19 percent – reported that engagement was an important area for development.

Spiritual engagement, however, becomes more important the longer a congregant remains in the church, Thumma stresses. The top reason given for decreased participation in the last two years is faith has gotten weaker, according to a cited Parish Inventory Survey. Yet very few churches have programs for long-standing members, he says.

“Once you’ve been at the church for five years, 10 years, 20 years, 40 years, there’s hardly any programs aimed at those groups to continually keep them engaged,” laments Thumma.

The book recommends churches first correct this error by forming a listening team. The goal of the team is to conduct individual interviews with members to find out how they want and need to be nurtured spiritually.

When authors Thumma and Bird employed this approach to write The Other 80 Percent, inactive congregants shared that issues such as no close friendship, and a lack of adult classes led to their decreased role in the church.

Second, churches are urged to create a learning team to uncover the external social and cultural dynamics in their communities hampering members’ church involvement. The team may learn that a Sunday morning sports league is keeping church youth and their parents from service. The learning team can also discover new areas for ministry such as a food assistance program to reach a low-income community.

Once both groups have finished collecting information, Thumma says, “Each church needs to contemplate their own context and come up with their own strategy based on what God wants for their congregation.”

Thumma says that pastors will not be able to get 100 percent of their congregation involved all the time, but pastors are called to care for every member of their flock, not just the active 20 percent.

America Gone Wild: Majority of Americans in favor of Same Sex Marriage?!

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For First Time, Majority of Americans Favor Legal Gay Marriage

 

Republicans and older Americans remain opposed

by Frank Newport

PRINCETON, NJ — For the first time in Gallup’s tracking of the issue, a majority of Americans (53%) believe same-sex marriage should be recognized by the law as valid, with the same rights as traditional marriages. The increase since last year came exclusively among political independents and Democrats. Republicans’ views did not change.

These results are based on Gallup’s May 5-8 Values and Beliefs poll, which has tracked attitudes toward legalizing same-sex marriage each year since 2004, adding to Gallup’s initial polling on the topic in 1996 and 1999.This year’s nine-percentage-point increase in support for same-sex marriage is the largest year-to-year shift yet measured over this time period. Two-thirds of Americans were opposed to legalized same-sex marriage in 1996, with 27% in favor. By 2004, support had risen to 42% and, despite some fluctuations from year to year, stayed at roughly that level through last year.

Democrats’ and Independents’ Greater Acceptance Shifts the Balance

Democrats’ and independents’ support for legalized same-sex marriage increased this year by 13 and 10 points, respectively. Republicans’ views on the issue did not change from last year. Clear majorities of both Democrats and independents now support gay marriage, 69% and 59% respectively, contrasted with 28% support among Republicans.

Majorities of moderates and liberals support gay marriage, as they did last year, contrasted with 28% of conservatives.

Support for Legal Same-Sex Marriage Decreases Sharply With Age

Support for legal gay marriage decreases markedly with age, ranging from 70% support among those aged 18 to 34, to 39% support among those 55 and older. More broadly, support is highest among younger women and lowest among older men.

Compared with last year, support for legalizing same-sex marriage increased most among younger, 18- to 34-year-old Americans, and among men under 50.

Support for legal same-sex marriage is higher among those who attend church less frequently, among Catholics than among Protestants, and among those who are unmarried.

Implications

This year marks a significant uptick in support for legalizing same-sex marriage, exceeding the symbolic 50% mark for the first time in Gallup’s history. Support rose from 27% in 1996 to the low 40% range in 2004 and remained fairly constant through last year.

The issue does, however, remain highly divisive. While big majorities of Democrats and young people support the idea of legalizing same-sex marriage, fewer than 4 in 10 Republicans and older Americans agree. Republicans in particular seem fixed in their opinions; there was no change at all in their support level this year, while independents’ and Democrats’ support jumped by double-digit margins.

Within the past year, Congress passed and President Obama signed a law allowing gay and lesbian members of the military to openly reveal their sexual orientation, rather than keeping it hidden as part of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. A majority of Americans have supported such a change in policy since 2005, rising to two-thirds support in 2009 and again last year. It is unclear whether the highly publicized official change in government policy on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell may have been a factor in the rise in Americans’ support for legalizing same-sex marriage.

Most legislation dealing with legalizing same-sex marriage occurs at the state level. At this point, five states — Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont, plus the District of Columbia — allow legal same-sex marriages. Most of the remaining states specifically outlaw it. At the moment, those advocating changes in constitutions and laws to allow same-sex marriage in additional states can take heart in the apparent shift in national sentiment in their direction.

Survey MethodsResults for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted May 5-8, 2011, with a random sample of 1,018 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points.Interviews are conducted with respondents on landline telephones and cellular phones, with interviews conducted in Spanish for respondents who are primarily Spanish-speaking. Each sample includes a minimum quota of 400 cell phone respondents and 600 landline respondents per 1,000 national adults, with additional minimum quotas among landline respondents for gender within region. Landline telephone numbers are chosen at random among listed telephone numbers. Cell phones numbers are selected using random digit dial methods. Landline respondents are chosen at random within each household on the basis of which member had the most recent birthday.Samples are weighted by gender, age, race, Hispanic ethnicity, education, region, adults in the household, and phone status (cell phone-only/landline only/both, cell phone mostly, and having an unlisted landline number). Demographic weighting targets are based on the March 2010 Current Population Survey figures for the aged 18 and older non-institutionalized population living in U.S. telephone households. All reported margins of sampling error include the computed design effects for weighting and sample design.In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

TBN’S Steve Harvey and the Dreamworld Church

Steve Harvey and the Dreamworld church: