More than three-fourths of Protestant clergy believe the separation of church
and state in the United States has gone too far, recent research indicates.
More than three-fourths of Protestant clergy believe the separation of church
and state in the United States has gone too far, recent research indicates.
Indeed, in a study by Ellison Research, 78 percent of Protestant clergy say
“the separation of church and state in the U.S. has gone too far or in
ways it was never intended to go.” The study was conducted on behalf of
LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention.
In the study, just 8 percent of all agree with the statement “the separation
of church and state in the U.S. has not gone far enough; more is needed,”
Ellison reported.
In turn, 13 percent believe “the current separation of church and state
in the U.S. is right about where it should be.”
Among the larger denominational groups in the study, Southern Baptist ministers
particularly are likely to view the separation of church and state as having
gone too far – by a 93 percent majority. Pentecostal and charismatic pastors
also are united in this belief (92 percent), while Methodist ministers (70 percent)
and Lutheran pastors (66 percent) also generally share this position.
The study gave clergy an opportunity to weigh in on a number of specific church-state
issues.
On another question, 95 percent of all clergy say the words “under God”
should remain in the Pledge of Allegiance. Even among ministers from denominations
in the National Council of Churches – which represents mainline Protestants
and has a reputation for being more liberal – 85 percent of clergy believe
the phrase should stay.
On one of the most controversial recent issues – displaying the Ten Commandments
in a courthouse – 86 percent of Protestant ministers say such displays
should be allowed.
Virtually all clergy from the more conservative National Association of Evangelicals
concur (95 percent), but the issue is more divisive within the National Council
of Churches, where 65 percent believe such displays should be allowed and 35
percent say they should not be.
Among individual denominations, there is widespread support for Ten Commandments
displays – 98 percent among Pentecostal/charismatic churches, 96 percent
among Southern Baptists, 96 percent among other Baptist groups, 76 percent among
Methodists, 66 percent among Lutherans and 80 percent among all other denominations
combined.
Seventy-nine percent of ministers also believe displaying a Christmas nativity
scene on government property should be allowed under the separation of church
and state. Again, National Association of Evangelicals members are far more
united (93 percent) than are members of the National Council of Churches (59
percent).
At the same time, 71 percent of ministers feel that displaying a Jewish menorah
on government property during Hanukkah should be permissible, including 90 percent
from the National Association of Evangelicals but only 54 percent from the National
Council of Churches.
Ministers remain sharply divided on the overall issue of religious displays
on government property. The most common perspective, held by 37 percent of all
Protestant ministers, is that “Christian displays should be allowed on
government property but not those of any other religion.”
This stance is particularly common among pastors in small churches (under 100
people in attendance), pastors under 45 years of age, those in the South and
those from denominations with membership in the National Association of Evangelicals.
Denominationally, Southern Baptists, other Baptists and Pentecostal/charismatic
ministers are the ones most likely to hold this opinion.
Meanwhile, 30 percent of all ministers take the position that “religious
displays from major world religions (such as Christianity, Judaism or Islam)
should be allowed on government property,” a belief particularly common
among pastors in churches with 200 or more people.
Also fairly common is the perspective that “no religious displays of any
kind should be allowed on government property,” held by 22 percent of ministers.
The least common perspective – held by 12 percent of the clergy –
is that “religious displays from any religion (whether it is Christianity,
Hare Krishna, Wicca or anything else) should be allowed on government property.”
Meanwhile, 90 percent of clergy say religious groups should be allowed to use
government property for meetings if non-religious groups can do so.
Ellison Research President Ron Sellers said that while the study found clergy
clearly feel that there is too much separation of church and state in the country
today, there is no common belief on just what the application should be.
“The vast majority want general expressions of belief to remain in place,
such as ‘In God We Trust’ on currency or ‘under God’ in
the Pledge of Allegiance,” Sellers said. “They also clearly demand
parity for religious groups in public life, such as allowing a church group
to use the city hall for a meeting if the garden club is given the same privilege.
Those beliefs are pervasive. … We’ve seen more agreement on this than
on just about any other issue we’ve studied with ministers.”
Sellers noted that the divisive issue is “how this parity applies to individual
religious groups.
“There is a lot of disagreement about who should be allowed a religious
display on government property, for instance,” he said. “Pastors find
it easy to agree on basic beliefs related to church and state but much harder
to agree on specific application of those beliefs.” (BP)
(The study involved 700 Protestant ministers from all 50 states and is accurate
to within plus or minus 3.6 percentage points)