SOCIAL AND POLITICAL-ATTITUDES AMONG RELIGIOUS GROUPS - CONVERGENCE AND DIVERGENCE OVER TIME

Studies indicate that religious affiliation has a significant effect o n political and social attitudes in the United States. A conservative- liberal continuum exists among religious groups, with certain Protesta nt groups demonstrating relatively consistent conservative, moderate, and liberal attitudes toward several issues. Moreover, Catholics tend to report moderate attitudes, with Jews and nonaffiliates reporting th e most liberal positions. However, research that has delineated this c ontinuum has not examined changes over time. This paper examines two c ompeting viewpoints, which we label convergence and divergence, that a re derived primarily from contemporary theories of religious change, w ith 20 years of data from the General Social Survey, to examine whethe r attitudes regarding several relevant issues have shifted significant ly both between and within religious groups. We find that a within-gro up convergence of attitudes has occurred for issues such as women's ro les in society and marijuana use, divergence between groups but conver gence within groups has occurred for abortion attitudes, and a clear d ivergent pattern has emerged between conservative Protestants and othe r groups in attitudes toward school prayer. Inter- and intragroup chan ges over time vary from issue to issue and suggest that a complex inte rplay of religious and secular forces have affected changing attitudes among religious adherents.