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Tradition holds that religion and politics are two topics best avoided in polite company. But researchers eager to understand how one informs the other embarked on a study some might call “rushing in where angels fear to tread.” As it turns out, they found that one’s perceptions about God can unwittingly cause them to appear more like those the other side of aisle.
According to the Baylor University study, some theological beliefs can actually move political parties closer together, making conservatives more “compassionate” and liberals “harsher.”
“Partisanship explains only so much. Images of God reveal deep moral perspectives that affect the ways in which Americans understand justice, so much so that they can blur the lines of partisan politics,” explains researcher and study co-author Robert Thomson, a postdoctoral research fellow at Rice University, in a release.
In a previous study, researchers determined that Republicans and Democrats who believe in a highly judgmental God find common ground in attitudes toward capital punishment and other forms of retributive justice.
Rosary beads and cross on Bible
A new study finds that some theological beliefs can actually move political parties closer together, making conservatives more “compassionate” and liberals “harsher.”
“Liberals with a ‘strict father’ image of God are more inclined to support harsher criminal punishments and military solutions to foreign conflicts because they adhere to a theology of retribution and just deserts,” says co-author Paul Froese, a Baylor professor of sociology. “It appears that Americans who see God as wrathful are quicker to support policies which seek an eye-for-an-eye outcome.” Read more