Pastors and Political Choice

“Your Rabbi? Probably a Democrat. Your Baptist Pastor? Probably a Republican. Your Priest? Who Knows.” This grabbing headline atop a recent New York Times story by Kevin Quealy promised a splashing wade into the controversial waters marked “politics and religion.” Quealy pondered and promoted the findings of Eitan D. Hersh, a Yale professor, and Gabrielle Malina, a Harvard graduate student, which had to do with how pastors and other religious leaders line up along the U.S. political spectrum. The Times published a tantalizing party-choice graph which probably surprised few who keep up with the subject, but confirmed what many had casually surmised. Note: some have criticized the released paper for not being peer reviewed; others have critiqued certain aspects of the authors' methodology. But, here goes, a bit cautiously…