New Study Refutes Stereotypes about Churches and Politics
New research revealed how largely Protestant clergy and laity differ about religion and politics. For the most part, however, both groups say their church is not heavily involved in local and national political issues.
Phoenix-based Ellison Research conducted two studies for Facts & Trends magazine on Protestant church ministers and adults who attend Protestant churches at least once a month who were asked about their personal political views and how appropriate it is for churches to be politically involved.
Measured on their involvement in local politics, 6 percent of ministers said their church was very involved, 36 percent of said it was somewhat involved and 46 percent said it's not very involved. On national political issues, 7 percent of clergy said their church is very involved, 41 percent somewhat involved and 40 percent not very involved. And 12 percent said they try to avoid these issues. Results were similar among the surveyed laity.
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Pentecostal and Southern Baptist congregations were most likely to be involved politically, but only to the level of "somewhat involved." Lutheran clergy were least likely to say their church is politically involved. On national issues, evangelical and/or politically conservative pastors were slightly more likely than others to report some political involvement.
The studies found a wider gap between clergy and laity on the appropriateness for local churches to be politically involved in a number of ways.
The majority of both pastors (88 percent) and laity (65 percent) deemed encouraging the congregation to vote as appropriate. On the matter of discussing controversial issues from the pulpit, 62 percent of clergy rated it as appropriate whereas 47 percent of laity agreed. Half or nearly half of the clergy said it is appropriate for the church to serve as a polling place during an election, hold voter registration drives, publish information on what politicians stand for and work with politicians on local issues while only about one third of laity said the same.
Additionally, more laity (20 percent) deemed it appropriate to invite a political candidate to speak in church than clergy (14 percent).
Evangelical ministers were more likely than mainline clergy to say it is extremely appropriate to encourage the congregation to vote (74 percent to 62 percent), to discuss controversial issues from the pulpit (43 percent to 27 percent), and to encourage people how to vote on certain issues (24 percent to 12 percent).
People who attend evangelical churches showed the same differences from their mainline counterparts, and they had a greater willingness for the church to encourage people to protest or get involved in controversial issues.
The research report noted that only a minority of pastors and laity saw most of these areas of political involvement as highly appropriate for a local church.
Personal Political Views
The study also measured how laity and pastors classified themselves politically. Among Protestant clergy, 62 percent described themselves as politically conservative, 23 percent as moderate and 15 as liberal. Broken down by denominations, conservatives were most represented among Southern Baptist ministers, ministers from other Baptist groups and Pentecostal ministers, in order.
Presbyterian clergy were more evenly divided with 38 percent conservatives, 27 percent moderates and 35 percent liberals, and Methodist clergy as well (27 percent conservatives, 38 percent moderates, and 35 percent liberals).
The people in the pews were more likely to consider themselves politically moderate. Findings showed 45 percent of laity classified themselves as moderates, 38 percent as conservative and 17 percent as liberal. Among Southern Baptist laity, 47 percent considered themselves as conservative – a large gap between them and the clergy. Among Methodist laity, 12 percent were found to be politically liberal as opposed to the 35 percent for the clergy. Presbyterians were the only major denominational group in which the positions of clergy and laity were much the same, according to the report.
A majority of clergy, however, believed their political views were about the same as the views of their congregation with 64 percent saying they see themselves as politically on the same page as the congregation. Among laity, 59 percent said they felt their own political views were similar to those of their church.
"There are a lot of stereotypes about churches and politics: mainline churches are liberal, evangelicals represent a politically active Religious Right, conservative churches are raising Cain politically. It’s just not true," said Ron Sellers, president of Ellison Research, who said clergy and laity are "all over the board" on their views of political involvement.
"Mainline ministers are almost equally divided among political conservatives, moderates, and liberals,” he continued. “Fewer than half of all evangelical pastors or conservative pastors believe it’s appropriate to encourage people how to vote on specific issues, and even fewer feel it’s appropriate to encourage their congregation to get involved with controversial issues. It’s really time to look beyond the stereotypes of churches and politics, and start dealing with the reality of the situation."
The studies were conducted on 797 Protestant church ministers nationwide and 1,184 adults who attend Protestant churches at least once a month.
