20th Centuries. In the mid-1970s the Seminex controversy at their Concordia Seminary in St. Louis over use of historical-critical biblical study led to the formation of the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches, later one of the predecessor bodies of the ELCA. The LCMS is the second largest Lutheran church body in North America with 1.8 million baptized members. The ELCA tends to be more involved in ecumenical endeavors than the LCMS, which prohibits its clergy from worshiping in ecumenical gatherings. The ELCA is a member of the Lutheran World Federation, World Council of Churches and the National Council of Churches of Christ, USA. The LCMS rejects these as being unionist. Both the LCMS and the ELCA have policies relating to clergy sexual misconduct. Perry C. Francis, a former ELCA pastor turned professor, along with psychology professor Tracy D. Baldo, published the results of their 1994 study of clergy sexual misconduct in the journal Pastoral Psychology. Out of 270 ELCA and 117 LCMS clergy surveyed, 13.7 percent of ELCA clergy and 4.3 percent of LCMS clergy admitted to sexual misconduct with another person since they began their ministry. Results from the Pew Research Center U.S. Religious Landscape Survey of 2008: Comparison to LCMS in ELCA's point of view according to the Honoring Our Neighbor's Faith These conclusions are not agreed upon by the WELS or LCMS. Demographics Results from the Pew Research Center U.S. Religious Landscape Survey of 2008: Statistics Over 500,000 people have left the ELCA since the church's human sexuality decision in 2009. Approximately 700 congregations have voted to withdraw from the ELCA, representing about 7 percent of its 2009 congregational membership. The ELCA currently has a baptized membership of 3,035,615 people. In 2015, Pew Research estimated that 1.4 percent of the U.S. population, or roughly 4.4 million adherents, identify with the ELCA, which is moderately more than rostered membership suggests. Another 0.7 percent, or 2.2 million adherents, identify with mainline Lutheranism in general. A number of members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America are former Roman Catholics. , the ELCA has approximately 8,724 congregations. See also Protestantism in the United States Christianity in the United States List of ELCA synods References Further reading Bodensieck, Julius, ed. The encyclopedia of the Lutheran Church (3 vol 1965) vol 1 and 3 online free Brauer, James Leonard and Fred L. Precht, eds. Lutheran Worship: History and Practice (1993) Granquist, Mark.