Many Conservative Pastors Plan to Encourage Voting in 2014

August 5, 2013  Church-going people can expect to hear encouragement from conservative pastors to get involved in the upcoming mid-term elections. The Center for the Study of American Culture and Faith has released the results of a new survey among theologically-conservative pastors showing that close to half of those pastors (44%) said they will use the pulpit to “definitely provide strong encouragement to vote and to get involved” in the election.  Another one out of five conservative pastors (20%) said they will “probably” provide such encouragement to their congregants from their pulpit. In fact, while some pastors are still reflecting on their likely engagement, only one out of every twenty (6%) said they will “definitely not provide any encouragement or direction related to the election.” It is likely that most pastors will personally model the kind of behavior they are encouraging from their flocks. The survey discovered that 97% of theologically-conservative pastors are currently registered to vote. Two-thirds of them are registered as Republicans (66%), with smaller proportions registered as independent voters (15%), Democrats (6%), or aligned with other political parties (7%). “Many conservative pastors view the next few years as crucial to the future health and stability of American society,” explained Bill Dallas, Director of the Center for the Study of American Culture & Faith. “As more of these pastors realize that the IRS cannot legally bully them into silence and submission, and they recognize and accept the significant role that pastors are called to play as cultural leaders, they are increasingly committed to taking public stands for biblical truth in national policy. The mid-term election will be a personal testing ground for many of them. We expect to see the number of conservative pastors encouraging congregants to become more politically aware and involved to continue to rise through the 2016 election cycle.” Methodology The survey among pastors of Protestant churches was directed by The Center for the Study of American Culture and Faith during March and April 2013 among a nationally representative sample of 413 theologically-conservative pastors. The estimated maximum amount of sampling error associated with that sample is +5.0 percentage points. About the Center for the Study of American Culture and Faith The Center for the Study of American Culture and Faith regularly conducts surveys on issues of national importance for the purpose of helping to educate the public about the impact that culture and faith have on elections. The Center for the Study of American Culture and Faith is a division of United in Purpose Education, a 501c3 whose mission is to promote traditional Judeo-Christian principles in American society through values education, research, voter outreach, marketing strategies, and technology tools. More information about the Center for the Study of American Culture and Faith and its work can be found at www.culturefaith.com