Gender, Theology, and Political Views among Mainline Clergy
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Date
2005-04
Authors
Stockard, Jean
Finlay, Barbara
Johnson, Benton
Journal Title
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Abstract
The dominant image of religion and politics in the US recently is that religion, especially
Christianity, is strongly associated with conservative politics and antifeminist values with respect
to women and sexuality. Many more liberal and progressive Christians have criticized this one
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sided media focus, pointing out the strong traditional themes of support for peace, justice for the
poor and marginalized groups, and love instead of judgment of neighbor. Even some
evangelicals have decried the tactics and lack of concern for the poor of the Religious Right, and
mainline leaders have strongly promoted progressive political change. While there are many
studies that include religious affiliation, theological orthodoxy, and degree of commitment as
predictors of political attitudes among lay members, there have surprisingly been fewer studies
of the political and theological attitudes of mainline clergy on these issues. Moreover, since
gender issues play a large role in conservative politics and religion, it seems important to study
clergy attitudes in more mainline churches as well on these issues. Some studies find that women
clergy in these denominations are more liberal on theological, social and political issues than
men. If this is true, the increase of women in positions of church leadership is likely to influence
congregational members in a more progressive direction. In this paper we present data from a
survey of clergy in the state of Oregon, comparing mainline male and female clergy on a variety
of theological and political opinions.
Description
22 pages. Paper presented at the Annual Meetings of the Pacific Sociological Association, April 2005, Portland, OR.
Keywords
religion, political opinions, clergy, church leadership, gender issues