Jesus Would Support Universal Healthcare, Say Most Americans
A recent poll suggests that a majority of Americans believe Jesus would have backed universal healthcare. According to a YouGov survey released earlier in July, 55 percent of respondents believe that Christ would have endorsed the issue.
Despite this majority, a slight minority of American Protestants believed that the Jesus they knew would have supported universal healthcare. Only 48 percent of Protestants suggested this, in contrast to the 57 percent of Catholics who argued that their religion's founder would have backed it.
Aside from Jesus, 46 percent of Protestants and 55 percent of Catholics themselves backed the policy.
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In addition to studying Christ's followers thoughts on his sentiments surrounding universal healthcare, the study also asked what Americans believed his convictions were on abortion, gay marriage, the death penalty, high taxes on the wealthy, stricter gun laws, and reducing carbon emissions.
Of the six issues mentioned above, the only one which the majority of Americans (52 percent) believed that Jesus might support was reducing carbon emissions. Sixty-four percent of Americans also endorsed them.
Only 20 percent believed that Christ would support abortion, though despite acknowledging this, 48 percent of Americans said they personally approved of it. Thirty-two percent of Americans argued that Christ would support gay marriage, while 48 percent also approved it. Among Protestants, 31 percent backed same-sex marriage and abortion.
YouGov summarized the findings of its survey, writing that "across a range of key political issues Americans tend to have more liberal attitudes than they say Jesus would have, and among Christians the 'Catholic Jesus' is slightly more liberal than the 'Protestant Jesus.'"
"Expectations of what Jesus would think differ widely according to political ID. Unsurprisingly, most people tend to say that Jesus would agree with them," it continued. "65% of Democrats say that Jesus would support gay marriage, while 77% of Republicans say he would oppose it. On certain issues, however, personal opinions diverge from what people think Jesus would think. 68% of Democrats support legal abortion, but only 29% say that Jesus would. Similarly, 68% of Republicans support the death penalty for murderers, but only 43% say that Jesus would."
