My friend Dr. Scot McKnight—a New Testament professor with over a 100 books published—has some interesting stats on the subject about voting in his newsletter on Substack today. We Christians usually think that the people in the pews vote pretty much as their pastors do. But Scot shows that is not the case in mainline Protestant churches, such as “United Methodist or Episcopal churches.” Here is the breakdown:
Statistics of Voting from Mainline Protestants
Scot says, “A majority of mainline Protestant Christians voted for Donald Trump in 2016, 2020, and 2024.” Yet mainline Protestant clergy voted quite differently. According to a survey of 3,000 clergy conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute in 2022 and 2023, 56% say they are liberal, 53% say they are Democrats, 21% say they are conservative, 22% say they are moderates, and only 12% say they are Republicans.
Conclusion
Scot concludes that that when it comes to politics in the good ‘ole USA, “The pulpit looks nothing like the pews in mainline houses of worship.” Does that mean those parishioners listen to Donald Trump more than they listen to their pastors?
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