This article was first published in the State of Faith newsletter. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox each Monday night.
It’s Easter week, and, as usual, I’m feeling a bit frazzled. I’m nervous about getting my Easter story done in time and about coming up with a topic that will actually catch people’s attention.
But anytime I’m tempted to throw a pity party for myself, I stop and remember that many other people are juggling even longer to-do lists, including my pastor friends.
In the week ahead, Christian religious leaders will have to oversee several events and worship services that don’t take place in a typical week and revisit the Easter story over and over again. It’ll be intimidating and draining, but hopefully fulfilling, too.
Most pastors probably will find satisfaction in sharing the Easter story, since religious leaders, in general, enjoy their work.
A recent project from Mark Chaves at Duke University found that 97% of religious leaders who hold the primary leadership role in their congregation feel “very” or “moderately” satisfied with their work and 70% at least moderately agree that their life is “close to ideal.”
Just 9% said they “very often” or “fairly often” consider leaving religious work.
The project, called the National Survey of Religious Leaders, is based on a survey fielded in 2019 and 2020 among 1,600 religious leaders, including Catholic priests, Jewish rabbis and bishops for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Here are some other takeaways from the report, which is worth reading in full.
- Declining membership and related financial challenges are making it more common for religious leaders to serve more than one congregation at a time. In 2019-2020, nearly 1 in 5 religious leaders (19%) were serving more than one congregation, compared to 12% in 2001.
- Speaking of challenges, when asked an open-ended question about what challenges are interfering with their work, half of religious leaders said something about their congregations or communities showing a declining interest in religion.
- Mainline Protestant pastors typically have much higher salaries than other types of religious leaders. One reason for that is they are more likely to serve churches with large endowments.
- Despite their higher salaries, mainline Protestant pastors are somewhat less happy and less satisfied than their peers in other faith groups. During a presentation at last month’s Faith Angle Forum, Chaves explained that his team is still working to determine the source of their malaise.
- Around 7 in 10 Black Protestant, Catholic and mainline Protestant leaders believe that human actions are a major cause of climate change. Just 22% of evangelical leaders say the same.
- In general, evangelical leaders stand out for their political views. Eighty-one percent of them identify as Republican, compared to 29% of Catholic leaders.
- Around three-quarters of evangelical leaders feel their political views match their congregation’s political views. Most mainline Protestant leaders, on the other hand, feel more liberal than their congregations.
- Fewer than one-third of religious leaders say “lack of faith” is at least “moderately likely” to cause depression. It’s much more common for leaders to believe that depression stems from traumatic experiences or chemical imbalances.
- Last but not least, an Easter-related finding: 91% of religious leaders say they definitely believe in Jesus’ bodily resurrection.
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Term of the week: Religious Workforce Protection Act
About six months ago, I wrote in this newsletter about the R-1 visa, a type of visa that enables foreign-born religious workers to serve U.S. houses of worship.
The R-1 visa was in the news at the time because religious leaders were raising the alarm about lengthier processing times. They were frustrated that it was becoming less and less common for a gifted R-1 visa holder to be able to secure a green card before their five years of protection under the R-1 visa ran out.
Now, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and other organizations are championing the Religious Workforce Protection Act, which aims to solve the logistical issue without raising concerns about making the system too lenient.
“Under the (the act), those already in the United States on an R-1 visa who have applied for adjustment of status would be able to remain in the country in their current nonimmigrant status for renewable, three-year periods until they are able to receive a green card. This would allow them to continue serving American communities without interruption,” Catholic leaders explain in a letter to Congress about the Religious Workforce Protection Act.
The letter argues that passing the act would support the religious freedom of all Americans.
“Simply put, an increasing number of American families will be unable to practice the basic tenets of their faith if this situation is not addressed soon. Likewise, hospitals will go without chaplains, schools will go without teachers, and seminaries will go without instructors,” Catholic leaders wrote.
What I’m reading...
Ahead of the release of Angel Studios’ latest project, “The King of Kings,” last week, The New York Times caught up with some of the company’s top leaders about what Hollywood gets wrong about faith-based entertainment.
President Donald Trump has announced his picks for two faith-related ambassadorships, according to Fox News. He wants businessman Yehuda Kaploun to serve as special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism and former U.S. Rep. Mark Walker, who is also a former pastor, to serve as ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom.
Grocery stores have a banana problem: It’s hard to sell the single ones that break away from their bunch. What are they to do? After conducting a charming study featuring happy and sad banana cartoon characters, researchers in Germany arrived at a very unique solution, according to The Conversation: Sell the single bananas under a drawing of a sad banana.
Odds and ends
The Jewish holiday of Passover began on Saturday. To learn more, check out this explainer from The Associated Press.
Americans like the idea of reading. ... They just don’t make time for it in their daily lives, according to a new poll.