Most U.S. adults now say it is not necessary to believe in God to be moral and have good values, up from about half who expressed this view in 2011.

By Bob Smietana

NASHVILLE, Tenn.—In the 1950s, Congress banned charitable nonprofits—including churches—from endorsing candidates or otherwise intervening in elections.

Any nonprofit that violated the ban could run afoul of the IRS. Churches risked losing their tax-exempt status if the preacher endorsed a candidate in a sermon.

It’s time for that to change, most Protestant pastors say in a new survey from Nashville-based LifeWay Research.

More than 7 in 10 say Congress should bar the IRS from punishing a church for sermon content. And 9 in 10 say their sermons should be free from government oversight.

“Most pastors believe the pulpit should be off-limits to the government,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay Research.

Pulpit freedom is the main concern

The phone survey of 1,000 Protestant senior pastors, sponsored by the Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), comes as Congress and the White House address the future of the so-called Johnson Amendment.

That 1954 law bans all 501(c)(3) nonprofits from active involvement in campaigns. It was passed at the behest of then-U.S. Sen. Lyndon Johnson, who was angered at Texas nonprofits that opposed his re-election bid.

Only one congregation has lost its tax-exempt status due to the Johnson Amendment. That happened in 1995, after the Church at Pierce Creek near Binghamton, N.Y., ran newspaper ads opposing Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential bid. Other churches have been investigated for the content of their sermons, including All Saints Episcopal Church in Los Angeles, after a preacher there criticized President George W. Bush days before the 2004 election.

Still, the IRS warns churches to steer clear of direct involvement in campaigns. And since 2008, the ADF has been challenging the restriction on endorsements through a series of annual “Pulpit Freedom” Sundays.

“Churches and their pastors have a constitutionally protected freedom to decide for themselves what they want to say or not say,” said ADF Legal Counsel Christiana Holcomb. “This poll demonstrates that religious leaders don’t want to be burdened by the continual threat of an IRS investigation and potential penalties based simply on what they say from the pulpit.”

LifeWay Research found widespread opposition to any government penalties for the content of a preacher’s sermons.

Ninety-one percent of pastors agree with the statement, “Pastors should have the right to speak freely from the pulpit without the fear of being penalized by the government.”

That includes 77 percent of pastors who strongly agree.

Six percent of pastors disagree. Three percent are not sure.

Among those who agree:

• 96 percent of pastors at larger churches (those with 250 or more attenders).
• 88 percent of pastors at small churches (those with fewer than 50 attenders).
• 86 percent of pastors ages 18 to 44.
• 93 percent of pastors 45 and older.
• 96 percent of evangelical pastors.
• 85 percent of mainline pastors.

LifeWay Research also found most senior Protestant pastors say Congress should end any IRS oversight of a pastor’s sermons.

Three-quarters (73 percent) agree with the statement, “Congress should remove the IRS’ power to penalize a church because of the content of its pastor’s sermons.” That includes 60 percent who strongly agree. Twenty-one percent disagree. Six percent are not sure.

Pastors of large churches (87 percent) are among the most likely to agree. Female pastors (49 percent) are among the least likely, as are pastors 18 to 44 years old (60 percent).

Among other findings:

• Pastors in the South (77 percent) are more likely to agree than pastors in the Northeast (66 percent).
• Evangelical pastors (84 percent) are more likely to agree than mainline pastors (58 percent).
• Baptist (86 percent), Pentecostal (93 percent) and Holiness (91 percent) pastors are more likely to agree than Lutheran (61 percent), Methodist (56 percent) and Presbyterian/Reformed (61 percent) pastors.

Little support for political endorsements

Previous LifeWay Research surveys found little support—from either pastors or Americans in general—for political endorsements in the pulpit. But few Americans want churches punished if a pastor does make an endorsement.

Eight in 10 Americans (79 percent) say it is inappropriate for pastors to endorse a candidate in church, according to a 2015 LifeWay Research survey. Three-quarters say churches should steer clear of endorsements. Yet fewer than half (42 percent) want churches to lose their tax exemption for publicly endorsing candidates.

A similar survey from the fall of 2016 found that endorsements during worship were rare. Only one Protestant pastor in 100 acknowledged endorsing a candidate during a church service. One in 4 (22 percent) had privately endorsed a candidate outside of a church service.

A Pew Research survey from the fall of 2016 found that 14 percent of Americans who attended worship services had heard their pastor speak out about a presidential candidate.

“Pastors—and Americans in general—don’t want church services to turn into campaign rallies,” said McConnell. “But when they do address political candidates, they don’t believe it is the government’s business. There’s very strong support for Congress to make sure the IRS isn’t policing sermons.”

Bob Smietana is senior writer for Facts & Trends.

Methodology:
The phone survey of 1,000 Protestant pastors was conducted Aug. 30 to Sept. 18, 2017. These questions were sponsored by the Alliance Defending Freedom. The calling list was a stratified random sample, drawn from a list of all Protestant churches. Quotas were used for church size. Each interview was conducted with the senior pastor, minister or priest of the church called. Responses were weighted by region to more accurately reflect the population. The completed sample is 1,000 surveys. The sample provides 95 percent confidence that the sampling error does not exceed plus or minus 3.2 percent. Margins of error are higher in sub-groups.

LifeWay Research is a Nashville-based, evangelical research firm that specializes in surveys about faith in culture and matters that affect churches.

Download the research

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It was a pleasure teaming up with Foodbank Australia, to conduct new research into the hidden problem of food insecurity in Australia.

What is food insecurity?

Food insecurity can be defined as “a situation that exists when people lack secure access to sufficient amounts of safe and nutritious food for normal growth and development and an active and healthy life” - Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations.

Despite our reputation as the “lucky country”, the issue of hunger exists in Australia but is largely unnoticed

The reality is that 3.6 million Australians (15%) have experienced food insecurity at least once in the last 12 months. Three in five of these individuals experience food insecurity at least once a month.

Food insecurity impacts a wide range of groups in the community, and is not restricted to the unemployed or homeless. In fact, almost half of food insecure Australians (48%) are employed in some way, whether full-time, part-time or casually.

Our youngest members of the community are also impacted, as dependent children live in 40% of food insecure households.

The study shows how easy it is for someone to fall into food insecurity, given the rising cost of living

Financial pressures can create difficult choices, such as choosing between heating and eating. Two in five food insecure Australians (41%) have not paid bills in order to have enough money to buy food.

The experience of food insecurity is incredibly challenging and can cause a significant decline in quality of life for individuals and families. Skipping meals in these instances is quite common, and 28% of food insecure Australians report going for an entire day without eating in times where they have run out of food.

Download the full report here Download the full infographic here

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Summary

Todd Adkins, director of LifeWay Leadership, shares his passion for developing the people of the church for ministry.

Interview excerpt
“As church leaders, we have one job. That’s to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. It’s to recognize that, in the church, especially in the last hundred years, we treat baptism like it’s the finish line not like it’s the starting line. People know Ephesians 2:89, “This by grace that we’ve been saved.”

But they forget to add on to that 2:10, which says we’re God’s workmanship and we’re created in Christ Jesus and he’s prepared specific things for us to do. Far too many times we treat people like they’re warm bodies or they’re there, it’s almost like the people are there for our process, not our process to grow them and develop them as for the people.

We get that backwards a lot. I don’t know. I’m just passionate about seeing people become who God created them to be.

How does that all fit into personality? When you begin to overlap several tools, you still can’t put anybody in a box ‑‑ certainly with one tool, but even multiple tools ‑‑ because God is hopefully continuing to grow them, to develop them.

Hopefully they’re continuing to grow more Christ‑like. Over the course of time, that’s going to naturally change. That’s going to change them. But having those tests are really good starting off point to help people understand where they can do the most damage in the Kingdom.

I know, based on my personality type, I’m going to be able to position myself well to do the most damage for the Kingdom. If I know that, as far as how my team is wired, I can know how to do that. I can also keep it from damaging our community, because I can say, “Hey, you know this person there’s approach to conflict is going to be attack and overwhelm.”

This person is going to make excuses and shift the blame. How do I deal with those people differently? Even if you look at the way Jesus interacted with Mary and Martha on the death of Lazarus, in one case he wept. Shortest verse in the Bible.

It really depends. With Martha, he was business. With Mary, he wept. Because that was their different personalities. He treated them differently.

It’s important for us, as stewards of God’s most precious thing, his church, it’s important for us to do all we can to understand the people we serve and get them to their next step.”

Be sure to Tweet your questions and comments to us: @LifeWayResearch and individually: @smcconn, @statsguycasey, and @lizettebeard. Join us next time for another edition of Keep Asking.

(See the full transcript for the episode –with links–on next page)

Todd Adkin serves as Director of Leadership at LifeWay. He also hosts the 5 Leadership Questions Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @ToddAdkins.

Though the U.S. has resettled more refugees than any country since 1980, the number of resettled refugees in the U.S. has not grown along with the worldwide refugee population in recent years.

We were delighted to partner with Jura Australia to conduct new research to better understand Australian perspectives, attitudes and behaviours towards coffee.

Coffee is crucial for the survival of more than one in four Australians.

The love of coffee is strong in Australia, with more than one in four (27%) indicating they cannot survive the day without it, and 9 in 10 (88%) stating they like it to some extent.

Australia’s younger generations have a greater dependency on coffee, with around a third needing it to survive the day (33% Gen Y and 30% Gen X). By comparison the Builders generation are the most likely to see coffee as something nice to have but don't need it (45%).

We also don’t mind paying for what we love, with more than four in five Australians (84%) spending money on coffee in an average week.

Three quarters of Australians have at least one cup a day.

Three in four Australians (75%) enjoy at least one cup of coffee per day, and of those, 28% have three or more cups per day! Those who prefer instant coffee are the most likely to have three or more cups per day.

Instant Vs espresso, who wins?

Australian coffee drinkers are evenly divided between those who prefer instant coffee (39%) and espresso coffee (39%).

Older generations are likely to prefer instant coffee, whilst a preference for espresso coffee is higher among Australia’s younger generations. The Builders generation are the exception, with two in five (42%) preferring espresso coffee.

Coffee is most enjoyed at home.

The majority of Australians who drink coffee will make a coffee at home on a usual weekday (86%). However, when it comes to purchasing a coffee from a café, younger generations are more likely to do so than their older counterparts (61% Gen Z, 53% Gen Y cf. 36% Gen X, 33% Baby Boomers, 26% Builders).

Coffee drinkers who prefer espresso coffee are the most likely to purchase their coffee from a cafe (60% cf. 36% coffee pods, 22% instant coffee). More than three quarters of those who prefer espresso coffee (77%), however, will make a coffee at home on an average weekday.

Research Methodology

This research is a collation of data gained through an online national representation survey of 1,000 Australians over the age of 18 across the different generations, genders and states in Australia.

Get In Touch

If we can assist with any research, event speaking or infographic design please feel free to get in touch:

P: +61 2 8824 3422

E: info@mccrindle.com.au

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