Pew analysis: Sermons turned to political messaging in 2020 amid election, protests, COVID-19
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Breakdown by denomination
Catholic priests were the least likely to touch on the major topics of the day, with only 41% of priests mentioning the election in a sermon and 32% touching on racism. Over two-thirds, 69%, of Catholic priests touched on the pandemic in their sermons, a number an average of 10 percentage points lower than other major Christian branches.
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Evangelical churchgoers were most likely to discuss the election and “disproportionately used phrases related to prayer and to forces of evil,” according to Pew.
Evangelical congregations were much more likely to hear election-related calls to pray, often within common phrases like “pray for the president” or “pray for our president.” References to “Satan” and “hell” were also referenced more often than in other congregations.
Evangelical protestant churches, at 41%, heard racism discussed in sermons. Terms like “police officer,” “crime” and “convict” were commonly used in such discourse.
When discussing racism, historically Black congregations were most likely to hear terms like “anti-racism” and “white supremacist” used by pastors while evangelical protestants heard more vague terms like “racial tension” in sermons.
Catholic and mainline protestant congregations, meanwhile, more often discussed the election and other current events in the context of their religious practices, with words like “mass” and “communion” most commonly occurring in election-related sermons.
Follow Matthew Brown online @mrbrownsir.