Final Flashcards
(24 cards)
key points from “religion and american public opinion: foreign policy issues” (james l. guth)
-religion has had a considerable impact on public orientations toward american foreign policy, and that previous studies have neglected the influence of religion on foreign policy attitudes
-evangelical affiliation, orthodox doctrine, and high religious commitment are associated with anti-communist attitudes and support for higher defense spending
-catholics’ attitudes towards foreign policy issues have varied over time, with high religious commitment encouraging anti-communist militancy after world war II, but reversing effects during the 1970s and 1980s
-jews have held distinctive internationalist attitudes, being more critical of the vietnam war and more supportive of israel
almond-lippman consensus
argument by gabriel almond and walter lippman which holds that u.s. public opinion is incoherent, unstable, and irrelevant to the policy-making process
key points from “cultural conflict in america” (hunter)
-cultural conflict was unfolding along new lines. the new divide was not over specific religious doctrines, but basic “moral understandings”
-hunter focuses on the protestant-catholic divide, which was a prominent part in the american story
-older divide: people with slightly different religious understandings fought each other for control
-new divide: people with a religious view of the world fight against people with a non-religious view of the world
key points in “political polarization in the american public” (morris p. fiorina and samuel j. abrams)
-essentially argues that there is little indication of increased mass polarization over the past two to three decades
-party sorting, or the increased correlation between policy views and partisan identification, has occurred, but the extent has sometimes been exaggerated
-there is no conclusive evidence that elite polarization has stimulated voters to polarize or withdraw from politics
-the study concludes that changes in moral visions have had little to do with political polarization, and that the american public as a whole is no more polarized today than it was a generation ago
key points in “secularization, r.i.p.” (rodney stark)
-interesting and controversial thesis: secularization is not occurring
-instead, we should not assume that earlier eras were ever very religious
-there has never been a religious “golden age”
-we assume that there were periods when europe was absolutely dominated by the church
-but the truth (according to stark) is that religious attendance was always low
-although he doesn’t mention it, starks argument seems congruent with what we saw in our earlier reading, “the churching of america”
key points in “christianity in britain” (steve bruce)
-organized christianity in britain is in serious decline, contradicting rodney stark’s claim that secularization is a myth
-these data show massive decline in church attendance. this is true across denominations
-the number of children that attend sunday school has also plummeted. it used to be a majority, but now it is in the single digits percentage wise
-the percentage of the population employed as religious clergy has similarly dropped
-fewer and fewer people possess even basic christian beliefs, or even know what they are
key points in “the persistent and exceptional intensity of american religion: a response to recent research” (landon schnabel and sean bock)
-america is undergoing secularization, just like europe, but it is playing out differently
-fewer people identify as religious, but the religious are much more intense here in america than in europe
-the percentage of people that very strongly identify with their religion has not changed very much
-secularism is mostly growing at the expense of the nominally religious
key points in “why more americans have no religious preference: politics and generations” (michael hout and claude s. fischer)
-the increase in “no religion” responses was driven by politics rather than a loss of religious piety
-argue that christianity declined because of the religious right. christianity became increasingly associated with conservatism, and as a result, progressives abandoned christianity
key points in “when politicians determine your religious beliefs” (michael margolis)
-the growing religiosity gap between republicans and democrats is a result of political affiliations influencing religious beliefs and practices, rather than the other way around, which contributes to the polarization of american politics and society
-on average, people from all religious traditions see a significant drop-off in religious activity during their young adult years and do not typically return to high levels of religious involvement until they form families of their own
-the study also found thinking about politics can change religious beliefs and behaviors
key points in “religion and political tolerance in the united states: a review and evaluation” (marie a. eisenstein)
-study argues that GSS methodology has limitations, and that religion is not directly related to political tolerance
key points in “religion and immigration post-1965, race, culture wars, and national identity” (rhys h. williams)
-in the 19th and early 20th centuries, objections to immigration were focused on the religious identities and practices of newly arrived immigrants
-by the 21st century, religion was no longer a primary concern in attitudes towards immigration, with ethnic identities playing a more significant role
-despite this shift, religion remains a potent force in american politics and immigration is a highly contested issue
-“tolerance is a straightforward attitude that allows people to have freedom of expression even though one may feel that their ideas are incorrect or even immoral”
sorting, not polarization
the number of conservatives and liberals has not changed all that much
-however, now most conservatives are aligned with the republican party, and most liberals are associated with the democratic party
-this can give the impression that the parties are polarizing, even though the ideological distribution of voters has remained the same
elite polarization
-even if the general public isn’t polarized, elites might be
-elites in government and in the media do seem to be more combative and extreme
-this can give the impression of societal polarization, even when it doesn’t exist elite polarization can also turn people away from politics
francis schaeffer
-a presbyterian missionary in switzerland
-blamed the legalization of abortion on the idea that westerner’s replaced god’s moral standards with “secular humanism,” which allowed people to make their own capricious moral rules or live by none at all
-in his lengthy docuseries, whatever happened to the human race?, he argued that the practice of abortion demonstrated the west’s slide to barbarism
-developed a reputation as an “evangelical pop philosopher”
-his theology remained orthodox as he broke from fundamentalism, but rather than solely preaching from the bible, he also drew on figures such as sigmund freud and the beatles for illustrations
dean m. kelly (why conservative churches are growing)
-supporter of the argument that all successful religious movements make high demands on their members and are actively and unapologetically exclusionary. that is, they do not want members who do not participate fully in the life of the church
nicholas vargas
-found that political attitudes predicted religious behaviors
-specifically, he found that support for same-sex marriage increased the probability that an individual would consider leaving his or her religion in the future, and the probability that such a person would actually do so
-problem with his argument: if the religious right is to blame for american secularization, why has secularization gone farther and faster in countries that never had a religious right
major themes of this course
-religion does have some direct impact on policy attitudes, and it tends to make people a bit more conservative, but that influence is relatively small
-the effect of religion on political tolerance appears to be quite small; depending on your measures, you may even find that religion leads to greater political tolerance
-tocqueville argued that the separation of church and state helped explain the strength of american religion
“christian” origins of the u.s.
-both the puritans of new england and the quakers of pennsylvania came to america with a specifically religious agenda but the question of whether america was founded as a “christian” nation is a bit more complicated
-we know that many of the first u.s. presidents were not conventional christians, and other than the first amendment, the constitution makes no mention of religion
-on the other hand, the population overwhelmingly identified as christian
-many founding fathers were pious christians
-it was largely taken for granted that the u.s. understood itself as a protestant christian nation
catholics/catholic church
-for catholics, being more religiously observant does not seem to be associated with a greater likelihood of following church leadership on economic policy issues
-typically more liberal on issues such as welfare and workers’ rights
obergefell vs. hodges
-recognizes same-sex marriages as legal under the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment and holds that bans are unconstitutional
culture wars: the struggle to define america, 1991
argued that there are two distinct u.s. cultures fighting for dominance
culture war assumptions
-most of the discourse around u.s. politics takes it for granted that americans are “polarized”
-the consensus is that we are a nation full of radicals
-extreme conservatives vote for the republican party, extreme progressives vote for the democratic party
-there is no possibility of compromise, and both sides hate each other however…
-depending on the evidence we are looking at, the claim that americans are “polarized” may not look very strong (this is not an assumption)
possible explanations for secularization
-people just don’t believe it anymore. modern people no longer need to believe in anything supernatural
-problem with this narrative: most people who say that their religion is “none” still have supernatural beliefs, including belief in god
marriage and its relation to church attendance
-sociologist robert wuthrow found that married young americans remain very likely to be involved in religious congregations
-unmarried americans are both becoming much less likely to attend worship services and they are growing as a percentage of the population - unmarried young men are particularly unlikely to attend worship services
-regardless of the reason for the relationship, the evidence that marriage leads to a greater church involvement for men, on average, is undeniable
