Racial Attitudes and Political Preferences Among Black and White Evangelicals

Allen, Levi G.; Olson, Shayla F.

doi:10.1017/s1755048322000074

Cited by 7 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…I restrict my analysis to white evangelicals as they are the largest racial group in evangelicalism. Furthermore, there remains a debate in the literature if it is appropriate to call African-Americans “evangelicals” given their unique and shared history of racial discrimination (Allen & Olson, 2022; Shelton & Cobb, 2018) and the meaning of the “born-again” identity and its conceptualization also fluctuates across racial groups (Wong, 2015). All interviewees attend churches that would be coded as “Evangelical Protestant” churches in RELTRAD.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Qualitative Differences Between Self-Identification as a Born-Again and/or Evangelical Christian

Allen

2024

American Politics Research

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How do members of the evangelical religious tradition choose to identify themselves, and how do they define terms such as “evangelical” or “born-again?” Extant scholarship traditionally utilizes quantitative data in order to isolate the pitfalls associated with this conflation. In order to validate these quantitative measures and to better understand how adherents of the evangelical religious tradition conceptualize these identities, I leverage 63 face-to-face interviews conducted with white evangelicals. I find that “evangelical” is not commonly used among adherents, who view the term as esoteric and ill-defined. Democrats specifically recoil against the term due to its perceived conservative nature; however, some Republicans also eschew identifying as such, viewing it in some cases as too liberal or contaminated by the media. I also find that the term “born-again” is much more commonly used, regardless of the respondent’s partisanship. This work reveals the continuing politicization of “evangelical” and the endogeneity of religious orientations to politics.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Qualitative Differences Between Self-Identification as a Born-Again and/or Evangelical Christian

Allen

2024

American Politics Research

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“…This union is so fortified that even attaching the "evangelical" label to a candidate signals to voters that they are a Republican (Campbell, Green, and Layman 2011), and the emergence of a "white identity" has suggested that a white racial identity pushes some whites towards the Republican Party (Jardina 2019). Additionally, the confluence of an evangelical religious identity and a white racial identity produces an even more powerful conservatizing effect (Allen and Olson 2022;Wong 2018).…”

Section: Social Networkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Embattlement and Resilience Among White Evangelical Democrats

Allen

2024

Political Research Quarterly

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Why do individuals defect from the partisan pull of their social identities? Previous explanations of social sorting often neglect to account for these defectors whose partisanship cannot be explained by simply tallying up their social identities. I call these individuals political heretics. To better understand this phenomenon, I leverage white evangelicals, one of the most socially and politically sorted groups in the United States, who support the Democratic Party as a case study. I find that, based upon 68 face-to-face interviews across seven churches, two explanations emerge that explain their heresy. First, some find their way into Democratic congregations that shield them from the pressure exerted by residing in a religious tradition that has undergone extensive political sorting. Second, some choose to remain in predominately Republicans churches and offset the cost of this political pressure with some other benefit. However, for those who choose the latter, electing to remain in a church where they are in the political minority, they face significant headwinds to either update their political preferences or leave. Despite these embattled defectors choosing to remain in Republican congregations, the pressure of polarization may eventually force them out.

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Jesus was a Refugee: Religious Values Framing can Increase Support for Refugees Among White Evangelical Republicans

DeMora,

Merolla,

Newman

et al. 2024

Polit Behav

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We consider how frames highlighting religious values shape opinion among individuals who may experience social identity conflict. White evangelical Republicans have ardently supported Donald Trump’s restrictionist stances towards refugees, yet those partisan policy stances exist in tension with evangelical Christian values emphasizing care for vulnerable strangers. Our pre-registered national experiment tests whether a religious message can move white self-identified evangelical Republicans’ opinions relating to refugees. The pro-refugee Christian values message increases favorable attitudes on some, but not all, measures. The effect is comparatively stronger among those who are more committed to their evangelical identity; unexpectedly, those who identify as strong Republicans are not more resistant to the message. These results demonstrate that moral reframing, which is known to shape attitudes in other domains, can affect self-identified evangelical Republicans’ attitudes on refugees, potentially shifting the national discussion of refugees in the U.S. The finding is all the more significant given highly partisan debates over refugees during the Trump presidency, which may have made partisans’ opinions especially rigid at the time of our experiment. Our results also speak to the relevance of identity strength in conditioning the impact of religious values frames.

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Racial Attitudes and Political Preferences Among Black and White Evangelicals

Cited by 7 publications

References 61 publications

The Qualitative Differences Between Self-Identification as a Born-Again and/or Evangelical Christian

The Qualitative Differences Between Self-Identification as a Born-Again and/or Evangelical Christian

Embattlement and Resilience Among White Evangelical Democrats

Jesus was a Refugee: Religious Values Framing can Increase Support for Refugees Among White Evangelical Republicans

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