Bible Beliefs, Conservative Religious Identity, and Same‐Sex Marriage Support: Examining Main and Moderating Effects

Abstract

Research finds that Americans who espouse theologically conservative beliefs about the Bible generally oppose same‐sex marriage. Studies exploring this link, however, have been limited in that their operationalization of fundamentalist belief has been problematically conceptualized and they have potentially confounded the effect of conservative religious identity. The current study asks: (1) How do distinct beliefs about the nature and authority of the Bible influence same‐sex marriage support? (2) Do these beliefs influence same‐sex marriage support independently of conservative religious identity? (3) To what extent do Bible beliefs and conservative religious identity moderate one another's effects? And (4) to what extent are these factors moderated by religious tradition and frequency of Bible reading? Analyses of 2006 Portraits of American Life Study data reveal that while identifying as religiously conservative is the strongest predictor of opposition to same‐sex marriage, believing in inerrancy and creationism remain strong predictors in full models. I also find moderating effects between belief in creationism, inerrancy, inspiration; religious‐conservative identity; and religious tradition. Findings clarify how theological beliefs and religious identity shape support for same‐sex marriage across religious traditions.

Religion and Public Opinion Toward Same‐Sex Relations, Marriage, and Adoption: Does the Type of Practice Matter?

“…The most consistent measure of theological conservatism in studies of public opinion toward homosexuality is adherence to biblical literalism (Perry ; Perry and Whitehead ), and we follow this precedent in our study.…”

Unbuckling the Bible Belt: A State-level Analysis of Religious Factors and Google Searches for Porn

“…This could lead those same communities to having very different views toward various moral issues, like porn, for instance. Consistently, studies find that the religious groups with which individuals affiliate, their religious beliefs, and their religious behaviors routinely influence their views toward porn (Carroll et al, 2008;Lykke & Cohen, 2015;Patterson & Price, 2012;Sherkat & Ellison, 1997) and various other moral issues (Hoffman, Ellison, & Bartkowski, 2016;Perry, 2015;Whitehead & Perry, 2016). Therefore, it is important to examine the content and character of religiosity at the state-level, rather than only examining aggregated measures of how religious individuals perceive themselves to be.…”

Religion and Non‐traditional Families in the United States

“…Masculine, angry, or active images of God correspond to opposition to same-sex marriage as does believing God has a special plan for the United States (Froese and Bader 2010;Whitehead 2010Whitehead , 2014aWhitehead and Perry 2015). Other traditional religious beliefs, such as believing the Bible should be read literally, are also significantly associated with opposition to same-sex marriage (Burdette, Ellison, and Hill 2005;Ellison, Acevedo, and Ramos-Wada 2011;Hill, Moulton, and Burdette 2004;Perry 2013aPerry , 2015Sherkat, de Vries, and Creek 2010;Sherkat et al 2011;Whitehead 2010). Many researchers view religious beliefs as schemas that people use in order to make sense of and structure their interpretation of their social world.…”