When Church Attendance Influences Political Views — And When It Doesn’t
(ANALYSIS) In the world of public opinion, there are issue areas that are often seen as ‘belonging’ to one party or another.
For instance, foreign policy has always been seen as a strength for the Republicans, while something like health care has been more in the Democrats’ wheelhouse.
Of course, there is also a clear religious dimension to the public policy space, too. An issue like abortion is deeply intertwined with theological discourse, while something like gun control or environmental regulations isn’t often spoken from pulpits across the United States.
That’s what I wanted to do in this post today — just try and figure out which areas of policy seem more “religiously coded” and which ones aren’t. I have a pretty simple way of trying to tease that out: by looking at how religious attendance impacts views on these topics.
My working hypothesis is that in areas like immigration, there won’t be a really strong slope to the line — never attenders will basically feel the same as those who attend religious services on a weekly basis. While issues with a clear theological angle will see a line that tilts pretty steeply (in either a positive or negative direction).
I picked out six issues that really run the gamut of public opinion — we’ve got abortion, gun control, crime and punishment, the environment, immigration and health care. I tried to touch on a bit of everything in this analysis.
Before we throw religious attendance in the mix, though, let me help orient you to these questions through the broadest lens possible.
In 2022, 59% of all Americans thought abortion should be a choice. But the partisanship gap was a chasm. Among Democrats, 86% were in favor versus just 30% of Republicans.
This division between Democrats and Republicans is there on every issue. Democrats are 54 points more likely to favor a ban on assault rifles than Republicans and 35 points more willing to support the elimination of mandatory minimums in criminal sentencing.
When it comes to environmental regulation, 92% of Democrats are in favor versus 38% of Republicans. But on the question of cutting legal immigration in half, 64% of Republicans would support such a plan versus only 25% of Democrats.
Finally, nearly three-quarters of Republicans would like to see the Affordable Care Act repealed, but just 20% of Democrats. So — partisanship rules everything around us. That’s nothing new.
To read the rest of Ryan Burge’s post, visit his Substack page.
Ryan Burge is an assistant professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University, a pastor in the American Baptist Church and the co-founder and frequent contributor to Religion in Public, a forum for scholars of religion and politics to make their work accessible to a more general audience. His research focuses on the intersection of religiosity and political behavior, especially in the U.S. Follow him on X at @ryanburge.