Why Obama looks better in the electoral college

[pbrower2a]

Catholics may still be 'practicing' in the sense of attending weekly mass, but most are very secular at all other times.  Priests may preach whatever the Pope tells them to preach, but parishioners are more pragmatic these days. If they have to have contraception to prevent abortion... then so be it. 

This is also really important to keep in mind. Catholics, while we may have similar moral views as Evangelicals in many respects are less overtly political in announcing them, especially on the local level. The Catholic Church will mostly organize anti-abortion rallies, speak out against abortion, and that's about it. Maybe there will be a mention of some other issue once every four or five months if it comes up in the news in some way that affects the Church. I think I've heard a reference to gay marriage from the pulpit a grand total of once in 23 years of attending Catholic Churches. While the bishops may speak out on occasion to the press, most Catholics don't read the religious news all that closely and most aren't going to pay much attention anyway.

Catholics also are culturally distinct from Evangelicals in how we approach religion in the public sphere. We are generally not as eager to publically announce our religious beliefs at the drop of a hat in real life. I was raised in an atmosphere where we did not often discuss religion much. It was assumed that I would go to Mass every Sunday, and we always did, but it wasn't a question. It wasn't something we talked about, rather something we just did. One thing that becomes obvious in every seminar I've been a part of in education is that the Evangelical members tend to identify and declare themselves very quickly, while Catholics seem to divulge their beliefs only if directly asked. It's a cultural thing.

Add to that, the Catholic Church has made plenty of statements that have no connection to sexuality. The Catholic Church is more consistently 'pro-life' than evangelical Protestants, as shown on the death penalty, gun control,  nuclear proliferation, and poverty on which evangelicals can be clearly or at least implicitly 'pro-death'.   

[muon2]

My impression is that the Catholicism (ala mainline Protestantism, as a sort of mainline kind of outfit itself these days) is losing whites in the US in droves, and the increase in Hispanics net of those who convert to Protestantism substantially but not totally offsets that, resulting in a slow overall percentage decline.

I suspect that conversions to Catholicism just about match conversions from Catholicism.

Catholics tend to be much more liberal than Protestants in general -- much more liberal than white fundamentalists and evangelicals and much more liberal than Lutherans. If it is 'losing' white members, its members used to go from fitting a culture that well served the expansion of Catholicism (large families often with a son dedicated to the Priesthood and a daughter to the convent) to the much smaller family. The Catholic priesthood used to be an attractive career to an intellectual with few chances of getting a college education; that is over. The demands are too high and the rewards are too slight.

Catholics may still be 'practicing' in the sense of attending weekly mass, but most are very secular at all other times.  Priests may preach whatever the Pope tells them to preach, but parishioners are more pragmatic these days. If they have to have contraception to prevent abortion... then so be it. 

I tend to disagree with the highlighted part. The largest group of Lutherans are the ELCA, and they are generally more liberal than the white Catholics in the suburbs. ELCA like other mainline protestant denominations tends to attract a more liberal segment of suburbia/exurbia than the Catholics who rely more on family allegiance for their membership. Protestant families have the ability to segregate politically between the mainline and evangelical churches, which is not an option for Catholics.