Churches now more accepting of gays and lesbians as members, less so as leaders

A report on a national survey churches finds churches have grown more accepting of gays and lesbians. Just under half of local churches would welcome gays and lesbians as members. Only one-in-four churches would allow gays and lesbians to assume positions of leadership.

The National Congregations Study is the most rigorous survey of local religious congregations in the United States. The NCS surveyed a nationally representative sample of 1,300 local congregations. This the third wave of the NCS. A report by Mark Chaves (Duke University) and Shawna Anderson (NORC) includes key findings from the 2012 NCS, including the changing place of gays and lesbians in American churches since the last wave in 2006. Keep reading

On his blog The Exchange Ed Stetzer posted this introduction to the article:

Tobin Grant reports on the trends in churches relating to gays and lesbians. I'm a bit perplexed at how this question would be best asked (and I am not criticizing the way Mark Chaves asked it, because I can see several ways to ask it, but none are perfect). For example, I can imagine only a small percentage of churches would use "membership" in the same way that I would—as in a covenant community.

Also, I'd wonder how to identify practice and identification. Needless to say, this is a difficult question to frame, but there is clearly a shift in the direction toward the acceptance of gays and lesbians. Tobin Grant does a good job of explaining it here.