Clergy and controversy: A study of clergy and gay rights in Columbus, Ohio

In 2004, voters in eleven states voted on various forms of a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, and the proposals passed by comfortable margins in all eleven states.* Ohio was among these eleven states. Its voters passed constitutional amendment Issue 1, a measure pushed by the Cincinnati-based group Citizens for Community Values, which has a history of conservative activism in local politics (Bischoff 2004a: A20). Meanwhile, Ohio was the "Florida" of the 2004 presidential election campaign, so enormous attention and resources were focused on the state. Afterward, commentators credited Christian conservatives, mobilized in part to vote for Issue 1, with deciding Ohio for George W. Bush (Shapiro 2004; Zajac and Jones 2004). In this chapter, we describe the constellation of religious interests involved in the Issue 1 debate. Although the presidential campaigns stayed away from the issue of same-sex marriage, just about every other organization seemed to weigh in on the issue in 2004. Therefore, we ask several basic questions: What links were interest groups involved with Issue 1 able to forge with churches? Did clergy engage the issue in and out of their congregations? In general, were religious and political interests integrated in the fight over samesex recognition in Ohio? We use multiple methods to reweave the tapestry of the Issue 1 campaign. Newspaper accounts are a crucial resource, as they documented elite activity and added perspective as the campaign progressed. News coverage cannot cover the full extent of grassroots involvement, however, which is the focus of our effort. Clergy can be critical nodes in wider information networks, delivering content from interest groups to their constituencies. Further, they can report, with some authority, the distinct perspectives of their congregations. And, of course, religious leaders have their own interests. For these reasons, we surveyed Columbus-area clergy. Details of the sample and survey procedure can be found in the appendix.1.