How Party Coalitions Anchor Group Positions: The Case of Evangelicals and Climate Change

• In Event: 1104 - Old Problems and New Methods: The Resurgence of Political Parties in Political Sociology

Abstract

Sociology needs a robust account of political parties, because meaning-making within groups is often anchored by partisan alliances between groups. Political parties do more than express pre-existing group divides; party practices can also articulate the meaning of racial, class, religious, and other group boundaries. This paper examines how alliances between groups in the Republican Party coalition have anchored how white evangelical elites interpret their religious tradition. Since 2000, a more politically diverse set of evangelical voices have championed new “moral issues” like Creation Care or faith-based environmentalism. As the political diversity of American evangelicalism has come into view, scholars have asked why particular “moral issues” change or persist over time. On some issues, like human trafficking, AIDS relief, animal welfare and criminal justice reform, evangelical leaders and interest groups have shown a widespread willingness to embrace new policy positions and engage with new partners. But on the issue of environmentalism, conservative evangelical elites dug in their heels, and vocally opposed the Creation Care movement. Why did faith-based environmentalism meet such strong resistance from nationally-mobilized evangelicals, when they have so willingly shifted their priorities on other issues? We find that the backlash against Creation Care was carried out to maintain the Christian Right’s relationships with extractive industries and anti-tax groups, after these coalition partners came to see carbon taxation as a major threat. The case of Creation Care show how a group’s alliances within party coalitions drive stability and change in group positions.

Authors

• Lydia Bean, University of Texas at Arlington

• Steven Teles, Johns Hopkins University