Churches as Political Communities

Abstract

Most studies of contextual influences on political attitudes and behavior have treated geographical areas as the operative social environment. As early research on social influence processes noted, the conditions that promote consensus among inhabitants of a common environment are likely to be present in formal organizations that encourage face-to-face interaction. Churches possess many of the characteristics that should maximize behavioral contagion and are thus fertile ground for the dissemination of common political outlooks. This expectation is tested by assessing the link between theological and political conservatism in 21 Protestant congregations. The theological climate in the churches is found to contribute strongly to the members' political conservatism over and above the personal commitment of respondents to traditional Christian values and a variety of social and attitudinal variables. As churches constitute the single most widespread form of voluntary organizational affiliation in the United States, their potential political impact appears to be considerable.

Remembering to Ask the Boss: Priming and the Dynamics of Priest Reliance on Bishop Cues

“…Of course, this view runs counter to some of the expectations Zaller had himself regarding elites and opinion influence via media. Assuming that priests function as elites, the more classic view of these local leaders is to consider them nodes of influence on the mass public [12,13,44]. We do not seek to overturn the notion that clergy are influential in their ministries and help to sway public opinion (despite the lack of direct causal evidence demonstrating this effect), as this is not our argument.…”

Seeing is Believing: Religious Media Consumption and Public Opinion toward Same-Sex Relationships

“…Early work by Wald, Owen, and Hill (1988) theorized that congregational involvement likely influenced members' views on moral and political issues through interpersonal interaction and explicit messages from the pulpit.…”

The continued salience of religious voting in the United States, Germany, and Great Britain

“…For one, the average religious voter self-locates on the more traditional end of the political values spectrum (Layman and Carmines, 1997;de Koster and van der Waal, 2007;De Witte and Billiet, 1999), supporting traditional values and issues of morality, positions which lend themselves to support for more conservative parties of the right (Hammond, Shibley, and Solow, 1994;Layman, 2001;Mulligan, 2008;Hout and Fisher, 2002;Djupe, 2000;Green and Guth, 1993). Because churches and the sub-communities that churches create foster intense political socialization (Wald, Hill, and Owen, 1988) and facilitate mobilization for campaigns and voting (Verba, Schlozman, and Brady, 1995;Campbell, 2004) (2000) shows that social class still matters as a predictor of party identification. The same effect on party identification has been observed with regard to religion (Layman, 2001;Djupe, 2000;Johnson, 1994;Kotler-Berkowitz, 2001).…”