Research probes church policy issues regarding homosexuality
Issues@Hand
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November 2016 – An August 2016 LifeWay Research survey found that most pastors are at opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to allowing homosexuals to serve in church leadership, with 30% saying that such persons could serve in any position, and 34% saying they could not serve anywhere. The remaining pastors said they had not considered the issue (20%), or that homosexuals might serve in some places in the church but not all (15%).
On a related issue from the survey, LifeWay Research found that 88% of Protestant senior pastors have not been asked to perform a same sex wedding. Baptist pastors are the least likely to have been asked (1%), and Presbyterian/Reformed pastors are most likely (26%). Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling that redefined marriage to include same sex couples, more than 100,000 same sex couples have married.
Overall, mainline church pastors were three times more likely to have been asked than pastors serving in evangelical churches.
