Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T18:37:15.015Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Religious Authority in a Democratic Society: Clergy and Citizen Evidence from a New Measure

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2021

Ryan P. Burge Open the ORCID record for Ryan P. Burge [Opens in a new window]  and
Paul A. Djupe Open the ORCID record for Paul A. Djupe [Opens in a new window]
Ryan P. Burge*
Affiliation:
Eastern Illinois University
Paul A. Djupe
Affiliation:
Denison University
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Ryan P. Burge, Department of Political Science, Eastern Illinois University, 600 Lincoln Avenue, Charleston, IL61920. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A persistent concern for democratic theorists is the degree to which religious authority trumps democratic authority. This is often assessed using generic measures of religiosity or religious beliefs ill-suited to the task. Moreover, while religion is linked to dogmatism and authoritarianism, this begs the question how much influence religion has independent of psychological dispositions. We attempt to add to these debates with a new measure of religious authority. We draw on data gathered from three samples—a sample of Christian clergy from 2014, a national sample of 1,000 Americans from Spring 2016, and a national sample of 1,010 Protestants from 2019. We examine the distribution of the religious authority measure and then compare its effects of the measure in the context of authoritarian child-rearing values, deliberative values, and democratic norms. The results indicate religious authority values represent a distinct measurement of how people connect to religion in politically salient ways.

Type
Article
Information
Politics and Religion , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , March 2022 , pp. 169 - 196
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adorno, Theodor W. 1950. The Authoritarian Personality. New York, NY: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Alvarez, R. Michael, and Brehm, John. 1995. “American Ambivalence Towards Abortion Policy: Development of a Heteroskedastic Probit Model of Competing Values.” American Journal of Political Science 39 (4): 1055–1082.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arceneaux, Kevin. 2008. “Can Partisan Cues Diminish Democratic Accountability?” Political Behavior 30 (2): 139–160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Armstrong, Karen. 2010. The Case for God. New York: Anchor.Google Scholar
Atkinson, Joseph C. 2007. “Inerrancy as a Hermeneutic for Catholic Exegesis.” The Incarnate Word 1 (3): 395–413.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Balmer, Randall. 2007. Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts Faith and Threatens America. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Barabas, Jason. 2004. “How Deliberation Affects Policy Opinions.” American Political Science Review 98 (4): 687–701.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ben-Nun Bloom, Pazit, and Arikan, Gizem. 2013. “Priming Religious Belief and Religious Social Behavior Affects Support for Democracy.” International Journal of Public Opinion Research 25 (3): 368–382.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bloom, Pazit Ben-Nun, and Arikan, Gizem 2012. “A Two-Edged Sword: The Differential Effect of Religious Belief and Religious Social Context on Attitudes towards Democracy.” Political Behavior 34(2):249–276.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, Laurence B. 1962. “A Study of Religious Belief.” British Journal of Psychology 53 (3): 259–272.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Burge, Ryan. 2013. “Using Matching to Investigate the Relationship between Religion and Tolerance.” Politics and Religion 6 (2): 264–281.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burge, Ryan P. 2020. “How Many ‘Nones’ Are There? Explaining the Discrepancies in Survey Estimates.” Review of Religious Research 62: 173–190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burge, Ryan P., and Djupe, Paul A.. 2014. “Emergent Church Practices in America: Inclusion and Deliberation in American Congregations.” Review of Religious Research 57 (1): 1–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Button, Mark, and Mattson, Kevin. 1999. “Deliberative Democracy in Practice: Challenges and Prospects for Civic Deliberation.” Polity 31 (4): 609–637.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carter, Stephen L. 1991. The Culture of Disbelief. New York: Anchor Books.Google Scholar
Cassese, Erin C., and Holman, Mirya. 2017. “Religion, Gendered Authority, and Identity in American Politics.” Politics and Religion 10 (1): 31–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chandler, Russell. 1989. “COLUMN ONE: ‘Customer’ Poll Shapes a Church: A minister discovered why people don't attend. He founded one of the nation's most successful congregations.” https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-12-11-mn-126-story.html (Accessed December 16, 2020).Google Scholar
Chaves, Mark. 1994. “Secularization as Declining Religious Authority.” Social Forces 72 (3): 749–774.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Compton, John W. 2020. The End of Empathy: Why White Protestants Stopped Loving Their Neighbors. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diamond, Sara. 1999. Spiritual Warfare: The Politics of the Christian Right. Boston: South End Press.Google Scholar
Djupe, Paul A., ed. 2015. Religion and Political Tolerance in America: Advances in the State of the Art. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Djupe, Paul A., and Burge, Ryan P.. 2020. “Trump the Anointed? Religion in Public”. https://religioninpublic.blog/2020/05/11/trump-the-anointed/.Google Scholar
Djupe, Paul A., Burge, Ryan P., and Calfano, Brian R.. 2016. “The Delegational Pulpit? Clergy Identifying as Congregational Political Representatives.” Representation 52 (1): 43–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Djupe, Paul A., and Calfano, Brian R.. 2012. “The Deliberative Pulpit? The Democratic Norms and Practices of the PCUSA.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 51 (1): 90–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Djupe, Paul A., and Gilbert, Christopher P.. 2009. The Political Influence of Churches. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Djupe, Paul A., and Neiheisel, Jacob R.. 2007. “Clergy Deliberation on Gay Rights and Homosexuality.” Polity 40 (4): 411–435.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Djupe, Paul A., Neiheisel, Jacob R., and Conger, Kimberly H.. 2018. “Are the Politics of the Christian Right Linked to State Rates of the Nonreligious? The Importance of Salient Controversy.” Political Research Quarterly 71 (4): 910–922.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Djupe, Paul A., Neiheisel, Jacob R., and Sokhey, Anand E.. 2018. “Reconsidering the Role of Politics in Leaving Religion: The Importance of Affiliation.” American Journal of Political Science 62 (1): 161–175.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Djupe, Paul A., and Olson, Laura R.. 2013. “Public Deliberation about Gay Rights in Religious Contexts: Commitment to Deliberative Norms and Practice in ELCA Congregations.” Journal of Public Deliberation 9 (1):1–37. http://www.publicdeliberation.net/jpd/vol9/iss1/art1.Google Scholar
Duckitt, John. 1989. “Authoritarianism and Group Identification: A New View of an Old Construct.” Political Psychology 10(1):63–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eckberg, Douglas, and Jean Blocker, T.. 1989. “Varieties of Religious Involvement and Environmental Concerns: Testing the Lynn White Thesis.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 28 (4): 509–517.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eisenstein, Marie A. 2006. “Rethinking the Relationship between Religion and Political Tolerance in the US.” Political Behavior 28 (4): 327–348.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellison, Christopher G., Bartkowski, John P., and Segal, Michelle L.. 1996. “Conservative Protestantism and the Parental Use of Corporal Punishment.” Social Forces 74 (3): 1003–1028.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellison, Christopher G., and Sherkat, Darren E.. 1993. “Conservative Protestantism and Support for Corporal Punishment.” American Sociological Review 58 (1): 131–144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feldman, Stanley, and Stenner, Karen. 1997. “Perceived Threat and Authoritarianism.” Political Psychology 18 (4): 741–770.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fenn, Richard K. 1982. Liturgies and Trials, the Secularization of Religious Language. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Gaskins, Ben. 2019. “The Effects of Religious Attendance and Evangelical Identification on Media Perception and Political Knowledge.” Politics & Religion 12 (2): 346–384.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibson, James L. 1992. “The Political Consequences of Intolerance: Cultural Conformity and Political Freedom.” American Political Science Review 86 (2): 338–356.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibson, James L. 2010. “The Political Consequences of Religiosity: Does Religion Always Cause Political Intolerance?” In Religion and Democracy in the United States: Danger or Opportunity?, eds. Wolfe, Alan and Katznelson, Ira. New York: Russell Sage, 147–175.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glazier, Rebecca A. 2015. “Bridging Religion and Politics: The Impact of Providential Religious Beliefs on Political Activity.” Politics & Religion 8 (3): 458–487.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guth, James L., Green, John C., Smidt, Corwin E., and Kellstedt, Lyman A.. 1997. The Bully Pulpit: The Politics of Protestant Clergy. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas.Google Scholar
Guth, James L., Kellstedt, Lyman A., Smidt, Corwin E., and Green, John C.. 1993. “Theological Perspectives and Environmentalism among Religious Activists.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 32 (4): 373–382.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hadden, Jeffrey, and Shupe, Anson. 1988. Televangelism, Power and Politics on God's Frontier. New York: Henry Holt & Co.Google Scholar
Herberg, Will. 1960. Protestant, Catholic, Jew: An Essay in American Religious Sociology. New York: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Hetherington, Marc J., and Weiler, Jonathan D.. 2009. Authoritarianism and Polarization in American Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoffmann, John P., and Bartkowski, John P.. 2008. “Gender, Religious Tradition, and Biblical Literalism.” Social Forces 86 (3): 1245–1272.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hout, Michael, and Fischer, Claude S.. 2002. “Why More Americans Have No Religious Preference: Politics and Generations.” American Sociological Review 67 (2): 165–190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunsberger, B. 1996. “Religious Fundamentalism, Right-Wing Authoritarianism, and Hostility Toward Homosexuals in Non-Christian Religious Groups.” The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion 6 (1): 39–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jelen, Ted G., and Wilcox, Clyde. 1991. “Religious Dogmatism among White Christians: Causes and Effects.” Review of Religious Research 33 (1): 32–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, Tony. 2011. The Church Is Flat: The Relational Ecclesiology of the Emerging Church Movement. Minneapolis, MN: JoPa Productions.Google Scholar
Jost, John T., Hawkins, Carlee Beth, Nosek, Brian A., Hennes, Erin P., Stern, Chadly, and Gosling, Samuel D.. 2014. “Belief in a Just God (and a Just Society): A System Justification Perspective on Religious Ideology.” Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology 34 (1): 56–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kellstedt, Lyman A., Green, John C., Guth, James L., and Smidt, Corwin E.. 1994. “Religious Voting Blocs in the 1992 Election: The Year of the Evangelical?” Sociology of Religion 55 (3): 307–326.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kellstedt, Lyman A., Green, John C., Guth, James L., and Smidt, Corwin E.. 1996. “Grasping the Essentials: The Social Embodiment of Religion and Political Behavior.” In Religion and the Culture Wars: Dispatches from the Front, eds. Green, John C., Guth, James L., Smidt, Corwin E. and Kellstedt, Lyman A.. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 174–192.Google Scholar
Kohn, Melvin. 1977. Class and Conformity: A Study in Values. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Lasswell, Harold D. 1930. Psychopathology and Politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Layman, G.C. 1997. “Religion and Political Behavior in the United States: The Impact of Beliefs, Affiliations, and Commitment from 1980 to 1994.” Public Opinion Quarterly 61 (2): 288–316.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Layman, Geoffrey. 2001. The Great Divide: Religious and Cultural Conflict in American Party Politics. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Leege, David C. 1996. “The Catholic Vote in ‘96: Can It Be Found in Church?” Commonweal 123 September 27: 11–18.Google Scholar
Leege, David C., and Kellstedt, Lyman A.. 1993. Rediscovering the Religious Factor in American Politics. New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Lipset, Seymour Martin. 1981. Political Man: The Social Bases of Politics, Expanded Edition. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Marti, Gerardo, and Ganiel, Gladys. 2014. The Deconstructed Church: Understanding Emerging Christianity. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, James G. 1964. The Tolerant Personality. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.Google Scholar
Mathison, Keith A. 2001. The Shape of Sola Scriptura. Moscow, ID: Canon Press.Google Scholar
McClosky, Herbert. 1964. “Consensus and Ideology in American Politics.” American Political Science Review 58: 361–382.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neiheisel, Jacob R., Djupe, Paul A., and Sokhey, Anand E.. 2009. “Veni, Vidi, Disseri Churches and the Promise of Democratic Deliberation.” American Politics Research 37 (4): 614–643.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Owen, Dennis E., Wald, Kenneth D., and Hill, Samuel S.. 1991. “Authoritarian or Authority-Minded? The Cognitive Commitments of Fundamentalists and the Christian Right.” Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation 1 (1): 73–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Patrikios, Stratos. 2008. “American Republican Religion? Disentangling the Causal Link Between Religion and Politics in the US.” Political Behavior 30 (3): 367–389.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prothro, James W, and Grigg, Charles M. 1960. “Fundamental Principles of Democracy: Bases of Agreement and Disagreement.” Journal of Politics 22 (2): 276–294.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Putnam, Robert D., and Campbell, David E.. 2012. American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us. New York: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
Rhodes, A. Lewis. 1960. “Authoritarianism and Fundamentalism of Rural and Urban High School Students.” The Journal of Educational Sociology 34 (3): 97–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rokeach, Milton. 1961. The Open and Closed Mind. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Rorty, Richard. 1994. “Religion as a Conversation-Stopper.” Common Knowledge 3: 1–3.Google Scholar
Shelton, Jason E., and Cobb, Ryon J.. 2018. “Black Reltrad: Measuring Religious Diversity and Commonality among African Americans.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 56 (4): 737–764.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sherkat, Darren E., and Ellison, Christopher G.. 1997. “The Cognitive Structure of a Moral Crusade: Conservative Protestantism and Opposition to Pornography.” Social Forces 75 (3):957–980.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sherkat, Darren E., and Ellison, Chris G.. 2007. “Structuring the Religion-Environment Connection: Identifying Religious Influences on Environmental Concern and Activism.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 46 (1): 71–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shields, Jon A. 2007. “Between Passion and Deliberation: The Christian Right and Democratic Ideals.” Political Science Quarterly 122(1):89–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smidt, Corwin E. 2016. Pastors and Public Life: The Changing Face of the American Protestant Clergy. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smidt, Corwin E., Kellstedt, Lyman A., and Guth, James L.. 2009. “The Role of Religion in American Politics: Explanatory Theories and Associated Analytical and Measurement Issues.” In The Oxford Handbook of Religion and American Politics, eds. Guth, James L., Kellstedt, Lyman A. and Smidt, Corwin E.. New York: Oxford University Press, 3–42.Google Scholar
Smith, M. Brewster. 1958. “Opinions, Personality, and Political Behavior.” American Political Science Review 52 (1): 1–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Amy Erica. 2016. “When Clergy Are Threatened: Catholic and Protestant Leaders and Political Activism in Brazil.” Politics and Religion 9 (3): 431–455.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Christian. 2017. Religion: What it is, How it Works, and Why it Matters. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Sosis, Richard. 2005. “Does Religion Promote Trust? The Role of Signaling, Reputation, and Punishment.” Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion 1 (7): 1–30.Google Scholar
Stark, Rodney, Foster, Bruce D., Glock, Charles Y., and Quinley, Harold. 1971. Wayward Shepherds: Prejudice and the Protestant Clergy. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Stark, R, and Glock., C. Y. 1965. “The ‘New Denominationalism’.” Review of religious research 7 (1): 8–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stenner, Karen. 2005. The Authoritarian Dynamic. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stepan, Alfred C. 2000. “Religion, Democracy, and the ‘Twin Tolerations’.” Journal of Democracy 11 (4): 37–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stouffer, Samuel A. 1955. Communism, Conformity, and Civil Liberties: A Cross-Section of the Nation Speaks its Mind. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.Google Scholar
Tickle, Phyllis. 2012. The Great Emergence: How Christianity Is Changing and Why. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.Google Scholar
Wald, Kenneth D., Owen, David E., and Hill, Samuel S.. 1988. “Churches as Political Communities.” American Political Science Review 82 (2): 531–548.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wald, Kenneth D., Owen, David E., and Hill, Samuel S.. 1989. “Habits of the Mind? The Problem of Authority in the New Christian Right.” In Religion and Political Behavior in the United States, ed. Jelen, Ted. New York: Praeger Publishers, 93–108.Google Scholar
Weber, Max. 1978. Economy and Society. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Wilcox, W. Bradford. 1998. “Conservative Protestant Childrearing: Authoritarian or Authoritative?” American Sociological Review 63 (6): 796–809.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilcox, W. Bradford. 2002. “Religion, Convention, and Paternal Involvement.” Journal of Marriage and Family 64 (3): 780–792.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilcox, Clyde, and Jelen, Ted. 1990. “Evangelicals and Political Tolerance.” American Politics Research 18 (1): 25–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolterstorff, Nicholas. 2003. “An Engagement with Rorty.” Journal of Religious Ethics 31 (1): 129–139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood, James R., and Bloch, Jon P.. 1995. “The Role of Church Assemblies in Building a Civil Society: The Case of the United Methodist General Conference's Debate on Homosexuality.” Sociology of Religion 56 (2): 121–136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodrum, Eric, and Hoban, Thomas. 1994. “Theology and Religiosity Effects on Environmentalism.” Review of Religious Research 35 (3): 193–206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Worthen, Molly. 2013. Apostles of Reason: The Crisis of Authority in American Evangelicalism. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Wuthnow, Robert. 1996. Sharing the Journey: Support Groups and the Quest for a New Community. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Burge and Djupe supplementary material

Burge and Djupe supplementary material

Download Burge and Djupe supplementary material(File)
File 239.8 KB