Churches as Political Communities

We have long known that churches and religious congregations are important sources of political information and influence. Now, a new report finds that many Americans perceive their congregation as sharing a mix of liberal and conservative beliefs. However, certain traditions are much more likely to have uniformly conservative congregations. Nearly half of White evangelical Protestants (47 percent) and Mormons (47 percent) say that the people they attend religious services with have mostly conservative political views. And this likely matters.  Attending a more uniformly conservative church offers a distinct political experience. White evangelical Protestants who attend services with a predominantly conservative congregation were significantly more likely to vote for Donald Trump than those who attend churches with more varied political views represented in the pews (85 percent vs. 69 percent).