Single Page
E-mail
Print
RSS
G-bookmarks
Live
TechnoratiSouthern Baptist pastors are still very conservative especially when compared to the average Americans on politics and issues such as global warming and stem cell research.
A new study by LifeWay Research showed 80 percent of pastors from the Southern Baptist Convention – the largest Protestant denomination in the country – plan to vote for Republican nominee-in-waiting John McCain despite suspicion from the Christian right of his conservative stances.
"While many have spoken of the weakening of evangelical support of some conservative causes and candidates, that does not seem to be reflected in the voting plans of SBC pastors," said Ed Stetzer, director of LifeWay Research.
Only 1 percent of SBC pastors said they would vote for Barack Obama, who is poised to win the Democratic nomination, and none plan to vote for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
Fifteen percent of the pastors are still undecided about their vote for the next U.S. president and 4 percent said they plan to vote for a candidate other than the three major contenders.
Global Warming
Global warming has grabbed more media spotlight as evangelicals have increasingly hopped on board to voice concerns for the environment. But Southern Baptist leaders have been less enthusiastic about adding their voice to campaign for "creation care," as supporters call it.
According to the latest LifeWay survey, 86 percent of SBC pastors believe the "media has overstated the threat of global warming." Only 6 percent disagreed with the statement and 8 percent said they were not sure.
While 51 percent of all Americans strongly agree that the earth is warming and that humans are contributing to that warming to some degree, only 6 percent of Southern Baptist pastors held that same belief. Thirty-two percent of SBC pastors strongly disagreed compared to 11 percent of all Americans.
Among those with less strongly held convictions, 30 percent of SBC pastors, compared to 26 percent of all Americans, said they "somewhat agree" that global warming is real and that humans are contributing to it; and 24 percent of SBC pastors, compared to 10 percent of all Americans, said they "somewhat disagree" with the statement.
Earlier this month, several prominent Southern Baptist leaders, including Dr. Barrett Duke, vice president of SBC's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, launched a national campaign called "We Get It!" telling Christians that they must not believe all the hype about global warming. While still promoting care for God's creation, signers of the "We Get It!" declaration say science does not absolutely support humans being the main cause of warming and that there is no hard evidence showing the devastating degree of climate change claimed by mainstream society.
Last summer, Southern Baptists adopted a resolution urging members of the denomination to "proceed cautiously in the human-induced global warming debate in light of conflicting scientific research."
The resolution further stated that they "consider proposals to regulate CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions based on a maximum acceptable global temperature goal to be very dangerous, since attempts to meet the goal could lead to a succession of mandates of deeper cuts in emissions, which may have no appreciable effect if humans are not the principal cause of global warming, and could lead to major economic hardships on a worldwide scale." Continue »
