God Talk in a Digital Age: How Members of Congress Use Religious Language on Twitter

Abstract

This article analyzes the use of religious language on Twitter by members of the U.S. Congress (MOCs). Politicians use various media platforms to communicate about their political agendas and their personal lives. In the United States, religious language is often part of the messaging from politicians to their constituents. This is done carefully and often strategically and across media platforms. With members of Congress increasingly using Twitter to connect with constituents on a regular basis, we want to explain who uses religious language on Twitter, when, and how. Using 1.5 million tweets scraped from members of Congress in April of 2018, we find that MOCs from both major political parties make use of a “religious code” on Twitter in order to send messages about their own identities as well as to activate the religious identities of their constituents. However, Republicans use the code more extensively and with Judeo-Christian-specific terms. Additionally, we discuss gender effects for the ways MOCs use “religious code” on Twitter.

Atheists versus Theists: Religious Polarisation in Arab Online Communities

“…Similar to other technologies, web 2.0 and social media networks are widely used by people to broadcast their messages, communicate with their followers and to update the public with their projects, events and publications [20,22,24].…”

“…Since influential accounts have an ever more noticeable impact on society [20][21][22]24], another line of research focuses on the way leaders and influences leverage religious discourse. Burge et al [22] studied how U.S. evangelical leaders used Twitter by analysing more than 85,000 tweets published by 88 American prominent evangelical leaders.…”

“…Political parties also co-opt religious discourse. Bramlett and Burge [20] investigated whether the members of American Congress use religious language in their tweets by analysing about 1.5 million tweets posted by them in April 2018. The authors found that members from both major political parties, i.e.…”

“…[52]). While there is often an overlap between political stance and attitude to religion [20], it is counterproductive to reduce religious affiliation to political stance, and vice versa. The Rationalist and Tanweeri groups on Arab Twitter provide important bridges between the theist and atheist communities that might link discussions of reform in the atheist context to communities who might be open to adopting such reformed practices.…”

Political Communication Patterns through Social Media: A Case of an Indonesian Presidential Staff Twitter Account

“…Twitter users, for instance, remark that they make a unique appeal to civic religion in the wake of tragedy by using the terms "consideration and prayer". It is another piece of evidence that political leaders use this strategy [50]. Most respondents believe that conventional communication channels are more vital, notwithstanding the political appeal that social networks like Facebook and Twitter have gained.…”