Personal religiosity correlates with progressive views on police violence once Christian nationalism is controlled

Evidence

Our own analyses show this trend repeatedly across a variety of measures of Americans’ attitudes toward racial and ethnic minorities. For example, earlier we showed that Americans who adhere more strongly to Christian nationalism are more likely to believe that police treat whites and blacks equally, and that police shoot blacks more often than whites because blacks are relatively more violent. Figure 3.6 illustrates this trend with a solid black line. Yet even while personal religious commitment (which we measure with worship attendance, scripture reading, and prayer) is positively associated with Christian nationalism, it influences Americans’ attitudes regarding the police treatment of blacks in the opposite direction. Notice the dotted line. When we hold all other factors, including Christian nationalism, constant, Americans who are more religious seem to hold more progressive attitudes toward racial injustice in policing, acknowledging police violence against blacks and rejecting the idea that blacks are more violent than whites. — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 359

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Personal religious practice and Christian nationalism predict opposite political attitudes — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 458; Christian nationalism predicts outgroup attitudes better than conservatism does — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 72; Christian nationalism is a flexible ideology used to support and oppose racial injustice alike — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 165 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Self-reported religiosity reliably but weakly predicts racial prejudice #qualifies (0.80)
• Religion serves as a surrogate for racial threat identification in American institutions #expands (0.72) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 163