Results released from a new survey conducted by Public Religion Research show that a majority of clergy from mainline Protestant denominations are much more likely to identify as liberal than conservative. The Mainline Protestant Clergy Voices Survey is reported as the largest survey of mainline clergy in seven years and the broadest ever in scope.The research group surveyed senior clergy from the United Methodist Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, American Baptist Churches USA, Presbyterian Church USA, Episcopal Church, United Church of Christ, and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Almost half (48%) of all surveyed clergy from these seven largest mainline denominations say they are liberal while 34 percent identify themselves as conservative. Also, 56 percent of mainline clergy identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party, compared to 34 percent of those who affiliate with the Republican Party, results show.
With the exception of United Methodist and American Baptist clergy, a majority of clergy in every denomination identify as liberal. Clergy from United Church of Christ (74%) and the Episcopal Church (66%) are most likely to say they are liberal.
Two-thirds of mainline clergy disagree that "the Bible is the inerrant word of God, both in matters of faith and in historic, geographical, and other secular matters." Only 29 percent of mainline clergy agree with the statement. A majority of clergy in every denomination, except the American Baptist Churches USA, do not believe in the inerrancy of the Bible, with clergy from the Episcopal Church least likely to believe so.
With regard to prioritizing political and social issues, mainline clergy are most likely to say social welfare issues are the most important issues facing the country that the church should address. Only 10 percent say cultural issues, such as abortion and same-sex marriage, are the most important national issues.
Other findings include:
* Fifty-one percent of all mainline clergy support the legality of abortion in all or most cases.
* Sixty-five percent support either same-sex marriage or civil unions.
* Fifty-four percent do not support the teaching of creationism alongside evolution in public school biology classes.
* Forty-three percent disagree that evolution is the best explanation for the origins of life on earth.
* Seventy-eight percent agree that the federal government should do more to solve social problems.
The Mainline Protestant Clergy Voices Survey builds upon earlier studies of mainline clergy in 1989 and 2001. The final data was based on 2,658 respondents. [ChristianPost.com]
2 comments:
Chris-- good stuff. This is a great page to link to for this type of info. I was actually surprised by some of the relatively high rates of belief in full-inerrancy. I mentally put some of these stats much lower (and I'm sure it varies with region). Thanks for the post. dt
I wonder if some of your preconceptions on this (ones I shared) are formed/influenced by the fact we've both ministered in the Twin Cities where the ELCA has kept a number of these live hand grenades in the air with the pins pulled for years now. I know I heard tons more about it in the past 7 years of living in MN than I did my whole life prior. Add to that the large group of "emergent" people in the Twin Cities and I suspect we've both been over exposed. Maybe I'm wrong though.
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