The Truth about Conservative Christians
What They Think and What They Believe
Ever since the reelection of President Bush, conservative Christians have been stereotyped in the popular media: Bible-thumping militants and anti-intellectual zealots determined to impose their convictions on such matters as evolution, school prayer, pornography, abortion, and homosexuality on the rest of us. But conservative Christians are not as fanatical or intractable as many people think, nor are they necessarily the monolithic voting block or political base that kept Bush in power.
Andrew M. Greeley and Michael Hout's eye-opening book expertly conveys the complexity, variety, and sensibilities of conservative Christians, dispelling the myths that have long shrouded them in prejudice and political bias. For starters, Greeley and Hout reveal that class and income have trumped moral issues for these Americans more often than we realize: a dramatic majority of working-class and lower-class conservative Christians backed liberals such as Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton during their runs for president. And when it comes to abortion, most conservative Christians are not consistently pro-life in the absolute fashion usually assumed: they are still more likely to oppose the practice than other Americans, but 86 percent of them are willing to tolerate it to protect the health of the mother or when the woman has been raped, and 22 percent of them are even pro-choice.
What do conservative Christians really think about evolution, homosexuality, or even the meaning of the word of God? Answering these questions and more, The Truth about Conservative Christians will interest—and surprise—a broad range of readers, especially in this heated election year.
Choice Magazine: CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Awards
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“Many of us make facile talk about conservative Christians while having vague ideas of who they are. Now we have no excuse. Greeley and Hout tell us exactly who they are, upsetting stereotypes along the way.”—Garry Wills, author of What Jesus Meant
“Pundits and political operatives have produced an enormous amount of nonsense in recent years about conservative Protestants. With a clear eye for extracting details from survey data, Andrew Greeley and Michael Hout have given us an important book filled with valuable information.”—Robert Wuthnow, author of America and the Challenges of Religious Diversity
“Americans are incredibly vulnerable to popularizing and generalizing about certain groups—religious groups in particular—and conservative Christians are currently such a target. This informative book will therefore clarify many misperceptions on the part of the general public.”—Wade Clark Roof, University of California, Santa Barbara
Acknowledgments
ONE Introduction
TWO The Religion of Conservative Christians: A Return to the Reformation?
THREE Conservative Christians in American Politics
FOUR The Politics of Conservative Christianity in Black and White
FIVE Freedom, Inequality, and Conservative Christianity
SIX A Social Portrait of Conservative Christians
SEVEN Conservative Christian Growth: Membership Begins at Home
EIGHT Conservative Christians in the “Sexual Revolution”
NINE The Conservative Christian Family and the “Feminist Revolution”
TEN Happiness and Lifestyle among Conservative Christians
ELEVEN The Pentecostals—Ultimate Conservative Christians
TWELVE Conservative Christians and Catholics: Too Estranged for Alliance
THIRTEEN Conclusions
Appendix: Regreggion Results for Models of Vote and Party
Notes
Reference List
Index
Religion: American Religions | Christianity | Religion and Society
Sociology: Collective Behavior, Mass Communication
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