Nancy T. Ammerman: Mainline Protestants & Gay Rights
This week’s release of Mainline Protestant Clergy Views on Theology and Gay and Lesbian Issues: Findings from the 2008 Clergy Voices Survey, a new study from Public Religion Research, echoes findings in a study I conducted a decade earlier. In 1997-98, issues surrounding homosexuality were named in half of the mainline Protestant churches surveyed as denominational issues that concerned the congregation; and among that half, the proportions supporting, opposed, and mixed on the question nearly exactly mirrored the findings reported in this new study.
The earlier study surveyed 549 congregations, representing all religious groups and was reported in my book Pillars of Faith: American Congregations and Their Partners (University of California Press, 2005). One hundred ninety one of the congregations surveyed were from the liberal and moderate Protestant groups such as the United Church of Christ, the United Methodists, the Presbyterian Church and others that are often dubbed the “mainline.”
I found that 26% of Mainline congregations were basically supportive of issues of concern to gays and lesbians, 31% were opposed, and 43% reported a mix of opinions among the laity. The new survey of mainline clergy reports 29% of them supportive, 30% opposed, and 41% in the middle.