Pulpit and Politics: Clergy in American Politics at the Advent of the Millennium

Notes

Chapter 1 1. For a further description of the Cooperative Clergy Study Project, see Smidt (2003). 2. Of the different kinds of surveys available (e.g., face-to-face, telephone, and mail), mail surveys have the poorest response rates. The response rates for each denomination are discussed in each chapter, but of the approximately 22,750 surveys mailed, 8,805 usable surveys were returned—for an overall return rate of more than 38 percent. While higher response rates are always desirable, this response rate for mail surveys is typical, if not fairly good, given not only the size and scope of the study itself, the researcher’s unknown quality to those to whom questionnaires were sent, and the length of the survey itself. 3. The one exception relates to the chapter that examines the perspectives and behavior of American rabbis, as certain questions (e.g., certain theological questions) asked of Christian pastors would not be appropriate for inquiry among those outside the Christian faith. 4. Different terminology has been used to denote the nature of the authority of Scripture within the Christian tradition: the infallibility versus the inerrancy of the biblical texts. Infallibility holds that the Bible is true and trustworthy, without falsehood, in all that it intends to teach—namely, the ways unto salvation . Inerrancy is a more stringent standard that the biblical texts, at least in terms of the original texts, are without error in all matters. 323 Notes Chapter 2 5. Jacques Ellul contends that confessionalism appropriates God’s living word and remakes it into a dead human code. By so doing, even in the most sincere effort to defend God’s word, we alienate ourselves from a living expression of God’s love (1976, 145–46). 6. Major splits in the history of the American Baptist Churches, USA, include: the formation of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1845, the formation of the National Baptist Convention in 1947, and the formation of the Conservative Baptist Association in 1895 (Ohlmann 2000). In 1992, the American Baptist Evangelicals organized within the denomination “to serve the renewal of American Baptist churches.” 7. A recent update of the list suggests that it was incomplete at the time the sample was taken. 8. In order to summarize the theological orientations of American Baptist clergy and understand how theological education may play a role in developing these orientations, several theological types were first constructed. The consistently orthodox agreed with all of the first four statements in Table 2.2, while the heterodox disagreed with one or more of these statements. The consistently literal agreed with both the fifth and sixth items regarding biblical inerrancy and the primal pair. The relatively strong level of orthodoxy among American Baptist clergy is easily seen in that 81 percent are consistently orthodox and 57 percent are consistently literal, while only 13 percent are heterodox. Graduates of mainline seminaries are orthodox at about the same levels as clergy in the more liberal mainline denominations (e.g., United Methodist). Graduates of evangelical seminaries, who constitute 66 percent of all graduates in the sample, closely duplicate affirmation levels of clergy in moderate evangelical denominations. It would seem that the moderate theological orientation of American Baptist clergy is largely a result of what proportions have been exposed to various influences in their theological education. 9. Theological orientation seems to have a significant impact on norms regarding political engagement. In particular, the more liberal heterodox respondents are considerably more approving than other clergy when it comes to creating alternative political structures and using unconventional means to achieve political goals. 10. But this overall diversity of opinion masks much higher levels of consensus within opposing theological types. The relationship between theology and policy positions among American Baptist clergy is consistent with earlier findings for other Protestant denominations (Guth et al. 1997), where theological conservatives supported a moral-reform agenda while theological modernists advocated a social-justice agenda. 11. Literalists are predominantly Republican (62 percent), while the majority of the heterodox are Democrats (54 percent), but the predominance of Bush supporters among the literalists (86 percent) and Gore supporters among the heterodox (81 percent) is striking. It would seem that the relationship between theological orientation and political orientation is exceptionally strong among American Baptist clergy. 12. The relationship between theology and political participation in the election of 2000 for American Baptist clergy depends to some extent on the type of participation involved. There seems to be little difference in participation when it comes to...