Views on God may affect voting

Major Baylor study first reported at Salt Lake meet

Published: Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2006 12:54 a.m. MDT
 |  E-MAIL | PRINT | FONT + - 
Forget the red states/blue states explanation. The real measure of how Americans vote — and buy and think — has less to do with geography and more to do with how people imagine God.

That's one of the conclusions of an exhaustive study by Baylor University's Institute for Studies of Religion released Monday but first reported at the Religion Newswriters Association conference held last week in Salt Lake City. The study, conducted by The Gallup Organization, asked 1,721 Americans more than 350 questions about how they worship, pray and tackle political issues.

The researchers concluded that Americans imagine God in one of four ways: authoritarian, benevolent, critical or distant.

The Authoritarian God is highly involved in daily lives and world affairs, and also capable of meting out punishment to the unfaithful and ungodly. The Benevolent God is a positive influence in lives and in the world, and less willing to punish. The Critical God does not interact with the world, and views the current state of the world unfavorably. The Distant God is neither active nor angry but simply a cosmic force that set the laws of nature in motion. And of course atheists are certain that none of these gods exist at all.

Story continues below

Researchers then correlated these categories with Americans' views on issues such as abortion, the environment and capital punishment, and with their party affiliations, church affiliations and church attendance.

Some of the conclusions:

• Women tend to believe in an engaged God (Authoritarian or Benevolent), men in a distant God.

• Easterners tend toward belief in a Critical God.

• Believers in either an Authoritarian or Benevolent God are more likely to attend church weekly and pray several times a day.

• God's anger alone (Critical God) does little to inspire religious participation or prayer.

• Catholics and mainline Protestants tend toward belief in a more Distant God.

• Believers in an Authoritarian God are nearly twice as likely to believe that abortion is always wrong than the American public as a whole.

• Eighty percent of believers in an Authoritarian God believe gay marriage is "always wrong," compared to 30 percent of believers in a Distant God.

• Believers in an Authoritarian God are more than twice as likely as believers in a Distant God to agree that the Iraq War is justified.

The researchers also found that more than four-fifths of Americans believe that God does not favor a political party. And "paranormal" beliefs (including astrology, communicating with the dead and UFOs) are more prevalent in Eastern states, least prevalent in the South.

Comments

You can be the first to comment on this story.

Image
Deseret Morning News graphic

previousnext

Latest comments

I love Millsap, and the Jazz will find a way to move Boozer and match for...

i think its childish to assume that somebody would actually want to get...

Millsap and Boozer need to stay in Utah. Millsap is Boozers backup while he...

Childish and immature? Its always easier being ignorant and presuming things...

can you use words like testimony and church leadership to critisize a...

Bro P really helped me through a tough time in my life when I had him in...

These are only allegations at present, but I hope when he goes to trial, the...

My thoughts are with the Pratt family right now. Michael I hope you are...

It is interesting that everyone who seems to be a member comments on how nice...

You presume, simply because they were gay, that they were trying to "stir...

Advertisements