Forums for Controversy: Understanding Clergy-Led Deliberation among the Faithful

Extract

Clergy have become known as an important class of political elites, and, perhaps not surprisingly, religious communities have been found to be critical incubators of political deliberation.¹ The interaction between clergy and their followers has also been shown to significantly affect how clergy approach their job and, more importantly, their actions in regard to church policy. Arguably, the most important actions clergy undertake concern their relationship with parishioners and, in particular, the types of instruction to which they expose the faithful. Hence, we use this piece to investigate the decision clergy make to sponsor deliberative forums in their parishes.

We suggest that the decision to offer a deliberative opportunity to the faithful is related to clergy ideology and the institutional context in which these elites are situated. Specifically, clergy may have incentives (based on their personal preferences) to provide deliberative forums. They may also encounter disincentives in doing so based on how they believe their parishioners will react. This may be especially true when issues of parish or denominational controversy are in play. The forces contributing to clergy behavior in this regard are important to examine because they have implications for a truly deliberative experience among religious publics. After all, to the extent that clergy use deliberative forums to advance an agenda or obscure an issue, it is arguable that such forums are not truly deliberative.