Pulpits, pews and CEOs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Anybody who knows anything about religion knows that people in pulpits have a different view of the world than people in pews.Years of data and front-line\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2003\/01\/pulpits-pews-and-ceos\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pulpits, pews and CEOs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Anybody who knows anything about religion knows that people in pulpits have a different view of the world than people in pews.Years of data and front-line\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2003\/01\/pulpits-pews-and-ceos\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Terry Mattingly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2003-01-29T13:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-01-30T21:02:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2003\/01\/pulpits-pews-and-ceos\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2003\/01\/pulpits-pews-and-ceos\/\",\"name\":\"Pulpits, pews and CEOs\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2003-01-29T13:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-01-30T21:02:38+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\"},\"description\":\"Anybody who knows anything about religion knows that people in pulpits have a different view of the world than people in pews.Years of data and front-line\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2003\/01\/pulpits-pews-and-ceos\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2003\/01\/pulpits-pews-and-ceos\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2003\/01\/pulpits-pews-and-ceos\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Pulpits, pews and CEOs\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/\",\"name\":\"Terry Mattingly\",\"description\":\"On Religion\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\",\"name\":\"tmatt\",\"description\":\"Terry Mattingly directs the Washington Journalism Center at the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. 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{"id":1215,"date":"2003-01-29T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2003-01-29T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tmatt\/2003\/01\/29\/pulpits-pews-and-ceos\/"},"modified":"2013-01-30T16:02:38","modified_gmt":"2013-01-30T21:02:38","slug":"pulpits-pews-and-ceos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2003\/01\/pulpits-pews-and-ceos\/","title":{"rendered":"Pulpits, pews and CEOs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Anybody who knows anything about religion knows that people in pulpits have a different view of the world than people in pews.<\/p>\n\n

Years of data and front-line reports have yielded two clich? The first is that most ministers in the old mainline Protestant churches are more liberal on matters of doctrine and morality than their people. And the second is that most evangelical and fundamentalist pastors are more conservative than their people.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s actually a lot of truth in both of those, especially if you fine-tune the second one,\u201d said Ron Sellers, president of Ellison Research (www.ellisonresearch.com<\/a>) in Phoenix. \u201cIt\u2019s probably more accurate to say that most evangelical pastors are more conservative than the lives their people are living. \u2026<\/p>\n\n

\u201cBut any way you look at it, there is a gap between the pulpits and the pews. What fewer people seem to realize is that there is an even bigger gap between pastors and the people who are leading their national churches.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Thus, Sellers and his team recently raised eyebrows with data reporting that 40 percent of Protestant pastors say some of their beliefs clash with official positions taken by their national denominations or conventions. Theologically, 19 percent say they are more liberal and 23 percent say they are more conservative, while 59 percent mesh with their leaders.Politically, 16 percent of the pastors say they are more liberal and 27 percent more conservative than their national churches.<\/p>\n\n

This 50-state survey was not large enough, said Sellers, to provide individual results for all of America\u2019s Protestant flocks. <\/p>\n\n

But there were glimpses of life in some of the trenches. For example, United Methodist pastors were the most likely to clash with their leaders. Only 33 percent felt their theological positions matched the hierarchy, with 25 percent saying they are more liberal than the denomination and 42 percent saying they are more conservative. A mere 29 percent felt their political beliefs matched stances taken by the national church. <\/p>\n\n

The survey raised far more questions than it answered. One reason is that most of the labels that have defined Protestantism in America are becoming increasingly blurry. Clergy simply do not know what \u201cconservative,\u201d \u201cliberal,\u201d \u201cevangelical,\u201d \u201ccharismatic,\u201d \u201ctraditional\u201d and even the newer term \u201cseeker-friendly\u201d mean anymore.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cThings are too complex out there,\u201d said Sellers. \u201cEven when you try to define the basics words like \u2018evangelical\u2019 or \u2018mainline\u2019 \u2014 everything breaks down. Just to give one example, there are many conservative, evangelical pastors out there in the Episcopal Church, even though that seems to make no sense whatsoever when you look at the national church.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

The bottom line: A sign in a church\u2019s front yard is no longer a dependable indicator of what is happening inside the doors. <\/p>\n\n

Listening to a few sermons may not even do the trick, since many pastors seem to be using highly personal dictionaries. The survey found \u201cseeker-friendly\u201d Lutherans, \u201ccharismatic\u201d mainline Presbyterians, a few Southern Baptists who do gay union rites and many other examples of clergy and their churches that refuse to fit into familiar boxes.<\/p>\n\n

Nevertheless, many clich?did ring true. Conservatives preach longer than liberals. Older, smaller congregations are more devoted to traditional hymnody than younger, larger congregations. Bible Belt pastors like religious television more than their Frost Belt counterparts. Clergy in the National Association of Evangelicals are twice as likely to vote Republican as clergy in the National Council of Churches. <\/p>\n\n

But the overall impression left by the data, said Sellers, is one of diversity. This is especially true among mainline Protestants, where hot issues \u2014 most linked to marriage and sex \u2014 are dividing clergy into warring camps of painfully similar sizes. This is making life brutal for national-church leaders.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like in a large corporation, where the CEO is surrounded by people who share that vision,\u201d said Sellers. \u201cThen the further you go down the food scale the more diversity you\u2019re going to find. By the time you reach the mailroom, people are going to have all kinds of opinions about what the CEO is saying.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cPrecisely the same thing is happening today in all of these national denominations. No one is sure what the vision is and what all the words mean.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"