IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/socsci/v91y2010i1p63-79.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sacred Rites and Civil Rights: Religion's Effect on Attitudes Toward Same‐Sex Unions and the Perceived Cause of Homosexuality

Author

Listed:
  • Andrew L. Whitehead

Abstract

Objective. Past research reveals how religion and opinions about the cause of homosexuality influence attitudes concerning same‐sex unions. No study to date contains a comprehensive collection of religion measures while also accounting for views of the cause of homosexuality. Therefore, this study investigates the extent to which religion predicts certain attribution beliefs as well as attitudes toward same‐sex unions while controlling for attribution beliefs. Method. The Baylor Religion Survey (2007) is used to estimate binary logistic models predicting the effects of religion and attribution beliefs on attitudes toward same‐sex unions. Findings. First, religion is strongly associated with the belief that homosexuals choose their sexual orientation. Second, religion maintains a significant association with attitudes toward same‐sex unions despite inclusion of an attribution variable. Conclusion. Even if a biological explanation for homosexuality is ultimately proven, unfavorable attitudes toward same‐sex unions will most likely endure due to religion's persistent effect.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrew L. Whitehead, 2010. "Sacred Rites and Civil Rights: Religion's Effect on Attitudes Toward Same‐Sex Unions and the Perceived Cause of Homosexuality," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 91(1), pages 63-79, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:socsci:v:91:y:2010:i:1:p:63-79
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-6237.2010.00681.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6237.2010.00681.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1540-6237.2010.00681.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Peter B. Wood & John P. Bartkowski, 2004. "Attribution Style and Public Policy Attitudes Toward Gay Rights," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 85(1), pages 58-74, March.
    2. Laura R. Olson & Wendy Cadge & James T. Harrison, 2006. "Religion and Public Opinion about Same‐Sex Marriage," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 87(2), pages 340-360, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jeniece Lusk & Jodien Johnson, 2022. "Bibles and Bathrooms: Intersex Variation Awareness Among College-Aged American Christians," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(2), pages 21582440221, April.
    2. Paul A. Djupe & Andrew R. Lewis & Anand E. Sokhey & Ryan P. Burge, 2021. "Does Disgust Drive Religious Freedom Attitudes? Experimental Results About the Context of Service Refusal Opinion," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 102(2), pages 755-770, March.
    3. Giulia M. Dotti Sani & Mario Quaranta, 2020. "Let Them Be, Not Adopt: General Attitudes Towards Gays and Lesbians and Specific Attitudes Towards Adoption by Same-Sex Couples in 22 European Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 150(1), pages 351-373, July.
    4. Andrew L. Whitehead, 2014. "Politics, Religion, Attribution Theory, and Attitudes Toward Same-Sex Unions," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 95(3), pages 701-718, September.
    5. Samuel Stroope & Scott Draper & Andrew Whitehead, 2013. "Images of a Loving God and Sense of Meaning in Life," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 111(1), pages 25-44, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Andrew L. Whitehead, 2014. "Politics, Religion, Attribution Theory, and Attitudes Toward Same-Sex Unions," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 95(3), pages 701-718, September.
    2. Joslyn, Mark R. & Haider-Markel, Donald P., 2019. "Perceived causes of obesity, emotions, and attitudes about Discrimination Policy," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 223(C), pages 97-103.
    3. Jackman, Mahalia, 2019. "Religion, contact and ambivalent attitudes towards the rights of gays and lesbians in Barbados," SocArXiv 528bt, Center for Open Science.
    4. Arnold Fleischmann & Laura Moyer, 2009. "Competing Social Movements and Local Political Culture: Voting on Ballot Propositions to Ban Same‐Sex Marriage in the U.S. States," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 90(1), pages 134-149, March.
    5. David A. Gay & John P. Lynxwiler & Patrick Smith, 2015. "Religiosity, Spirituality, and Attitudes Toward Same-Sex Marriage," SAGE Open, , vol. 5(3), pages 21582440156, August.
    6. Brian F. Harrison & Melissa R. Michelson, 2015. "God and Marriage: The Impact of Religious Identity Priming on Attitudes Toward Same-Sex Marriage," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 96(5), pages 1411-1423, November.
    7. Forman-Rabinovici, Aliza & Sommer, Udi, 2018. "An impediment to gender Equality?: Religion’s influence on development and reproductive policy," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 48-58.
    8. Parakhonyak, Alexey & Popov, Sergey V, 2019. "Same-Sex Marriage, The Great Equalizer," Cardiff Economics Working Papers E2019/2, Cardiff University, Cardiff Business School, Economics Section.
    9. Hatzenbuehler, Mark L. & Bellatorre, Anna & Lee, Yeonjin & Finch, Brian K. & Muennig, Peter & Fiscella, Kevin, 2014. "Structural stigma and all-cause mortality in sexual minority populations," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 33-41.
    10. Gouveia, Filipe & Nilsson, Therese & Berggren, Niclas, 2020. "Religiosity and discrimination against same-sex couples: The case of Portugal's rental market," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    11. Darren E. Sherkat & Kylan Mattias De Vries & Stacia Creek, 2010. "Race, Religion, and Opposition to Same‐Sex Marriage," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 91(1), pages 80-98, March.
    12. Robert Postic & Elizabeth Prough, 2014. "That’s Gay! Gay as a Slur Among College Students," SAGE Open, , vol. 4(4), pages 21582440145, November.
    13. Robert Andersen & Tina Fetner, 2008. "Economic Inequality and Intolerance: Attitudes toward Homosexuality in 35 Democracies," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 52(4), pages 942-958, October.
    14. Donald P. Haider‐Markel & Mark R. Joslyn, 2008. "Pulpits Versus Ivory Towers: Socializing Agents and Evolution Attitudes," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 89(3), pages 665-683, September.
    15. Maria Ferros & Henrique Pereira, 2021. "Sexual Prejudice in the Portuguese Political Context," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-13, February.
    16. Jay Barth & Janine Parry, 2009. "Political Culture, Public Opinion, and Policy (Non)Diffusion: The Case of Gay‐ and Lesbian‐Related Issues in Arkansas," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 90(2), pages 309-325, June.
    17. Wozniak, Kevin H. & Lewis, Andrew R., 2010. "Reexamining the effect of christian denominational affiliation on death penalty support," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 1082-1089, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:socsci:v:91:y:2010:i:1:p:63-79. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0038-4941 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.