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This study explores potential heterogeneity in the relationship between religion and politics in the United States. Rather than assume all religion is conservatizing, it conducts a broad preliminary search for liberalizing religion across three cross‐sectional national datasets. While the study finds the most liberal politics among adherents of particular "liberal" religious groups rather than among the unaffiliated, it largely fails to find forms of religion where exposure is associated with liberal politics. In fact, exposure to even "liberal" religion is generally associated with more conservative politics. American religion's political asymmetry has important societal implications in a highly religious nation where even liberal religion appears to conservatize the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study demonstrates that religion protected mental health but constrained support for crisis response during the crucial early days of the COVID‐19 pandemic. Data from a national probability‐based sample of the U.S. population show that highly religious individuals and evangelicals suffered less distress in March 2020. They were also less likely to see the coronavirus outbreak as a crisis and less likely to support public health restrictions to limit the spread of the virus. The conservative politicization of religion in the United States can help explain why religious Americans (and evangelicals in particular) experienced less distress and were less likely to back public health efforts to contain the virus. We conclude that religion can be a source of comfort and strength in times of crisis, but—at least in the case of the COVID‐19 pandemic—it can also undercut efforts to end the root causes of suffering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]