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113 7 POLITICS Y LA IGLESIA Attitudes toward the Role of Religion in Politics among Latino Catholics Adrian Pantoja, Matthew Barreto, and Richard Anderson The u.s. constitution prohibits government from establishing or promoting a particular religion or intruding on citizens’religious beliefs or activities.Although the constitutional wall separating church and state was designed to keep religious con- flicts and influences at bay, the American political and legal landscape is not free from religious strife and influences. Politicians frequently appeal to voters’ religious sentiments through symbolic gestures or by supporting policies particular to religiously oriented persons. Religious leaders are increasingly active in the political arena through voter mobilization efforts and endorsements of particular candidates. Perhaps none has had the longevity or been as influential as the Christian Right. The election of a Republican majority to Congress in the mid-1990s and the presidential victories of George W. Bush, a deeply religious Christian, both with strong backing from conservative Christians and their organizations, have renewed interest among scholars in examining the role of religion in American politics.1 Scholars have largely considered the impact of religious orientations in structuring a wide range of political attitudes among voters and in determining electoral outcomes.2 More specifically, the beliefs held by evangelical Protestants are regarded as a significant force driving many contemporary political cleavages, or the so-called God gap.3 The influence of religious fundamentalist beliefs is most pronounced when it comes to policy issues with religious or moral underpinnings such as abortion, gay marriage, embryonic stem cell research, and school prayer.4 Measures of religious fundamentalism also correlate strongly with support for the Republican Party and politically conservative candidates.5 Polls in the 2004 presidential election showed that 22 percent of voters, many of them religious conservatives, ranked“values”as the most important motivator in casting their vote, and about 80 percent of those voters supported Bush.6 Conservative evangelicals are a crucial constituency group for the Republican Party, and they played a crucial role in George W. Bush’s margin of victory over John Kerry in 2004. The resurgence of conservative evangelicals and other conservative Christians in politics coincides with the fourth wave of mass immigration and the growth of the Latino population. According to census estimates, at over forty million, Latinos are now the largest minority group in the nation and are the fastest-growing segment of the electorate, growing from 2.4 million voters in 1980 to 7.5 million in 2004.7 Recent reports noting the dramatic growth of the Hispanic electorate in states with large numbers of electoral votes and statements that the Hispanic vote is“up for grabs”have raised their political capital.8 Against the backdrop of a closely divided national electorate , it is little wonder that they have been the focus of intense campaign efforts by both political parties, which have spent record amounts in their efforts to woo Latinos to their ranks. Exit polls placed the Latino vote for John Kerry at almost 68 percent, while President Bush garnered 31 percent. These numbers suggest that Latinos’ traditional Democratic moorings have not wavered.Yet while most Latinos have long been aligned with the Democratic Party, pundits and journalists have argued that Republicans are beginning to make significant inroads by appealing to their religious values. This makes strategic sense, since Hispanics hold conservative attitudes on a number of social issues, and these attitudes are reinforced by the growth of evangelical groups and fundamentalist beliefs in Hispanic communities.9 Despite the fact that Latinos are becoming an influential voice in American politics and are deeply religious, little research has been undertaken to examine the interplay between their religious beliefs and political behavior.10 Hence, in order to gain a better understanding of political and religious change in America, it is essential to analyze the affiliation and religious beliefs of the Latino population. This chapter is intended to fill a critical gap in the literature on religion and politics by examining the politicoreligious beliefs of Latinos. The study draws on a unique data source: the Hispanic Churches in American Public Life (HCAPL) 2000 public opinion survey. The HCAPL is based on a national telephone survey with 2,310 Latinos carried out between August 21 and October 31, 2000, in Los Angeles; San Antonio ; Houston; Chicago; Miami; New York; rural Colorado; rural Iowa; and San Juan, Puerto Rico. (The analysis excludes the sample drawn from Puerto Rico, leaving...

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