I hate to post on top of a morning post (see here for some thoughts on our Love/Hate relationship with the world), but we just released some new research.

See here.

Some excerpts:

Only about half of Protestant pastors say they plan to vote for Republican John McCain in the upcoming presidential election, but McCain still holds a substantial lead over Democrat Barack Obama, for whom less than one-quarter of pastors polled indicate they will vote...

LifeWay Research found that 55 percent of Protestant pastors plan to vote for McCain compared with 20 percent for Obama. A full 22 percent are undecided.

Evangelical pastors are significantly more likely to support McCain than their mainline counterparts. Sixty-six percent of self-identified evangelicals plan to vote for McCain while 13 percent are for Obama and 19 percent are undecided.

Only 36 percent of mainline pastors plan to vote for McCain. Thirty-seven percent support Obama, and 24 percent are undecided.

"Protestant pastors are strongly for McCain, though that changes when you look at mainline versus evangelicals," said Ed Stetzer, director of LifeWay Research. "Mainline pastors reflect the American setting - they are split between Obama and McCain. Self-identified evangelical pastors are overwhelmingly for McCain."

Stetzer added that given the late date in the campaign, "there are a surprising number of undecideds."

There is more at the story here.

A few things were surprising to me:

1. Self identified "mainline" pastors not more pro-Obama (they were split).

2. A sizeable minority of pastors are still undecided.

3. A majority of pastors endorsed candidates outside of their church role.

Please take a look and share your thoughts below... I may not be around to interact, but when I am sharing political news (rather than mission news) that does not seem to stop a good conversation. :-)