The Differential Impact of Religion on Political Activity and Community Engagement

Abstract

Many religions have an ethos of community betterment that can spur their members to contribute to society in meaningful ways. Yet much of the literature on religion and politics tends to focus on how places of worship increase explicitly partisan activities like voting or donating to a political campaign. Does religion affect community engagement in the same ways that it does political participation? A unique research design executed in Little Rock, Arkansas, USA brings together religious data on individual beliefs and behaviors, clergy messaging, and congregation culture to examine religion's effects on both political activity and community engagement. The results demonstrate that religion influences both types of behaviors, but not always in the same ways. For instance, it appears as though many congregations tend to develop cultures that encourage either community engagement or political activity, rather than both, with Black Protestant churches as an exception. Additionally, individuals that hold providential religious beliefs tend to have higher levels of community engagement but lower levels of political activity. These findings indicate that religion influences different types of participation differently.

Explaining the Relationship between Religiosity and Political Participation: The Mediating Roles of Transcendent Accountability and Religiopolitical Awareness

“…Also, respondents living in the Northeast and South were less likely to vote than those in the West. Finally, Republicans were less likely to engage in politics than Democrats, consistent with prior research (Glazier 2020;Sobolewska et al 2015). 8 The relationships between sociodemographic variables and political participation remained the same with several exceptions.…”

“…Our proposed explanatory mechanisms of the religiosity-political participation relationship (i.e., religiosity → transcendent accountability → religiopolitical awareness → political participation) received empirical support. While "civic duty" or "civic obligation" has been mentioned in previous studies (Glazier 2020;Harris 1999;Sobolewska et al 2015), we propose that psychological processes involving the virtue of accountability are important to explain the effect of religion on political participation, similar to the "virtuous effect" of religion studied in other fields, such as criminology (Jang et al 2018;Johnson et al 2021). Our study is one of the first to test virtue-related pathways through which religion is associated with political participation, focusing on a recently developed concept of accountability.…”

“…2008; Omelicheva and Ahmed 2018). Alternatively, religious beliefs about divine providence are likely to limit believers’ perceived efficacy in affecting larger social systems, thereby reducing political participation (Glazier 2020; Quinley 1974).…”

“…This finding has been interpreted as showing that an otherworldly concern (e.g., saving souls) can obviate the need to pay close attention to or engage in temporal matters, such as politics, thereby decreasing participation in voting and other political activity (Driskell et al 2008;Omelicheva and Ahmed 2018). Alternatively, religious beliefs about divine providence are likely to limit believers' perceived efficacy in affecting larger social systems, thereby reducing political participation (Glazier 2020;Quinley 1974).…”

Connecting with Community and Facilitating Learning through the Little Rock Congregations Study

“…In 2016, on the other hand, we included more questions about community engagement. We found that congregations tend to develop cultures that encourage either community engagement or political activity, rather than both, with Black Protestant churches as an exception (Glazier, 2019a). As we prepare to collect data in 2020, we are prioritizing reports for congregations on the issues their members care about and the community organizations and congregations that are active on those issues, deliverables that community members tell us that they value.…”