Protestant Pastors’ Views on Gay Marriage

Methodology The telephone survey of Protestant pastors was conducted October 13-29, 2008 The calling list was randomly drawn from a list of all Protestant churches. Up to six calls were made to reach a sampled phone number Each interview was conducted with the senior pastor, minister or priest of the church called Responses were weighted to reflect the geographic distribution of Protestant churches

Methodology The completed sample is 1,002 phone interviews The sample provides 95% confidence that the sampling error does not exceed +3.1% Margins of error are higher in sub-groups.

Forty-two percent of Protestant pastors say they rarely or never speak to their church on homosexuality Frequency Protestant Pastors Speak to their Church on Homosexuality 1% “Don’t Know” How often do you speak to your church on homosexuality?

Protestant pastors whose political ideology is very conservative are more likely to speak to their church on homosexuality several times a year Frequency Protestant Pastors Speak to their Church on Homosexuality 2% of Liberals/Very Liberals and 1% of the others “Don’t Know” How often do you speak to your church on homosexuality? Which description best represents your political ideology?

Pastors who consider themselves Evangelical are more likely than those who see themselves as Mainline to speak to their church on homosexuality several times a year Frequency Protestant Pastors Speak to their Church on Homosexuality How often do you speak to your church on homosexuality?

Almost three-fourths of Protestant pastors strongly disagree with the statement “I believe gay marriage should be legal.” Protestant Pastors’ Level of Agreement with statement, “I believe gay marriage should be legal.” 2% “Don’t Know” I believe gay marriage should be legal.

Most Protestant pastors whose political ideology is conservative do not believe gay marriage should be legal but almost half of liberal pastors do Protestant Pastors’ Level of Agreement with statement, “I believe gay marriage should be legal.” I believe gay marriage should be legal. Which description best represents your political ideology?

Pastors who label themselves “Evangelical” are much more likely than those who label themselves “Mainline” to strongly disagree with the statement “I believe gay marriage should be legal” Protestant Pastors’ Level of Agreement with statement, “I believe gay marriage should be legal.” I believe gay marriage should be legal.

Additional descriptors of Protestant pastors related to homosexuality Among pastors who speak to their church on homosexuality several times a year or more, 84 percent also speak on poverty that often. This is significantly higher than among pastors who rarely/never speak on homosexuality, of whom 78 percent speak on poverty several times a year or more Among pastors who strongly disagree that gay marriage should be legal, 98 percent strongly agree “Our church considers Scripture to be the authority for our church and our lives.” In contrast, among pastors who do not strongly disagree that gay marriage should be legal, 71 percent strongly agree “Our church considers Scripture to be the authority for our church and our lives.”

Protestant Pastors’ Views on Gay Marriage