Among the driving forces behind our nation's cultural and moral shift, here's one that can't be overlooked: According to one of the most far-reaching surveys recently conducted among mainline Protestant clergy, almost half (48 percent) of all ministers consider themselves liberals, compared to about one-third (34 percent) who say they are conservative.
In a recent study, the Public Religion Research polled a random sampling of 1,000 senior clergy from seven mainline denominations and found that, with the exception of United Methodist and American Baptist ministers, a majority of clergy in every denomination identify as liberal. Though the study also honed in on political affiliations (56 percent of mainline Protestant clergy consider themselves Democratic, compared to only 34 percent Republican), it also revealed several telling statistics among mainline clergy:
- Two-thirds 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 agree with this statement.)
- 46 percent disagree that mainline churches are declining because they are becoming theologically liberal
- 65 percent support some legal recognition for same-sex couples
- 51 percent of all mainline clergy support the legality of abortion in all or most cases
- 54 percent don't believe creationism should be taught alongside evolution in public school biology classes
- 10 percent say cultural issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage are the most important national issues [publicreligion.org, 3/6/09; christianpost.com, 3/9/09]
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