For God and Country: The Political Activism of Religious Congregations in the United States
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Authors
Everton, Sean F.
Subjects
Advisors
Date of Issue
2021-06-21
Date
2021-06-212021-06-21
Publisher
SSRN
Language
en_US
Abstract
In this paper, I draw on four waves of the National Congregations Study to explore the political activism of religious congregations in the United States, how this activity has changed over the past two decades, and in what ways it varies across religious traditions. It shows that although theologically conservative Christians have developed a reputation for political activism, this is not reflected at the congregational level. White evangelical churches seldom engage in overt political activity and instead seek to keep their focus on the worship of God. Rather, it is Roman Catholic and Black Protestant congregations that are the most politically active, engaging in a wide-variety of activities, such as distributing voter guides, registering people to vote, forming groups to discuss politics, lobbying or marching about particular issues, or inviting political candidates and elected officials to speak at their worship services. The paper also finds that the marching and lobbying efforts of religious congregations increased in 2018-19, an increase that may very well reflect reactions to policies of President Trump's administration. The paper concludes with a brief reflection on the results of the analysis, and noting that it just begins to scratch the surface if congregational political activism, it offers a few suggestions for future research.
Type
Preprint
Description
The article of record as published may be found at https://ssrn.com/abstract=3859035
Series/Report No
Department
Organization
Naval Postgraduate School
Identifiers
NPS Report Number
Sponsors
Funder
Format
30 p.
Citation
Distribution Statement
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.