The Political Mobilization of America's Congregations

Beyerlein, Kraig; Chaves, Mark

doi:10.1111/jssr.12680

Cited by 15 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…White Protestants were lightly involved, though evangelicals were even less so than mainline Protestants. By 2018, political activity in congregations had surged, especially among more liberal congregations, with 56% of congregations engaging in at least one of the listed activities (Beyerlein & Chaves, 2020).…”

Section: Developmentmentioning

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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Section: Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Religious Communication Approach and Political Behavior

Djupe

Neiheisel

2022

Political Psychology

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“…Longitudinal research shows that both social service and political activities are growing in congregations (Beyerlein and Chaves 2020; Fulton 2016). Political activities include participating in protests, distributing voter guides, registering voters, discussing politics, and lobbying elected officials.…”

Section: Religious Political Engagementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Selfish or Substituting Spirituality? Clarifying the Relationship between Spiritual Practice and Political Engagement

Kucinskas

Stewart

2022

Am Sociol Rev

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Churches have long been sites of local charity work as well as national political movements. What happens when people engage in more individualistic forms of spirituality, like mindfulness meditation or yoga, rather than participate in religious communities? Might the rise of individualized forms of spirituality lead to a decline in political engagement? Or, among people averse to religion, might spiritual practice operate as a substitute, and potentially contribute to political engagement? Drawing on burgeoning theory of religion and spirituality as socially-situated boundary objects, we use data from the 2020 National Religion and Spirituality Survey to examine the relationship between self-reported spiritual and religious practices and political engagement. First, we investigate whether study participants distinguish spiritual and religious practice as distinct concepts through factor analysis. Next, we use those results to examine the association between these practices and reports of political behavior. We find a consistent, positive relationship between spiritual practice and political engagement of comparable magnitude to that of religious practices. Notably, during an era of heightened political polarization around religious engagement, political progressives, respondents of color, and members of the LGBT community are more likely to report spiritual rather than religious practices. This points us to a theory of spiritual practice as a substitute for religious engagement among groups alienated from religious institutions, with the former capable of fostering similar proclivities for political action as the latter. Our results suggest critiques of a “selfish” spirituality have been overblown.

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“…The legacy of congregations in social change efforts continues today, even amongst some white-dominant churches (Fulton and Wood 2017;Jenkins 2020). In their nationally representative study of congregations, Beyerlein and Chaves (2020) find that in 2018-2019, 56% of congregations in their sample participate in one of eight political activities, including electoral activities such as getting-out-the-vote (26%), distributing voter guides (24%), voter registration (23%), having candidates speak (6%), endorsing candidates (4%), and non-electoral activity such as marching (17%), offering political opportunities during worship (16%), discussing sanctuary (13%), discussing politics (11%), lobbying (10%), and declaring sanctuary (4%). 3 These numbers are comparable to previous data, with slight increases in the percentage of congregations investing in electoral activity.…”

Section: Congregations and Racial Justice Organizingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Across the four waves they have response rates of 74%–87%. More details about the representativeness of their data are available in Beyerlein and Chaves 2020.…”

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Igniting Change: An Evangelical Megachurch’s Racial Justice Program

Han¹,

Arora²

2022

Perspect. polit.

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Congregations, with their size, breadth, and legacy of shaping political activism, have the potential to be important sites of action for addressing racial injustice in America. Yet historical legacies of racism and persistently high levels of racial animus have made white evangelical communities in particular resistant to addressing racism. Most efforts to address racism in these communities begin with prejudice reduction programs that often fail. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, we examine the effectiveness of a different kind of six-week racial justice program in one of the nation’s largest evangelical megachurches that focuses on animating action among people open to tackling racial injustice in their church. We find that program participation is associated with increased feelings of efficacy, amplified perceptions of community, a greater commitment to cross-racial perspective taking, and greater likelihood of engaging in meaningful action. We argue that the program works by focusing on cross-racial relationship building to equip a people pre-disposed to action to actually take action. Developing such leaders is potentially the first step in a program other congregations can take to tackle racial injustice.

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The Political Mobilization of America's Congregations

Cited by 15 publications

References 29 publications

The Religious Communication Approach and Political Behavior

The Religious Communication Approach and Political Behavior

Selfish or Substituting Spirituality? Clarifying the Relationship between Spiritual Practice and Political Engagement

Igniting Change: An Evangelical Megachurch’s Racial Justice Program

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