Christian Leaders Are More Pro-LGBTQ Than Their Congregants
Christianity are strongly associated with anti-LGBTQ values, their actual religious leaders might not be, and experts told Newsweek why that might be.That's the latest news from a recent study from the Public Religion Research Institute, which surveyed more than 3,000 clergy who led congregations from the seven largest Protestant denominations.The Christian leaders were overwhelmingly in favor of laws that protect gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people against discrimination in jobs, public accommodations and housing, with 90 percent supporting this across all denominations.The slight variation in the data came down to the American Baptist Church clergy, who trailed a bit behind in their support at just 80 percent.Still, the religious leaders were far more likely to support nondiscrimination laws for LGBTQ people than their own churchgoers, who only supported the protective laws at 71 percent.Region also played a role when it came to the tendency of the Christian leaders to favor protections for the LGBTQ community—only 86 percent of rural clergy supported the laws compared to 93 and 95 percent of suburban and urban religious leaders respectively.This may not be surprising since large communities of LGBTQ people tend to congregate in big cities.It's potentially the case that the clergy in more populous areas are increasingly up close and personal with gay and lesbian churchgoers and community members, but it doesn't explain the contrast between the leaders and their congregations.Taking it a step further, Christian leaders were also overwhelmingly likely to support same-sex marriage, with 79 percent in favor across all Protestant churches.Slight differences were notable among the different branches—for example, the United Church of Christ supported gay marriage staunchly at 95 percent while only 72 percent of the United Methodist Church leaders did.Perhaps most glaring of all the differences concerned the American Baptist Church once again, which only.
