Winfrey and Bush, along with Glenn Beck, Barack Obama and Sarah
Palin, comprised the list that LifeWay Research presented
to Protestant pastors along with the question, “Which, if
any, of the following people do you believe are
Christians?”
The majority of Americans self-identify as Christian, and
Protestant is the largest category of Christian denominations. With that in
mind, LifeWay Research set out to examine the beliefs of
pastors leading Protestant churches. The national
telephone survey took place Oct. 7-14 and included 1,000
interviews.
Winfrey earned the lowest affirmative response, with only
19 percent of pastors saying they believe she is a
Christian. The other television personality on
the list, Beck, earned the second lowest affirmative
response at 27 percent.
“Most Americans consider themselves Christian and, for
many of them, the Oprahfication of American spirituality
has been a good thing,” said Ed Stetzer, president of
LifeWay Research. “Yet, the overwhelming majority of
Protestant pastors don’t view Oprah as a Christian.”
Among the politicians on the list, Bush earned the
highest affirmative response, with three-quarters of
pastors (75 percent) saying they believe he is a
Christian. Palin earned the next highest response at 66
percent, and Obama received the lowest affirmative
response with less than half of Protestant pastors (41
percent) saying they believe him to be a Christian.
Four percent of pastors say none of the listed prominent
personalities are Christians, and 15 percent respond only
with “Not sure.”
“For many people, ‘Christian’ is a box they check on a
demographic survey,” Stetzer said. “Protestant pastors,
however, often have a more detailed view – many apply
terms like ‘born again,’ ‘evangelical’ and ‘a changed
life’ as synonyms for ‘Christian.’ Thus, their standard is
often different than the prevailing view.
“Using their standard, the majority would not agree that
President Obama is a Christian, though he is a mainline
Protestant,” Stetzer explained. “And it is likely that
Glenn Beck’s Mormonism, widely viewed by Protestants as a
different religion rather than a different Christian
denomination, probably caused many to indicate he is not a
Christian.”
Overall, more pastors believe the three politicians are
Christians than believe the two television personalities
are, though the characteristics of the pastors themselves
do impact their responses.
Protestant pastors who self-identify as Democrats,
politically liberal or very liberal, or mainline are more
likely to indicate these prominent personalities are
Christians. For example, 88 percent of those who
self-identify as liberal or very liberal say Obama is a
Christian compared to only 31 percent of those who say
they are conservative and 12 percent of those who say they
are very conservative.
The ages of the pastors also reveal differences. Older
pastors are most likely to say Winfrey is a Christian,
with 46 percent of pastors who are 55 and older responding
affirmatively, compared to only 30 percent under the age
of 55.
Pastors in the 55-64 age bracket are the most likely to
say Obama is a Christian at 48 percent. Overall, 83
percent of pastors over the age of 55, compared to only 74
percent of those under 55, say Obama is a Christian.
“For many, ‘Judge not’ are the only words of Jesus they
know,” Stetzer said. “To those people, it may be
inconceivable that Protestant pastors might consider some
Christians and others not. Yet Jesus said much more about
following Him. Protestant pastors have theological views
and beliefs about what it means to be a Christian – and
those opinions influence many in America, so it’s
important to know what they believe.”
Methodology: The LifeWay Research telephone survey
was conducted among Protestant pastors Oct. 7-14, 2010.
Churches were selected randomly and each interview was
conducted with the church’s senior pastor, minister or
priest. Responses were weighted to reflect the
geographic distribution of Protestant churches. The
sample of 1,000 provides 95 percent confidence that the
sampling error does not exceed ±3.2 percent for the
total sample. Margins of error are higher in subgroups.
