Title: The Politics of Evangelical Identity: Local Churches and Partisan Divides in the United States and Canada, by LYDIA BEAN
Abstract:In November 2016, the New York Times reported that Donald Trump carried roughly 80 percent of the evangelical vote on his way to being elected the 45th president of the United States. This after recei...In November 2016, the New York Times reported that Donald Trump carried roughly 80 percent of the evangelical vote on his way to being elected the 45th president of the United States. This after receiving ringing endorsements from prominent evangelical leaders like James Dobson, Jerry Falwell Jr., and Robert Jeffress. Roughly five decades after the “Southern Strategy” that shifted evangelical Protestant voters to the Republican Party, the connection between evangelicalism and conservative partisan politics in the United States has perhaps never been more salient. For years now, scholars have theorized about how the connection between evangelical religion and conservative politics has endured and seemingly only grown stronger. One dominant view assumes a top-down story: Christian Right leaders have hijacked evangelical Christianity for partisan politics. Another related view is the culture war thesis—that evangelical theology naturally inclines them toward conservative politics, and thus, the marriage between the two is rather inevitable. Against both of these views, Lydia Bean proposes that the connection between evangelicals and conservative partisanship is somewhat unique to the United States, and maintained primarily at the grassroots level within congregations. Drawing on ethnographic data from evangelical congregations in the United States and Canada, Bean’s account explores the techniques through which evangelical identity becomes linked with partisan politics in the United States, namely through everyday religious practices.Read More
Publication Year: 2017
Publication Date: 2017-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
Access and Citation
AI Researcher Chatbot
Get quick answers to your questions about the article from our AI researcher chatbot