When Democrats lost control of Congress in 1994, the Religious
Right claimed a major role in their defeat and House Speaker Newt
Gingrich credited the "organized Christian vote" with the
Republican victory. Ministers from many political persuasions have
long been active in American politics, but in the 1980s and 1990s
it has seemed impossible to find any political controversy that did
not involve the clergy -- often on both sides of the issue.
In this first major study of clergy and politics in more than
twenty years, five social scientists tell how and why the
theological orthodoxy and modernism that divides American
Protestants into two camps increasingly correlates with today's
political climate. Drawing on two decades of extensive survey
research conducted with thousands of ministers nationwide, they
explore the political attitudes and behavior of the clergy in eight
mainline and evangelical Protestant denominations -- including
Southern Baptist, Assemblies of God, United Methodist, and
Presbyterian.
In addressing the nature and extent of clerical participation,
The Bully Pulpit asks the following questions: How do different
groups of ministers see their role in politics? What kinds of
activities do they approve or disapprove? How active are
contemporary Protestant clergy in politics? What factors account
for the level and kinds of participation? It also questions whether
analyses of clerical activism made in the 1960s and 1970s can be
said to apply to Protestants today.
The authors' findings reveal that traditionalists who seek moral
reform tend to make pronouncements in religious settings, while
modernists interested in social justice are more active in a wide
range ofpolitical activities. They also indicate that the "New
Breed" liberals are just as active as the Religious Right, citing
the long heritage of mainline Protestant politics that continues in
the tradition of activist ministers of the 1960s and 1970s. Their
book offers an unbiased measure of political activism among both
conservative and liberal clergymen at the end of the century and
helps us understand the current state of the relationship between
church and state in America.
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