Political Speech in Religious Sermons

Boussalis, Constantine; Coan, Travis; Holman, Mirya R.

doi:10.1017/s1755048320000334

Cited by 16 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 44 publications

(72 reference statements)

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“…For a large portion of Americans across the racial divide, a central context for forging and reinforcing connections between partisan identification, political ideology, and religious identity are in religious institutions such as congregations and schools. Numerous studies have documented the polarization of religious clergy and their influence in shaping their congregants' political attitudes and behaviors (e.g., Boussalis et al 2021, Djupe & Gilbert 2003, Uecker & Lucke 2011. But this influence need not necessarily happen in a top-down fashion.…”

Section: Micro-levelmentioning

confidence: 99%

American Religion in the Era of Increasing Polarization

Perry

2022

Annu. Rev. Sociol.

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Americans are increasingly polarized by a variety of metrics. The dimensions, extent, causes, and consequences of that polarization have been the subject of much debate. Yet despite the centrality of religion to early discussions, the analytical focus on America's divides has largely shifted toward partisan identity, political ideology, race, and class interests. I show that religion remains powerfully implicated in all dimensions of American polarization, and sociologists must once again make religion more central to their analyses. After outlining research on American polarization, focusing on the role of religion, I survey findings within the burgeoning literatures on cultural transformation processes, (White) Christian nationalism, complex religion, and Americans’ attitudes toward science in order to underscore the centrality of ethno-religious identities, religious demography, and religious institutions for both shaping and exacerbating various forms of polarization. Lastly, I propose an agenda for elucidating religion's ongoing role in understanding polarization beyond public opinion research at the macro-, meso-, and micro-levels. Though polarization research has been dominated by political scientists, leveraging religion in our analyses—not merely as a sui generis variable, but as a site of complex social behavior—facilitates novel sociological contributions to these literatures via our relative attention to multiple levels of analysis, theoretical eclecticism, and methodological fluidity. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Sociology, Volume 48 is July 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

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Section: Micro-levelmentioning

confidence: 99%

American Religion in the Era of Increasing Polarization

Perry

2022

Annu. Rev. Sociol.

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“…Overall, homeland-related sermons make up a minority of all sermons. Based on the analyses of the sermons only, homeland politics, or political issues in general, and religion do not seem to be as strongly linked in sermons as political issues and religion in Christian sermons in the US (Boussalis et al 2021). However, in order to fully grasp the relationship between religion and politics, an ethnography of the mosques and how the sermons are discussed in the mosque—formally and informally—would be useful.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Content Analysis of the Friday Sermons of the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs in Germany (DİTİB)

Carol

Hofheinz

2022

Politics and Religion

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The Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DİTİB) runs more than 900 mosques in Germany and circulates Friday sermons in these mosques. Our analysis provides a nuanced depiction of the link to the homeland by conducting qualitative and quantitative content analyses of 481 sermons from 2011 to 2019. To what extent are relations with Turkey reflected in the sermons? And how is the concept of “home” reflected in those sermons? While homeland-related issues constitute a minority overall, the concept “home” occurs in five different contexts within these sermons: First, sermons directly refer to the homeland and norms connected to it. Second, implicit links are created by discussing events in Turkey. Third, leaving the homeland is described as an integral part of the history of Islam. The last two contexts discuss Germany as a “new home”, and build links to Turkey's Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) through its foundation.

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“…There have been a few studies of the content of clergy communication beyond the extent of addressing politics as discussed above. Some studies are just beginning to tap the wealth of data in web-available sermons (e.g., Boussalis et al, 2021;Gilliland, 2021;Olson & Quezada, in press;Pew Forum, 2021), few have actually listened for political mentions in sermons in person (Brewer et al, 2003;McClendon & Riedl, 2021) or online (Martin, 2021;Olson and Quezada 2022), whereas others have used surveys of clergy and congregants to get a sense of the diversity of clergy's argument repertoire on particular issues (McClendon & Riedl, 2016). Djupe and Neiheisel (2008) first collected arguments that were in play in the 2004 ballot measure campaigns to restrict gay rights-some religious, some not.…”

Section: Political Content Of Clergy Communicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Religious Communication Approach and Political Behavior

Djupe

Neiheisel

2022

Political Psychology

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The religious communication approach concerns the identification of causal explanations of political behavior through the explicit measurement of exposure to communication and the variable reception and adoption of the messages in a religious context. The approach requires more questions or different research designs than those on omnibus surveys, which focus on religious affiliation and religiosity. It is particularly amenable to experimentation, where exposure is manipulated by the researcher and adoption can be measured precisely. However, experimental research, such as about religious elite influence, often returns different results than those from observational research wherein histories between clergy and congregants may overwhelm the delicate mechanisms of persuasion. Research from congregations points toward credibility and salience as important conditions for religious influence, which help reconcile experimental and observational results. This review article covers how organizational forces shape communication strategies, especially concerning when and how politics and democratic norms are engaged by clergy. Contrary to simple survey evidence that Americans oppose politics in churches, this approach suggests that politics is an important piece of congregational affairs that attracts and retains people, though there are clearly conditions when it repels. In this way, the religious communication approach is essential to understanding religious engagement with politics.

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Political Speech in Religious Sermons

Cited by 16 publications

References 44 publications

American Religion in the Era of Increasing Polarization

American Religion in the Era of Increasing Polarization

A Content Analysis of the Friday Sermons of the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs in Germany (DİTİB)

The Religious Communication Approach and Political Behavior

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