Public Religion Research
Recently released reports from Public Religion Research analyze the views of Americans, mainline Protestants, and ELCA clergy on a variety of same-sex issues. Here are three of them:
New Findings from the 2008 Faith and American Politics Study (FAPS)*
Public Religion Research released a new report on same-sex marriage that examines trends in support and provides analysis of important religious and generational divides on this issue:
To read the full report, click here.
Same-sex marriage is not a high voting priority for Americans in 2008. Among all Americans, same-sex marriage ranks last of ten issues. White evangelicals do not rank abortion or same-sex marriage in their top five most important voting issues.
Younger Americans are much more supportive of marriage equality. Almost half (46%) of young adults (age 18-34) support same-sex marriage, compared to less than a third (29%) of all Americans.
Attitudes on same-sex marriage are shifting significantly among young people. In 2006, the American Values Survey found that 37% of young adults (18-34) supported same-sex marriage. Two years later, almost half (46%) of young adults now support same-sex marriage, an increase of 9 points.
Support for same-sex marriage is significant among some young religious Americans. Among young (18-34) white mainline Protestants and Catholics, close to half (48% and 44% respectively) support same-sex marriage. Among young evangelicals (18-34), a majority favor either same-sex marriage (24%) or civil unions (28%), compared to a majority (58%) of evangelicals overall who favor no legal recognition of gay couples’ relationships.
Having close friends and family members who are gay or lesbian increases support for same-sex marriage. Among Americans who are gay or lesbian or have a close friend or family member who is gay or lesbian, nearly half (48%) say they support same-sex marriage. Among those who have more distant relationships with gay or lesbian people (i.e. acquaintance, coworker), support drops to just 30%. And among those with no relationship with a gay or lesbian person support for same-sex marriage is only 14%.
Addressing religious liberty concerns significantly increases support for same-sex marriage. When asked whether they would support allowing gay couples to marry “if the law guaranteed that no church or congregation would be required to perform marriages for gay couples,” support for legalized same-sex marriage climbed 14 points, from 29% to 43%.
Religious groups that are more likely to hear negative messages about homosexuality are far more likely to oppose same-sex marriage. White evangelicals, for example, hear much more negative messages about homosexuality than white Mainline Protestants. The difference between these two groups on support for marriage equality is stark. Nearly 6-in-10 (58%) white evangelicals say there should be no legal recognition for gay and lesbian couples, compared to only 26% of white mainline Protestants.
Religious factors accounted for two of the top five most powerful independent predictors of views on marriage equality. The top five most powerful independent predictors of support for same-sex marriage, in order of importance, were the following: relationship with a gay or lesbian person, view of the Bible, political ideology, age, and religious affiliation.
*This Faith and American Politics Survey was conducted by Public Religion Research and sponsored by Faith and Public Life. This report was sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign.
Views on Theology and Gay and Lesbian Issues
To read the press release, click here (pdf).
To read the full report, click here (pdf).
To view the Topline Questionnaire, click here (pdf).
On a range of policy issues, Mainline Protestant clergy are generally more supportive of LGBT rights than the general population, and mostly in line with Mainline Protestants overall. Two-thirds of Mainline clergy support hate crimes legislation (67%) and workplace protections for gay and lesbian people (66%), and a majority (55%) supports adoption rights. Same-sex marriage is the only major LGBT public policy issue that does not enjoy majority support from Mainline clergy; on this issue, one-third supports same-sex marriage and nearly a third (32%) supports civil unions.
Support for same-sex marriage increases significantly when clergy were provided with an assurance that no church or congregation would be required to perform same-sex marriage services against its beliefs. With this religious liberty assurance, support among clergy jumped from one-third support to nearly half (46%), a movement of 13 points.
There are significant and sometimes stark differences across denominational lines. Generally speaking, clergy in the UCC and Episcopal Church are more supportive of LGBT rights, while clergy in UMC and ABCUSA are less supportive. Clergy in the other three denominations in the study—DOC, PCUSA, and ELCA—cluster in the middle but lean supportive on all of these issues with the exception of same-sex marriage.
A plurality of Mainline clergy constitute an Uncertain Middle, while close to one-third are strongly supportive of or opposed to LGBT rights and inclusion in the church.
· Supportive Base (29%), clergy who strongly support gay and lesbian rights and generally do not see hom
osexuality as a choice nor as a sin;
· Opposing Base (30%), clergy who strongly oppose gay and lesbian rights and generally see homosexuality as a choice and as a sin; and
· The Uncertain Middle (41%), clergy who support some gay and lesbian rights but are ambivalent on others.
On most policy issues the Uncertain Middle tends to be closer in opinion to the Supportive Base. Strong majorities of the Uncertain Middle support adoption rights (65%). A similarly large number of the Uncertain Middle opposes a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage (71%) and favors employment nondiscrimination laws to protect gay and lesbian people (79%).
A religious liberty affirmation is particularly powerful in moving clergy in the Uncertain Middle toward support for civil marriage equality. Support for same-sex marriage nearly doubles among the Uncertain Middle, from just 26% to 49%, when they are assured that the law would guarantee that no church would be forced to perform same-sex marriages against its beliefs.
Overall, close to half (45%) of Mainline Protestant clergy support the ordination of gay and lesbian people with no special requirements. A huge majority (84%) of UCC clergy supports the ordination of gay and lesbian people with no special requirements, more than 2.5 times the number of ABCUSA clergy (28%) or UMC clergy (32%). ELCA and PCUSA clergy are largely split on the issue, with 54% and 50% respectively supporting ordination.
Mainline clergy believe strongly in separation of religious institutions and the state and are willing to differentiate their religious beliefs from their public policy opinions. Fifty-five percent of Mainline clergy support a strict separation of church and state, and 68% believe that opposing homosexual practices on theological grounds does not mean that one has to oppose legal rights for gay and lesbian people.
Strong majorities of clergy in most Mainline denominations, and a slim majority overall, believe that the church should not oppose efforts to make homosexuality acceptable in society. Fifty-one percent of ministers believe that the church should not work to oppose making homosexuality acceptable, including 81% of UCC clergy, 77% of Episcopal clergy, and 61% of ELCA clergy. Among United Methodist and American Baptist ministers, less than 4-in-10 agree (39% and 31% respectively).
Mainline clergy have become significantly more progressive on gay and lesbian issues over the last decade. Between 2001 and 2008, the number of clergy agreeing that gays and lesbians should have all the same rights and privileges as other American citizens increased 9 points from 70% to 79%. Nearly half (45%) of Mainline clergy report that their views on gay and lesbian issues are more liberal today than they were 10 years ago. About 4-in-10 say their views have not changed. Only 14% say their views are now more conservative than they were a decade earlier.
Mainline clergy are more likely to embrace a more modernist than orthodox theological worldview. Nearly half (47%) of clergy take a modernist approach to theology, compared to one-third who have more traditional theological views. One-in-five has a mix of modernist and traditionalist theological views.
ORDINATION OF GAY AND LESBIAN CLERGY
SURVEY SHOWS ELCA CLERGY SUPPORT PERFORMING SAME-SEX MARRIAGES WHERE LEGAL
Contact: Dr. Robert P. Jones, President, 202-425-0277, rjones@publicreligion.org
For the PDF version of this press release, click here.
A majority of clergy who belong to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) support ordination of gay and lesbian clergy, and a plurality (46%) support performing same-sex marriages in states where they are legal, according to a recent national survey by Public Religion Research. The Clergy Voices Survey is the most in-depth study ever conducted of Mainline Protestant clergy and contained nearly 60 questions related to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues in the church and society.
“ELCA clergy are generally supportive of a range of rights for gay and lesbian people both inside and outside the church. Nationwide, a majority of ELCA clergy support ordaining gay and lesbian clergy, and only a minority of ELCA clergy opposes performing same-sex marriages in the states where they are legal,” said Dr. Robert P. Jones, President of Public Religion Research, who conducted the study. “ELCA clergy also strongly believe that the gospel message requires full inclusion of gay and lesbian members in the life of the church, and support for ordination and participation in marriage ceremonies of gay and lesbian parishioners are concrete expressions of that theological conviction.”
Seven-in-ten ELCA clergy say that the gospel message requires full inclusion of LGBT people in the church, and a majority of ELCA clergy supports ordination of gay and lesbian clergy . A solid majority (54%) of ELCA clergy says that gay and lesbian people should be eligible for ordination with no special requirements. About one-third (32%) says that gay and lesbian people should be eligible for ordination only if they are celibate, and only 14% say gay and lesbian people should not be eligible at all.
A plurality of ELCA clergy support performing civil marriages where legal. By a significant margin, ELCA clergy disagree with the statement, “Even if it were legal, I would not be willing to perform a civil union or marri
age for a same-sex couple” (46% disagree vs. 37% agree). As a matter of public policy, the overwhelming majority of ELCA clergy support either same-sex marriage (37%) or civil unions (44%), and only 1-in-5 (19%) says there should be no legal recognition for same-sex relationships. ELCA clergy are also strongly supportive of other rights for LGBT families and individuals, such as adoption rights, hate crimes laws, and workplace discrimination protections.
A majority (53%) of ELCA clergy report that their views on LGBT issues are more liberal today than they were a decade ago. One-third (33%) says their views have not changed, and only 14% say they have become more conservative.
The Clergy Voices Survey was conducted by mail among a national random sample of senior clergy serving congregations in the seven largest Mainline Protestant denominations. The survey contained over 250 separate questions and generated 2,658 respondents with a response rate of 44%. The Clergy Voices Survey was funded by the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund. Full results of the study can be found at http://www.publicreligion.org/research/?id=208.
