Does religion promote political mobilization? Are individuals motivated by their faith to focus on issues of social justice, personal morality, or both? What is the relationship between religious conviction and partisanship? Does religious identity reinforce or undermine other political identifications like race, ethnicity, and class?

The answers to these questions are hardly monolithic, varying between and within major American religious groups. With an electoral climate increasingly shaped by issues of faith, values, and competing moral visions, it is both fascinating and essential to examine the religious and political currents within America's major religious traditions.

J. Matthew Wilson and a group of prominent religion and politics scholars examine these topics and assess one question central to these issues: How does faith shape political action in America's diverse religious communities? From Pews to Polling Places seeks to cover a rich mosaic of religious and ethnic perspectives with considerable breadth by examining evangelical Christians, the religious left, Catholics, Mormons, African Americans, Latinos, Jews, and Muslims. Along with these groups, the book takes a unique look at the role of secular and antifundamentalist positions, adding an even wider outlook to these critical concerns.

The contributors demonstrate how different theologies, histories, and social situations drive distinct conceptualizations of the relationship between religious and political life. At the same time, however, the book points to important commonalities across traditions that can inform our discussions on the impact of religion on political life. In emphasizing these similarities, the authors explore the challenges of political mobilization, partisanship, and the intersections of religion and ethnicity.

J. Matthew Wilson is associate professor of political science at Southern Methodist University.

Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface
1	Parties, Prayers, and Preachers: The Evolving Nature of Political and Religious Mobilization
	Clyde Wilcox and Carin Robinson
2	Evangelical and Mainline Protestants at the Turn of the Millennium: Taking Stock and Looking Forward
	Corwin E. Smidt
3	Whither the Religious Left? Religiopolitical Progressivism in Twenty-first Century America
	Laura R. Olson
4	The Political Behavior of American Catholics: Change and Continuity
 Stephen T. Mockabee
5	Dry Kindling: A Political Profile of American Mormons
	David E. Campbell and J. Quin Monson
6	Liberation to Mutual Fund: Political Consequences of Differing Conceptions of Christ in the African American Church
	Melissa Harris-Lacewell
7	Power in the Pews? Religious Diversity and Latino Political Attitudes and Behaviors
	Louis DeSipio
8	The Evolution of Jewish Pluralism: Public Opinion and Political Preferences of American Jews
	Paul A. Djupe
9	The Politics of American Muslims
	Paul A. Djupe and John C. Green
10	Secularists, Anti-fundamentalists, and the New Religious Divide in the American Electorate
	Louis Bolce and Gerald De Maio
11	Religion and American Political Life: A Look Forward
	J. Matthew Wilson
References
Contributors
Illustrations
Figures
4.1	Content of Important Party Differences, 1960 and 2000
5.1	Partisanship Over Time
5.2	Presidential Vote Over Time
5.3	The Impact of Religious Participation on Political Activity
8.1	The Ideological Identification of American Jews, 1972-2004
8.2	Should Unpopular Groups be Able to Speak in Public? 1972-2004
8.3	Jewish Party Identification, 1972-2004
8.4	The Jewish Vote for President, 1968-2000
10.1	The Religious Divide in Party ID, 1988-2004
10.2	The Religious Divide in Presidential Elections, 1988-2004 (Percent to Two-party Vote Cast for Democratic Presidential Candidates)
Tables
2.1	The Theological Characteristics of Members of Different Religious Traditions
2.2	Distribution of Religious Traditions in America over Time
2.3	The Social Characteristics of Members of Different Religious Traditions Over Time
2.4	The salience of Different Issues by Religious Tradition (% Quite Interested)
2.5	Politicization by Religious Tradition
2.6	Partisanship by Religious Tradition
3.1	Traditions with Sizable Numbers of Self-described Religious Liberals
3.2	Demographic Characteristics of Self-described Religious Liberals
3.3	Theological Characteristics and Religious Practices of Self-described Religious Liberal
3.4	Issue Positions of Self-described Religious Liberals
3.5	Cues Heard in Congregation by Self-described Religious Liberals
3.6	Political Participation by Self-described Religious Liberals
3.7	Congregation Size and Views on Denominational Relevance among Self-described Religious Liberals
3.8	Approval of Clergy and Congregational Political Activism by Religious Liberals
4.1	Partisan Alignment of White Catholics, 1952-2004
4.2	Socio-political Profile of White Catholics, 1952-2004
4.3	Predictors of White Non-Hispanic Catholics¿ Party Identification 1972-2004
4.4	2004 Profile of White, Non-Hispanic Catholics By Generation
4.5	Model of 2004 Major-Party Presidential Vote Choice (White Non-Hispanic Catholics Only)
5.1	Abortion Attitudes
5.2	Levels of Religious and Political Participation
5.3	Religious Participation and Political Activity
6.1	Models of Differing Notions of Christ
6.2	Model of Political Action
7.1	Latino Religious Preference 1989-2002
7.2	Nativity and Latino Religious Preference, 2001
7.3	Voter Participation (Among U.S. Citizen Latinos)
7.4	Influence of Latino Religious Beliefs on Political Practice, by Religious Practice
7.5	Latino Attitudes Toward Policy Issues with Moral and Religious Dimensions, by Religious Tradition
7.6	Partisanship in Latino Communities
8.1	The Correlation of Spending Opinions and Time for Jewish and Non-Jewish Respondents, 1972-2004
8.2	Demographic, Geographic, and Media Use Differences Between Jewish Democrats and Non-Democrats
8.3	Contributing Factors to Party Identification and Political Ideology Among American Jews (OLS Regression Estimates)
8.4	The Issue Positions of American Jews and the Differences between Jewish Democrats and Non-Democrats, 1996
8.5	The Agendas of American Jews and the Differences between Jewish Democrats and Non-Democrats, 2000
9.1	American Muslim Demography and Religiosity, 2004
9.2	American Muslims Stances on Social Welfare and Cultural Issues, 2004
9.3	American Muslims and Foreign Affairs, 2004
9.4	American Muslim Party and Ideological Identifications, 2004
9.5	American Muslim Views about Democracy and the United States and religion and Political Participation, 2004
9.6	American Muslim Political Participation, 2001-2004
9.7	American Muslims and Voting Behavior, 2001 and 2004
9.8	American Muslim Experience with Discrimination, 2001 and 2004
9.9	American Muslim Summary Views of American Society and Discrimination, 2001 and 2004
9.10	Correlations between Religious Commitment, Public Policy Support, and Political Attachments for the Major Ethnice Groups, 2004
9.11	Determinants of American Muslim Public Policy Stances: Support for Debt Relief for Poor Nations, Abortion Restrictions, Government Aid to Poor People, and Ideology (OLS regression estimates)
9.12	Determinants of the Muslim Presidential Vote, 2000 and 2004 Elections (logistic regression estimates)
9.13	Determinants of Muslim Political Participation, 2001 and 2004 (OLS regression estimates)
10.1	Religious World View, Moral outlook and Attitudes Toward the Social Issues
10.2	The Impact of Intensely Disliking the Religious Right on Respondents¿ perceptions of Christian Fundamentalists
10.3	The Impact of Anti-Christian Fundamentalism in Recent Presidential Elections (with and without affect toward the Religious Right controlled)
10.4	Predictors of Anti-Christian Fundamentalism