Half of clergy say churches need to address poverty

VENTURA, Calif. — Slightly more than half of Christian clergy surveyed say their own congregation should be doing more to address global poverty and health.

The survey of 1,024 Protestant and Catholic clergy found that almost two-thirds of them — 64 percent — said U.S. churches in general should increase those efforts. But while 57 percent said their own congregation should be doing more, 43 percent said they believed they were doing enough.

“The church is really split when it comes to their interest in dealing with international poverty,” said David Kinnaman, president of The Barna Group, which conducted the research for the ONE Campaign, a secular advocacy organization that has started a ONE Sabbath effort to engage religious congregations.

While the vast majority of clergy — 90 percent — said political leaders should talk about how the country can address international poverty and health matters, the typical Christian leader may only preach about poverty issues once a year.

“Usually poverty is something that’s mentioned once or twice a year,” said Kinnaman, who added that African-American, mainline Protestant and Catholic churches tend to bring up such issues more often. “It doesn’t really become a main theme for many congregations as they talk about the kinds of things they’re trying to activate people in their church to do.”