239 - The Current Moral Climate: What Pastors Think

The Current Moral Climate: What Pastors Think
By Robert Wuthnow

How do clergy feel about the current moral and political issues facing America? What social policies do they support and oppose? Where do they stand compared to the rest of the public on contemporary topics such as governmental corruption, big business, the Middle East, race relations, civil liberties, and homosexuality? What reforms do they favor and to what extent are they personally involved in political activism?

At the close of the Vietnam war, observers predicted a speedy end to the turbulence and social unrest that had arisen in response to the war. Campuses would cool, students would turn from protest and radical politics to career preparation, and many of the more visible social experiments of the 1960s-in living arrangements, sex, drugs, and education-would cease to find an interested audience. Clergy, already faced with lay opposition to active political involvement, were expected to become silent on topics other than those of the spirit.

By many indications, these predictions have come true. The past few years have been notably free of the open unrest that characterized the early 1970s. But the decline of visible unrest appears to have left behind a deep residue of less visible disenchantment with America's moral fabric. The visible counterculture has been replaced, as it were, by an invisible counterculture. Opinion polls have continued to register high, if not rising, levels of public alienation, political distrust, and concern about lingering domestic and international ills. There is also considerable disagreement about what should be done.

In this climate of uncertainty it is valuable to know what persons in positions of moral leadership. such as the clergy. identify as the most critical social issues and what policies they support. Unfortunately, the evidence available on clergy opinion has been scanty. With the exception of several denominational surveys, no clergy polls have been conducted on a national scale since 1971. However, a national survey conducted recently by Princeton University among more than 1,100 clergy representing five religious bodies (Lutheran Church in America, United Presbyterian U.S.A., Unitarian Universalist, Reformed Church in America, and Roman Catholic) provides new evidence on clergy

Robert Wuthnow is Associate Professor of Sociology at Princeton University, and he has written The Consciousness Reformation (1976) and Experimentation in American Religion: The New Mysticism's and Their Implications for the Churches (1978).

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opinion toward a variety of current issues.¹ The results show that the most widely perceived social problems are corruption in government and public alienation from government. The pastors surveyed also expressed high levels of concern over dishonesty in business, racial inequality, and the Middle East. The study indicates that clergy, like their counterparts a decade ago, continue to outpace the general public in supporting measures for social and political reform.

I. Alienation and Corruption

Despite the Carter administration's efforts to reestablish trust in government and in its leaders, public opinion about politics has continued to register more cynicism than confidence. Virtually every polling agency has documented this mood .For example, a poll conducted in 1977 by Chicago's National Opinion Research Center found that only 28 percent of the public expressed a "great deal" of confidence in the executive branch and an even smaller proportion (19 percent) attached this degree of confidence to the Congress.² Most of this sentiment does not represent dissatisfaction with the American form of government but distrust of the ethics of government leaders. A Gallup poll conducted in July 1977 showed that only 19 percent of the public regarded senators as having "high" or "very high" honesty and ethical standards. By comparison, 26 percent said senators have "low" or "very low" standards. The assessments of other office holders were even more condemning. For congressmen, 16 percent of the public said "high" or "very high" while 35 percent said "low" or "very low," for local political office holders, 14 percent gave high ratings while 36 percent gave low ratings, and for state political office holders, 11 percent gave high scores while 41 percent gave low scores. At the top of the list, incidentally, clergy received high ratings from 61 percent of the public and low ratings from only 6 percent of the public.³

Like the public, pastors are highly critical of the integrity of those holding government positions. In the Princeton survey 90 percent said they regarded "dishonesty in the government" as a serious problem in the country (35 percent said it was an extremely serious problem). The proportions ranged from 83 percent among Unitarians to 94 percent among Reformed and Catholic clergy. Overall, government dishonesty was, in fact, regarded as a serious problem by more pastors than virtually any other problem asked about in the study.

The only problem that pastors expressed more concern about than government dishonesty was alienation from government. "People feeling that they can't affect what goes on in the society" was perceived as a serious problem by 92 percent of the pastors polled (52 percent said it

¹ Questionnaires were mailed to samples of clergy chosen from the official directories of each religious body during the summer of 1978. A response rate of 68 percent was obtained. Further details of the study are available from the author.
² National Data Program for the Social Sciences, Cumulative Codebook for the 1972-1977, General Social Surveys (Chicago: National Opinion Research Center 1977).
³ Gallup Opinion Index, No. 150 (January 1978).

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was an extremely serious problem). This level of concern, it might also be noted, appears to have risen substantially over the past decade. In February 1971 when a Gallup poll asked clergy what was the most important problem then facing the country, "loss of confidence in government" was listed by only three percent of the pastors in the sample. It ranked fourteenth behind such problems as indifference to spiritual values, sin, disunity, race relations, crime, and poverty.⁴

Concern about alienation and government dishonesty is also reflected in pastors' political attitudes. Nearly one-quarter of the pastors in the Princeton study said they favor "major changes in our form of government." The proportions varied from 20 percent among Lutherans and Presbyterians and 21 percent among Reformed to 30 percent among Unitarians and Catholics. The study also showed that about a third of the pastors said they attach "great" importance to "working for major changes in the society." Unitarians scored highest on this value (56 percent), followed by Presbyterians (37 percent), Catholics (33 percent), Lutherans (30 percent), and Reformed (26 percent). By comparison, it is interesting to note that a survey conducted in 1973 among residents of the San Francisco Bay Area, which had been known for its political activism, found that only 27 percent gave this response to an identical question.⁵

Still another political tenet that appears to be held widely among clergy is that further concentrations of power should be avoided. Only eight percent favored "giving more power to the police" (84 percent were opposed). As far as the military is concerned, many pastors feel it already has too much power. In all, 56 percent said "too much power in the hands of the military" is currently a serious problem. The proportions giving this response ranged from 83 percent among Unitarians to 57 percent among Presbyterians, 48 percent among Lutherans, 46 percent among Reformed, and 42 percent among Catholics.

The pastors in the Princeton study were also asked about corruption in big business. By way of background it is useful to recall that social critics of the left in the early sixties were fond of picturing big business as a bastion of WASP power with the churches serving as obedient suppliers of pious respectability, anti-communism, achievement motivation, and other virtues that fit in handily with the interests of the business community. Since that time, however, the larger public has also become critical of big business. According to Yankelovich surveys, 70 percent of the public in 1968 agreed that "business tries to strike a fair balance between profits and the interests of the public," but by 1977 only 15 percent of the public shared this view.⁶

Where do clergy stand-as defenders of business leaders or as critics? Mostly the latter, it appears. In the Princeton study nearly as

⁴ Gallup Opinion Index No. 70 (April 1971).
⁵ Robert Wuthnow, The Consciousness Reformation (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1976).
⁶ Seymour Martin Lipset and William Schneider, "How's Business? What the Public Thinks," Public Opinion (July/August 1978) 41-47.

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many pastors labeled "corruption in big business" alongside dishonesty in government as serious problems in the country. The proportions ranged from 82 percent among Presbyterians, 83 percent among Unitarians, 86 percent among Lutherans, 87 percent among Reformed, and 94 percent among Catholics. About a third in each group said corruption in business was an "extremely serious" problem.

The pastors surveyed also tended to take a hard line on views of how to deal with corruption in business. The proportions who said they were in favor of "putting business leaders in jail if their companies break the law" ranged from 68 percent among Presbyterian pastors, 70 percent among Reformed pastors, 71 percent among Lutheran pastors, and 80 percent among Unitarian and Catholic pastors. Or to take another example, in response to a set of questions that asked pastors to say what might help prevent something like the Holocaust of World War II from happening again, 47 percent said that "limiting the power of big business and big government" would help a lot or a fair amount, only 15 percent said it wouldn't help any.

These responses suggest that pastors perceive the same kind of malaise in both government and big business. But there appears to be only a small amount of sentiment among pastors that the churches should take it on themselves to directly, reform or influence the character of big business. A national poll of 700 United Presbyterian pastors conducted in April 1977 asked pastors to say if they thought denominational action was urgently needed "to monitor the actions of multinational businesses." Only eight percent said yes An even smaller proportion of the laity (four percent) said yes. ⁷

In sum, the evidence clearly indicates that pastors, like many people in the general public, are deeply concerned about the amount of power that is now concentrated in the hands of a few, whether in the government, industry, the military, or the police, especially when the ethics of those in charge of these institutions appear subject to reproach. But the danger perceived is not simply one of having corrupt leaders. There is, also the problem of corruptible followers, and clergy are cognizant of this. The Princeton study asked clergy, whether "many Americans would do exactly what they're told to do, even if it hurt someone else;" 69 percent of the pastors ,aid they suspected this was probably true. Of course, it is only human not to count oneself among this number; 69 percent of the pastors also said they personally would do what was right should the government ask them to do something they felt was wrong!

II. Race Relations and Civil Liberties

In addition to corruption in government and business, racial inequality is a problem that clergy continue to regard as a serious moral issue in American society. The interest in race relations that was documented in clergy studies during the 1960s, such as Jeffrey Hadden's The Gather-

⁷ Presbyterian Panel (New York: Research Division of the Support Agency United Presbyterian Church U.S.A., 1977).

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ing Storm in the Churches, ⁸ is still much in evidence, even though activist movements have largely dissipated. The proportions who considered "racial inequality" a serious problem in the Princeton study ranged from 82 percent among Reformed and Lutheran clergy to 87 percent among Presbyterians and Catholics to 95 percent among Unitarians. Overall, 30 percent of the pastors surveyed said the problem is " extremely serious." The proportions who considered "prejudice against ethnic groups" a serious problem were also large 69 percent among Reformed clergy, 71 percent among Lutheran clergy, 74 percent among Presbyterian clergy, 75 percent among Catholic clergy, and 84 percent among Unitarian clergy. Nineteen percent in all said prejudice was an "extremely serious" problem. The likelihood of "new outbreaks of racial violence" occurring sometime within the next twenty-five years was also something that a majority of the pastors thought could happen. Sixty-four percent of the Unitarian pastors said it "definitely could" happen, as did 57 percent of the Catholic pastors, 54 percent of the Presbyterian pastors, 52 percent of the Lutheran pastors, and 47 percent of the Reformed pastors.

An interesting indication of the extent to which clergy continue to support measures to reduce racial inequality is the fact that four-tenths of the pastors in the Princeton study said they favor "special quotas so that more black people can go to college." These responses, it should be noted, were given after the Supreme Court's ruling in the Bakke case that strict quotas of this type are unconstitutional. The actual responses for each denomination ranged from 32 percent in favor among Reformed clergy, 35 percent among Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Catholic clergy, and 57 percent among Unitarian clergy.

There is also some evidence that many, pastors continue to believe that their denomination should be involved in the quest for greater racial equality. For example, the Presbyterian clergy poll showed that 77 percent thought denominational action was needed "to promote racial justice in the United States " Twenty-six percent said it was "urgently needed." By comparison, 55 percent of the Presbyterian laity surveyed thought such action was needed and only 15 percent said it was urgently needed. ⁹

Another racial issue that has received much attention in recent months, especially in light of controversial World Council of Churches' policy, is whether or not to bring pressure on foreign governments, such as South Africa, to reduce racial inequality, and if so, how this should be done. One hotly contested proposal has been to boycott U.S. corporations that do not eliminate holdings or operations in South Africa. As might be expected, clergy are divided on this issue. But they lean slightly toward supporting such boycotts rather than opposing them. In response to a statement in the Princeton survey that read "boycotting U.S.corporations that do business in South Africa," for

⁸ Jeffrey K. Hadden, The Gathering Storm in the Churches (Garden City N.Y.: Doubleday, 1969).
⁹ Presbyterian Panel op. cit.

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example, the proportions that approved ranged from 76 percent among Unitarians to 60 percent among Lutherans, 57 percent among Presbyterians, 50 percent among Catholics, and 44 percent among Reformed.

If there is widespread support among pastors for racial equality, there is even more support on issues concerning civil liberties. Especially in view of the fact that the churches have often been stereotyped in the secular culture as perpetrators of bigotry, particularism, and narrow mindedness, it is interesting to observe that pastors overwhelmingly express support for the civil rights of even those groups whose views are unpopular or blatantly opposed to religion. The best evidence comes from a survey of clergy in New Jersey conducted in 1976 by James R. Kelly of Fordham University Kelly's results show, for example, that 90 percent of the Protestant clergy and 66 percent of the Catholic clergy in the survey thought that "someone militantly anti-religion" should be allowed to speak in the community, similarly, 72 percent of the Protestants and 48 percent of the Catholics thought an anti-religionist should be allowed to teach in colleges. Almost the same proportions said an advocate of "black racial inferiority" should be allowed to speak and teach respectively, 81 percent and 62 percent among Protestant clergy and 66 percent and 52 percent among Catholic clergy. The proportions supporting the right of homosexuals to speak and teach were also high 83 percent and 67 percent respectively among Protestants and 62 percent and 47 percent respectively among Catholics.¹⁰

Kelly's study also makes it possible to compare clergy responses on civil liberties issues with the responses of other people in professional occupations having similar levels of education. Data from the latter have been collected by the National Opinion Research Center as part of its annual surveys of the American public since 1973. The data show that 87 percent of all college educated professionals support the right of an anti-religionist to speak and 69 percent believe an anti-religionist should be allowed to teach in colleges. The data also show that support for someone advocating racism ranges from 80 percent for speaking to 63 percent for teaching, while support for homosexual rights varies between 88 percent for speaking and 79 percent for teaching.¹¹ In other words, support for civil liberties is just as high among Protestant clergy and nearly as high among Catholic clergy as it is among educated professionals more generally.

III. Homosexuality

The high degree of support in Kelly's study for homosexuals' civil liberties is particularly interesting since the question of homosexuality has been a matter of heated debate in many churches. This support is

¹⁰ James R Kelly, Department of Sociology Fordham University unpublished data. For a description of the study, see Kelly, The Spirit of Ecumenism:How Wide How Deep, How Mindful of Truth"' Review of Religious Research 20 (Spring 1979) 180-194.
¹¹ National Data Program for the Social Sciences, op cit Figures for college educated professionals tabulated by the author with the assistance of Wesley Shrum, Princeton University.

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also evident in the Princeton study, although not to the same degree since a more restrictive question "as asked. About half of the pastors in the survey said they approved of "more freedom for homosexuals," and the other half said they disapproved or were unsure. These results were almost identical to those found when a similar question was asked in the Bay Area in 1973. There, 45 percent expressed approval.¹² Among pastors, the proportions ranged from 91 percent among Unitarians to 45 percent among Presbyterians, 36 percent among Lutherans, 33 percent among Catholics, and 22 percent among Reformed.

As pastors will recognize, the issue of homosexuality is not reducible to such simple formulations. Some of the complexities were explored in a survey of Presbyterian pastors conducted in January 1977. Overwhelmingly, the pastors agreed that homosexuality is an issue with which the church must deal. For example, 83 percent agreed that homosexuality "is an important issue in contemporary society that requires the guidance of the church" (60 percent of the laity agreed), while only 5 percent agreed that "the subject of homosexuality is too controversial for the church to deal with" (12 percent of the laity agreed) But there were divisions of opinion about the nature and causes of homosexuality. Only a small majority of the pastors ( 16 percent) said they regarded homosexuality as "merely one form of human sexuality. "About half (48 percent) agreed that "homosexual activity is a sin " The largest proportion (63 percent) agreed with the statement "homosexuality is a mental or emotional problem." In the laity sample, by comparison, only one third agreed that homosexuality is a sin and one fourth regarded homosexuality as merely one form of human sexuality. About the same proportion as among pastors viewed homosexuality as a mental problem.

The Presbyterian study also found that pastors were much more likely to favor treating homosexuality as a sickness rather than simply, accepting homosexuals as normal parishioners. Fifty-two percent agreed that "homosexuals should be dealt with as sick people who need to be cured," nearly as many laity agreed (48 percent). In contrast, only 24 percent of the pastors subscribed to the view that "the church should accept practicing homosexuals into church membership without any, restrictions" (32 percent of the laity agreed). A still smaller proportion of the pastors (10 percent) said "the church should accept and affirm the essential nature and freedom of every person and, therefore, recognize that sexual orientation has nothing to do with a Christian response" (22 percent of the laity agreed). Fewer than one pastor in ten thought homosexuals should be admitted to the ranks of clergy, only seven percent felt that "the church should accept practicing homosexuals into the clergy without any restrictions" (seven percent of the laity also agreed) and only eight percent of the pastors (and four percent of the laity) said they would accept as their pastor "a person who engages in homosexual activities."¹³

¹² Wuthnow, op. cit.
¹³ Presbyterian Panel, op. cit.

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In short, pastors express considerable willingness to defend the civil liberties of homosexuals, but for the most part they, do not feel that homosexuality can simply be condoned or that homosexuals should be accepted into the churches without restrictions. This is true even among Presbyterians who ranked higher than Lutherans, Reformed, or Catholics on "freedom" for homosexuals in the Princeton study. The majority view is that homosexuality is an emotional problem requiring treatment.

IV. The Middle East and Attitudes Toward Jews

The final issue on which some evidence of clergy opinion is available is the Middle East and relations between Christians and Jews. In the larger society, sentiment toward the Middle East has been highly volatile depending on current conditions in the Middle East. Accordingly, it should be kept in mind that the views reported here were recorded in mid-1978 when the prospects of a peace settlement in the Middle East seemed highly uncertain, particularly if the Israelis did not respond to Egyptian overtures. The pastors surveyed in the Princeton study tended to be divided and uncertain in their views of the Middle East. When asked to describe their "feelings about the way Israel has handled its relations with the Arabs," only about one in six expressed approval or admiration 19 percent among Unitarians and Catholics, 17 percent among Presbyterians, 14 percent among Lutherans, and 11 percent among Reformed Nearly four in ten said they had "some doubts," ranging from 32 percent among Unitarians to 46 percent among Presbyterians. And another forty percent said they had "serious misgivings" (from 48 percent among Unitarians to 36 percent among Presbyterians).

The pastors in the Princeton survey were also divided on their views of what the United States' role in the Middle East should be. Only three percent on the average thought "the U.S. should do what's best economically, even if this means favoring the Arabs more than Israel." But at the other extreme, only two percent subscribed to the view that "the U.S. should help Israel all it can, even if this means taking military action." A somewhat less extreme position ("the U.S. should help Israel all it can, but should stop short of taking military action") drew acceptance from only 15 percent of the pastors. By far the most popular position was to place the U.S. in a peace-keeper role. "The U.S. should just try to maintain a balance of power between Israel and the Arabs" (59 percent).

The Princeton study also explored the idea, common to many evangelical groups, that events in the Middle East are somehow in fulfillment of biblical prophecy. The denominations represented in the survey tend to fall outside of the evangelical spectrum, and a majority of the pastors surveyed rejected prophetic claims about the Middle East. However, the number who accepted these views was not insignificant. The proportions who said they "regard the founding of Israel as a fulfillment of Biblical prophecy" ranged from 22 percent among Pres-

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byterian and Reformed pastors to 17 percent among Lutheran pastors, 11 percent among Catholic pastors, and two percent among Unitarian pastors. Of those giving this response, about four in ten among the Presbyterian and Reformed pastors said they regarded the founding of Israel as "a sign that Jesus is coming again soon." The proportion among Lutherans was only 15 percent, among Catholics four percent and among Unitarians zero percent.

Several questions about relations with Jews were also included in the Princeton study. Like previous studies, the results indicate that anti-Semitism is rare but by no means absent among Christian clergy. When asked to choose among several statements describing their feelings toward Jews, the proportions who said that "there are many individual Jews whom I admire but I feel that I do harbor some ill feelings toward Jews in a general way" ranged from 19 percent among Reformed pastors to 15 percent among Lutheran and Catholic pastors, 10 percent among Presbyterian pastors, and five percent among Unitarian pastors. Overall, 12 percent of the sample subscribed to this view. By comparison, when Harold Quinley asked the same question in 1971 to a sample of California clergy (who came from different denominations but whose theological positions corresponded closely with those in the Princeton study) only 8 percent chose this response."¹⁴

That negative feelings toward Jews have not died out entirely is also evidenced by the fact that 26 percent of the pastors in the Princeton study agreed that. "Jews tend to be pushy and will do almost anything to get ahead. " Clergy also tend to feel that Jews are overly sensitive about anti-Semitism. Kelly's study of New Jersey pastors found that 43 percent of the Protestant pastors and 60 percent of the Catholic pastors subscribed to the statement that "sometimes I think Jews exaggerate the amount of anti-Semitism in the United States." Similarly, 57 percent of the Protestant pastors and 71 percent of the Catholic pastors agreed that "I feel Jews will brand anyone who speaks against Israel as an anti-Semite."¹⁵ At the same time, however, it appears that the majority of Christian clergy are more interested in working with Jews than they are in trying to convert them or simply avoid them. In the Princeton study only 11 percent of the pastors said they thought Christians should "make special efforts to tell Jews about Christ," whereas 60 percent thought Christians should "tell people about Christ but direct no special efforts toward Jews," and 27 percent thought Christians should "not try to convert Jews to Christianity." In Kelly's study 70 percent of the Protestants and 62 percent of the Catholics felt they had "learned some valuable things about religion from some acquaintances who are Jewish," and 68 percent of the Protestants and 77 percent of the Catholics said they had "a strong personal interest in reading and discussion about Jewish beliefs.¹⁶

¹⁴ Harold Quinley, The Prophetic Clergy (New York: John Wile), 1974); also see Rodney Stark Bruce D. Foster Charles Y. Glock, and Harold E. Quinley, Wayward Shepherds Prejudice and the Protestant Clergy (New York: Harper & Row, 1971).
¹⁵ Kelly, op. cit.
¹⁶ Ibid.

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V. CLERGY ACTIVISM

If the polls on the whole show clergy to be deeply concerned about the current social and political climate, they reveal considerably less unanimity about what political actions should be taken. Indeed the evidence suggests that clergy attitudes are more complex than the sociological studies and journalistic aphorisms of the past decade have generally indicated.

On the one hand, clergy in most mainline denominations subscribe in large numbers to the idea that they and their denominations should be doing something to help alleviate social problems. The 1977 Presbyterian poll found that 47 percent of the pastors in the sample believed denominational action "to decrease world hunger" was urgently needed (90 percent altogether agreed that it was "needed"). In comparison, the laity survey found that only 29 percent thought such action was urgently needed. The study also showed that 24 percent of the pastors thought action "to increase efforts opposing the violation of human rights around the world" was urgently needed (74 percent thought it was needed altogether), compared with 17 percent of the laity.¹⁷ In the Princeton study, two-thirds of the pastors surveyed said they favored "speaking out on political issues from the pulpit" (45 percent among Catholics, 47 percent among Reformed, 63 percent among Presbyterians and Lutherans, and 93 percent among Unitarians). That they do speak out was also evidenced by a set of questions that asked pastors how they had responded to the widely discussed telecast of "Holocaust. Eighty percent said they had mentioned it in a sermon, 55 percent had encouraged people to watch, and 21 percent said they, had preached a sermon on it.

On the other hand, the polls show clearly that most pastors have not let social activism distract them from the primary task of providing spiritual leadership. Thus the Presbyterian poll found that the most urgently needed actions listed by clergy included "to deepen the life of faith among United Presbyterians," "to raise the level of biblical knowledge among United Presbyterians," and "to encourage evangelism at the local church level. ¹⁸ A survey of Reformed clergy, done by Donald Luidens at Rutgers in 1976 also illustrates the extent to which clergy put spiritual concerns first Seventy percent of Luidens' respondents agreed that "converting men to Christ must be the first step in creating a better society" (only 19 percent disagreed) ¹⁹ and 65 percent agreed that "to bring peace in the world, we must first of all cleanse men's hearts of sin" (23 percent disagreed)19. In the Princeton study the same point was shown by responses to a question that asked pastors to

¹⁷ Presbyterian Panel op. cit.
¹⁸ Ibid.
¹⁹ Donald Alan Luidens, Organizational Goals, Power and Effectiveness Desires and Perceptions in a Protestant Denomination: An Empirical Study, in the Social Psychology of Formal Organizations (New Brunswick, N.J. Rutgers-The State University, Department of Sociology, Unpublished Dissertation January, 1978).

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rank a variety of options for "preventing something like the holocaust from happening again." The top ranked response was "teaching people to be better Christians." This option outranked the second and third choices ("making sure that everyone has a good job and a decent living" and "having students learn about it in school") by a ratio of better than two to one.

On balance, therefore, the evidence from recent polls shows that a majority of pastors not only perceives serious and continuing problems in the moral fabric of American society but also believes the church has a relevant solution that should be brought to bear on these problems. If clergy are no longer as visibly involved with social issues as they were during the civil rights movement or the Vietnam war protests, neither is anyone else. But there is no evidence that pastors have become complacent with the way things are.

VI. The Clergy: Members of a "New Class?"

Can the various social attitudes that currently characterize clergy be woven together to form some larger picture? The evidence is too spotty to say much, and there are too many differences between denominations to warrant generalizations. But one issue deserves comment. In the 1960s, terms such as "new breed" and "activist" came to be used to describe clergy who were involved in civil rights, anti-war, and other political activities. These terms now seem passe, but a new concept is emerging in discussions of American politics, and it is certain to be applied to the clergy.. This is the concept of a "New Class." According to writers such as Irving Kristol and Daniel Bell, the growing number of educated persons in professional occupations in the U.S. labor force is gradually representing a new class with political and economic interests all its own. These interests are reflected in attitudes widely characteristic of educated professionals support for increased government spending, especially for health, education, and welfare (which provides jobs for the New Class), egalitarianism, civil libertarianism, and support for minority causes (which provides legitimation for the New Class); and critical intellectual attitudes directed especially against business and the "old-moneyed class" (which differentiates the New Class from its main rival ).²⁰

Are clergy part of the New Class? Like other professionals, pastors have made a considerable investment in higher education. Their jobs impose on them the demands of other knowledge workers and service workers. According to at least one denominational survey, nearly half of them have spouses in professional occupations Pastors have had to rely on government to sponsor many of the reforms that they have

²⁰ Irving Kristol, Two Cheers for Capitalism (New York:Basic Books, 1978), Daniel Bell, "The New Class A Muddled Concept " Society (January-February 1979), 15-23; also see Alvin W. Gouldner, The New Intelligentsia (New York: Seabury Press, 1979); B. Barry-Briggs (ed. ), The New Class? (New Brunswick, N.J. Transaction Books, 1979); James T. Barry "Welcome to the New, Class," Commonweal (February 16, 1979), 73-77.

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advocated from civil rights laws to health clinics, poverty programs, and urban renewal. Judging from the polls, it is also clear that a high proportion of the clergy (certainly higher than in the general public) is concerned about equality, supportive of civil liberties and minority rights, critical of business, and interested in social reform In this respect, pastors fit closely the emerging definitions of the New Class. If pastors' views differ from those of the laity or from those of other segments of the public, they resemble the views of other professionals constituting the New Class. And if critics of the New Class are correct, these views are not only altruistic, liberal, and informed, as they have been portrayed in the past, but subservient to the self-interests of the educated professionals who hold them Pastors, then, may now find themselves charged with having become the priesthood of a new ruling class.

Yet this characterization is only partly correct. The polls also show that pastors are highly critical of government corruption and of the moral order generally in a way that other members of the New Class probably are not. Pastors' attitudes seem to convey a prophetic orientation that differentiates them from the purely self-serving elements of New Class ideology Clergy opinion, therefore, appears capable of prophetic criticism as well as priestly legitimation as far as the interests of the New Class are concerned.

The final issue, then, is whether to be priests or prophets, but perhaps that has always been the question.