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Why do Pastors Preach on Social Issues?
By Hart M. Nelsen

Editor's note: The following article was prepared in honor of Samuel W. Blizzard, who, after a long and distinguished teaching career, is taking early retirement because of ill health. Since 1957, he has been Professor of Christianity and Society at Princeton Theological Seminary, and since 1970, he has held the Maxwell M. Upson Professorship of Christianity and Society at Princeton. He has also taught at Pennsylvania State University and Union Theological Seminary in New York, as well as serving as the director of both the Russell Sage Foundation's Training for the Ministry Project from 1953 to 1960 and the National Council of Churches' Clergy Research Project from 1957 to 1958. He is the co-author with Emory J. Brown of The Church and the Community and has contributed essays and articles to more than forty books, scholarly journals, and popular periodicals. After receiving his undergraduate degree from Maryville College, he pursued graduate study at Biblical Seminary in New York, Princeton Theological Seminary, Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Hartford Seminary Foundation, and Cornell University, as well as post-graduate work at Mansfield College, Oxford University. Prior to entering academic life, he served Presbyterian parishes in Roselle, New Jersey, and Long Green and Ashland, Maryland.

One of his students, Hart M. Nelsen, prepared this article utilizing Blizzard's highly influential study of clergy roles. Nelsen, a graduate of Occidental College, the University of Northern Iowa, Princeton Theological Seminary, and Vanderbilt University, is Professor of Sociology and Chairperson of the Department of Sociology at The Catholic University of America, as well as a member of the Boys Town Center, a research institute at Catholic University. He is the author of many articles in major sociological journals, the editor (with Raytha L. Yokley and Anne K. Nelsen) of The Black Church in America (1971) and author (with Anne K. Nelsen) of the forthcoming volume, The Black Church in the Sixties.

The data for this article were collected under support from the National Institute of Mental Health (1 R01 MH 16573). His colleagues in the larger study are Raytha L. Yokley and Thomas W. Madron.

Copyright © 1975 by Hart M. Nelsen

Landmark research on the role of the clergy was completed by Samuel Blizzard in the mid- and late-1950's. My purpose in this article will not be to review subsequent work on the clergy even though much of it has been based on his delimitation of the field. Rather, my intent is to present the findings from one of my own studies concerned with

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clergy role and social activism. ¹ In 1961, Glock and Roos noted Blizzard's work on the dilemma of allocation of time to various duties on the part of clergy, and they presented the results of a secondary analysis of Lutheran data showing that ministers and laity are not far apart in what duties they would give precedence. ² Yet in 1971, Glock and his colleagues failed to assess the importance of clergy role in determining which ministers speak out on social issues from the pulpit. In this article I will relate clergy role, as well as theological orientation, to this form of social activism.

I

Three levels of analyses were used by Blizzard as he viewed the occupation of clergy: means (or practitioner roles), goals (or integrative roles), and conceptions of the ministry as distinctive from other occupations as viewed by ministers (or master roles). ³ Blizzard enumerated six practitioner roles-administrator, organizer, pastor, preacher, priest, and teacher. Blizzard reported how his respondents ranked the six roles in terms of importance, effectiveness, and enjoyment. He concluded the "ministers' dilemma" lies in the fact that they are urged to allocate more of their energies in administering programs than would be seemingly demanded in terms of training and their own and their parishoners' feelings (which place more stress on the traditional duties of preacher and pastor). ⁴

When we view the clergy as participants in the 1960's civil rights protest activities, of interest is Blizzard's description of the organizer role which "involves leadership, participation, and planing in... community organizations." ⁵ The practitioner role is "performed... as a means to an end (or goal)"; Blizzard gave the following as an example:

Ministers may preach for different purposes. The intent of one minister in preaching (a means oriented practitioner role) may be to be persuasive to the non-believer, or to evangelize (a goal oriented integrative role). Another may preach to instruct the believer, or to edify or to educate; another may preach to bring judgment to the community, or to be prophetic. ⁶

The second level of analysis, involving goals rather than means, was the integrative role. Included here is the general practitioner (three or more integrative roles held with about the same intensity), believer-

¹ My own debt to Blizzard is large. From course work completed under him I acquired several specific interests in the sociology of religion (especially clergy role orientations) and I had sharpened my sociological perspective of religious beliefs and behavior. For his students Blizzard is a role model of minister and sociologist.
² Charles Y. Glock and Philip Roos, "Parishioners' Views of How Ministers Spend Their Time," Review of Religious Research 2 (Spring 1961):170-175.
³ Much of this review is from Hart M. Nelsen, Raytha L. Yokley, and Thomas W. Madron, "Ministerial Roles and Social Actionist Stance: Protestant Clergy and Protest in the Sixties," American Sociological Review 38 (June 1973):375-386.
⁴ Samuel W. Blizzard, "The Minister's Dilemma," Christian Century 73 (April 25, 1956):508-509.
⁵ Ibid., p. 508.
⁶ Samuel W. Blizzard, "The Protestant Parish Minister's Integrating Roles," Religious Education 53 (July-August 1958), p. 375.

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saint, scholar, evangelist, liturgist, father-shepherd, interpersonal relations specialist, parish promoter, community problem solver, educator, sub-cultural specialist, "lay" minister, representative of the church-at-large, and church politician. ⁷

It should be remembered that Blizzard collected his data and completed his initial analysis prior to the fairly extensive involvement of clergy in the civil rights struggle. Consequently, social activism was not especially salient for him as a researcher. From their study of Little Rock clergy, Campbell and Pettigrew concluded that there is little encouragement of ministers as reformers built into their jobs; and they cited Blizzard's article on practitioner roles as evidence-"Blizzard does not find a 'community reformer' or 'social critic' role in the ministry." ⁸ They discussed reference systems which impinge on the clergy's response (or lack of response) to the "moral dilemma" of racial crisis. Most powerful was the membership reference system. They wrote: "the minister is required to be a cohesive force, . . . to show a progressive increase in the membership of his church . . . and to encourage maximum annual giving and to plan for the improvement and expansion of the plant." ⁹

It was unfortunate that Blizzard and Campbell and Pettigrew were publishing about the same time because Blizzard's integrative rather than practitioner roles were especially relevant for locating clergy social action. However, Campbell and Pettigrew (as well as Glock and Roos) drew upon Blizzard's work on practitioner roles. Of special interest to us is Blizzard's "community problem solver" integrative role in which "the minister conceives his interest and skill as an organizer extending out to community, national, and international issues." Clergy with this role will feel like an Old Testament prophet or will be a "crusader with a social welfare orientation." ¹⁰

The third-and most reflective-level is the master role, or the way ministers see themselves vis-à-vis the socal system, the culture, and other occupations. Ministers may define themselves as mediators between God and humanity or, instead, as servants of Christ. Or, they may have a more functional viewpoint, with a social service orientation, or they may view themselves as inspiring examples for parishioners. The minister might hold two or more of these views simultaneously. ¹¹

⁷ Ibid., pp. 374-380.
⁸ Ernest Q. Campbell and Thomas F. Pettigrew, "Racial and Moral Crisis: The Role of Little Rock Ministers," American Journal of Sociology 64 (March 1959), p. 515.
⁹ Ibid.
¹⁰ Blizzard, "The Protestant Parish Minister's Integrating Roles," p. 378.
¹¹ Samuel W. Blizzard, "The Parish Minister's Self-Image of His Master Role," Pastoral Psychology 9 (December 1958):25-32. Two other articles by Blizzard are of interest to us in this paper. Blizzard discussed role conflicts faced by urban ministers, including possible conflict between believer-saint and prophet, or that "the minister feels that he is expected to be a man of belief, but that ethical judgments that he derives from his understanding of the Christian faith are at times challenged." In other words, integrative roles can pull a clergyman in two ways. See Samuel W. Blizzard, "Role Conflicts of the Urban Protestant Parish Ministers," The City Church 7 (September1956): 13-15. In the second article Blizzard discussed demands made on clergy by different community settings. For example, "metropolitan-urban located ministers stressed race, ethnic, and civil rights issues [while] non-metropolitan clergy emphasized taking stands on puritan ideals of conduct." See Samuel W. Blizzard, "The Parish Minister's Self-image and Variability in Community Culture," Pastoral Psychology 10 (October 1959):27-36.

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In our first work on the relation between clergy role and social action orientation, we concentrated on Blizzard's integrative role of community problem solver. Blizzard had explicitly indicated that the minister with this orientation would assume either a prophetic or social welfare stance. Our strategy was to develop an instrument to measure clergy role orientation (using a technique called factor analysis). We asked clergy to agree or disagree with a number of statements which we wrote to tap various integrative roles. At this point the description and findings of that study should be introduced.

II

In November, 197 1, we sent questionnaires to a random sample of ministers serving churches in Minneapolis, Boston, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, and Los Angeles. Of the 960 ministers, 46.1 percent returned completed questionnaires. We constructed a four-item dependent variable concerned with receptivity to protest. Two of the items were behavioral and two were attitudinal. They concerned the level of protest involvement by ministers and their attitude toward ministers being involved in the civil rights movement.

We developed an instrument of integrative roles involving 23 items that measure five clergy roles. The traditional role consists of Blizzard's believer-saint, evangelist, and father-shepherd roles. Two typical items endorsed by a minister with this role orientation are "I try to be a person who preaches the Word to save souls" and "The minister should be prayerful in all things." Examples for the community problem solving role are "I feel called by God to speak out on social ills" and "I continually seek ways to strike harder at problems like war and racism." Other roles were counseling ("I am willing to devote most of my time to counseling" and "I get closest to the spiritual concerns of my people when I'm counseling with them"), administrator ("I like to run my church as a smooth, well-oiled organization" and "I feel rewarded when attendance is high, membership is expanding, and the budget is oversubscribed"), and religious education ("The major goal of the church should be religious education" and "I most enjoy Christian Education, whether it is with youth or adults"). Of considerable interest is the item "I try to keep conflict at a minimum in my congregation." Traditional- and administrative-oriented clergy endorsed this item, while community problemsolving ministers rejected it (that is, the latter found value in having conflict present in their congregation). ¹²

¹² For these items and for the analysis, see Nelsen, Yokley, and Madron, "Ministerial Roles and Social Actionist Stance."

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Benton Johnson has also conducted seminal research on clergy and has concluded that while "theology is a good predictor of the political attitudes and behavior of ascetic Protestant pastors and laymen" there are "grounds for rejecting theology as the sole or even the major source of these norms." ¹³ We asked ministers to rate themselves on their theological and political positions. While these two variables were highly related to each other (with theologically conservative clergy being politically conservative, etc.), conservative theological position and having a traditional role orientation were coupled, as were liberal political orientation and the community problem-solving role.

We then related the role orientations to protest and found that of the five roles, only the traditional and community problem solving roles were related to this dependent variable. Traditional ministers were less likely and community problem-solving clergy more likely to be receptive to protest.

Finally we used clergy roles in addition to theological and political viewpoints and age and education of the clergy to predict protest orientation. Most important was political viewpoint, followed by the community problem solving role. Theological position, age, and education were of less importance in determining receptivity to protest. No other clergy role, including the traditional orientation, was significantly related to protest when these other variables were included in the analysis. We concluded that Blizzard's community problem-solving role was extremely useful in predicting social activism on the part of clergy.

III

Johnson has suggested that conservative Protestants do not tend to impute religious significance to social issues, whereas religious liberals tend to identify social issues as having religious importance. ¹⁴ We have noted that religious conservatives perhaps identify religion with theology, while religious liberals identify it with ethics. For the liberal minister the significant fact about the ministry is that it is one vocation, among others, that allows working out ethical objectives. ¹⁵ In certain periods (for instance, the 1960's), this possibility has been more of a reality than in other periods (it seems safe to assume that numerous liberal clergy had left or were considering leaving the ministry by the mid-1970's). Parenthetically, let us note that from data for a national sample of Protestant and Catholic clergy collected in December, 1972, it was determined that leaving the ministry was being considered especially by ministers with the community problem-

¹³ Benton Johnson, "Theology and the Position of Pastors on Public Issues," American Sociological Review 32(June l967),p.441.
¹⁴ Ibid., P. 440.
¹⁵ Nelsen, Yokley, and Madron, "Ministerial Roles and Social Actionist Stance," p. 385.

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solving role, while it was not being considered by ministers with a traditional role orientation. ¹⁶

Andrew Greeley has observed that while there is a reform orientation in American religion, yet "the overwhelming majority of Americans do not like to be disturbed by their religion more than they deem appropriate . . . . " ¹⁷ Greeley's thesis is that American religious pluralism functions to provide Americans social location. One consequence is that "since the fellowship is more important than the belief, it is possible to be part of the fellowship without necessarily penetrating or taking seriously all the dimensions of the belief." Yet Greeley notes the irony in the fact that since religion is important in America because it gives people a feeling of social belonging, religion can also have a prophetic function. ¹⁸ Were religion weak, less prophecy would be possible. ¹⁹

Another researcher who focused on differences in civil rights attitudes of clergy and laity was Jeffrey Hadden who warned that clergy and laity were on collision course, with clergy urging the church's involvement in civil rights and other social and political issues, and with laity wanting the church to serve as a buffer against change and as a source of comfort and meaning. ²⁰ Other data from Gallup samples indicated that whites were less likely to want the church to speak out on social and political issues in 1968 than in 1957. ²¹

Hadden observed that the clergy have a new understanding of faith

¹⁶ Hart M. Nelsen and Robert F. Everett, "Impact of Church Size on Clergy Role and Career," paper given at the annual meeting of the Religious Research Association, Washington, D.C., October, 1974. We also found that dissatisfaction with the congregation's appreciation of the minister's work is most likely to precipitate consideration of changing churches, while dissatisfaction with remuneration is most likely to accompany consideration of leaving the ministry. While I have not had the opportunity to review it, Blizzard has completed work on clergy salary. See Samuel W. Blizzard, "The Clergy Compensation System Report," New York: NCCUSA, 1960; item 3481 in the Harlan Paul Douglass Collection of Religious Research Reports.
¹⁷ Andrew M. Greeley, The Denominational Society (Glenview, Illinois: Scott, Foresman, 1972), p. 104.
¹⁸ Ibid., pp. 118-119.
¹⁹ Nelsen and Allen have provided a partial testing of the "belonging thesis" by examining New York City Catholic data. They predicted that differences by region of origin would be more pronounced in the second than first generation of immigrants to America. Their hypothesis rested on the argument that "the groups that are most easily assimilated evidence increased church attendance because their acceptance into American life has validated those institutions (including the religious identification) that they brought with them." Most likely to display higher levels of attendance (when comparing second to first generation Americans) were respondents of Northern and Western European background, while those of Southern European origins were more likely to display decreased levels of attendance. See Hart M. Nelsen and H. David Allen, "Ethnicity, Americanization, and Religious Attendance," American Journal of Sociology 79 (January 1974):906-922.
²⁰ Jeffrey K. Hadden, The Gathering Storm in the Churches (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1969), pp. 230, 215.
²¹ Anne K. Nelsen and Hart M. Nelsen, "Keeping the Faith in the Sixties: The Black Christian Response to the Revolution and Beyond," paper read at the annual meeting of the American Historical Association, New York, December, 1971; see also: Hart M. Nelsen and Anne K. Nelsen, The Black Church in the Sixties (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1975), in press.

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and that they basically have been unable to communicate this to their members. Nelsen, Yokley, and Nelsen noted that "liberal white ministers can be seen as attempting to move the church in the direction of being a voluntary association, and herein lies the rub described by Hadden-that to attract and keep members reform goals must be toned down, or that there must be 'boundaries that are acceptable to a large proportion of the laity'" ²² This is in contradiction to the church serving as an "umbrella identification," or Greeley's social location function. Given these powerful constraints, one wonders what encourages ministers to speak out. We now turn to this topic.

IV

From a nationwide listing of United Presbyterian churches stratified on the basis of the percentage of members who were nonwhite, we drew a random sample of ministers. The initial sample size was (1112,) but 46 clergy could not be contacted because of inadequate addresses for their churches or because the churches had been relocated, merged, or closed. Of the 1066 clergymen who were contacted, completed questionnaires were eventually received from 587, yielding a response rate of 55.1 percent. An analysis of the returns indicated that there was a lower response rate from the heavily- and all-nonwhite churches than there should have been. Sixty-three percent of the respondents served churches with 95 percent or more of the parishioners being white, while the sampling frame had indicated 50 percent of those selected served such churches. Since this study is concerned with relationships among variables and is not an attempt to analyze the extent to which racial inclusion exists in the denomination studied, it was felt that this selective pattern in response does not seriously bias or affect the results and conclusions.

The same five clergy roles discussed earlier were obtained with these data. ²³ Other predictors used in the analysis to be reported here were theological and political viewpoints, level of education, and age of the clergy. Later in the analysis we will also use the variable how all-white or, conversely, integrated or all-nonwhite the church is that is served by the minister.

Our focus here is especially on sermon topics chosen by these clergy. They were asked how often during the past year they had delivered a sermon which "dealt mainly with, or touched upon" each of 13 specified topics. These topics were first used in a schedule devised by Quinley. In reporting their findings, Stark et al. noted that the more theologically liberal clergy were especially likely to choose

²² Hart M. Nelsen, Raytha L. Yokley, and Anne K. Nelsen, The Black Church in America (New York: Basic Books, 1971), p. 13. For the Hadden material see: Jeffrey Hadden, "The House Divided," in The Church, The University, and Social Policy, ed. Kenneth Underwood (Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1969), pp. 275-291.
²³ The factor analysis of these Presbyterian data was also briefly discussed in Nelsen, Yokley, and Madron, "Ministerial Roles and Social Actionist Stance," p. 378.

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sermon topics on these social problems. When theologically conservative ministers addressed social issue topics, they were more likely to focus on the issues of crime and juvenile delinquency, drugs, alcobolism, and sexual conduct. They comment that "each of these topics concerns not only social and political issues but 'personal vices' in the most traditional sense. " ²⁴ That conservative ministers did not address the other topics-for example, poverty-"is that they see such problems as mundane in contrast to the joys of the world to come, and besides they believe these social ills would take care of themselves if enough men were brought to Christ." They note that an alternate explanation exists, however: that conservative ministers simply feel that the pulpit should not be used for discussing the "more mundane matters of everyday life. " ²⁵

Thus Stark et al. locate the roots of pulpit silence on social issues in theological commitment among clergy, since it is the theologically conservative ministers who do not preach on social issues involving more than personal vice. They write that "it seems clear that conservatives tend to view the purpose of their sermons in terms of individual salvation and sin . ²⁶ Here these researchers introduce an "otherworldliness" variable, ²⁷ and they then show that by controlling this variable, the relationship between the frequency of giving sermons on social or political issues and theological orientation is reduced. Thus, "those committed to traditional Christian doctrines are led to ignore social and political issues from the pulpit because they believe salvation of the individual is the only relevant solution to such problems." ²⁸ They also show reduced relationships in the giving of sermons on race and poverty.

Stark and his coauthors found a curvilinear relationship between doctrinalism and giving sermons on the vices, that is, both clergy who were especially liberal or conservative were especially likely to address such topics as alcoholism. Stark et al. do not report the effect of controlling otherworldliness on the relationship between doctrinalism and preaching sermons on the vices. Their explanation for pulpit silence seems less apt for sermon topics on these more personal matters, and what data they present here are contrary to the trend they posit.

Liberals tend to identify "sin" with societal problems while conservatives tend to link it with personal vices. Elsewhere we have suggested "that the problem-solving role orientation and political liberalism stem from a common ethical concern and that the pastor's theological position represents an effort to provide an 'explanation'

²⁴ Harold B. Quinley, "Clergymen and Public Affairs," a questionnaire, Stanford University, Institute of Political Studies, 1968. Rodney Stark, Bruce D. Foster, Charles Y.Glock, and Harold E. Quinley, Wayward Shepherds (New York: Harper & Row, 1971), p. 98.
²⁵ Ibid., p. 109.
²⁶ Ibid., p. 101.
²⁷ The items included in this index will be introduced at a later point in this article.
²⁸ Stark et al., Wayward Shepherds, p. 106. Italics deleted.

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for his ethical concerns within a religious context. . . ." ²⁹ There is a relationship between what role ministers have and what topics they address from the pulpit. Remember that the traditional role includes Blizzard's father-shepherd orientation. A protecting role would include on the part of at least some of these clergy the desire to lead the flock on the straight and narrow path to righteousness. A concern with personal ethics, or occasional preaching on the vices, follows. Also, the traditional role tends to be chosen by the more theologically conservative ministers, and part of fundamentalism or conservative religious ideology is the so-called "Puritan morality," or an emphasis that Christians do not indulge in such vices as drinking, cardplaying, smoking, and the like. ³⁰ On the other hand, we would not expect traditional role-oriented clergymen to have a concern with the "larger" social problems like race relations.

We might also expect clergy with a counseling role to be concerned with these social problems of a personal nature. Blizzard writes that "the implementation of this role is more specific than that of the Father-shepherd. "³¹ Here we have the professional pastor who specializes in the cares of a flock.

More centrally related to a concern with social and political issues is the community problem-solving role. Here such problems as poverty and race relations would be of special importance. The consideration of the effect of this role on the giving of these controversial sermons suggests that another variable, the political viewpoint of the minister, might be involved in pulpit silence or sound. It is possible that otherworldliness to a degree tapped political stance, and this latter variable was not included in the Stark et al. analysis. Johnson has noted that both theological and political perspectives are related to outlook on public issues, but that the former is not the " major source" of public affairs outlook. ³² Several researchers have noted the close relationship between theological and political outlook. ³³ It is suggested, then, that pulpit pronouncements on the larger social issues might be due more to political than theological viewpoint. The community problem-solving clergy role, which stems along with political liberalism from a common ethical concern, clearly

²⁹ Nelsen, Yokley, and Madron, "Ministerial Roles and Social Actionist Stance," p. 385.
³⁰ See: Ralph E. Lamar, "Fundamentalism and Selected Social Factors in the Southern Appalachian Region," Lexington: University of Kentucky, M.S. thesis, 1962; Gordon F. De Jong and Thomas R. Ford, "Religious Fundamentalism and Denominational Preference in the Southern Appalachian Region," Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 5 (Fall 1965):24-33; and Hart M. Nelsen, "Sectarianism, World View, and Anornie," Social Forces 51 (December 1972):226-233.
³¹ Blizzard, "The Protestant Parish Minister's Integrating Roles," p. 377.
³² Johnson, "Theology and the Position of Pastors on Public Issues," p. 441.
³³ Some of this literature is reviewed in Hart M. Nelsen, Thomas W. Madron, Raytha L. Yokley, and James W. Grimm, "Politicizing Their Parishioners: Protestant Clergy and the 1972 Presidential Election," paper given at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, Montreal, August, 1974.

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should be related to the giving of sermons on the larger social and political issues.

The responses to the 13 questions on sermon topics were subjected to factor analysis, a technique that tells us how many and what more basic "factors" these 13 sermons topics can be reduced to. This is the same technique used for ascertaining clergy roles. In summary, three types or factors of sermon topics were present in the data. The time-honored social problem sermon topics included concerns with national poverty, world poverty, racial problems, the UN and world peace, black power, and the conduct of public officials. ³⁴ The new social issues included concerns with abortion laws, birth control, capital punishment, black power, and the conduct of public officials. The morality issues included the use of drugs, alcoholism, crime and juvenile delinquency, and sexual conduct. Each minister was given three composite scores, one for each of the factors. These scores were then dichotomized, that is, clergy were said to be low or high on each of the three variables if they fell below or above the median score.

V

From the analysis of data obtained from Protestant clergy serving churches in five major metropolitan areas we showed that the community problem solving role was related to receptivity to protest. Before we examine the sermon topic data, let us look at the relationship between clergy role and social activism. Table I presents the percent of ministers scoring high on indices for civil rights ³⁵ and protest. ³⁶ Also shown are the percentages of ministers scoring high on an index for discussing social and political issues, ³⁷ by clergy role.³⁸ The

³⁴ The researcher names the factor based on an examination of the type of item that comprises it. Items with factor loadings of .40 or in excess comprise the factor. Two items overlapped in the first two factors. Black power is related, of course, to the topic of racial problems. The conduct of public officials is apparently of traditional concern as well as being salient for these times.
³⁵ The six-item civil rights index included approval of greater political power for Negroes, the civil rights movement, the black power movement, black power as a legitimate response to white power, and King and disapproval of "Negroes are pushing too hard for equal rights." The development of this index (using other, Presbyterian data) is reported in Hart M. Nelsen and Raytha L. Yokley, "Civil Rights Attitudes of Rural and Urban Presbyterians," Rural Sociology 35 (June 1970):161-174; and Hart M. Nelsen and Raytha L. Yokley, "Presbyterians, Civil Rights, and Church Pronouncements," Review of Religious Research 12 (Fall 1970):43-50.
³⁶ Here we used a three-item measure of protest, including the desire by the minister that the church had been more involved than it was in the 1960s civil rights movement, and that the minister reported having practiced civil disobedience and being very or somewhat active in social action events over the past 10 years.
³⁷ The three items, with the positive responses, were: (1) During the past year, how often did you deliver sermons which dealt mainly with controversial social or political topics?-5 or more times; (2) During the past year, how often did you deliver sermons which touched upon, but did not deal mainly with, controversial social or political topics?-8 or more times; and (3) How often do you discuss public affairs with members of your congregation?-Frequently. These three items were highly interrelated and a factor analysis indicated they formed one factor.
³⁸ On each clergy role, ministers were ranked and then the scores were collapsed into quartiles, with one-fourth of the clergy being given the lowest score and so forth.

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Table 1, Percentages of Ministers Scoring High on Selected Social Action Variables, by Clergy Roles

Note: The table reports the results of three analyses, each using the five roles as predictors of a given dependent variable. The findings from six additional analyses (not shown here), using separately the traditional and community problem solving roles but adding theological and political viewpoints, education, and age indicated that for all three dependent variables, only the community problem solving role (and not the traditional role) was a significant role predictor, when the effects of these additional predictors are controlled.

administrator, counselor, and religious educator roles are deleted here, because these variables were unrelated to the three dependent measures. From this table it can be seen that clergy scoring high on the traditional role are less likely than those scoring low to score high on any of the three dependent variables-civil rights, protest, or politicizing. The converse is true for the community problem solving role-clergy with this orientation are likely to score high on these issues. ³⁹ The data here are Presbyterian.

The three sermon topic variables have already been described. The percentages of ministers scoring high on each, by clergy role, are shown in Table 2. ⁴⁰ There especially exist differences by clergy role on the first variable-addressing time-honored social problems such as poverty. Traditional clergy are unlikely to give these sermons, while community problem-solving ministers tend to address these topics. The same relationships-but not as strong-are found for the second measure. Ministers with traditional or counseling roles tend to zero in on problems of a more personal nature, such as drug use or alcoholism. For example, of the one-fourth of clergy scoring lowest on the counseling role variable, 36.5 percent scored high on this third dependent variable (or were more likely than not to give sermons on the vices), compared to 60.1 percent of those clergy who scored highest on the counseling role (or, again, one-fourth of the sample).

³⁹ For an extended analysis of protest orientation using the five-cities data, see Nelsen, Yokley, and Madron, "Ministerial Roles and Social Actionist Stance."
⁴⁰ Again we have dichotomized the scores into low and high. Only roles that are significantly related to the dependent variables are shown in the table.

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Table 2. Percentages of Ministers Scoring High on Sermon Topic Variables, by Clergy Roles

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Table 3 presents the percentages of ministers scoring high on each of the three sermon variables, by church characteristic, that is, by whether the church served is all-white or integrated or all-nonwhite. The last two categories are combined; and the bulk of this category consists of integrated churches. It might be noted that most of the studies completed on racial inclusion in churches were completed in the mid-1950's. ⁴¹ For the most part, these studies were descriptive, assessing the degree to which racial inclusiveness was present, although studies have also been completed on attitudes toward inclusiveness and on the ecological correlates of church integration. ⁴² One purpose of the present study was to identify the implications of racial inclusiveness for clergy roles and activism.

As can be seen in Table 3, especially on the first dependent variable-the giving of sermons on the time-honored social problems-we can see differences by church setting (the racial inclusiveness factor). Ministers serving all-white churches were less likely to address these topics than were clergy serving integrated or all-nonwhite churches. Overall there was little difference by church setting in the giving of sermons on the matters of personal morality (the vices). However,

⁴¹ See: Frank S. Loescher, The Protestant Church and the Negro (New York: Association Press, 1948); Dwight W. Culver, Negro Segregation in the Methodist Church (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1953); Alfred S. Kramer, "Racial Integration in Three Protestant Denominations," Journal of Educational Sociology 28 (October 1954):59-68, 96; Alfred S. Kramer, "Patterns of Racial Inclusion Among the Churches of Three Protestant Denominations," Phylon 16 (September 1955):283-294; and Liston Pope, The Kingdom Beyond Caste (New York: Friendship Press, 1957).
⁴² Earl D. C. Brewer, "Attitudes Toward Inclusive Practices in the Methodist Church in the Southeast," Review of Religious Research 6 (Winter 1965):82-89, and Lawrence K. Northwood, "Ecological and Attitudinal Factors in Church Desegregation," Social Problems 6 (Fall 1958):150-163.

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Table 3. Percentages of Ministers Scoring High on Sermon Topic Variables, by Racial Characteristic of Church

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Table 4. Percentages of Ministers Scoring High on Morality Issues, by Selected Clergy Roles and Racial Characteristic of Church

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from Table 4 where differences by role and church setting are presented, ⁴³ it can be seen that the counseling role and the giving of these sermons are especially linked in the integrated and all-nonwhite settings. It is found, then, that the Presbyterian minister serving the integrated or all-nonwhite church is more likely than the minister serving the all-white church to focus in sermons on matters of personal morality, if he has the counseling role orientation. Studies of in-

⁴³ Only differences on the morality variable are shown. On the other two variables the role predictors were not more salient in one church setting in distinction to the other. For the first two variables, the percentages here (not shown) agree with the conclusions drawn from the trends in Table 3. Especially on the first variable, ministers serving the integrated or all-nonwhite setting were more likely than those serving the all-white churches to score high. Yet the relationship between role and the dependent variable held when the church setting was specified.

70 - Why do Pastors Preach on Social Issues?

Table 5. Percentages of Ministers Scoring High on Sermon Topic Variables, by Clergy Roles (Adjusted Percentages)

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tegrated church settings are too scant to interpret this finding, that is, to suggest why this might be so. 44

In Table 5 are shown the percentages of ministers scoring high on each of the three sermon-oriented dependent variables, by role score, adjusting for the effects of theological and political viewpoints and age and education of the minister. For example, we have already noted that theological orientation and sermon-giving are related. The traditional clergy role is linked both with a conservative theological orientation and the giving of sermons on morality issues. This relationship between role and sermon-giving might be more due to a basic relationship between theology and sermon topic than to role and sermon topic. Thus we adjust or control for the effects of these other variables. This was basically the strategy used by Stark et al., but they controlled on only one variable, while we utilize several predictors. Our technique is Multiple Classification Analysis. ⁴⁵

⁴⁴ However, several possibilities do come to mind. First, McCarthy and Yancey, in reviewing the literature on racial differences on self-esteem (using findings pertaining to alcoholism, alientation, suicide, and the like) hypothesize that "lower-class blacks will manifest higher self-esteem than lower-class whites, and middle-class blacks will manifest lower self-esteem than middle-class whites." See John D. McCarthy and William L. Yancey, "Uncle Tom and Mr. Charlies: Metaphysical Pathos in the Study of Racism and Personal Disorganization," American Journal of Sociology 76 (January 197 1), p. 666. Since nonwhite Presbyterians would tend to be middle-class, ministers serving this church context might simply be responding to the needs of their parishioners as these clergy perceive them. Second, earlier researchers of the black church sometimes noted that the church served to provide respectability and to reinforce Puritanical standards. Some of this literature is reviewed in Nelsen and Nelsen, The Black Church in the Sixties. Again, the minister might find the integrated or all-nonwhite church context calling for sermons on morality issues. Third, clergy serving this church setting may simply be operating with stereotypes of life among nonwhites.
⁴⁵ For this technique the reader can see Frank Andrews, James Morgan, and John Sonquist, Multiple Classification Analysis (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, Institute for Social Research, 1967); and for an introduction, see: Nelsen, Yokley, and Madron, "Ministerial Roles and Social Actionist Stance," p. 381.

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The Stark et al. argument would have theological viewpoint especially important in determining sermon content, while we have suggested that political stance and, especially, role orientation are critical in predicting and understanding pulpit sound or silence. First, let us compare the predicting abilities of political and theological viewpoints excluding clergy roles (but including education and age ⁴⁶). For the time-honored social problems sermons, both political and theological variables were important (and at about the same level) predictors. Political stance but not theological viewpoint was significantly related to the new social issues variable. Almost surprisingly, again political but not theological viewpoint was significantly related to morality issues. It might also be noted that while both variables were significantly related to the politicizing variable (this variable was used in Table 1), political stance was much more important than theological-viewpoint as a predictor. ⁴⁷

Let us return to Table 5. While the traditional role is unrelated to the giving of time-honored social problem sermons, the community problem solving role is related. It is the most important predictor, but theological and political viewpoints also remain important. No role variable is significantly related to the new social issues sermon variable, adjusting for the effects of the other predictors. Finally, both the traditional and counseling roles are significantly related to the morality issues sermon variable; and for that dependent variable, political but not theological viewpoint is a significant predictor. Parenthetically, only the problem solving role and political but not theological viewpoint are significantly related to the politicizing variable.

Let us now repeat the analyses summarized in the fifth table, but let us add an additional predictor, an index using the same three items employed by Stark et al. for their otherworldliness variable. ⁴⁸ First, in predicting the time-honored social problems variable, the community problem solving role remains as far and above the most important predictor, while theological and political viewpoints and otherworldliness are less important predictors. Second, only political stance predicts the new social issues variable, but it does a poor job of that. Third, in predicting morality sermons, the traditional and counseling roles remain important, while otherworldliness is at about the same level as theological orientation, which is to say not significantly related to this dependent variable. Parenthetically, the problem solving role remains as far and above the most important predictor of

⁴⁶ Age and especially education were of comparatively little value in predicting these variables.
⁴⁷ The data discussed in this paragraph are not shown in Table 5.
⁴⁸ The three items, with the positive responses, were: If enough men were brought to Christ, social ills would take care of themselves-agree, strongly agree; It would be better if the church were to place less emphasis on individual sanctification and more on bringing human conditions into conformity with Christian teachings-strongly disagree, disagree; and It is not as important to worry about life after death as about what one can do in this life-strongly disagree, disagree.

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the politicizing variable. In summary, in terms of predicting three out of the four dependent variables just discussed, clergy roles are more important. The other variables are much less important and, indeed, in some cases don't even predict.

VI

In this article we have examined the effects of several variables on three measures of preaching sermons on certain social issues. The minister's theological stance was related to the giving of sermons on time-honored social problems, but so was political viewpoint and especially the community problem-solving role. Liberal ministers with this role orientation were especially likely to give these sermons.

The minister's political stance was weakly related to the giving of sermons on new social issues. I would suggest that these particular issues are not yet salient enough to ministers so that the issues have become part of their ethical or theological concerns. It is important to observe that the new social issue variable included the topics of birth control and abortion. At the time these data were collected, and no doubt still today, women's liberation was still not an issue to most ministers. That political liberalism, but not scoring high on the community problem solving role (or high on the traditional role and conservative theologically), was related to these issues hints that only a vanguard of clergy seriously considered these issues. Only time will tell whether one or more of these topics will be defined as a serious social problem by more than a handful of clergy. It is important that research be conducted on the process of how topics such as these are redefined so that they become salient to many clergy. One wonders whether ministers lead in this process or whether they accept from parishioners around them the identification of social problems. The role of seminaries in this process should also be explored.

The traditional and counseling roles were the best predictors of the measure involving sermons on morality issues. Stark el al. found that both clergy at the liberal and conservative ends of their doctrinalism index tended to give this type of sermon. Our data indicated that both politically liberal clergy and traditionally-oriented ministers scored high on this measure. These two orientations are linked with theological liberalism and conservatism, respectively.

The roots of pulpit silence or sound cannot be traced solely to theological commitment. More important is clergy role, and as important as theological orientation is political stance. Another factor depressing or stimulating the giving of sermons on social issues (especially the "time-honored" social problems) is the makeup of the congregation itself. We found that ministers serving all-white churches were less likely to give sermons on such topics as poverty and race. That clergy serving integrated or all-nonwhite churches would be more stimulated to preach on these topics comes as no surprise. James Cone has written that the black church, representing the unwanted, can simply "accept its role as the sufferer" and that "it may

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not only redeem itself through God's spirit, but the white church as well ." ⁴⁹ Much earlier, Mays and Nicholson were able to write:

It is part of the genius of the Negro church that it is owned by a poor race, supported by its members and, further, that this fact alone gives the Negro minister an opportunity and freedom in his church life that ministers of some racial groups might well covet. If the Negro pastor sees fit to condemn from his pulpit practices with respect to low wages ... and the injustices of an economic system built on competition, self-interest, and profit-he is more likely not to be censured, and less likely to lose his position than his white brother who preaches in the same city. ⁵⁰

Earlier we noted Greeley's thesis that the religious institution in America primarily functions to provide belonging rather than meaning to the members. Dean M. Kelley has written that conservative churches in fact supply their members with meaning (which is salvation-centered) and this accounts for their success (growth in membership). Kelley compares this to the liberal churches which supposedly do not provide their members with meaning (rather, they offer members incentives that can be found elsewhere, for example civil rights efforts by the NAACP) and concomitantly they do not demand a basic commitment from their members; and as a consequence the liberal churches are losing members. ⁵¹ On the other hand, Greeley's thesis would really question how much meaning is actually being imparted by the conservative churches. Perhaps, instead, these churches do not challenge the functions of providing belonging and comfort which they serve and which are favored by the parishioners.

Richard Quebedeaux optimistically writes that a new evangelism which does not reject social activism is coming into force. ⁵² It seems unlikely that we will find many of this newest breed adopting the community problem solving role, given the role's affinity with political liberalism. More likely they will tend to have the traditional role orientation, except for those with special concerns for ministering to the this worldly needs of their parishioners and who thus may center their ministry on counseling. This is not to say that roles other than community problem solving are not authentic ministries. Indeed, the traditional role most likely is the mainstay of the occupation of clergy. Many legitimate functions are served by the church, and the meeting of these functions calls for role diversity in the ministry.

⁴⁹ James H. Cone, "The Black Church and Black Power," in The Black Church in America, ed. Nelson, Yokley, and Nelsen, p. 351.
⁵⁰ Benjamin E. Mays and Joseph W. Nicholson, "The Genius of the Negro Church," in The Black Church in America, ed. Nelsen, Yokley, and Nelsen, p. 290. The book by Mays and Nicholson, The Negro's Church, was published in 1933.
⁵¹ Dean M. Kelley, Why Conservative Churches Are Growing (New York: Harper & Row, 1972), p. 92.
⁵² Richard Quebedeaux, The Young Evangelicals (New York: Harper & Row, 1974), P. 99.