Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T21:16:33.241Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Partisanship of Protestant Clergy in the 2016 Presidential Election

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2021

James L. Guth  and
Corwin E. Smidt Open the ORCID record for Corwin E. Smidt [Opens in a new window]
James L. Guth
Affiliation:
Department of Politics and International Affairs, Furman University, Greenville, SC 29613 (USA)
Corwin E. Smidt*
Affiliation:
The Henry Institute, Calvin University, Grand Rapids, MI 49546
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Corwin E. Smidt, The Henry Institute, Calvin University, Grand Rapids, MI 49546, E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Given their strategic position within American society, clergy continue to remain important actors in American politics. This article examines the partisan identifications and electoral behavior of American Protestant clergy in the 2016 presidential election. Although clergy partisanship may be of interest in any election, the 2016 contest, given the milieu of political polarization and the presence of the Trump candidacy, provides an intriguing context for assessing the profession's electoral behavior, particularly among Republican clergy. Based on survey results from over 2,500 clergy drawn from ten Protestant (five mainline and five evangelical) denominations, the study finds that, during the early stages of the 2016 nomination process, only a small percentage of Republican clergy supported Trump and that, despite the high level of political polarization, a sizable segment of Republican clergy resisted partisan pressures and refused to vote for Trump in the general election. The propensity of both independent and Republican clergy to vote for the GOP nominee varied largely with the level of perceived “threats”: to the Christian heritage of the nation, from Islam, and from the process of “globalization.”

Type
Article
Information
Politics and Religion , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , June 2022 , pp. 291 - 316
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association

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.)

References

Abramowitz, A and Webster, S (2016) The rise of negative partisanship and the nationalization of U.S. elections in the 21st century. Electoral Studies 41, 12–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bjarnason, T and Welch, MR (2004) Father knows best: parishes, priests, and american catholic parishioners’ attitudes toward capital punishment. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 43, 103–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boussalis, C, Coan, TG and Holman, MR (2021) Political speech in religious sermons. Politics and Religion 14, 241–268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brewer, MD, Kersh, R and Petersen, RE (2003) Assessing conventional wisdom about religion and politics: a preliminary view from the pews. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 42, 125–136.10.1111/1468-5906.00166CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, RK, Brown, RE and Jackson, JS (2021) Race and the Power of Sermons on American Politics. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Campbell, A, Converse, P, Miller, W and Stokes, D (1960) The American Voter. New York: John Wiley.Google Scholar
Campbell, DE, Layman, GC and Green, JC (2021) Secular Surge: A New Fault Line in American Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cnaan, R, Boddie, S, McGrew, C and Kang, J (2006) The Other Philadelphia Story: How Local Congregations Support Quality of Life in Urban America. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Cox, H (1967) The ‘new breed’ in American churches: sources of social activism in American religion. Daedalus 96, 135–150.Google Scholar
Diamond, J (2016) Trump Slams Globalization, Proposes to Upend Economic Status Quo. CNN, June 28. https://www.cnn.com/2016/06/28/politics/donald-trump-speech-pennsylvania-economy/index.html.Google Scholar
Djupe, PA and Gilbert, CP (2002) The political voice of clergy. Journal of Politics 64, 596–609.10.1111/1468-2508.00142CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Djupe, PA and Gilbert, CP (2003) The Prophetic Pulpit: Clergy, Churches, and Communities in American Politics. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Djupe, PA and Gilbert, CP (2009) The Political Influence of Churches. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Djupe, PA and Neiheisel, J (2008) Clergy deliberation on gay rights and homosexuality. Polity 40, 411–435.10.1057/palgrave.polity.2300095CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elkins, E (2017) The Five Types of Trump Voters: Who They Are and What They Believe. A Research Report from the Democracy Fund Voter Study Group. https://www.voterstudygroup.org/publication/the-five-types-trump-voters.Google Scholar
Fea, J (2018) Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.Google Scholar
Garrett, W (1973) Politicized clergy: a sociological interpretation of the ‘new breed’. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 12, 384–399.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Golshan, T (2016) Trump's Unconventional Campaign Hasn't Convinced Campaign Managers to Change Their Ways. Vox Dec. 8. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/12/8/13846378/trump-unconventional-campaign.Google Scholar
Grossman, M (2018) Racial Attitudes and Political Correctness in the 2016 Presidential Election. https://www.niskanencenter.org/racial-attitudes-and-political-correctness-in-the-2016-presidential-election/.Google Scholar
Guth, JL (2019) Are white evangelicals populists? The view from the 2016 American national election study. The Review of Faith & International Affairs 17, 20–35.10.1080/15570274.2019.1643991CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guth, JL, Green, JC, Smidt, CE, Kellstedt, LA and Poloma, MM (1997) The Bully Pulpit: The Politics of Protestant Clergy. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.Google Scholar
Hershey, MR (2013) Party Politics in America, 15th ed. Boston: Pearson.Google Scholar
Huddy, L and Bankert, A (2017) Political partisanship as a social identity. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics, 1–30, https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.250.Google Scholar
Inglehart, R (1977) The Silent Revolution: Changing Values and Political Styles among Western Publics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Inglehart, R (1990) Culture Shift in Advanced Industrial Society. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.10.1515/9780691186740CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iyengar, S, Lelkes, Y, Levendusky, M, Malhotra, N and Westwood, S (2019) The origins and consequences of affective polarization in the United States. Annual Review of Political Science 19, 129–146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iyengar, S, Sood, G and Lelkes, Y (2012) Affect, not ideology: a social identity perspective on polarization. Public Opinion Quarterly 76, 405–431.10.1093/poq/nfs038CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, B (1966) Theology and party preference among protestant clergy. American Sociological Review 31, 200–208.10.2307/2090905CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, B (1967) Theology and the position of pastors on public issues. American Sociological Review 32, 433–442.10.2307/2091089CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Justice, J and Berglund, T (2016) Trump, Palin Challenge ORU Students to Launch ‘Great Awakening.’ Charisma News, January 20. https://www.charismanewss.com/politics/54595-trump-palin-challenge-oru-students-to-lauch-great-awakening.Google Scholar
Knoll, BR and Bolin, CJ (2019) Religious communication and persuasion. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics 1–28, 10:1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013,995.Google Scholar
Kreiss, D (2017) The fragmenting of the civil sphere: how partisan identity shapes the moral evaluation of candidates and epistemology. American Journal of Cultural Sociology 5, 443–459.10.1057/s41290-017-0039-5CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lelkes, Y, Sood, G and Iyengar, S (2017) The hostile audience: the effect of access of broadband internet on partisan affect. American Journal of Political Science 61, 5–20.10.1111/ajps.12237CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis-Beck, MS, Jacoby, WG, Norpoth, H and Weisberg, H (2011) The American Voter Revisited. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Margolis, M (2020) Who wants to make America great again? Understanding evangelical support for Donald Trump. Religion and Politics 13, 89–118.10.1017/S1755048319000208CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martínez, JH, Smith, GA and Cooperman, A (2016) Many Americans Hear Politics From the Pulpit. Washington, D.C.: Pew Research Center.Google Scholar
Marty, ME (1970) Righteous Empire. New York: Dial Press.Google Scholar
Mason, L (2015) ’I disrespectfully agree’: the differential effects of partisan sorting on social and issue polarization. American Journal of Political Science 59, 128–145.10.1111/ajps.12089CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mutz, DC (2018) Status threat, not economic hardship, explains the 2016 presidential vote. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 115, 1–10, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1718155115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nie, NH, Verba, S and Petrocik, JR (1976) The Changing American Voter. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Olson, LR (2009) Clergy in American Politics. In Smidt, CE, Kellstedt, LA and Guth, JL (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Religion and American Politics. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 371–393.Google Scholar
Panke, D and Petersohn, U (2017) President Donald J. Trump: an agent of norm death? International Journal 72, 572–579.Google Scholar
Peterson, S (1992) Church participation and political participation: the spillover effect. American Politics Quarterly 20, 123–139.10.1177/1532673X9202000106CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quinn, D and Smith, A (2021) Pastors Often Discussed Election, Pandemic and Racism in Fall of 2020. Washington, D.C.: Pew Research Center (July). https://www.pewforum.org/2021/07/08/pastors-often-discussed-election-pandemic-and-racism-in-fall-of-2020/.Google Scholar
Rozell, MJ and Wilcox, C (2017) God at the Grassroots 2016. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Sides, J, Tesler, M and Vavreck, L (2018) Identity Crisis: The 2016 Presidential Campaign and the Battle for the Meaning of America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Smidt, CE (2004) Pulpit and Politics. Waco: Baylor University Press.Google Scholar
Smidt, CE (2016) Pastors and Public Life: The Changing Face of American Protestant Clergy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190455491.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smidt, CE, denDulk, K, Froehle, B, Penning, J, Monsma, S and Koopman, D (2010) The Disappearing God Gap? Religion in the 2008 Presidential Election. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Smidt, CE, denDulk, KR, Penning, JM, Monsma, SV and Koopman, DL (2008) Pews, Prayers, and Participation: Religion & Civic Responsibility in America. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Smidt, CE and Schaap, B (2009) Public worship and public engagement: pastoral cues within the context of worship services. Review of Religious Research 50, 441–462.Google Scholar
Smith, GA (2008) Politics in the Parish: The Political Influence of Catholic Priests. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Taylor, J (2016) Citing Two Corinthians, Trump Struggles to Make the Sale to Evangelicals. Jan. 18. http://npt.org/2016/01/18/463528847/citing-two-corinthians-trump-struggles-to-make-the-sale-to-evangelicals.Google Scholar
Verba, S, Schlozman, K and Brady, H (1995) Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitehead, AL, Perry, SL and Baker, JO (2018) Make America Christian again: christian nationalism and voting for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. Sociology of Religion 79, 147–171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wooley, J (2016) The Foreign Policy Views of Donald Trump. Foreign Policy Research Institute. Nov. 7. https://www.fpri.org/article/2016/11/foreign-policy-views-donald-trump/.Google Scholar
Woolfalk, KM (2012) Sermons Aren't Explicitly Political but Clergy Are: Political Cue-Giving in Sermons by U.S. Christian Clergy. Unpublished paper available at http://miyawoolfalk.com/pages/w-research/.Google Scholar
Woolfalk, KM (2013) Essays on Social Contexts and Individual Politics: The Political Influence of Religious Institutions and Ethno-Racial Neighborhood Contexts. Ph.D Dissertaion. Harvard University.Google Scholar
Woolfalk, KM (2014) Activating Religious Thinking in Politics. Paper delivered at the annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, April.Google Scholar