The Political Activities of Reformed Clergy in the UnitedStates and Scotland

Abstract

This paper examines Reformed clergy across two different settings—the United States and Scotland in an effort to determine how theological orthodoxy is related to political participation. The paper demonstrates that (1) clergy in both settings tend to be politically active (2) the level of clergy political activity tends to be greater in the United States than in Scotland (3) the relationship between orthodoxy and political activity is complex, varying by the specific type of activity examined and (4) while theologically orthodox and modernist clergy tend to differ in the nature of their political activities, there is no longer a major “gap”in level of political activity between the two groups of ministers.