IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/amposc/v62y2018i1p161-175.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Reconsidering the Role of Politics in Leaving Religion: The Importance of Affiliation

Author

Listed:
  • Paul A. Djupe
  • Jacob R. Neiheisel
  • Anand E. Sokhey

Abstract

Studies have pointed to politics as an important force driving people away from religion—the argument is that the dogmatic politics of the Christian Right have alienated liberals and moderates, effectively threatening organized religion in America. We argue that existing explanations are incomplete; a proper reconsideration necessitates distinguishing processes of affiliation (with specific congregations) from identification (with religious traditions). Using three data sets, we find evidence that qualifies and complements existing narratives of religious exit. Evaluations of congregational political fit drive retention decisions. At the same time, opposition to the Christian Right only bears on retention decisions when it is salient in a congregational context, affecting primarily evangelicals and Republicans. These results help us understand the dynamics of the oft‐observed relationship between the Christian Right and deidentification and urge us to adopt a broader, more pluralistic view of the politicization of American religion.

Suggested Citation

  • Paul A. Djupe & Jacob R. Neiheisel & Anand E. Sokhey, 2018. "Reconsidering the Role of Politics in Leaving Religion: The Importance of Affiliation," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 62(1), pages 161-175, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:amposc:v:62:y:2018:i:1:p:161-175
    DOI: 10.1111/ajps.12308
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12308
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/ajps.12308?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
    ---><---

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Alrababah, Ala & Casalis, Marine & Masterson, Daniel & Hangartner, Dominik & Wehrli, & Weinstein, Jeremy, 2023. "Reducing Attrition in Phone-based Panel Surveys: A Web Application to Facilitate Best Practices and Semi-Automate Survey Workflow," OSF Preprints gyz3h, Center for Open Science.
    2. Hye Won Kwon, 2021. "Are Gritty People Happier than Others?: Evidence from the United States and South Korea," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 22(7), pages 2937-2959, October.
    3. Patrick J. Egan, 2020. "Identity as Dependent Variable: How Americans Shift Their Identities to Align with Their Politics," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 64(3), pages 699-716, July.

    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:wly:amposc:v:62:y:2018:i:1:p:161-175. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1540-5907 .

    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.