PRRI Survey: Mainline clergy are more liberal than their congregants

Ever since the liberals started to bring form criticism and the like from Germany to the U.S., their first target has always been the seminaries, especially those in the big cities. One major purpose of the University of Chicago, founded by John D. Rockefeller, was to bring theological liberalism into the Northern Baptists, for example. So for most of the mainline churches (the Missouri Synod Lutherans being a notable exception), the clergy have been more liberal than average for well over a century.

For that matter, since most mainline churches are descended from state churches, clergy have been somewhat more liberal than faithful congregants for many centuries, since it was regrettably common for wealthy families to set up younger sons with a sinecure in the ministry--so a lot of pastors were not even faithful by liberal standards, but were just going through the motions to get their annuity.

On a side note, this is part of why the Puritans, Separatists, Methodists, and the like were such a threat to established churches. People could tell which pastors really believed what they were saying, and in many areas, state churches emptied quickly as believing pastors/missionaries came to town.