The Bully Pulpit: The Politics of Protestant Clergy (Studies in Government and Public Policy)

When Democrats lost control of Congress in 1994, the Christian Right claimed a major role in their defeat and House Speaker Newt Gingrich credited the "organized Christian vote" with the Republican victory. Ministers from many political persuasions have long been active in American politics, but in the 1980s and 1990s it has seemed impossible to find any political controversy that did not involve the clergy-often on both sides of the issue.The Bully Pulpit is the first major study of clergy politics in more than twenty years. Drawing on two decades of survey research involving thousands of ministers nationwide, five social scientists explore the political lives of clergy in eight evangelical and mainline Protestant denominations, including the Assemblies of God, Southern Baptist Convention, United Methodist Church, and Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. They find that the competing theological perspectives of orthodoxy and modernism are increasingly tied to ideological and partisan divisions in American politics. In addressing the nature and extent of clerical participation, The Bully Pulpit asks the following questions: How do different groups of ministers see their role in politics? What activities do they approve or disapprove? How active are Protestant clergy in politics? What factors account for the level and kinds of participation? Do the patterns of clerical activism discovered in the 1960s and 1970s persist today?The authors discover that theological traditionalists emphasize moral reform and tend to specialize in making pronouncements in religious settings, while modernists stress social justice issues and engage in a wider range of political activities, inside and outside the church. They find that "New Breed" liberals have continued the mainline Protestant activism of the 1960s and '70s, but that Christian Right activists have become just as numerous, drawn from the ranks of previously inactive evangelical clergy. Their book offers a balanced assessment of political activity among both clergy at the end of the century and helps us understand the current relationship between church and state in America.

Smidt, Corwin E.

Green, John C.

Guth, James L.

Kellstedt, Lyman A.

History

University Press of Kansas

When Democrats lost control of Congress in 1994, the Christian Right claimed a major role in their defeat and House Speaker Newt Gingrich credited the "organized Christian vote" with the Republican victory. Ministers from many political persuasions have long been active in American politics, but in the 1980s and 1990s it has seemed impossible to find any political controversy that did not involve the clergy-often on both sides of the issue. The Bully Pulpit is the first major study of clergy politics in more than twenty years. Drawing on two decades of survey research involving thousands of ministers nationwide, five social scientists explore the political lives of clergy in eight evangelical and mainline Protestant denominations, including the Assemblies of God, Southern Baptist Convention, United Methodist Church, and Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. They find that the competing theological perspectives of orthodoxy and modernism are increasingly tied to ideological and partisan divisions in American politics. In addressing the nature and extent of clerical participation, The Bully Pulpit asks the following questions: How do different groups of ministers see their role in politics? What activities do they approve or disapprove? How active are Protestant clergy in politics? What factors account for the level and kinds of participation? Do the patterns of clerical activism discovered in the 1960s and 1970s persist today? The authors discover that theological traditionalists emphasize moral reform and tend to specialize in making pronouncements in religious settings, while modernists stress social justice issues and engage in a wider range of political activities, inside and outside the church. They find that "New Breed" liberals have continued the mainline Protestant activism of the 1960s and '70s, but that Christian Right activists have become just as numerous, drawn from the ranks of previously inactive evangelical clergy. Their book offers a balanced assessment of political activity among both clergy at the end of the century and helps us understand the current relationship between church and state in America.

This text addresses whether and how religion and religious institutions affect American politics. For some time, analysts have argued that the conflicts of the New Deal era rendered cultural differences trivial and placed economic interests at the top of the political agenda. The authors and their collaborators - John C. Green, James L. Guth, Ted G. Jelen, Corwin E. Smidt, Kenneth D. Wald, Michael R. Welch, and Clyde Wilcox - disagree. They find that religious worldviews are still insinuated in American political institutions, and religious institutions still are points of reference. The book profits from the new religiosity measures employed in the 1990 National Election Studies. Part 1 discusses the study of religion in the context of politics. Part II examines religion as a source of group orientation. Part III takes up religious practices and their political ramifications. Part IV does the same for doctrinal and worldview considerations. Part V explores the sources of religious socialisation. In conclusion, Part VI reviews the research on religion and political behaviour and looks ahead to where work should proceed.

Rediscovering the Religious Factor in American Politics

Leege, David C.

Religion & Spirituality

Routledge

The topic of immigration is at the center of contemporary politics and, from a scholarly perspective, existing studies have documented that attitudes towards immigration have brought about changes in both partisanship and voting behavior. However, many scholars have missed or misconstrued the role of religion in this transformation, particularly evangelical Protestant Christianity. This book examines the historical and contemporary relationships between religion and immigration politics, with a particularly in-depth analysis of the fault lines within evangelicalism--divisions not only between whites and non-whites, but also the increasingly consequential disconnect between elites and laity within white evangelicalism. The book's empirical analysis relies on original interviews with Christian leaders, data from original church surveys conducted by the authors, and secondary analysis of several national public opinion surveys.&nbsp; It concludes with suggestions for bridging the elite/laity and racial divides. Ruth M. Melkonian-Hoover: (Ph.D., Emory University) is Chair and Professor of Political Science at Gordon College, Massachusetts. She has contributed chapters to Faith in a Pluralist Age (2018) and Is the Good Book Good Enough? (2011). She has published in a wide range of journals including Social Science Quarterly, The Review of Faith & International Affairs, Latin American Perspectives, Political Research Quarterly, Comment, and Capital Commentary.&nbsp; &nbsp; Lyman A. Kellstedt: (Ph.D., University of Illinois) is Professor of Political Science (emeritus) at Wheaton College, Illinois. He has authored or coauthored numerous articles, book chapters, and books in religion and politics, including Religion and the Culture Wars (1996), The Bully Pulpit (1997), and The Oxford Handbook of Religion and American Politics (2009). &nbsp;

Evangelicals and Immigration: Fault Lines Among the Faithful (Palgrave Studies in Religion, Politics, and Policy)

Melkonian-Hoover, Ruth M.

World

PALGRAVE~MACMILLAN

The topic of immigration is at the center of contemporary politics and, from a scholarly perspective, existing studies have documented that attitudes towards immigration have brought about changes in both partisanship and voting behavior. However, many scholars have missed or misconstrued the role of religion in this transformation, particularly evangelical Protestant Christianity. This book examines the historical and contemporary relationships between religion and immigration politics, with a particularly in-depth analysis of the fault lines within evangelicalism―divisions not only between whites and non-whites, but also the increasingly consequential disconnect between elites and laity within white evangelicalism. The book’s empirical analysis relies on original interviews with Christian leaders, data from original church surveys conducted by the authors, and secondary analysis of several national public opinion surveys. It concludes with suggestions for bridging the elite/laity and racial divides. 
Ruth M. Melkonian-Hoover: (Ph.D., Emory University) is Chair and Professor of Political Science at Gordon College, Massachusetts. She has contributed chapters to Faith in a Pluralist Age (2018) and Is the Good Book Good Enough? (2011). She has published in a wide range of journals including Social Science Quarterly, The Review of Faith &amp; International Affairs, Latin American Perspectives, Political Research Quarterly, Comment, and Capital Commentary. Lyman A. Kellstedt: (Ph.D., University of Illinois) is Professor of Political Science (emeritus) at Wheaton College, Illinois. He has authored or coauthored numerous articles, book chapters, and books in religion and politics, including Religion and the Culture Wars (1996), The Bully Pulpit (1997), and The Oxford Handbook of Religion and American Politics (2009).

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Books by Kellstedt, Lyman A.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Kellstedt, Lyman A.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Bully Pulpit: The Politics of Protestant Clergy (Studies in Government and Public Policy)

The Bully Pulpit: The Politics of Protestant Clergy (Studies in Government and Public Policy)

Rediscovering the Religious Factor in American Politics

Evangelicals and Immigration: Fault Lines Among the Faithful (Palgrave Studies in Religion, Politics, and Policy)

Evangelicals and Immigration: Fault Lines Among the Faithful (Palgrave Studies in Religion, Politics, and Policy)