New Report from the National Survey of Religious Leaders Documents the State of America’s Clergy

“You can’t understand American religion without understanding its leaders.”

Mark Chaves Sociologist, Duke University Clergy in America constitutes a significant resource for helping journalists, academics, clergy, and lay people deepen their knowledge about religious leaders in 21st-century America. It takes a deep dive into the state of clergy in America, from their demographic make-up to their health and well-being, from their religious beliefs to their attitudes about depression, from their involvement with politics to the challenges of pastoring amidst declining institutional commitment. Key findings from Clergy in America include: 78% of evangelical Protestant clergy reject the scientific consensus that the climate is changing and that human actions are a major cause of that change. Read more here. Almost all clergy endorsed a medical approach to treating depressive symptoms, signaling potential for greater collaboration with medical professionals to address mental health needs. Read more here. For Catholic and mainline Protestants, more clergy would encourage a hypothetical person with cancer to pursue palliative care than to hope for a miracle cure. For Black and evangelical Protestants, it’s the opposite. Read more here. 53% of mainline Protestant clergy said they are more liberal than their congregants, including 20% who consider themselves much more liberal. Read more here. Religious leaders are — perhaps surprisingly — a remarkable fulfilled group, though mainline Protestant clergy express lower levels of satisfaction than their peers in other groups. Read more here. Whether it provides headlines for today’s religion news cycle, context for stories on a wide array of subjects, or information for scholars and religious leaders to use in their own teaching and writing, Clergy in America provides a comprehensive and trustworthy resource for unpacking who clergy are, what they believe, and what they practice. The NSRL in Brief Nationally representative survey of clergy who serve congregations Includes clergy from across the religious spectrum Conducted between February 2019 and June 2020 1,600 participating clergy, 890 of whom were their congregation’s primary leader; results mentioned above refer only to these primary leaders Funded by the John Templeton Foundation The full report is available here. Visit the NSRL website Mark Chaves is Anne Firor Scott Distinguished Professor of Sociology, and Professor of Religious Studies and Divinity, at Duke University. He directs the National Congregations Study (NCS), a wide-ranging survey of a nationally representative sample of religious congregations, and the National Survey of Religious Leaders (NSRL), a similarly wide-ranging and nationally representative survey of clergy. Professor Chaves is the author of American Religion: Contemporary Trends (2nd ed.), Congregations in America, and Ordaining Women: Culture and Conflict in Religious Organizations. He has chaired the General Social Survey’s Board of Overseers and has been President of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion.