The Journal of Politics

Table of Contents - February 1993 - Volume 55, Issue 01  

Research Notes

The Political Consequences of Religious Group Attitudes

Ted G. Jelena1

a1 Illinois Benedictine College

Abstract

The effects of religious attitudes and membership, group identifications, affect toward outgroups, and issue attitudes on Christian Right figures and the Republican party are compared. Christian Right support is primarily driven by attitudes toward cultural and ascriptive minorities, and such support is fragmented by religious particularism. By contrast, group attitudes affect partisanship through the intervening effects of issue attitudes.

“The whole secret of politics [is] knowing who hates who,” Kevin Phillips (quoted in Wills' Nixon Agonistes [1979, 247]).

(Accepted February 18 1991)

(Received February 26 1992)

Ted G. Jelen is professor and chair of political science, Illinois Benedictine College, Lisle, IL 60532-0900.