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Religion's Impact on the Divergent Political Attitudes of Evangelical Protestants in the United States and Brazil

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 January 2013

Erin S. McAdams  and
Justin Earl Lance
Erin S. McAdams*
Affiliation:
Presbyterian College
Justin Earl Lance*
Affiliation:
Presbyterian College
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Erin S. McAdams, Presbyterian College, 503 S. Broad Street, Clinton, SC 29325. E-mail: esmcadams@presby.edu; or Justin Earl Lance, Presbyterian College, 503 S. Broad Street, Clinton, SC 29325. E-mail: jelance@presby.edu
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Erin S. McAdams, Presbyterian College, 503 S. Broad Street, Clinton, SC 29325. E-mail: esmcadams@presby.edu; or Justin Earl Lance, Presbyterian College, 503 S. Broad Street, Clinton, SC 29325. E-mail: jelance@presby.edu
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Abstract

In the United States, Evangelical Protestants' political attitudes have been attributed to their conservative theological beliefs. As this religion's membership has increased around the world, other Evangelicals would logically be expected to demonstrate a similar conservatism in their political views. And yet, this anticipated result does not hold. In Brazil, for example, Evangelicals maintain moderate-to-liberal attitudes on several issues. To address this anomaly, this article relies on the Pew Forum's Multi-Country Religion Survey to examine the impact of religion on Evangelicals' ideology as well as attitudes on moral and economic issues in the United States and Brazil. While doctrinal orthodoxy predicts Evangelicals' moral conservatism, neither religious component examined significantly predicts Brazilian Evangelicals' ideology or economic attitudes. Significant differences in Brazilian and American attitudes on these dimensions in general suggest that the political environment plays a much larger role in whether — and how — religion influences these political attitudes.

Type
Articles
Information
Politics and Religion , Volume 6 , Issue 3 , September 2013 , pp. 483 - 511
Copyright
Copyright © Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association 2013 

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