The Political Attitudes and Activities of Mainline Protestant Clergy in the Election of 2000: A Study of Six Denominations

This study examines clergy across six mainline Protestant denominations in terms of their social characteristics, their theological positions, and their political attitudes and behavior. The analysis is based on data collected through random surveys of clergy in each denomination conducted in 2001 using the same instrument. The predominant focus of the article is on the nature and level of political activities exhibited by mainline Protestant clergy in the election year of 2000. The analysis revealed that mainline Protestant clergy are indeed relatively active politically, but that, despite their commonality of belonging to the same broad religious tradition, the nature and level of such political activities varies across the six denominations. Variation in the level of political activity is related to a number of different variables. And, while multivariate analysis reduces the number of significant factors that account for such differences, the remaining significant factors are associated with each of the major theoretical approaches that have been advanced to account for differences in participation levels.     

Whether to Adopt Statements on Homosexuality in Two Denominations: A Research Note

Some of the most contentious issues in American religion today concern homosexuality. In 1998, we asked 2,300 clergy in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Episcopal Church whether their denomination should adopt official statements on homosexuality. A year later, we asked the same question of 1,600 church members in 60 of those clergy's congregations. In this research note, we analyze the attitudes of clergy and church members about beginning the process to compose formal denominational statements on homosexuality. We find great differences between the two denominations, reflecting established conflict in the Episcopal Church and a lack thereof in the ELCA. The attitudes of both clergy and church members, shaped by denominational context, reflect their general attitudes toward gay rights and the public involvement of the denomination. Clergy exhibit particular concern about how a denominational statement might affect their own congregation, and church members take significant cues from their clergy.     

The Church of Faith and Freedom: African–American Baptists and Social Action

Clergy have an undeniable ability to shape the political beliefs and attitudes of their congregations and thus revealing how the framing activities of clergy affect behavior and influence mobilization is vital for political sociology. This ethnographic work delineates how, in 1972, the Second Baptist Church of Evanston's new pastor initiated a rapid change from social conservatism to become one of the most politically and socially active African–American Baptist churches in the Midwest. Second Baptist's radical change confirms the power of religious elites in shaping politics in spiritual institutions, and also demonstrates the vital impact of professional socialization on the theological and political orientations of clergy.     

The Political Activities of Reformed Clergy in the UnitedStates and Scotland

This paper examines Reformed clergy across two different settings—the United States and Scotland in an effort to determine how theological orthodoxy is related to political participation. The paper demonstrates that (1) clergy in both settings tend to be politically active (2) the level of clergy political activity tends to be greater in the United States than in Scotland (3) the relationship between orthodoxy and political activity is complex, varying by the specific type of activity examined and (4) while theologically orthodox and modernist clergy tend to differ in the nature of their political activities, there is no longer a major "gap"in level of political activity between the two groups of ministers.     

Referral by clergy who counsel older adults

The purpose of this cross sectional study of clergy (N?=?493) was to examine the likelihood of referral to formal mental health providers by those clergy who counsel older adults. Responding clergy completed a brief questionnaire that included information on the amount of counselling they do with older adults, the Attitudes towards Older Adults and Mental Illness (AOAMI) scale, their relationships with mental health professionals, their knowledge of resources for referring people for additional help, and basic demographic data, such as race, age, years in the clergy, and education level. In logistic regression analysis, respondents with more education, those who felt less prepared to provide counselling, and those with more positive attitudes based on the AOAMI indicated that they were more likely to refer, and no differences were found based on their denominational affiliation race, relationships with mental health professionals, or knowledge of resources for referring people for additional help. We believe that public-private partnerships should be formed to help clergy recognise when referrals are appropriate, and to help improve relationships between clergy and mental health professionals.     

From Pastor to Pensioner: A Study of Retired Canadian Protestant Clergy from the Continuity Perspective

ABSTRACT

By using the Continuity Perspective, this study investigates how clergy adjust to retirement. Four sets of factors were examined; Situational factors, activities, occupational subculture, and psychological continuity. Methods of data collection include mailed questionnaires and personal interviews. The sample consists of 185 Anglican, Baptist, and United Church retired clergy. It was found that (1) the clergy maintain continuity of their1 lifestyles except when some situational factors force them to alter their way of life; (2) retired ministers tend not to develop new activities, but continue to participate in existing ones; (3) the occupational subculture of Protestant clergy has the function of facilitating their retirement; and (4) clergy appear to maintain a stability in the type of responses they have to changes and crises.     

Racial and Ethnic Differences in the Utilization of Prayer and Clergy Counseling by Infertile US Women Desiring Pregnancy

Religion can have a significant influence on the experience of infertility. However, it is unclear how many US women turn to religion when facing infertility. Here, we examine the utilization of prayer and clergy counsel among a nationally representative sample of 1062 infertile US women. Prayer was used by 74.8% of the participants, and clergy counsel was the most common formal support system utilized. Both prayer and clergy counsel were significantly more common among black and Hispanic women. Healthcare providers should acknowledge the spiritual needs of their infertile patients and ally with clergy when possible to provide maximally effective care.     

Clergy Affairs: Emotional Investment,Longevity of Relationship and Affair Partners

While there has been a growing body of research on clergy infidelity behavior (Blackmon, 1984; Muck, 1988; Thoburn & Balswick, 1999), factors predicting infidelity (Blackmon, 1984; Steinke, 1989; Thoburn & Balswick, 1994) and attitudes related to clergy infidelity (Steinke, 1989; Thoburn & Balswick, 1999), little research has been done identifying the nature of clergy sexual misconduct relationships. Research with a multi-denominational group of male Protestant ministers examined a) whether clergy affairs are of short or long duration, b) the kinds of persons that clergy have affairs with i.e. counselees, church members, church staff, friends, strangers or prostitutes, c) whether there was an emotional quality to the affair, and d) the potential impact that marital dissatisfaction might have on the clergy affair.     

Clergy Who Experience Trauma as a Result of Forced Termination

Forced termination of clergy is a demeaning and psychologically distressing experience. Clergy who experience a forced termination are subjected to mobbing (psychological harassment) and other activities meant to publicly or privately demean a minister in such a way that they resign their ministry position. In a purposive convenience sample of 55 ministers who had been forcibly terminated, participants scored above the known cut-off score for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and scored high on a measure of burnout and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Forced termination has been anecdotally connected to PTSD and GAD, this project sought to empirically link PTSD and GAD to the forced termination of clergy. This study raises concern for the long-term mental health effects of ministers who have been forcibly terminated and provides implications for future clinical study on this group of clergy. Findings in this research indicate there may be a process to forced termination, which could be developed into a theory on forced termination of clergy.     

The response of christian clergy to domestic violence: Help or hindrance?

This paper reviews the literature regarding Christian clergy as a resource for victims of domestic violence, a common threat to women. Although assistance is available, there are more victims than resources, resulting in many women having limited to no help at all. One resource for victims is the clergy, who are often perceived as respected members of the community and have the authority to make suggestions or even interventions about family issues. However, the literature suggests that cleric theological beliefs may hinder their ability to counsel victims, and the effectiveness of cleric ability to counsel victims varies greatly. Future directions for research are suggested in order to understand what factors influence cleric attitudes and counseling abilities.     

Patterns of Stress and Support Among Adventist Clergy: Do Pastors and their Spouses Differ?

Studies of clergy stress have addressed the demands made by the ministry environment on the minister’s personal and family life. Most of the research has been conducted using the individual responses of male pastors. Comparatively little empirical research has been done with pastors’ wives, and still less where both the husbands’ and the wives’ responses are matched and compared. The present study utilizes Hill’s (Families under stress, Harper, New York, 1949) ABC-X model of family stress to examine differences between spouses in how demand, support, and perception relate to personal and ministry outcomes. Survey results from a sample of 147 male Seventh-Day Adventist clergy and their wives indicated that while there were some consistent differences in levels of demand and support, the most salient variable was their satisfaction with available social support, and this was true of both pastors and wives.     

Same-Sex Marriage: A Dilemma for Parish Clergy

Same-sex marriage within churches is an ongoing, highly contentious, and contested topic. A rich literature depicts dichotomised views, reflecting those of academics at denominational level, and addresses theological substance or denominational policies. Significantly less is known about the perspectives held on the issue by individual clergy at parishioner level. This paper provides a background on the subject of Christian clergy who support same-sex marriage. A review of the literature in this area reveals few sociological studies pertaining to clergy who are supportive of gay rights. No known studies in the combined sociological and psychology scholarship have yet exclusively examined clergy’s perspectives on same-sex marriage. While previous study offers some understanding on religious attitudes toward gay individuals, it should not be assumed that attitudes of religious individuals toward same-sex marriage necessarily follow the same pattern. For many religious people it is more problematic to accept same-sex marriage than same-sex partnerships, as this challenges the definition of the institution of marriage. This paper presents a literature review which identifies a gap in knowledge regarding perspectives of clergy who support same-sex marriage. These perspectives are important to understand, as clergy hold influential positions as opinion leaders impacting both at individual and social level, and influence discourses within religion and beyond.     

Satisfaction and Morale Among Parish Clergy: What American Catholic and Orthodox Priests Can Learn from Each Other

The Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches share a similar theology and a hierarchical church administration. Local parish communities are organized in similar ways. However, the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christian churches occupy different places in the context of American culture, and they have developed distinct notions of priesthood. Findings explore similarities and differences in the attitudes and experience of Catholic and Orthodox clergy. Most striking, the younger clergy (less than 45 years of age) report more conservative attitudes about the priesthood, "democracy" in church government, and empowering lay persons in the ministry.     

Interracial contact and changes in the racial attitudes of white college students

College campuses are among the most racially diverse settings in our segregated society. For many students, especially non-Hispanic whites, college represents the first time they have come into significant contact with members of other groups. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Freshmen, this paper explores the effects of campus diversity and various types of interracial contact on the racial and ethnic attitudes of white students over the course of four years in college. The findings are largely consistent with the contact hypothesis, particularly with respect to changes in attitudes towards blacks. White students who report having a close friend who is black and those who have dated or had a romantic partner who is black express less social distance towards blacks in their senior year, as do white students who were involved in extracurricular activities in which blacks are the majority. Participating in extracurricular activities dominated by blacks is also associated with more positive views of the impact of affirmative action on academic standards expressed as students were leaving college. Although there is evidence that both stereotypes and social distance towards groups are mitigated by intergroup contact, stereotypes appeared to be somewhat more resistant to change. The findings suggest that institutions should continue efforts to diversify their student populations, and also promote involvement in extracurricular activities for students from all groups.     

Confidentiality and mandatory reporting

Confidentiality is a cornerstone in the identity of the clergy. Confidentiality makes it safe to disclose sins, but the information received may sometimes cause dilemmas for the clergy. Through pastoral care with people in different circumstances, members of the clergy are on the front line for detecting and reporting child abuse and domestic violence. In this article, I explore how clerics judge dilemmas and determine the right course of action when facing cases of possible child abuse or domestic violence. How do members of the clergy reason through their choices? What grounds do they give for their actions? Data are provided from a mixed methods study with 53 Norwegian parish priests. The clergy’s decision-making will be the primary focus. Confidentiality is frequently associated with trust. The clergy maintain that confidentiality contributes to securing trust in themselves, as well as in the church as an institution. My analysis suggests that the clergy’s reflections on confidentiality conflict with Norwegian mandatory reporting laws and that the clergy may benefit from a reframing of pastoral confidentiality.     

Prefer feeling bad? Subcultural differences in emotional preferences between Han Chinese and Mongolian Chinese

As a multi‐ethnic country that is comprised of diverse cultural systems, there has been little research on the subcultural differences in emotional preferences in China. Also, little attention has been paid to examine how explicit and implicit attitudes towards emotions influence emotional preferences interactively. In this study, we manipulated explicit attitudes towards emotions among Han (N = 62) and Mongolian Chinese individuals (N = 70). We assessed participants' implicit attitudes towards emotions to explore their contributions to emotional preferences. (a) Han Chinese had lower preferences for pleasant emotions than Mongolian Chinese after inducing contra‐hedonic attitudes towards emotions, and (b) after priming contra‐hedonic attitudes towards emotions, the more Han Chinese participants evaluated pleasant emotions as negative implicitly, the less they preferred to engage in pleasant emotional activities. These findings contribute to the growing literature of subcultural differences and demonstrate that explicit and implicit attitudes towards emotions interactively influence individuals' emotional preferences between different subculture groups.     

Credentialism Across Creeds: Clergy Education and Stratification in Protestant Denominations

In this paper, we explore how Protestant denominations use education to stratify their pastors among lower and higher income jobs and how this use of education intersects with gender. We assume that reliance on education as anindication of job qualification ultimately reflects accommodation to secular norms and hypothesize that it will be practiced most strongly in theologically liberal contexts. Next, we hypothesize that women will benefit from education more than men, a pattern that is typical of secular labor markets. And we predict that education will have a stronger effect on income in denominations where regional clergy administrators have influence in matching pastors to jobs. Data are taken from the 1994 "Ordained Women and Men Study"and consist of career information on clergy in fifteen denominations. Contrary to expectations, clergy degrees have a stronger effect on income in conservative than in liberal denominations. We further find that women clergy receive lower income returns to their degrees in denominations requiring a Master of Divinity for ordination but receive higher returns in the others. Finally, results show that seminary prestige is more beneficial in denominations where pastors are hired directly by congregations rather than placed in congregations by regional clergy administrators.     

The Influence of Institutional Salience on Political Attitudes and Activism among Catholic Priests in the United States

What motivates clergy political attitudes and behavior? We investigate this using a questions‐as‐treatment randomized experiment focusing on Roman Catholic priests in the United States. Our results suggest substantial utility in using a question frame referencing the distinct institutional expectations that clergy regularly confront. Specifically, when randomly primed to consider the expectations of institutional reference groups, clergy exhibit significantly higher levels of conservatism and report higher levels of political engagement, which is in line with their church's institutional preferences more generally. Our findings underscore the need for experimental methodology to make increased inroads into understanding political outcomes in religious contexts.     

A spectrum of belief: a qualitative exploration of candid discussions of clergy on mental health and healing

Since clergy are often first responders to mental health issues, it is important to understand clergy views on handling such issues. A discussion occurred in 2012 amongst clergy involved in a popular social utility network clergy’s group. One clergyperson asked peers: “If the church is where we are to come for healing, how do we handle people who are depressed, suicidal, suffering from PTSD or anxiety?” Over 140 comments were made during 13 days, and 35 clergy from the United States, Africa, and India contributed to the discussion. Data from this conversation were examined via classic grounded theory. Analysis revealed a spectrum of beliefs that clergy hold regarding the causes and best treatments for emotional issues. Findings shed light on the candid thoughts clergy have about mental health care. The findings provide greater understanding for mental health practitioners with clients who rely on their church for emotional support.     

Clergy Response to Domestic Violence: A Preliminary Survey of Clergy Members,Victims, and Batterers

Although the presence of both religious organizations and violence in American communities is pervasive, scant attention has focused on how to best enroll clergy and religiously oriented resources in the battle against family violence. Given that it is not uncommon for women or couples to seek counseling or advice from clergy before accessing community-based resources, the frequency, nature, and utility of these contacts were assessed in this exploratory study from the perspectives of 47 female victims and 70 male perpetrators of domestic violence. Forty-one clergy members from various denominations were also surveyed about their contacts with those seeking help for domestic violence. Results indicated that 43% of the victims and 20% of the perpetrators did seek help from clergy. Almost all of the victims who contacted clergy reported satisfaction with the counsel they received. All clergy respondents reported counseling people who had experienced domestic violence during their career, and 80% had violence-related contacts in the past year. The service-related implications of these clergy contacts from victim, perpetrator, and clergy perspectives are discussed.