First, in my post this morning on conscience, I should have noted that the PRRI poll randomized the order of the questions asked, so as to off-set what I perceived as a bias towards framing the issue as one dealing with contracpetion.Pollsters, at least good pollsters, and the people at PRRI are very good, use techniques like randomization to avoid creating bias, but in this case I think it needed more than randomization. I would note that none of the questions, randomized or not, served to frame the issue the way I and many others thought it should be framed, e.g., "Do you believe that church-affiliated instutitions have a First Amendment right to be exempt from government mandates that contradict their moral teachings?"
Second, I should have also noted that the second headline in the press release from PRRI read "Catholics more divided on whether birth control requirement should apply to religiously affiliated colleges and hospitals."
Third, I apologize for the lack of posts yesterday and today - I was at an all-day event at Catholic University yesterday and this morning I am crashing on a writing assignment that is due at noon. Check back around 2 and I will have some more items posted. To paraphrase Aunite Mame - Life is a Banquet and half the poor suckers are typing.
