Clergy Political Actions and Agendas: New Findings from the National Survey of Religious Leaders

Figures & data

Figure 1. Political activities of primary leaders across religious traditions.

Source: National Survey of Religious Leaders, 2019–20.

Note: Appendix Table A1 provides the exact percentages behind this figure.

Figure 2. Political issues addressed by clergy across religious tradition.

Source: National Survey of Religious Leaders, 2019–20.

Note: Appendix Table A2 provides the exact percentages behind this figure.

Figure 3. Fit of LCA models.

Note: Appendix Table A3 provides the full fit statistics for this analysis.

Figure 4. Estimated probabilities of addressing each issue for clergy categorized as pursuing each agenda.

Note: Appendix Table A4 provides the exact probabilities behind this figure.

Figure 5. Prevalence of political agendas within religious traditions.

Source: National Survey of Religious Leaders, 2019–20.

Note: Appendix Table A5 provides the exact percentages behind this figure.

Table A1. Percentages of Head Clergy Engaging in Political Activities

	All Clergy	Catholic	Conservative Protestant	Black Protestant	Mainline Protestant
Any activity	93.1 %	93.7 %	93.6 %	90.9 %	96.1 %
Any activity beyond urging voting	82.0 %	78.3 %	81.9 %	83.3 %	86.9 %
Urged voting	84.8 %	82.0 %	87.1 %	89.1 %	74.6 %
Took public stand	70.0 %	66.7 %	74.0 %	66.2 %	73.3 %
Prayed publicly about issue	66.4 %	60.0 %	69.3 %	70.4 %	72.1 %
Urged activism	44.6 %	50.6 %	34.5 %	63.4 %	47.6 %
Lobbied	29.6 %	39.8 %	13.5 %	37.8 %	42.6 %
Organized political group	29.5 %	44.1 %	18.2 %	42.9 %	35.2 %
Protested	23.4 %	40.6 %	8.9 %	27.5 %	37.1 %
Endorsed candidate	8.9 %	1.1 %	10.4 %	15.5 %	3.7 %
Endorsed OR would endorse if allowed	22.9 %	13.5 %	22.0 %	37.1 %	11.3 %
N	890	182	317	117	229

Source: National Survey of Religious Leaders, 2019–20.

Table A2. Percentages of Politically Active Head Clergy Addressing Each Issue in Their Activism

	Overall	Catholic	Conservative Protestant	Black Protestant	Mainline Protestant
Race relations	55.3 %	30.9 %	39.1 %	71.4 %	71.7 %
Abortion	54.0 %	83.0 %	77.0 %	26.3 %	26.0 %
Hunger or poverty	50.8 %	58.0 %	37.2 %	49.1 %	62.3 %
LGBT issues	50.6 %	24.1 %	65.7 %	23.1 %	53.7 %
Immigration	43.4 %	69.8 %	32.9 %	25.5 %	63.5 %
Economic issues	41.6 %	48.1 %	20.9 %	63.5 %	46.5 %
Education	41.0 %	44.3 %	13.5 %	65.4 %	36.0 %
Healthcare	33.6 %	38.4 %	14.2 %	55.7 %	38.3 %
Police-community relations	33.5 %	17.6 %	22.0 %	67.2 %	18.5 %
Gun laws	32.2 %	23.7 %	15.4 %	31.4 %	46.9 %
Environmental issues	31.4 %	38.2 %	13.5 %	28.6 %	47.5 %
Capital punishment	17.4 %	41.4 %	8.2 %	28.0 %	6.0 %
Foreign policy	13.6 %	16.1 %	9.6 %	12.1 %	14.7 %
N	750	162	255	98	201

Source: National Survey of Religious Leaders, 2019–20.

Table A3. Fit Statistics of LCA Models

Number of Classes	LL	BIC	Parameters	L^2	df	Error	Entropy
1	−5,442	10,968	13	3,117	657	0.00	1.00
2	−4,961	10,098	27	2,156	643	0.06	0.79
3	−4,880	10,027	41	1,994	629	0.10	0.74
4	−4,824	10,005	55	1,881	615	0.13	0.73
4*	−4,760	9,918	61	1,754	609	0.13	0.72
5	−4,783	10,015	69	1,799	601	0.13	0.75
6	−4,746	10,033	83	1,726	587	0.14	0.78
7	−4,724	10,078	97	1,681	573	0.15	0.77
8	−4,703	10,128	111	1,639	559	0.16	0.77
9	−4,686	10,185	125	1,605	545	0.16	0.79
10	−4,664	10,232	139	1,561	531	0.14	0.81

*Residuals for Capital Punishment and Abortion, Guns and Abortion, Race and LGBT, Abortion and LGBT, Hunger and Economics, and Race and Police were allowed to covary.

Table A4. Estimated Probabilities of Addressing Each Issue for Clergy Categorized As Pursuing Each Agenda

	Agenda
	Universally Engaged	Moral Reform	Social Justice—Global Citizenship	Social Justice—Community Empowerment
Race relations	.885	.372	.714	.738
Abortion	.691	.667	.439	.304
Hunger or poverty	.975	.390	.807	.663
LGBT issues	.858	.370	.631	.220
Immigration	.931	.304	.847	.341
Economic issues	.928	.159	.698	.627
Education	.965	.173	.440	.830
Healthcare	.932	.060	.411	.676
Police-community relations	.804	.146	.173	.670
Gun laws	.870	.074	.469	.256
Environmental issues	.760	.080	.646	.159
Capital punishment	.678	.078	.235	.191
Foreign policy	.604	.028	.166	.001

Source: National Survey of Religious Leaders, 2019–20.

Table A5. Distribution of Politically Active Clergy Across Political Agendas, by Religious Tradition

	All Clergy	Catholic	Conservative Protestant	Black Protestant	Mainline Protestant
Universally Engaged	10.8 %	15.1 %	4.6 %	12.4 %	12.7 %
Moral Reform	55.0 %	52.2 %	77.8 %	24.1 %	45.6 %
Social Justice—Global Citizenship	18.0 %	26.8 %	13.0 %	9.4 %	35.1 %
Social Justice—Community Empowerment	16.2 %	5.8 %	4.7 %	54.1 %	6.7 %

Source: National Survey of Religious Leaders, 2019–20.