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Objective: Religion has been shown to affect the U.S. public opinion about foreign policy. Recent studies emphasize attitudes about issues pertaining to the Middle East. They also tend to focus on the perspectives of evangelical Protestants, so we know comparatively little about how being mainline Protestant, Black Protestant, Catholic, or religiously unaffiliated might affect one's foreign policy preferences. Methods: Using data drawn from the 2009 America's Place in the World General Public Survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, we analyze religion's impact on public attitudes about foreign affairs, comparing evangelical Protestants with four other religious groups. Results: We find that the main driver of religion's impact on foreign policy attitudes is nominal religious affiliation ("belonging"), not the frequency of worship attendance ("behaving"). Religiously unaffiliated Americans and Catholics—and to a lesser extent, mainline and Black Protestants—perceive the world as less threatening than do evangelicals. They also prefer multilateral, cooperative solutions to international problems. Conclusion: Americans vary significantly in their international threat perception and support for militant or cooperative internationalism based on their religious affiliation. In addition, evangelical Protestants' preference for hawkish, unilateral foreign policy extends beyond the context of the Middle East. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. The goal of this article is to analyze the relationship between religion, measured in terms of religious affiliation and religiosity, and public opinion about same-sex marriage, civil unions, and a federal constitutional amendment that would prohibit gay marriage. Methods. We use logistic regression with calculated standardized coefficients to analyze data from a nationally representative survey of 1,610 respondents conducted in March–April 2004. Results. Religious variables perform better than demographic measures in models of attitudes about same-sex unions. Non-Protestants are much more likely to support same-sex unions than are Protestants, and individuals with conservative attitudes toward morality and secularism and (to a lesser extent) those who participate actively in religious life are more likely to oppose such unions. On the whole, religious variables play a weaker role in predicting support for a constitutional amendment to prevent gay marriage than they do in predicting attitudes toward same-sex unions. Conclusions. Religious variables play powerful roles in structuring attitudes about same-sex unions. Moreover, homosexuality appears to be a major component of the “moral values” discourse that is currently so popular in American politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from a new survey of mainline Protestant clergy, we explore the extent to which a political gender gap exists between male and female mainline Protestant ministers. Analysis reveals major partisan, ideological, attitudinal, and participatory disparities among clergymen and clergywomen. Women are far more liberal than their male counterparts, and even though they face the constraint of being a professional minority, clergywomen tend to participate in politics at higher rates than clergymen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]