Uneasy Alliance: Conservative Catholics and the Christian Right

Bendyna, Mary E.; Green, John C.; Rozell, Mark J.; Wilcox, Clyde

doi:10.2307/3712230

Cited by 22 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…But Catholics generally disagree with evangelicals on matters related to social justice such as capital punishment and immigration. And the differences between evangelicals and Catholics on social justice issues do not disappear amongst those that have selfselected into the Christian Right (Bendyna et al 2001a).…”

Section: Data and Research Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cross-Cutting Messages and Political Tolerance: An Experiment Using Evangelical Protestants

Robinson

2010

Polit Behav

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Democratic theorists believe that exposure to rationales for conflicting views augments deliberation and tolerance. Evidence suggests that people are more tolerant of opposing groups after being exposed to alternative points of view, yet it is unclear how source credibility and previous exposure to the source moderates this effect. Using experimental survey data from a sample of evangelical Protestant PAC donors, I manipulate Christian Right activists' exposure to dissonant messages on immigration reform and capital punishment and vary the source of these messages. I find that when the opposing viewpoints are attributed to a religious leader generally found outside the Christian Right social movement (a mainline Protestant), evangelicals are less tolerant than when attributed to a religious leader sometimes found within the movement (a Catholic). Moreover, I find the amount of contact with the respective religious group moderates source effects. In this way, the study reveals how social networks may moderate the effect of elite discourse on public opinion.Political tolerance-citizens' willingness to respect the rights and liberties of others whose opinions and practices differ from their own-has long been viewed as the bedrock of a democratic society. Political tolerance is thought to produce peace, stability and good governance. Thus, political scientists, and public opinion scholars in particular, are interested in determining the origins of politically tolerant attitudes and discovering the ways in which citizens' intolerance for dissimilar groups might be lessened.

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Section: Data and Research Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cross-Cutting Messages and Political Tolerance: An Experiment Using Evangelical Protestants

Robinson

2010

Polit Behav

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“…The Catechism of the Catholic Church (1995), and Cardinal Bernadin's (1984) doctrine of the "seamless garment of life" in particular, have led the church to adopt a somewhat anomalous position in the religious, moral, and political "culture wars" over issues of life and death in the United States (see Hunter 1991). Opposition to the "culture of death" has in particular brought the American Catholic Church into an uneasy alliance with the Christian Right in its resistance to abortion, while aligning the church with various liberal and humanist organizations that strongly oppose capital punishment (Bendyna et al 2001;Perl and McClintock 2001). Given the clear organizational and moral hierarchy of the Catholic Church, this disjunction between religious orthodoxy and political conservatism thus provides a somewhat unique opportunity to study the effects of religious communities and religious communication on the formation of public opinion regarding capital punishment.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Father Knows Best: Parishes, Priests, and American Catholic Parishioners' Attitudes Toward Capital Punishment

Bjarnason

Welch

2004

Scientific Study of Religion

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Public opinion has important implications for capital punishment in the United States. Such opinion formation involves moral judgments irreducible to processing information on the administration of capital punishment or sentencing alternatives. Religious communities play a crucial role in resolving such moral dilemmas and giving meaning to available information. The Catholic Church strongly opposes capital punishment and strives to instruct lay Catholics on this issue. Accordingly, church attendance is associated with less support of the death penalty among Catholics but not among non-Catholics in the general population. Politically and socially conservative Catholic parishioners are more supportive of such punishment, while more religious parishioners report less such support. Parish priests significantly influence death penalty attitudes, in particular among more spiritual parishioners. Black Catholics are more supportive of the death penalty than their non-Catholic counterparts, in part because of a convergence in death penalty attitudes between blacks and whites in predominantly black parishes.

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“…The finding that Catholic Republicans are no less likely than Catholic Democrats to view evangelical groups active in politics as hostile (and no more likely to view them as "friendly") may have implications for the formation of interfaith political coalitions. Christian right groups attempting to court conservative Catholics, as the Christian Coalition has since the mid-1990s (Bendyna 1996), may face the challenge of overcoming negative perceptions of their groups, in addition to overcoming ideological differences on some issues (Bendyna et al 2001). Such negative perceptions may be strongest exactly in areas such as the south where the groups are likely to be well established due to a disproportionately evangelical population-perhaps even canceling out the advantage of the disproportionate political conservatism of Catholics residing in such locales (Leege and Welch 1989;Bendyna and Perl 2000).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceptions of Anti‐Catholic Bias and Political Party Identification Among U.S. Catholics

Perl

Bendyna

2002

Scientific Study of Religion

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Recent controversies in the news over anti-Catholicism alleged by elites on both the left and the right raise the question of how perceptions of religious prejudice relate to political preferences among Catholics. Using survey data on 746 self-identified adult Catholics, we examine the extent to which they perceive anti-Catholic bias and how those perceptions are related to political party identification. Catholics were asked whether they think there is a general anti-Catholic bias in the United States and whether each of seven sociopolitical groups is "hostile," "friendly," or "neutral" toward Catholics. The likelihood of perceiving a general anti-Catholic bias in the United States and anti-Catholic hostility from liberal sociopolitical groups increases with more frequent Mass attendance. The likelihood of perceiving hostility from conservative groups is unrelated to attendance. While the perception of a general anti-Catholic bias in the United States does not predict political party identification, perceptions of hostility from liberal groups tend to predict Republican identification, and perceptions of hostility from conservative groups tend to predict Democratic identification. Though perceived hostility from liberal groups has a stronger effect on party identification, we conclude that perceptions of anti-Catholic prejudice are related to the politics of some Catholics on both the left and the right.

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Uneasy Alliance: Conservative Catholics and the Christian Right

Cited by 22 publications

References 6 publications

Cross-Cutting Messages and Political Tolerance: An Experiment Using Evangelical Protestants

Cross-Cutting Messages and Political Tolerance: An Experiment Using Evangelical Protestants

Father Knows Best: Parishes, Priests, and American Catholic Parishioners' Attitudes Toward Capital Punishment

Perceptions of Anti‐Catholic Bias and Political Party Identification Among U.S. Catholics

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