Why Ideology, Not Faith, Drives The Culture War
(ANALYSIS) No term takes me back to my graduate school days like the “Culture War.” And for good reason: It was one of the biggest methodological debates in political science. Two camps emerged — one argued that polarization had completely infiltrated American society.
It wasn’t just a phenomenon of the chattering class, but it was also clearly evident among rank and file Americans across the country. These folks were often called maximalists, and their position was typified by Alan Abramowitz’s papers. If you want one single source to read about this view, I would recommend his book “The Disappearing Center,” published in 2010.
The other position was articulated in the aptly titled “Culture War? The Myth of a Polarized America” (first published in 2005 and revised several times since). You can probably guess the major thesis there: polarization has occurred at the elite level, but it really hasn’t seeped down into the mass public. I actually do take my stand on this position in my new book “The Vanishing Church,” so pick up a copy.
But beyond the debate over who is polarized in the U.S., there’s an adjacent, and perhaps more critical, discussion I want to tackle today: What drives polarized views? There is ample reason to think that religiosity impacts views on topics like abortion, same-sex marriage, and gender identity. This, after all, was the impetus behind Pat Buchanan’s famous 1992 Culture War speech at the Republican National Convention.
The alternate view is simple: partisanship is more important than religion. According to this framework, a question about abortion access is not answered by seeking theological justification; instead, citizens take their cues from political elites regarding hot-button issues.
That’s what I am going to explore today by looking at a battery of four statements from the 2023-2024 Pew Religious Landscape Study:
— Abortion: Do you think abortion should be...? (Coded “legal in all/most cases” as support).
— Trans Acceptance: Greater acceptance of transgender people... (Coded “change for the better” as support).
— Same-Sex Marriage: Do you favor or oppose allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally? (Coded “strongly favor/favor” as support).
— Homosexuality Acceptance: Should homosexuality be accepted or discouraged by society?
First, let’s look at the raw support for each of these social issues broken down by different Christian traditions and the non-religious.
You can read the rest of this post on Substack.
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.