{"id":31876,"date":"2022-09-10T15:47:28","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T20:47:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/most-americans-want-little-influence-from-religious-leaders\/"},"modified":"2022-09-10T15:47:28","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T20:47:28","slug":"most-americans-want-little-influence-from-religious-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/most-americans-want-little-influence-from-religious-leaders\/","title":{"rendered":"Most Americans Want Little Influence From Religious Leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"
kyryll ushakov photo – Unsplash <\/p>\n

By Aaron Earls<\/em><\/p>\n

Most Americans say religious leaders have had influence in their life, but few say they regularly consult with them when making a big decision today.<\/p>\n

A recent AP survey found 55% of Americans say clergy members or religious leaders have had at least some influence in their lives, while 45% say they\u2019ve had little to no influence.<\/p>\n

Specifically, 21% say religious leaders have had a lot of influence, 33% say some, 25% say not much, and 20% say pastors have had no influence.<\/p>\n

Those who identify with a religion are more than twice as likely to say pastors have had an influence compared to the religious unaffiliated (63% to 26%).<\/p>\n

Among those who have a religious affiliation, those who regularly attend services (85%) are far more likely to say religious leaders have influenced their lives (47%).<\/p>\n

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Less than half of Americans say they actually want religious leaders to have influence in their lives.<\/p>\n

While 47% say they want at least some influence, 52% say they want not much or none at all.<\/p>\n

Among parents of children under 18, those numbers essentially flip when asked how much influence they want a religious leader to have in their child\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

More than half (52%) say they want some or a lot of influence, while 48% say they want less.<\/p>\n

Among religiously affiliated Americans, 59% say they want a pastor to have at least some influence in their life.<\/p>\n

Only 7% of the religiously unaffiliated say they want influence on their life from a pastor or religious leader.<\/p>\n

The younger one is the less likely they are to want pastoral influence.<\/p>\n

Among 18- to 29-year-olds, 68% say they want religious leaders to have little to no influence on their life, with only 30% who want at least some influence.<\/p>\n

Americans who are 60 and older are twice as likely to say they want the influence of a pastor in their life.<\/p>\n

While 60% say they want at least some influence, 40% say they want not much or none at all.<\/p>\n

Few actually consult religious leaders<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Regardless of whether, they say they want influence or not, few Americans actually consult a clergy member or religious leader when making an important decision.<\/p>\n

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Around 1 in 4 (24%) say consult a pastor at least sometimes, including 6% who say they do so often.<\/p>\n

Another quarter (26%) say they rarely do so, while half of Americans (49%) say they never consult religious leaders during when facing a big life choice.<\/p>\n

Those who identify with a faith are more than seven times as likely to consult with a religious leader (30% to 4%).<\/p>\n

Among those with a religion, those who regularly attend services are more than three times as likely to seek consultation as those who attend less frequently (49% to 16%).<\/p>\n

Americans are more likely to ask religious leaders about charitable giving or marriage than they are to talk to them about finances or sex.<\/p>\n

One in 5 (21%) say they are very or extremely likely to consult pastors on volunteering or charitable giving, as well as marriage, divorce, or relationships.<\/p>\n

Among parents, 18% say they are at least very likely to consult religious leaders about child rearing and 16% say the same about the child\u2019s education.<\/p>\n

Very few say they can see themselves talking to a clergy member about medical decisions (8%), career or work life (8%), family planning, such as fertility or birth control (8%), political activity or voting decisions (8%), financial decisions (7%), or sex and sexuality (7%).<\/p>\n

However, more than 8 in 10 of those who talked with a religious leader about an important decision say the consultation had at least some value.<\/p>\n

More than 2 in 5 say the conversation was very or extremely valuable (43%), while 40% say it was moderately valuable.<\/p>\n

Fewer say the consultation was not very valuable (11%) or not valuable at all (5%).<\/p>\n

AARON EARLS (@WardrobeDoor)<\/strong> is online editor of<\/em> Facts & Trends.<\/p>\n

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Dig Deeper at Lifeway.com<\/div>\n
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Portraits of a Pastor: The 9 Essential Roles of a Church Leader<\/h2>\n

Jason K. Allen, General Editor<\/p>\n

FIND OUT MORE <\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Most Open to Spiritual Conversations, Few Christians Speaking 22 Vital Stats for Ministry in 2022 Americans Less Optimistic About Race Relations 3 Ways to Reach Non-Religious People in Your Community <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

kyryll ushakov photo – Unsplash By Aaron Earls Most Americans say religious leaders have had influence in their life, but few say they regularly consult with them when making a big decision today. A recent AP survey found 55% of Americans say clergy members or religious leaders have had at least some influence in their … Continue reading “Most Americans Want Little Influence From Religious Leaders”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31876\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}