Religion and Politics in the United States - 6th Edition Book

List of Figures and Tables ix

Preface xi

1 A Secular Society? 1

The Puzzle of Religious Vitality 4

The Persistence of Religion 8

Stability or Change? 13

Possible Explanations 16

Why the United States? 18

2 Religion in the American Content 23

Understanding Religion 24

Patterns of Religious Affiliation 26

Basic Political Tendencies 31

3 Religion and American Political Culture 37

The Puritan Imprint on Colonial Thought 38

Covenant Theology and the Right to Revolt 41

Puritanism and Democracy: A Qualification 44

"Total Depravity" and Institutional Restraint 46

One Nation under God: A Civil Religion 52

Civil Religion as a Double-Edged Sword 57

One of Many Influences 59

4 Religion and the State 63

The Genesis of Church-State Conflict 64

Overview of Church-State Relations 67

How Far Can Government Go? 73

The Judicial Record 78

The Separationist Era (1940s-1970s) 86

The Accommodationist Era 93

The Politics of Church-State Relations 98

The Constitutional Revolution in Perspective 101

5 Mobilizing Religious Interests 105

Studying Religious Interests 106

Establishing Motive 108

Establishing Means 125

6 Religion and Political Action 139

Religion Cultural Environment 141

Institutional Context 145

Partisan Political Alignments 151

Influential Allies 154

Policy Domain 161

7 Religion and Public Opinion 179

Economic Liberalism 181

Moral-Cultural Issues 183

Social Justice 191

Foreign Policy 195

What Culture War?

8 The Political Mobilization of Evangelical Protestants 201

The Political Background 202

Roots of the "New Christian Right" 206

Building a National Movement 209

Evangelical Political Action 210

Organizational Transformation: The Second Generation 212

Theories of Evangelical Mobilization 216

The Impact of the Christian Right 221

The Consequences for Public Policy 222

Good Times? The Christian Right and the Bush Adminstration 224

The Christian Right as a Mass Movement 225

9 Continuity and Change in the Religious Center: Catholics, Mainline Protestants, and Jews 239

Catholicism: Conflicting Political Impulses 241

The Conservative Political Heritage 242

The Transformation of Catholic Attitudes 245

Abortion: The Catholic Response 250

Is Abortion a Catholic Issue? 253

The Political Traditions of Mainline Protestants 259

Mainline Activism: Sources and Reaction s 263

American Jews 266

10 Religion and the Politics of Ethnic and Religious Minorities 275

African American Protestants 276

Latino Catholics and Protestants 286

Muslim Americans 291

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints 299

Other Faith Traditions 305

The Other Minorities: Women and Gay People 309

Women, Religion, and Politics 312

Homosexuals 325

Religion and Homosexuality 328

12 Religion and American Political Life 345

The Case against Religious Influence in Politics 346

Assessing the Evidence 352

The Case for Religion in Politics 358

Religion in Public Conversation 367

Notes 369

Reference 383

Index 441

About the Authors 455