Ever since Stouffer (1955) began to measure political tolerance a half century ago, multiple studies have shown that church attendance and denominational affiliation play a significant role in influencing whether individuals want to extend civil liberties to fringe groups. However, there is little theoretical understanding of why religion should affect an individual's unwillingness to grant free expression to minority opinions. Drawing upon the theoretical innovations ofCreeley (1995) we argue that the key to understanding when religion negatively affects political tolerance is the individual's conception of God. Using data from the General Social Survey we find that a wrathful image of God is significantly related to the denial of civil liberties to unpopular groups, even controlling for attendance, affiliation and view of the Bible. These findings indicate that religious faith and civil liberties are in tension mainly when believers think that God actively punishes sinners. Persecution for the expression of opinions seems to me perfectly logical.-Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes (1919) The U.S. Declaration of Independence asserts, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." With this eloquent proclamation, Thomas Jefferson indicates that prioritizing the rights of the individual does not undercut but, in fact, is premised on the idea of an almighty creator. Nonetheless, this famous sentiment appears at odds with the empirical reality that religious individuals in the United States tend to be less likely to approve of extensive civil liberties. In fact, those who defend the sacredness of religious concepts are often pitted against those who defend the freedom of individuals to express "profane"
As citizens of the most technologically advanced and economically developed country in the world, nearly all Americans stalwartly maintain their faith in God, much more so than residents of other postindustrial countries (Norris and Ingelhart 2004). But what is the content and meaning of this belief? Perhaps belief in God has become so pervasive in contemporary American culture that it reflects little about believers' deeper religious thoughts, identities, and actions. We find the opposite to be true. Outside the confines of seminaries, competing beliefs about who God is and what God wants have a clear and important connection to everyday religious life in the United States. Subtle distinctions in American images of God powerfully predict religious diversity as measured by belief in the truth of a single religious faith, religious devotion, and attitudes about the compatibility of secular and religious spheres. More specifically, we discern that American religious conservatism, in all its forms, can be aptly characterized by the belief that God is highly engaged in the world and particularly judgmental of human behavior.
The Baylor Religion Survey (BRS) is a national population survey of religious characteristics, orientations, and attitudes modeled after the General Social Survey. This article provides an overview of the content of the 2005 BRS along with a detailed description of our methods of data collection and some descriptive characteristics from our sample of 1,721 adults in the United States. A third of the survey is dedicated solely to religion items focusing on affiliation, identity, belief, experience, and commitment. Two‐thirds of the survey is dedicated to topical modules that will be rotated in subsequent administrations. We briefly describe the content of these modules and discuss how our data compare to the 2004 General Social Survey.
Some have argued that moralistic considerations trump other factors in determining attitudes toward criminal punishment. Consequently, recent research has examined how views of God influence sentiments regarding criminal punishment. Using the Baylor Religion Survey (BRS) 2005, we find that (a) angry and judgmental images of God are significant predictors of punitive attitudes regarding criminal punishment and the death penalty and (b) images of God as loving and engaged in the world are not consistently significant predictors of attitudes toward criminal punishment, once measures of God’s perceived anger and judgment are considered.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.