Are Shifts in Same-Sex Marriage Attitudes Associated With Declines in Religious Behavior and Affiliation?

• Author: Paul A. Djupe,Jacob Neiheisel
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/1532673X221106431
• Published date: 01 January 2023
• Date: 01 January 2023

Article

AmericanPoliticsResearch

2023,Vol.51(1)81–90

©TheAuthor(s)2022

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DOI:10.1177/1532673X221106431

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AreShiftsinSame-SexMarriageAttitudes

AssociatedWithDeclinesinReligious

BehaviorandAffiliation?

PaulA.Djupe

1

andJacobNeiheisel

2



Abstract

Theanti-LGBTQpoliticsoftheReligiousRighthasbeenimplicatedasoneofthecriticalforcespromotingtheriseofdisaffiliation

fromreligion.TheassociationseemsplaingiventherapidriseofthenonesamongyoungercohortsofAmericans–agroup

whichalsoholdsthemostpro-LGBTQattitudes.However,littleworkactuallyteststhelinkbetweenshiftingattitudesonsame-

sexmarriageanddecliningreligiousbehaviorandaffiliation.DrawingonthePortraitsofAmericanLifePanelstudywithwavesin

2006and2012,weuseappropriatemeasurestodocumentthereligiouseffectsofchangingviewsonsame-sexmarriage.We

findthatwhileshiftingviewsdidhaveanegativeeffectonchurchattendanceandaffiliation,theseeffectswerenotlimitedto

shiftstowardsupportforsame-sexmarriageandwerenotlimitedtoliberals.

Keywords

religionandpolitics,publicopinion,same-sexmarriage,paneldata

Introduction

Inthispaperwerevisitthetheorizedconnectionbetweenat-

titudestowardsame-sexmarriageandreligiousbehavior.Nu-

merousscholarshaveplacedchangesintheAmericanpublic’s

viewstowardsame-sexmarriageatthecenterofexplanations

fortheriseofthereligious“nones”(e.g.,Hout&Fischer,2014;

Jones,2016;Putnam&Campbell,2010).Directtestsofsucha

linkagearerare,however,andhaveoftencometodivergent

conclusionsregardingtherolethatsame-sexmarriageviews

playinshapingtheirreligiousattachmentsandbehavior

(Vargas,2012;Brenner,2019).Therefore,weturntopaneldata

fromthePortraitsofAmericanLifeStudy(PALS)toexplore

howshiftingattitudestowardsame-sexmarriagemighttrack

withchangesinreligiousbehavior–worshipattendance(‘at-

tendance’forshort)andleavingcongregations.Wefindsome

evidencethatshiftsinsupportfor“traditionalmarriage”track

withchangesinattendance,buttheeffectsarenotlimitedto

same-sexmarriagesupportersortoliberals.Moreover,this

relationshipismostpronouncedamongthosemostlikelyto

encounterconflictsovertheissueofsame-sexmarriage:fre-

quentattenders.Thesearetheoppositesofmostconclusionsto

thispoint.

ExistingLiterature

Theearly1990ssawthereleaseofthebandR.E.M’shitsingle

“LosingMyReligion”andalso,coincidentally,asharpuptick

intheproportionoftheAmericanpublicwho,whenqueried

astotheirreligiousaffiliationonasurvey,answered“none”

(Hout&Fischer,2002,2014).Mostexplanationsforthe

surgeinreligiousnonescenteronthesalienceoftheReli-

giousRightandhowitscontentiousblendofreligious

dogmatismandconservativepoliticseffectivelyturnedpo-

liticalliberalsoffofreligion(Baker&Smith,2009;Campbell

etal.,2021;Hout&Fischer,2002).

1

Sincethe1990s,the

trendtowardever-greaternumbersofreligiousnoneshas

continuedinasecularfashion(butseeDjupe&Burge,2020),

andatpresentoverafifthoftheAmericanpublicclaimsno

particularreligiousidentityatall(Brenner,2019;Newport,

2017),makingthenonesthelargestreligioustraditioninthe

U.S.(Burge,2019).

Organizedreligion’sreputationforbeingintoleranttoward

LGBTQAmericansisoftencitedasperhapsthechiefreason

whyyoungAmericansareabandoningreligionatsucharapid

clip(Hout&Fischer,2014;Jones,2016;Putnam&

Campbell,2010;Vargas,2012;cf.Brenner,2019;Hout&

Fischer,2002,p.185).Thosewhocameofageatatimewhen

1

DepartmentofPoliticalScience,DenisonUniversity,Granville,OH,USA

2

DepartmentofPoliticalScience,UniversityatBuffalo,Buffalo,NY,USA

CorrespondingAuthor:

JacobNeiheisel,DepartmentofPoliticalScience,UniversityatBuffalo,422

ParkHall,Buffalo,NY14260,USA.

Email:jacobnei@buffalo.edu