Comparing Canadian & US evangelicals on social and economic conservatism

[KnightWhoSaysNi]

I thought I'd share some preliminary results from my work on my Master's thesis, if anyone's interested. I'm basically comparing Canadian and American evangelical Protestants on attitudes related to economic conservatism (views on welfare state, redistribution of wealth) and social conservatism (views on abortion, gay marriage and traditional gender roles).

I should note that I excluded African-American Protestants in the American case, because they have historically represented a distinct religious subculture. I assigned them to separate religious category as most US quantitative studies do.

Based on comparative literature, Canadian and US evangelicals represent a more or less homogeneous sub-culture that transcends national boundaries. With a few exceptions, they more or less share similar values, religious commitment, and theology orthodoxy. For the most part, Canadian and US evangelicals resemble each other more than they do to non-evangelicals of their respective nationalities. I thought it would interesting to see if they share political attitudes, given that Canadian political culture is quite a bit different than the US (Canadians tend to be more socially progressive and economically liberal).

As for US evangelicals, they tend to be more socially and economically conservative than other Americans. An American evangelical, for instance, would be more likely than other Americans to have problems with gay marriage and welfare state policies. Their social conservatism, however, is more fervent than their economic conservatism.

As for Canadian evangelicals, interestingly, they aren't really much different than other Canadians with respect to economic ideology. An evangelical Canadian would be just as likely to support single payer universal health care, for instance, as any other Canadian would. This is where Canadian political culture trumps the subcultural influences from US evangelicals. However, Canadian evangelicals are strongly supportive of social conservatism. This is where evangelical subcultural or religious influences win out over national political culture.

Anyways, I'm still working things out but it looks pretty good so far. My preliminary findings concur with previous work done on the same topic by Hoover, D. R., et al. (2002). Evangelicalism Meets the Continental Divide: Moral and Economic Conservatism in the United States and Canada. Political Research Quarterly, 55(2), 351-374.

[stuart shepherd]

Good luck with your study. It sounds interesting.

I was a fundamental Christian for over 50 years and I was very conservative in all aspects. Now that I am a freethinker, I feel that I have become more liberal. I am a registered Republican, but now I think that I will become a Democrat. There must be a connection between religious views and political views. Jesus must be a Conservative Republican.

Stuart Shepherd

[makerowner]

Sounds very interesting. Please post on here if you're publishing it. Also, does your study look at how politically active they are? In the US, Evangelicals are a strong force, but in Canada, they seem to be much less politically active. (Maybe it's just cause there are fewer of them up here.) Good luck.

[KnightWhoSaysNi]

Sorry for the delay in responding.

There must be a connection between religious views and political views. Jesus must be a Conservative Republican.

That's true, but it's often the influence of people and how we're socialized that matters rather than the influence of religion. Take black evangelical Protestants, for instance. In every US study I've seen, black evangelicals tend to be much more liberal economically than white evangelicals. There is a wide diversity of economic ideology expressed among evangelicals. Evangelicals have used the Bible to justify both liberal and conservative economic views. Evangelicals from Anabaptist denominations, for instance, tend to have a more communal ethic which perhaps might explain why Canadian evangelicals are more liberal (there are more Anabaptist evangelicals here). In the US context, it just so happens that right-wing economic ideology is the prevailing viewpoint of most white evangelicals.

Sounds very interesting. Please post on here if you're publishing it. Also, does your study look at how politically active they are? In the US, Evangelicals are a strong force, but in Canada, they seem to be much less politically active. (Maybe it's just cause there are fewer of them up here.) Good luck.

According to some literature I've seen, US evangelicals tend be more politically active than Canadian evangelicals. They are also more likely to claim that their political beliefs are influenced by their religion. It's true that Canadian evangelicals are fewer here, but they also lack the political infrastructure that American evangelicals have built. Canadian evangelicals have more or less accepted the cultural mosaic or "salad bowl" ethos of Canadian political culture: they seek to be a voice among other voices rather than a movement intent on dominating the larger culture.