Wanted to flag this article from The Christian Century covering Public Religion Research’s Mainline Protestant Clergy Voices Survey.  The full article is available here.

Mainline called uncounted force for change

by John Dart

The White House has an oft-overlooked religious ally for solving the country’s social problems through greatly expanded government programs, if a new survey of senior pastors in mainline Protestant churches is a good indication…Though mainline Protestants, declining in numbers, no longer enjoy the political and cultural prominence they had in the 1950s and early 1960s, they should not be counted out, Jones said.

Mainline Protestants make up 18 percent of all Americans and nearly a quarter of all voters, he said, adding that main line clergy are “an important swing constituency that has been moving slowly but steadily away from the GOP since the early 1990s.” At the same time, the clergy reflect the American diversity of opinion on several controversial issues [read the highlights of these findings here]…

Conservative Protestants and think tanks on the right “like to portray [mainline clergy] as ideological leftists, [but] ‘Clergy Voices’ does not find them so,” said religion historian Martin E. Marty in his online “Sightings” commentary March 9. “They have voices in public affairs, but rarely and mildly try to project or enforce social justice ‘dogma.’”

“Politicians who would organize and exploit them, as they do some other religious groups, would have difficulty doing so,” said Marty, a Century contributing editor, because of regional and denominational differences. “Yes, half call themselves ‘liberal,’ because they are not afraid of the label, but a third are ‘conservative.’”

Public Religion Research’s Jones, a visiting fellow at The Third Way, a progressive think tank, said mainline churches value unity in diversity, which amounts to “a real strength” in an increasingly polarized society…

Continue reading the complete article from The Christian Century.

See the full results of the survey from Public Religion Research here.

Mainline Protestants make up nearly 1-in-5 American adults. In 2004, they accounted for nearly a quarter of the total electorate and split their vote between Bush and Kerry. Yet despite this they are too often ignored by much of the mainstream press. On March 6, Public Religion Research released the 2008 Clergy Voices Survey, the broadest survey of mainline clergy every conducted. The survey revealed levels of political engagement among clergy during the 2008 election season, attitudes on social and economic issues, and the public role of the church.

Among the wealth of details revealed by the survey. We found that mainline clergy are strong proponents of amore active role for government. Nearly 8-in-10 clergy say that the federal government should do more to solve social problems like unemployment, poverty and poor housing. More than two thirds agree that government should guarantee health insurance for all citizens, even if it means raising taxes. And nearly 7-in-10 say more environmental protection is needed, even if it raises prices or costs jobs.

To read the full report, click here.