‘Shocking’ survey finds only half of Evangelical pastors hold biblical worldview
MAY 29, 2022
In what researchers described as a “shocking” find, a new report from the Cultural Research Center (CRC) at Arizona Christian University indicated just over half of all U.S. pastors of Evangelical churches (51%) have a biblical worldview.
This study, released Tuesday, builds on an earlier report from CRC’s “American Worldview Inventory 2022,” which showed that just 37% of Christian pastors bring a biblical worldview with them to their pulpits. …
Perhaps most surprisingly, just 48% of pastors of Baptist churches, widely viewed as the most enthusiastic about embracing the Bible as the Word of God, held a biblical worldview. Pastors of Southern Baptist churches, by contrast, were far more likely (78%) to have consistently biblical beliefs.
Much smaller shares of pastors belonging to other denominational categories possessed a biblical worldview, according to the report. Just over a third of charismatic or Pentecostal church pastors — 37% — hold a biblical worldview, slightly higher than pastors from mainline Protestant churches (32%) and those aligned with “holiness theology” (28%), which is generally aligned with Pentecostal teachings but promises believers can reach a “sinless state” following their conversion.
Pastors associated with “Traditionally Black Protestant” churches and Catholic priests were found least likely to hold to biblical theism, with the incidence of biblical worldview measured in single digits. Nine percent of pastors leading “Traditionally Black Churches” had a biblical worldview, along with 6% of Catholic priests.