Looking at God, Looking at America: Examining the Relationship Between Beliefs About God and Support for Social Movements and Government Policies

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2025-5.pdf (617.7 KB)

Authors

Starman, Tess E.

Issue Date

2025

Volume

26

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Type

Journal Article

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Keywords

Religion , Politics , Race , Governmental Attitudes , Social Movements

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Abstract

Scholars have long studied the relationship between religion and politics. This study aims to add to the conversation on this relationship by assessing a unique religiosity measure, that of beliefs about the character of God. Utilizing the 2021 Values and Beliefs of the American Public (n=1,336), this study assesses how beliefs about God independently and comparatively impact support for government policies and social movements. Results show that the belief that God is active in the world has the greatest association with policy attitudes. Further, racial identity is a significant moderator for the relationship between belief that God is active and policy support amongst the white sample. This study calls for scholars to broaden their measures of religiosity beyond affiliation when examining the relationship between religion and politics.

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Citation

Publisher

Rabbi Myer and Dorothy Kripke Center, Creighton University

License

CC-BY 4.0

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Issue

URI

https://cdr.creighton.edu/handle/10504/158363

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DOI

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Additional link

https://moses.creighton.edu/jrs/toc/SS26.html

ISSN

1941-8450

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Collections

Supplement Series for the Journal of Religion and Society