2% of U.S. Protestant pastors endorsed a candidate during a church service in 2024
The IRS now says religious organizations, including churches, should be excluded from the Johnson Amendment, a 1954 change to the tax code that prohibits tax-exempt organizations from endorsing or opposing political candidates. This would allow pastors to directly support or criticize politicians from the pulpit.
Before the 2024 election, Lifeway Research asked U.S. Protestant pastors if they had endorsed a candidate that year. Almost all pastors (98%) said they had not backed a candidate during a church service, while 25% said they had done so outside of their church role. The 2% who did endorse during the election year is statistically unchanged from 2020 and 2016.
Meanwhile, Americans may be slightly more open to political endorsements than U.S. Protestant pastors are to offering them.
Three in 10 U.S. adults (29%) believe pastors publicly endorsing candidates for public office during a church service is appropriate. Three in 5 (60%) disagree, including 42% who strongly disagree, and 11% aren’t sure.
The percentage of Americans who see pastors endorsing a candidate in church as appropriate has risen steadily over the past 16 years. According to a phone survey in 2008, 13% saw political endorsements during a church service as acceptable. That grew to 19% in 2015. Online surveys started with 24% in 2020 before growing to 29% today.
Additionally, around 1 in 3 Americans (32%) say it is appropriate for a church to publicly endorse candidates for public office, while 55% disagree and 12% aren’t sure. Support is statistically similar to 2020, but a phone survey in 2008 found 22% supported such endorsements.
More than a quarter (28%) say it’s acceptable for churches to use their resources to campaign for a political candidate. Around 3 in 5 (62%) disagree, including 46% who strongly disagree, and 10% say they are not sure. More Americans see churches using their resources as acceptable today. Support was 13% in a 2008 phone survey but 28% today.
When asked directly if churches that endorse political candidates should lose their tax-exempt status, around half of U.S. adults (48%) agree, 31% disagree and 21% aren’t sure. Those percentages are statistically similar to 2020.
Quotes from Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research:
“As the nation becomes less religious, Americans have less concern about the church’s influence over politics. Yet the majority of Americans still don’t want official candidate support coming from churches.”
“Almost all Protestant pastors reserve the pulpit for promoting Jesus Christ rather than a woman or man running for public office. It is unclear whether the drop in candidate endorsements by pastors outside of their role at church is due to a lack of excitement about candidates or concerns over disrupting unity within their churches.”
“A new generation of Americans appears more open to pastor endorsements of candidates. Either they have heard less rationale for restricting such endorsements, disagree with what they have heard or have seen no problems with endorsements they have heard about.”
“In a nation whose recent elections have been narrowly decided, the 3 in 5 Americans who do not find it appropriate to use church finances or an endorsement from the pulpit to support a candidate look like an expectation of what is proper. However, there is no such mandate for the tax regulation that seeks to endorse this.”
Source: Pastors Remain Opposed, Americans Grow More Open to Political Endorsements in Church — Lifeway Research, 2024
Additional relevant studies:
- Churchgoers Want to Hear Pastors Address Current Issues — Lifeway Research, 2024
- Churchgoers Increasingly Prefer a Congregation That Shares Their Politics — Lifeway Research, 2024
- Half of Pastors Support Trump, but Many Are Hesitant to Share Preference — Lifeway Research, 2024
- Southern Baptists More Historic Than Nationalistic in Their Political Posture — Lifeway Research, 2024