New research has revealed that only 39 percent of evangelical Christians approve of women serving in leadership roles within the church.
Research into how women in leadership roles are perceived was conducted by the Barna Group. The study is called “What Americans Think about Women in Power” and revealed that, while most Christian groups did not have a problem with women serving in leadership roles, evangelical Christians were the exception.
According to Relevant Magazine, the research revealed that 79 percent of Americans said they were comfortable with women leading ministry. Breaking the statistics down by denomination, researchers found that 71 percent of Protestants, 80 percent of Catholics, and 62 percent of simply “practicing Christians” said they were comfortable with women in leadership roles within the church.
Only 39 percent of evangelical Christians said the same, however--the only group that opposed women serving in the church more than they approved of it.
Interestingly, research also revealed that these same evangelical Christians did not hold the same views about women serving in leadership roles in business or politics.
The majority of Americans from all religious denominations expressed approval for women’s leadership in more secular roles.
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Publication date: March 14, 2017
