Same Book, Different Bookmarks: The Development and Preliminary Validation of the Bible Verse Selection Task as a Measure of Christian Fundamentalism

Abstract

The development and preliminary validation of a new measure of Christian fundamentalism required a multi-stage process. In an initial exploratory study, participants indicated which of a set of Bible verses were most central to their faith, and factor analysis was used to identify verses that appeared to tap a latent dimension of religious fundamentalism (Study 1). These relationships were retested with a new method in a new sample (Study 2), and the items that predicted fundamentalism in both samples were incorporated into a new measure of Christian fundamentalism, the Bible Verse Selection Task (BVST). The forced-choice format of the BVST may be less impacted by social desirability response styles that may affect scores on existing fundamentalism scales (Studies 3 and 4) while preserving useful levels of criterion-related validity (Study 5) and convergent evidence of construct validity (Study 6). These studies provide initial psychometric evidence for the BVST as an internally consistent measure of Christian fundamentalism that predicts scores on other fundamentalism scales and related constructs including traditionalism, authoritarianism, and political conservativism.

The Sensitivity of the Bible Verse Selection Task to the Relationship between Christian Fundamentalism and Religious Outgroup Prejudice

“…Generally, measures of Christian fundamentalism present respondents with a doctrinal or theological assertion and ask respondents to indicate on a Likert-type scale the degree to which they agree or disagree with that claim. As noted by Rouse et al (2019), this traditional method of assessment has strengths (including high face validity) and weaknesses (including a concern that some religious individuals might have a tendency to mark what they think they should believe, rather than their actual beliefs). The BVST is unique in its forced choice format, presenting respondents with pairs of Bible verses and asking the respondents to indicate which one is most reflective of their faith or worldview.…”

“…The survey began with informed consent information and items to assess gender, race/ethnicity, age, and religious affiliation. Next, it presented the Bible Verse Selection Task (BVST; Rouse et al, 2019), the measure of Christian fundamentalist beliefs described above.…”

“…The final score, then, ranges from -3 to 7 and reflects the number of times respondents selected the passages associated with high and low levels of Christian fundamentalism. Rouse et al (2019) demonstrated internal consistency reliability estimates ranging from .77 to .86. Correlations between BVST scores and other measures of Christian fundamentalism ranged from .52 to .75, and these associations were seen regardless of whether the measure was used for a general sample or a sample consisting only of self-identified Christians.…”

“…If fundamentalist and nonfundamentalist Christians differ in their tendency to emphasize specific religious beliefs, there may be some biblical passages that resonate more clearly for fundamentalist Christians and others that resonate more clearly for nonfundamentalist Christians; Rouse and colleagues (2019) noted that different Christians might use the “same book” but “different bookmarks.” Rouse et al collected a set of 100 passages from the Christian Bible that had been frequently accessed via an online Bible resource. Using these passages as the basis of a Q-Sort, they asked a sample of participants to sort the 100 passages into five piles of 20 passages each, representing the degree to which each passage was central to their religious faith or worldview.…”

“…Rouse and colleagues (2019) then used the biblical passages associated with high and low Christian fundamentalism to create a new research measure, the Bible Verse Selection Task (BVST). Rather than measuring the strength of fundamentalist beliefs with Likert-based items, the forced-choice BVST presents respondents with ten pairs of Bible verses, asking the respondents to select the passage from each pair that is most central to their belief system.…”