Pastor Skeptics

Protestant pastors are more skeptical about global warming today than they were two years ago, according to a LifeWay Research survey of 1,000 randomly selected Protestant pastors conducted in October 2010.

The survey also found that pastors’ views on the subject vary widely by denomination, education, location and political ideology.
When asked to respond to the statement, “I believe global warming is real and man-made,” 41 percent of pastors strongly disagree, up from 27 percent in a similar survey conducted in 2008.
That marks an increase of more than 50 percent. According to the 2010 survey, 19 percent of pastors somewhat disagree with the statement, 13 percent somewhat agree and 23 percent strongly agree.
Twenty-five percent strongly agreed in 2008 that global warming is real and man-made. Lifeway is the research and publishing arm of the Southern Baptist Convention. Evangelical and mainline pastors are divided on global warming.
A majority of evangelicals (68 percent) disagree strongly or somewhat that global warming is real and man-made, compared with 45 percent of mainline pastors.

Forty-four percent of evangelicals strongly disagree, but only 30 percent of mainline pastors feel the same. In contrast, more than a third (39 percent) of mainline pastors strongly agree that global warming is real and man-made, but only 14 percent of evangelical pastors strongly agree.