According to a recent Public Religion Research Institute survey of adults who attend religious services at least once or twice a month, most people never hear clergy speak about current issues from the pulpit. More specifically, the percentage who have heard clergy speak about a given current issue is
- Immigration: 32%
- Homosexuality: 42%
- Abortion: 45%
So What?
Something is wrong when the church is silent about current issues. People should not be able to regularly attend worship and never hear what their religion has to say about these and other key current issues.
Pastors and other religious leaders must be intentional about connecting religion to daily living. Anything less contributes to an understanding that religion has nothing to say about the topics that matter most today. Such a religion is utterly irrelevant.
Share Your Experience
- Has the pastor or primary religious leader of your faith community addressed the three issues included in the PRRI survey during worship? If not, which one (or ones) have you never heard your leader speak about?
- What would you say are the two or three most significant issues in your country at the present time? Has the pastor or primary religious leader of your faith community addressed them in worship?
- On a scale of 1-10, how likely would you be to attend a community of faith on a regular basis that never addressed contemporary issues?