A new survey from LifeWay Research finds that most pastors in the United States are undecided whether to support former President Donald Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris in the next election, with twice as many pastors planning to vote for Trump. investigationThe survey, released Tuesday, found that about 23% of pastors are undecided about who they will vote for in the November election, while 50% of respondents plan to support Trump and 24% plan to vote for Harris.
“We ask pastors about a lot of things that are going on in our culture today, and they're happy to give us their opinions,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay Research. statement“But the growing reluctance of pastors to declare their voting intentions shows how sensitive and divisive politics have become in some churches.”
The report also noted that exactly half of those surveyed identified as Republicans, 25 percent as independents, and 18 percent as Democrats.
“Of all the characteristics of pastors, their partisan affiliation is the best predictor of how they will vote,” McConnell argues. “While denominational groups often lean politically to one side or the other, pastors must serve alongside many clergy members who do not share their political views.”
“The same thing is happening within churches, where pastors are leading churches that seek unity around faith in a culture that is increasingly unwilling to tolerate people with different political views.”
According to Christian PostThe findings are similar to those of LifeWay's 2020 poll, which found that 53% of Protestant pastors plan to vote for Trump in that year's election, 21% plan to support Joe Biden, and 22% are undecided.
In 2016, four in 10 pastors said they were still undecided as of September of that year, with about a third (32%) planning to vote for Trump and 19% planning to vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Among respondents who plan to vote for Trump in 2024, Pentecostals (65%) were the most likely, followed by Baptists (64%), non-denominational Christians (64%), Church of Christ members (55%), Lutherans (48%), Methodists (26%) and Presbyterians (24%). Meanwhile, self-described evangelical pastors (61%) were far more likely to say they intend to support Trump than mainline Protestant pastors (30%).
The survey was conducted Aug. 8 through Sept. 3 and garnered responses from 1,003 Protestant pastors. The margin of error was +3.3 percentage points.
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