Religious Commitment, Political Conservatism, and Political and Social Tolerance in the United States: A Longitudinal Analysis

Rethinking the Relationship between Religion and Political Tolerance in the US

“…Second, higher levels of doctrinal orthodoxy/orthodox beliefs (what Sullivan et al, 1982, called fundamentalism) may lead to increased intolerance. Both of these hypotheses are well supported by a bevy of past research (Beatty & Walter, 1984;Nunn et al, 1978;Smidt & Penning, 1982;Stouffer, [1955Stouffer, [ ] 1992Sullivan et al, 1982;Wilcox & Jelen, 1990) and these are the findings that one should expect. The third hypothesis is the possibility that the relationship between religion and political tolerance is spurious.…”

“…2 Religion is conceptualized as having three distinct, yet interrelated dimensions: religious belief, religious belonging, and religious behavior (Carwardine, 1993;Jelen, 1991;Kellstedt, 1993;Kellstedt, Green, Guth, & Smidt, 1996;Layman & Green, 1998;Wuthnow, 1988). example, Beatty & Walter, 1984;Corbett, 1982;Erskine & Siegal, 1975;Filsinger, 1976;Nunn et al, 1978;Smidt & Penning, 1982;Sullivan et al, 1982;Wilcox & Jelen, 1990). So why bother to reinvestigate what looks like an ''open and shut'' case?…”

“…Of particular interest and focus, e.g., the two most important questions that are the focus of re-examination here are the effects of religious commitment and doctrinal orthodoxy on political tolerance. Previous research (Beatty & Walter, 1984;Nunn et al, 1978;Smidt & Penning, 1982;Stouffer, [1955Stouffer, [ ] 1992Wilcox & Jelen, 1990) suggests religious commitment directly influences political tolerance so that as commitment increases political tolerance decreases; it also suggests that as doctrinal orthodoxy increases so does political intolerance (Wilcox & Jelen, 1990).…”

“…Many of them (for various reasons, such as use of secondary data analysis) could not employ the content-controlled tolerance measure developed by Sullivan, Piereson, and Marcus (e.g., Beatty & Walter, 1984;Filsinger, 1976;Smidt & Penning, 1982;Wilcox & Jelen, 1990). 8 In addition, many of the political tolerance studies (e.g., Beatty & Walter, 1984;Cutler & Kaufman, 1975;Davis, 1975;Filsinger, 1976;Smidt & Penning, 1982;Wilcox & Jelen, 1990)-did not incorporate two of the most important predictors of political tolerance, threat perception and support for norms of democracy (Marcus et al, 1995;Sullivan et al, 1982); 9 neither did they control for a secure personality, 10 which also was found to be an important psychological predictor of political tolerance (Davis, 1995;Marcus et al 1995;Peffley et al 2001;Sullivan et al 1982).…”

The Effect of Religiosity on Endorsement of Democratic Values: The Mediating Influence of Authoritarianism

“…Beginning with Stouffer's (1955) findings in the 1950s that church attendance predicted political intolerance, a series of studies have documented the negative impact of personal piety on political tolerance (e.g., Gibson, 1992;Smidt and Penning, 1982;Steiber, 1980). Studies have also found that atheists are more tolerant of political dissent than believers (Herek, 1987;Stouffer, 1955;Sullivan and Transue, 1999).…”