wfn.org | When the shepherd speaks, who listens?

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2000-205

When the shepherd speaks, who listens?

By Jan Nunley

     (ENS) Preliminary results in a three-year study of political beliefs and 
activities within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the 
Episcopal Church show that clergy in both denominations are more likely to speak 
out about politics when there are fewer people of their own faith in the wider 
community.

     The study, entitled "Clergy, Parishioners, and Politics: A Survey of ELCA 
and Episcopal Church Ministers and Parishioners," surveyed members of 38 ELCA and 
22 ECUSA congregations nationwide. Principal investigator and project director 
was Christopher P. Gilbert, associate professor of political science at Gustavus 
Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota, with Paul A. Djupe of Denison 
University in Ohio as co-principal investigator.

       The research was supported by grants from National Science Foundation and 
the American Political Science Association. It has been summarized in an article 
entitled "Are the Sheep Hearing the Shepherd? An evaluation of church member 
perceptions of clergy political speech."

Connections between faith and politics

     "Much has been written about the large-scale movements originating from 
religious communities, such as the pre-Civil War crusade against slavery, the 
drive for Prohibition in the early 20th century, and the campaign for civil 
rights led by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and other religious leaders," 
Gilbert and Djupe write. "Far less is known about the connections that ordinary 
citizens make between faith and politics as part of their daily lives. Over 90 
percent of Americans believe in God and three-fourths belong to a church. This 
extraordinary level of religious activity--unmatched in any other democratic 
nation--clearly affects numerous aspects of the lives of church members. Through 
this project we will discover what political issues are addressed in churches, 
how much political knowledge and guidance members receive from their ministers, 
and how this knowledge and guidance influence members' political activities."

     Among their findings:

     *Both groups more accurately perceive political messages from clergy when 
the issues matter to them personally.

          *Members with an interest in political issues report their clergy to be 
more political than the clergy think they are.

          *Clergy talk about political issues that are in the news.

          *Clergy deliver more political messages when their congregations 
disagree with them. But members whodisagree are more likely to tune the 
clergy out on those issues.

          *Messages on controversial issues--civil rights, homosexuality, 
abortion--are more clearly received than on less controversial topics.

Church-state separation misunderstood

     3,000 ministers and members of fifty selected congregations in both 
denominations received surveys asking for their political views, the extent of 
their political activism, and the degree to which their religious beliefs and 
church activities affect these political views and actions. 1,050 Lutherans and 
550 Episcopalians responded, but at least "15 or 20" returned the survey with 
notes explaining that they could not reply because "church and state should never 
mix, according to the Constitution." That's not true, said Gilbert, adding that "people 
are free to discern whatever political implications from their faith lives that they 
wish, from nothing to all-out consonance."
     A book summarizing their findings is expected to be published by Rowman 
and Littlefield in 2001.

-The Rev. Jan Nunley is deputy director of the Episcopal Church's Office of 
News and Information. This article is based on reports from the Metro Lutheran.