Sectarian Religion and Political Tolerance in the United States

Many Americans oppose granting civil rights to stigmatized outgroups. This lack of political tolerance is strongly associated with sectarian Christianity. We argue that the association between sectarian religious affiliation and political tolerance has diminished but that the effects of sectarian be...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sociology of religion
Authors: Schwadel, Philip (Author) ; Garneau, Christopher R. H. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Oxford Univ. Press [2019]
In: Sociology of religion
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B USA / Evangelical movement / Free church / Religious tolerance / Fremdgruppe
RelBib Classification:AD Sociology of religion; religious policy
AG Religious life; material religion
AX Inter-religious relations
KBQ North America
KDG Free church
Online Access: Volltext (Resolving-System)
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Description
Summary:Many Americans oppose granting civil rights to stigmatized outgroups. This lack of political tolerance is strongly associated with sectarian Christianity. We argue that the association between sectarian religious affiliation and political tolerance has diminished but that the effects of sectarian belief on tolerance remain prevalent. Using more than three decades of repeated cross-sectional survey data and hierarchical age-period-cohort models, we find precipitous across-period and across-cohort convergence in political tolerance between affiliates of evangelical Protestant denominations and other Americans. The effects of biblical literalism on political tolerance also decline, but remain relatively robust. Additional models show how both religious affiliation and views of the Bible influence tolerance of specific outgroups in the contemporary context. We conclude by discussing the implications of the results for both social scientific research and the vibrancy of American democracy.
ISSN:1759-8818
Contains:Enthalten in: Sociology of religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1093/socrel/sry032