Most Protestant pastors continue to be opposed to same-sex marriage despite its cultural push throughout the United States.
According to a Lifeway Research study, 75% of Protestant pastors in the U.S. are opposed to gay marriage.
Twenty-one percent of protestant pastors “see nothing wrong” with same-sex marriage, while 4% are unsure as to whether or not they support it.
As calls for same-sex marriage tolerance have grown in the near decade since it was legalized by the Supreme Court, some pastors have also become advocates of the marriages.
In 2010, 15% of Protestant pastors did not oppose same-sex marriage. As of 2019, almost a quarter of pastors supported it.
Lifeway Research executive director Scott McConnell said, “Debates continue within denominations at national and judicatory levels on the morality of same-sex marriage, yet the overall number of Protestant pastors who support same-sex marriage is not growing.”
“The previous growth was seen most clearly among mainline pastors, and that level did not rise in our latest survey,” McConnell added.
The final vote on the matter was 692-51.
According to the Lifeway Research study, Methodist pastors are most likely to support same-sex marriage (53%). Other Protestant denominations more likely to support gay marriage than others include Prsybertians (36%) and Lutherans (34%).
Those least likely to support same-sex marriage include Baptist (4%) and Pentecostal (1%) pastors.
While the majority of U.S. Protestant pastors are opposed to gay marriage, the United Methodist Church lifted its ban against LGBT clergy members during its recent General Conference.
Following the lifted ban, more than 1 million church members left the denomination.
Members of the Methodist Church’s Ivory Coast region declared they would leave the UMN, saying they based their decision on the UMC’s “sociocultural and contextual values which have consumed its doctrinal and disciplinary integrity.”
