Clergy Marital Status and Sexual Orientation

Much as been made about the spiritualization of the household and the adoption of married clergy in the Lutheran Reformation. Katherine von Bora Luther is celebrated as the model pastor’s wife. For centuries Lutheran women in that role have assisted their husbands; and other women have rejected it. Now women serve as pastors in their own right. Some do so as partners with a clergy spouse. In the context of greater social acceptance of various sexualities and following the ELCA’s 2009 decisions about homosexulaitay, data was also collected about clergy self-identification in their ministry settings.

Figure 13 shows that nearly half of the women who were married were married to other clergy. The data does not identify how many of clergy couples were serving in the same setting. They were forging new models of cooperative ministry.

Figure 14 shows that in 2016 the vast majority of white men and a slightly smaller percentage of ethnic-specific men were married or partnered. Compared to the percentage in Figure 12, here a larger percentage of white women were married or partnered. Although over half of ethnic-specific women were married or partnered, this group is the least likely to be.

Figure 15 displays information not gathered in previous studies. The percentage of each group identifying as LGBTQ appears to be inversely related to the number married or partnered, despite the possibility of being in both categories.