Religiously Based Politics: Religious Elites and the Public

Abstract

Will religion become a major source of political conflict in America? Wuthnow describes a growing conservative-liberal rift in American religion that threatens to fan the flames of political conflict. Warner agrees that there is a split in religion but feels it will foster little political conflict because the two sides pursue nonopposing agendas. Among religious elites (seminary faculty) we find two political agendas (liberal and conservative), both linked to religion but only partly opposed to each other. Within the general public we find that the same two agendas are uncorrelated and only the conservative social-moral agenda is linked to religion. While important, religion will not soon become the major axis of political conflict in America.