NR #1996-014: Calvin Professor Part of Survey of Clergy on Political Attitudes A study of the political attitudes of clergy in eight Protestant denominations is providing lots of interesting data for a quartet of political science professors, including Calvin College's Dr. Corwin Smidt. Among items surveyed were pastoral attitudes on abortion, pornography, education, social justice issues, and whether Christ is the only way to salvation. However, Calvin professor Dr. Corwin Smidt urged caution in interpreting the data, pointing to a question in the survey that created some controversy when reported in The Grand Rapids Press. The question asked if "the only way to salvation is belief in Jesus Christ." Pastors were asked to strongly agree, agree, no opinion, disagree or strongly disagree. Just 73 percent of CRC pastors, and 58 percent of RCA pastors, strongly agreed, provoking some heated reactions among West Michigan CRC and RCA people. Smidt noted that when the category "agree" is included, 95 percent of CRC pastors and 80 percent of RCA pastors "agree" or "strongly agree" with the statement that belief in Jesus is the only way to salvation. NR #1996-014: For Immediate Release Calvin Professor Part of Survey of Clergy on Political Attitudes by Phil de Haan, Calvin College Media Relations Distributed by United Reformed News Service GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (January 29, 1996) URNS - A study of the political attitudes of clergy in eight Protestant denominations is providing lots of interesting data for a quartet of political science professors, including Calvin College's Dr. Corwin Smidt. For instance, 89 percent of Assemblies of God pastors surveyed said they address from the pulpit "very often" or "often" the issue of abortion, while just 29 percent of Disciples of Christ pastors address that issue "very often" or "often." On the issue of pornography, again 89 percent of Assemblies of God pastors tackle the issue "very often" or "often" while Presbyterian Church (USA) pastors check in at just 30 percent. CRC pastors were at 81 percent and 59 percent respectively on the two issues above. CRC pastors did lead all denominations in addressing education issues at 73 percent. Interestingly enough, Reformed Church in America pastors had the lowest percentage in that education category with just 25 percent of RCA pastors addressing education "very often" or "often." The response rate of RCA pastors who addressed abortion "very often" or "often" was 52 percent, while the comparable number for pornography was 43 percent. On social justice issues the numbers swing the other way. The Disciples of Christ top all denominations in addressing such issues as hunger and poverty, civil rights, defense spending, women's issues and more, while the Assemblies of God pastors trail in most of those categories. Both the CRC and RCA are middle of the road in social justice categories. When it comes to political party preference Assemblies of God pastors check in at 89 percent Republican and just five percent Democrat, while the Disciples of Christ pastors are 30 percent Republican and 59 percent Democrat. Meanwhile the CRC pastors tend to be a little more conservative than their RCA counterparts with 67 percent identifying themselves as Republican and 23 percent Democrat versus 51 percent of RCA pastors who are Republican and 36 percent who are Democrats. Smidt, along with colleagues James Guth of Furman, Lyman Kellstedt of Wheaton and John Green of Akron, surveyed almost 8,000 clergy nationwide between 1980 and 1993. Pastors were surveyed in the Assemblies of God, Southern Baptist, Evangelical Covenant, Christian Reformed, Reformed, United Methodist, Presbyterian Church (USA) and Disciples of Christ denominations. The majority of the quartet's results come from a nationwide survey of 5,000 pastors from those same eight denominations taken just after the 1988 presidential elections. Although the numbers are indeed fascinating, Smidt warns against become enthralled with the data. He points, by way of example, to a question in the survey that created some controversy when reported in The Grand Rapids Press. The question asked if "the only way to salvation is belief in Jesus Christ." Pastors were asked to strongly agree, agree, no opinion, disagree or strongly disagree. Just 73 percent of CRC pastors, and 58 percent of RCA pastors, strongly agreed, provoking some heated reactions among West Michigan CRC and RCA people. Smidt cautions people to remember several things about such data. First, he says, the percentage of CRC pastors who also checked "agree" was 23 percent in the CRC and 22 percent in the RCA, meaning that 95 percent of CRC pastors and 80 percent of RCA pastors "agree" or "strongly agree" with the statement that belief in Jesus is the only way to salvation. Second, the wording of survey questions sometimes is problematic. Some have told Smidt the phrase "belief in Jesus" may have suggested to some pastors the idea that works (human belief) can lead to salvation. Others have suggested to Smidt that the question may have caused difficulty for pastors who wonder how such a statement would impact the salvation of say an infant who died just after birth and never was baptized or had a chance to "believe." Such issues raise an important third point, says Smidt, which is that the survey is intended not so much to measure political and theological beliefs within each denomination but to provide a spectrum by which to compare eight denominations. Assuming that pastors in all denominations react to the questions in more or less the same manner allows Smidt and his colleagues to sketch out a picture of how the denominations stand in relationship to each other. That in turn allows the political scientists to study the thing with which they are most concerned: the intricate relationships between faith and politics. Surveying clergy is a central part of understanding those relationships. "Ministers enjoy prestige in American politics," says Smidt, an Iowa native who has a B.A. from Northwestern, Iowa, and whose father was a minister in the RCA. "They also possess significant opportunity to shape and mold others and can can transmit political messages on and off the pulpit to their congregations. Ministers have receptive audiences who often are looking for political guidance." Smidt notes that ministers have always been an important force in American politics, but says there has been a significant shift in recent years in which ministers are involved. "Clerical political activism following World War II was limited to certain types of ministers," he says, "primarily theological liberals from mainline denominations and black clergy involved in the civil rights movement. The conservative clergy shunned political activity in the 50's and 60's." In the 1980's the conservative clergy began to make their voice heard. The Moral Majority (now defunct) and the Religious Roundtable (which still exists) sprang to life and there began an emergence of political activism by theologically conservative pastors which continues today. The increasing influence of such groups as the Christian Coalition, under the direction of Pat Robertson and Ralph Reed, and the ability of conservative Christian groups to both mobilize voters and impact races also has created new powers for clergy and given Smidt and his colleagues plenty of grist for their mill. Indeed the quartet plans to interview 5,000 Americans (churched and unchurched) nationwide in 1996 (having just received a major grant to do so from the Pew Foundation) that will allow it to compare the people in the pew to the people in the pulpits. "It's an interesting time to be studying this (relationship between faith and politics)," says Smidt. "There's a lot of fascinating stuff taking place in American politics and American religion. I feel fortunate to be able to be part of these efforts." The research that Smidt and his colleagues are doing will be published in book form by the University of Kansas Press either late in 1996 or early in 1997. Sidebar on Christian Reformed Pastors Smidt also surveyed CRC pastors on a number of issues apart from the larger denominational survey. He received replies from 470 CRC pastors in the U.S. and Canada, a 67 percent response rate. Since very little, if any, data is available for attitudes, both political and theological, of CRC pastors in past years Smidt asked today's pastors how they perceive the past. The answers are interesting. For example, CRC pastors today think that far fewer CRC members now believe in the virgin birth than the CRC members of 30 years ago. Today's CRC pastors also believe that CRC members 30 years ago had greater belief that Jesus rose from the dead than CRC members of this decade. In general today's CRC pastors believe that the church today is less orthodox than the church of 30 years past. Those numbers are fun in and of themselves. What's really interesting, however, is breaking down the age of the CRC pastors surveyed and seeing how their age affects their perception of orthodoxy. Smidt's survey shows that the longer pastors have been in the ministry the more apt they are to believe that things have pretty much stayed the same in the CRC over the past 30 years. More recent ministers believe that the church of the past was much more orthodox than the church of the present. Of pastors with less than ten years of service, 34 percent believe that the CRC has seen a decline in orthodoxy over the last 30 years. Just 29.5 percent believe things have been relatively stable. Of pastors with 20-plus years of experience, just 15.5 percent believe there has been a decline, while 49.2 percent believe things have been stable. Smidt's survey of CRC ministers also points to what he calls a "redefinition of where the CRC falls within the broader religious landscape." Smidt says the CRC pastors are often becoming absorbed in a category called "evangelical." But he adds, "it's hard to say whether since the evangelical world has discovered our worldview whether we are influencing them or we are being influenced by them." In general Smidt says the CRC is considered a conservative denomination. Among the eight Protestant denominations in the large survey done by Smidt, Guth, Green and Kellstedt, the CRC would be considered more conservative than the Disciples of Christ, the Presbyterian Church USA, the United Methodist Church and the Reformed Church in America, but less conservative than the Evangelical Covenant, the Southern Baptist Convention and the Assemblies of God. Cross-References to Related Articles: [No related articles on file] Contact List: Phil DeHaan, Director of Media Relations, Calvin College 3201 Burton St. SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546 * O: (616) 957-6000 * F: (616) 957-8551 * E-Mail: DEHP@Calvin.edu Dr. John Green, Professor of Political Science, University of Akron 302 Buchtel Common, University of Akron, Akron OH 44325-1904 * O: (216) 972-5182 * FAX: (216) 374-8860 Dr. James Guth, Professor of Political Science, Furman University 3300 Poinsett Hwy, Greenville, SC 29613 * O: (803) 294-3330 * FAX: (803) 239-3530 Dr. Lyman Kellstedt, Professor of Political Science, Wheaton College Department of Political Science, Wheaton College, 501 East College, Wheaton, IL 60187 O: (708) 752-5899 * FAX: (708) 752-5807 Dr. Corwin Smidt, Professor of Political Science, Calvin College College Center 222, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI 49546 * O: (616) 957-6233 * FAX: (616) 957-8551 ------------------------------------------------ file: /pub/resources/text/reformed: nr96-014.txt .