In American Grace at page 145, Putnam and Campbell remark that the U.S. pattern of religious switching suggests that “people whose religious and political affiliations are ‘inconsistent’ as judged by today’s partisan alignments – that is, liberal churchgoers and unchurched conservatives – are more likely to resolve the inconsistency by changing their religion than by changing their politics. We were initially skeptical of this finding since it seemed implausible that people would hazard the fate of their eternal soul over mundane political controversies.” I leave aside the failure to recognize in this quoted paragraph that there is no inconsistency between liberal politics and religion (Putnam and Campbell are generally quite well aware that there is inconsistency between religion and liberalism).
Even leaving that aside, I think the basis for skepticism here is thin. I very much doubt that those who leave conservative churches because of the political stances taken are self consciously adopting a political position over a religious one. I think they regard politics, justice, and religion as inextricably tied together. Thus, if they leave, they leave because the religion has been discredited in their eyes. Similarly, if a conservative leaves the Episcopal Church because of its stance on homosexuality, quite clearly the person has changed his or her religion because of a view that the Episcopal Church’s religious/political position is wrong.
I would think it think it would be the rarest of cases that anyone would leave a religion believing it to be right on religion, but wrong on politics. I would think those who depart think the chances for their eternal soul had been improved because of the chance for a deepened spirituality whether inside or outside of a different institutional church. I doubt that those who leave over issues that have implications for politics regard those issues as mundane.
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