Public Health from the Pulpit: A Text Analysis of COVID-19 Public Health Messaging in Sermons of United Methodist Pastors in North Carolina

Abstract

Religious leaders served as important sources of health messaging throughout the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study examines the quantity of health messaging in sermons given by United Methodist Pastors in North Carolina from March 2020-February 2021 as well as individual-level pastor characteristics associated with the use of pandemic-related keywords. Sermons (n=10,149) were aggregated from online-video platforms, transcribed using OpenAI’s Whisper Algorithm, and matched to United Methodist (UMC) pastors who completed the 2021 Clergy Health Initiative Panel Survey. A dictionary-based text analysis using a ‘bag-of-words’ approach was conducted to identify pandemic-related keywords. Multilevel logistic regression, with sermons as the unit of analysis and random-effects for each pastor, was used to determine the odds of a sermon containing a pandemic-related keyword (usage across sermons) based on the characteristics of the pastor. Among sermons that contained at least one pandemic-related keyword, multilevel OLS regression analysis was conducted to determine differences in the proportion of pandemic-related keywords in sermons (usage within sermons). Most pastors included in the analysis (92.8%) preached at least one sermon containing a pandemic-related keyword and the majority of sermons (62.3%) contained at least one keyword. Multilevel logistic regression results showed that race, years of experience, and political mismatch were associated with the use of pandemic-related keywords across sermons, with sermons given by black pastors, pastors with more experience, and pastors experiencing political mismatch with their congregation at higher odds of containing at least one keyword. Multilevel OLS regression analysis revealed that the proportion of pandemic-related keywords within sermons was associated with both political affiliation and political mismatch, with sermons given by Democrat pastors and pastors experiencing some mismatch with their congregations having a higher proportion of keywords.These results indicate that COVID-19 was a frequent topic in sermons given by UMC pastors in North Carolina during the first year of the pandemic. They also indicate the intense politicization of COVID-19 and suggest that religious leaders may use sermons as a means to both communicate health information to their congregants as well as influence behavior. Further research should be conducted in order to determine the content and context of health messaging in sermons as well as the impact of such messaging on the public health knowledge, beliefs, and behaviors of congregants.