Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T16:19:33.707Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Bishops and Their Flock: John Kerry and the Case of Catholic Voters in 2004

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2008

C. Richard Hofstetter ,
John W. Ayers  and
Robert Perry
C. Richard Hofstetter*
Affiliation:
San Diego State University
John W. Ayers
Affiliation:
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Robert Perry
Affiliation:
San Diego State University
*
Address correspondence and reprint request to: C. Richard Hofstetter, Department of Political Science, San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, CA 92182-4427. E-Mail: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study evaluates the extent to which the 2004 well publicized Catholic Bishops' warnings and the Church Doctrinal Note mandating that parishioners oppose candidates who supported policies contrary to Church doctrine influenced Catholic support for presidential candidate John Kerry. Data were drawn from a 2004 national survey of 493 Catholic adults using random digit dial procedures and commissioned by Time magazine. Multivariate analyses indicate that the influence of the Bishops' warnings and the Doctrinal Note diverged by respondents' religious belief. Liberal Catholics exposed to these messages were more likely to support Kerry while conservative Catholics exposed to these messages were more likely to support Bush. The net effect of leaders' messages appeared to have helped rather than hurt Kerry. Our findings point to a multiplicity of effects for religious leaders' messages and should provide a note of caution for religious leaders who take pronounced stances on political affairs.

Type
Articles
Information
Politics and Religion , Volume 1 , Issue 3 , December 2008 , pp. 436 - 455
Copyright
Copyright © Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

We thank Ronald F. King, Department of Political Science, San Diego State University; Paul Djupe, Department of Political Science, Denison University; Antonio Ugues Jr., Department of Political Science, University of California Riverside, and the editors and referees of this journal for helpful comments on earlier versions of this article.

References

REFERENCES

Abbot, Walter M., and Gallagher, Joseph, eds. 1966. The Documents of Vatican II. Piscataway, NJ: Association Press.Google Scholar
Ayers, John W. 2007. “Changing Sides: 9/11 and the American Muslim Voter.” Review of Religious Research 49:187–98.Google Scholar
Ayers, John W., and Richard Hofstetter, C.. 2008. “American Muslim Political Participation following 9/11: Religious Belief, Political Resources, Social Structures, and Political Awareness.” Politics and Religion 1:3–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beatty, Hathleen Murphy, and Walter, Oliver. 1988. “A Group Theory of Religion and Politics: The Clergy as Group Leaders.” Western Political Quarterly 42:129–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brady, Henry E., Verba, Sidney, and Schlozman, Kay L.. 1995. “Beyond SES: A Resource Model of Political Participation.” American Political Science Review 89:271–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brambor, Thomas, Clark, William Roberts, and Golder, Matt. 2006. “Understanding Interaction Models: Improving Empirical Analyses.” Political Analysis 14:63–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burke, Daniel. 2004. “Ministers Must Now Be Communion Cops, Archbishop Says.” Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life http://pewforum.org/news/display.php?NewsID=14229 (Accessed May 11, 2008).Google Scholar
Byrnes, Timothy A. 2001. “American Church or Church in America? The Politics of Catholic Bishops in Comparative Perspective.” In Christian Clergy in American Politics, eds. Crawford, Sue E. S. and Olsen, Laura R.. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Catholic Culture. 2004. “Untitled Document.” http://www.catholicculture.org/library/view.cfm?RecNum=6041 (Accessed May 11, 2008).Google Scholar
Catholic News Service. 2000. “Catholics Key Swing Vote this Election.” Catholic Standard 2:1.Google Scholar
Crawford, Sue E., and Olsen, Laura R.. 2001. Christian Clergy in American Politics. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Djupe, Paul A. 2001. “Cardinal O'Connor and His Constituents: Differential Benefits and Public Evaluations.” In Christian Clergy in American Politics, eds. Crawford, Sue E.S. and Olson, Laura R.. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Djupe, Paul A., and Gilbert, Christopher P.. 2003. The Prophetic Pulpit: Clergy, Churches, and Communities in American Politics. New York, NY: Rowan and Littlefield Publishers.Google Scholar
Finer, Jonathan. 2004. “Kerry Says He Believes Life Starts at Conception.” Washington Post www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27920-2004Jul4.html (Accessed May 10, 2008).Google Scholar
Froehle, Bryan T., and Gautier, Mary L.. 2000. Catholicism USA: A Portrait of the Catholic Church in the United States. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books.Google Scholar
Green, John C. 2005. “How the Faithful Voted: Religious Communities and the Presidential Vote in 2004.” Presented at the University of Notre Dame Program in American Democracy a Matter of Faith? Religion in the 2004 ElectionSouth Bend, Indiana.Google Scholar
Guth, James L. 1996. “The Bully Pulpit: Southern Baptist Clergy and Political Activism 1980–1992.” In Rediscovering the Religious Factor in American Politics, eds. Leege, David C. and Kellstedt, Lyman A.. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Guth, James L., Green, John C., Smidt, Corwin E., Kellstedt, Lyman A, and Poloma, Margaret M.. 1997. The Bully Pulpit: The Politics of Protestant Clergy. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas.Google Scholar
Guth, James L, Smidt, Corwin E., Kellstedt, Lyman A., and Green, John C.. (1993). “The Sources of Antiabortion Attitudes.” American Politics Research 21:65–80.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hosmer, David W. Jr., and Lemeshow, Stanley 1989. Applied Logistic Regression. New York, NY: John Wiley and Sons.Google Scholar
Huckfeldt, R. Robert, and Sprague, John. 1995. Citizens, Politics, and Social Communication: Information and Influence in an Election Campaign. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jelen, Ted G. 2001. “Notes for a Theory of Clergy as Political Leaders.” In Christian Clergy in American Politics, eds. Crawford, Sue E. S. and Olsen, Laura R.. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Jelen, Ted G. 2003. “Catholic Priests and the Political Order: The Political Behavior of Catholic Pastors.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 42:591–604.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, Michael. 1989. “The Christian Right and the Powers of Television.” In Manipulating Public Opinion: Essays on Public Opinion as a Dependent Variable, eds. Margolis, Michael and Mauser, Gary A.. Pacific Grove, CA: Thomson Brooks/Cole.Google Scholar
Kenski, Henry C., and Lockwood, William. 1991. “Catholic Voting Behavior in 1988: A Critical Swing Vote.” In The Bible and the Ballot Box: Religion and Politics in the 1988 Election, eds. Guth, James L. and Green, John C.. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Layman, Geoffrey. 2001. The Great Divide: Religious and Cultural Conflict in American Politics. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Leege, David C. 2008. “Catholics and the American Presidency.” In Religion, Race, and the American Presidency, ed. Espinosa, Gaston. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Leege, David C., and Welch, Michael R.. 1989. “Religious Roots of Political Orientations: Variations among American Catholic Parishioners.” Journal of Politics 51:137–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lenski, Gerhard. 1961. The Religious Factor. Garden City, NY: Doubleday Anchor.Google Scholar
Long, Scott J. 1997. Regression Models for Categorical and Limited Dependent Variables. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Lupia, Arthur and McCubbins, Mathew D.. 1998. The Democratic Dilemma: Can Citizens Learn What They Need to Know? Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Mockabee, S.T. 2004. “The Changing Catholic Voter.” Presented at the Midwest Political Scince Association Annual MeetingChicago, Illinois.Google Scholar
Morris, Aldon D. 1984. The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement: Black Communities Organizing for Change. New York, NY: Free Press.Google Scholar
Norton, Edward C., Wang, Hua, and Ai, Chunrong. 2004. “Computing Interaction Effects and Standard Errors in Logit and Probit Models.” The STATA Journal 4:154–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Keefe, Daniel J. 1992. Persuasion: Theory and Research. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Olson, Laura R. 2000. Filled with Spirit and Power: Protestant Clergy in Politics. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. 2006. “Pragmatic Americans Liberal and Conservative on Social Issues” The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. http://pewforum.org/publications/surveys/social-issues-06.pdf (Accessed October 9, 2007).Google Scholar
Popkin, Samuel L. 1991. The Reasoning Voter: Communication and Persuasion in Presidential Campaigns. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reichley, James A. 1986. “Religion and the Future of American Politics.” Political Science Quarterly 101:23–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Segers, Mary C. 1995. “The Catholic Church as a Political Actor.” In Perspectives on the Politics of Abortion, ed. Jelen, Ted G. Westport, CT: Praeger.Google Scholar
Servin-Gonzalez, M., and Torres-Reyna, O.. 1999. “Trends: Religion and Politics.” The Public Opinion Quarterly 63:592–621.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Slater, Wayne. 2005. “Survey: Catholics Slightly Favored Bush.” The Dallas Morning News, February 6.Google Scholar
Smith, Gregory A. 2005. “The Influence of Priests on the Political Attitude of Roman Catholics.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 44:291–306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tumulty, Karen. 2004. “Battling the Bishops.” Time, June 4:34–37.Google Scholar
Wald, Kenneth D. 1992. “Religious Elites and Public Opinion: The Impact of Bishops' Peace Pastoral.” Review of Politics 54:112–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wald, Kenneth D., Kellstedt, Lyman A., and Leege, David C.. 1993. “Church Involvement and Political Behavior.” In Rediscovering the Religious Factor in American Politics, eds. Leege, David C. and Kellstedt, Lyman A.. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Wald, Kenneth D., Owen, Dennis E., and Hill, Samuel S. Jr. 1988. “Churches as Political Communities.” American Political Science Review 82:531–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Welch, Michael R., and Leege, David C.. 1991. “Dual Reference Groups and Political Orientations: An Examination of Evangelically-Oriented Catholics.” American Journal of Political Science 35:28–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Welch, Michael R., Leege, David C., Wald, Kenneth D., and Kellstedt, Lyman A.. 1993. “Are the Sheep Hearing the Shepards? Cue Perceptions, Congregational Responses, and Political communication Processes.” In Rediscovering the Religious Factor in American Politics, eds. Leege, David C. and Kellstedt, Lyman A.. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Wilson, Mathew J. 2005. “The Changing Catholic Voter: Comparing Responses to John Kennedy and John Kerry.” Presented at the University of Notre Dame Program in American Democracy a Matter of Faith? Religion in the 2004 ElectionSouth Bend, Indiana.Google Scholar
Woodward, G. C. 2004. Persuasion and Influence in American Life. Long Grove, Ill.: Waveland Press.Google Scholar
Zogby, John. 2005. “Zogby Poll Suggests Catholic Bishops' Stance Helped Kerry.” The Frontrunner, January 3.Google Scholar