Asking the "Born-Again" Question

Dixon, Richard D.; Levy, Diane E.; Lowery, Roger C.

doi:10.2307/3511838

Cited by 12 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…2.The terms “born-again” and “evangelical” will be used interchangeably. Although the present study takes a group identity approach to classifying members of this religious group, there are alternative measurement schemes available, such as those based on belief or experience (see examples in Dixon et al 1988; Jelen et al 1993). What is more, the two terms are not employed exclusively by Protestants.…”

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Self-stereotyping as “Evangelical Republican”: An Empirical Test

Patrikios

2013

Politics and Religion

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The prominence of evangelical Christians in the electoral base of the Republican Party is a noted feature of recent American elections. This prominence is linked to a key stereotype that saturates public discourse: “born-again/evangelical Republicanism.” The stereotype fuses religious and partisan social group membership to create a composite social label. Using a social categorization approach, which challenges the assumptions and methods of existing research, the present analysis asks whether voters embrace this stereotype in their definitions of self. The article employs confirmatory factor analysis of religious and partisan identity constructs from a national internet survey, the 2008 Cooperative Congressional Election Study, and finds evidence of the presence of this religious-partisan stereotype in individual self-views, and of the backlash that it has produced, particularly among citizens that are exposed to public discourse on American elections.

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Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…And the debate revolving around the validity of the various born-again items suggests that these might be tapping a personal experience of religious conversion rather than group identity constructs (e.g. Dixon et al 1988; Jelen et al 1993).…”

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-stereotyping as “Evangelical Republican”: An Empirical Test

Patrikios

2013

Politics and Religion

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“…A further concern is that Gallup often does not give respondents the option to express a non-born-again, non-evangelical Christian identity. There is evidence that some respondents respond positively to the Gallup measure in order to affirm a general Christian identity (Dixon, Levy, and Lowery 1988).…”

Section: Identity: the Gallup Pollmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring Evangelicalism: Consequences of Different Operationalization Strategies

Hackett

Lindsay²

2008

Scientific Study of Religion

108

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Several investigations of American evangelicalism have been conducted in recent decades, yet they conceptualize evangelicalism in different ways. It is not surprising, therefore, that different profiles of the evangelical movement and its adherents emerge from these studies. This research reviews major studies on the subject undertaken since 1976, when evangelicals first attracted national attention. Using data collected in a single data set-the 1998 General Social Survey-we show how measurement strategies employed in different studies yield drastically different pictures of evangelicalism. Conservative measures indicate that only one in 20 Americans is evangelical while one in two is evangelical according to a combination of more expansive measures. The demographic, cultural, and religious characteristics of evangelicals, as well as theories about them, hinge upon how the population is defined.

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“…Being born‐again, however, is more often conceptualized as a religious belief than as an identification with a movement. Kellstedt et al (1996) and Jelen, Smidt, and Wilcox (1993) use being born‐again to measure evangelical belief in conversion, while Dixon, Levy, and Lowery (1988) use it as one of a variety of belief items measuring an overall index of “fundamentalism.” In fact, Antoun (2001:116) indicates that being born‐again is simply a criterion of being an evangelical. Woodberry and Smith (1998:36) argue that some avoid the label because “they cannot pinpoint the time of their conversion or because of negative connotations.” Despite this lack of clarity, and given the Baylor survey findings, we think that there is now a very strong case for empirically exploring the usefulness of a born‐again self‐identification among conservative Protestants.…”

Section: Defining Conservative Protestantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1 Being born-again, however, is more often conceptualized as a religious belief than as an identification with a movement. Kellstedt et al (1996) and Jelen, Smidt, and Wilcox (1993) use being born-again to measure evangelical belief in conversion, while Dixon, Levy, and Lowery (1988) use it as one of a variety of belief items measuring an overall index of "fundamentalism." In fact, Antoun (2001:116) indicates that being born-again is simply a criterion of being an evangelical.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disaggregating Conservative Protestant Groups in Northern Ireland: Overlapping Categories and the Importance of a Born‐Again Self‐Identification

Mitchell¹,

Tilley²

2008

Scientific Study of Religion

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Rather than treating conservative Protestantism as a homogenous phenomenon, recent literature has underlined the importance of disaggregating this group to illuminate important attitudinal and behavioral differences between conservative Protestants. However, the methods used to empirically operationalize conservative Protestantism have not always been able to capture variations within the groupings. Based on analysis of the 2004 Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey, we argue that religious self-identification is a more useful way of analyzing conservative Protestant subgroups than denomination or religious belief. We show that many of these identifications are overlapping, rather than stand-alone, religious group identifications. Moreover, the identification category of born-again has seldom been included in surveys. We find having a born-again identification to be a better predictor than the more frequently asked fundamentalist and evangelical categories of the religious and social beliefs that are seen as indicative of conservative Protestantism.

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Asking the "Born-Again" Question

Cited by 12 publications

References 3 publications

Self-stereotyping as “Evangelical Republican”: An Empirical Test

Self-stereotyping as “Evangelical Republican”: An Empirical Test

Measuring Evangelicalism: Consequences of Different Operationalization Strategies

Disaggregating Conservative Protestant Groups in Northern Ireland: Overlapping Categories and the Importance of a Born‐Again Self‐Identification

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