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When Church Teachings and Policy Commitments Collide: Perspectives on Catholics in the U.S. House of Representatives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2008

Elizabeth A. Oldmixon  and
William Hudson
Elizabeth A. Oldmixon*
Affiliation:
University of North Texas
William Hudson
Affiliation:
Providence College
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Elizabeth A. Oldmixon, Department of Political Science, P.O. Box 305340, University of North Texas, Denton, TX 76203-5340. E-mail:oldmixon@unt.edu
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Abstract

This article investigates the influence of religious values on domestic social policy-making, with a particular focus on Catholics. We analyze roll call votes in the 109th Congress and find that Catholic identification is associated with support for Catholic Social Teaching, but both younger Catholics and Republican Catholics are found less supportive. In followup interviews with a small sample of Catholic Republicans, we find that they justify voting contrary to Church teaching by seeing its application to most domestic social issues as less authoritative than Church moral teachings on issues like abortion.

Type
Articles
Information
Politics and Religion , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , April 2008 , pp. 113 - 136
Copyright
Copyright © Religion and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association 2008

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