Landon Schnabel | Indiana University (original) (raw)

Papers by Landon Schnabel

Despite increasingly frequent mass shootings and a growing dissatisfaction with current gun laws,... more Despite increasingly frequent mass shootings and a growing dissatisfaction with current gun laws, American opposition to federal gun legislation remains strong. We show that opposition to stricter gun control is closely linked to Christian nationalism, a religious cultural framework that mandates a symbiotic relationship between Christianity and civil society. Using data from a national population-based survey, we show that Christian nationalism is an exceptionally strong predictor of opposition to the federal government enacting stricter gun laws. In fact, of all the variables we considered only general political orientation has more predictive power than Christian nationalism. We propose that the gun control debate is complicated by deeply held moral and religious schemas that discussions focused solely on rational public safety calculations do not sufficiently address. For the substantial proportion of American society who are Christian nationalists, gun rights are God-given and sacred. Consequently, attempts to reform existing gun laws must attend to the deeper cultural and religious identities that undergird Americans' beliefs about gun control.

An extensive literature demonstrates that religion is a key determinant of Americans' social and ... more An extensive literature demonstrates that religion is a key determinant of Americans' social and political attitudes. This literature, however, has neglected an important measure of everyday religious practice, preference, and socialization: religious media consumption. We take a key social issue where attitudes have been shown to be largely shaped by religion-same-sex relationships-as an example to determine whether religious media consumption predicts social attitudes net of the measures typically included in the literature on religion and attitudes: affiliation, practice, and literalism. We draw on data from three national surveys, each of which contains different measures of religious media consumption and attitudes toward various same-Portraits of American Life Study. Both multivariate and propensity score matching analyses demonstrate that religious media consumption independently predicts lower support for same-sex relationships in all three surveys. We propose that religious media consumption is a key measure of religious practice, preference, and socialization that shapes Americans' views toward social issues through both direct messages and by fortifying subcultural boundaries.

Social scientists agree that women are generally more religious than men, but disagree about whet... more Social scientists agree that women are generally more religious than men, but disagree about whether the differences are universal or contingent on social context. This study uses General Social Survey data to explore differences in religiosity between, as well as among, women and men by level of individual earned income. Extending previous research, I focus on high earners with other groups included for comparison. Predicted probabilities based upon fully interacted models provide four key findings: (1) There are no significant gender differences among high earners; (2) high-earning women are less religious than low-earning women; (3) high-earning men are more religious than low-earning men; and (4) differences among women and among men at different earnings levels are just as large as average differences between women and men. Further analyses demonstrate that the relationship between gender, earnings, and religiosity varies by race. The findings demonstrate the utility of intersectional approaches for understanding gender differences in religiosity. Beyond the implications specific to the gender differences in religiosity literature, this study also indicates that religion is an important, yet often underemphasized, aspect of our intersectional selves.

Feminist science and technology studies calls the researcher to reconsider subjectivity in three ... more Feminist science and technology studies calls the researcher to reconsider subjectivity in three ways. First, who or what has subjectivity? Second, is subjectivity a property of an individual being with sentience, or is it a more diffuse process? Third, who or what acts in meaningful ways to impact social relations (and are thus worthy of sociological study)? According to feminist STS, the conferral of subjectivity has been nationalized, racialized, and sexualized, and the influence of nonhuman life and nonliving matter has been underemphasized. We suggest that sociological research could benefit from a more expansive understanding of subjectivity and a more interactive (or “entangled”) notion of social-material relations. Human relations and action may be considered not just in the context of the human and social, but also the nonhuman and material. To make the implications of feminist STS more concrete, we offer specific applications of feminist STS methodologies across a range of sociological methods and topics.

Does religion help or hinder gender equality worldwide? Are some major world religions more condu... more Does religion help or hinder gender equality worldwide? Are some major world religions more conducive to equality than others? This study answers these questions using country-level data assembled from multiple sources. Much of the research on religion and gender has focused on the relationship between individual religious belief and practice and gender attitudes. This study, alternatively, compares the macro effects of the proportion of religious adherents in a country on two indicators of material gender equality: the United Nations Gender Inequality Index and the Social Watch Gender Equity Index. Comparing the world’s four largest religious groups reveals that the largest distinction is not between any of the three largest faiths—Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism—but between the religious and the non-religious. The more non-religious people in a country, the more gender equal that country tends to be. This finding holds when accounting for human development and other country-level factors, as well as in instrumental variable analysis.

This study uses General Social Survey data to compare gender and homosexuality across American re... more This study uses General Social Survey data to compare gender and homosexuality across American religious groups from the 1970s to 2014, examining three possible patterns for how evangelical attitudes relate to those of other groups: (1) they are similar; (2) they are different, but move together over time; (3) they are different and converge or diverge over time. Evangelical gender attitudes regarding work and family issues are more conservative than those of all other groups, but are adaptive to broad trends, changing at a rate similar to those of other groups. Evangelical attitudes toward the morality of homosexuality and same-sex marriage are more conservative than those of all other religious groups, and their rate of change is slower over time. Separate trends on the two issues suggest that gender and sexuality attitude change is decoupled, especially among evangelicals who are adapting more on gender while increasingly distinguishing themselves on same-sex relationships. A three-stage process of religious tension appears to characterize evangelical identity-building: (1) similarity, (2) distinction, and (3) adaptation. Should women be supported in the workplace and hold civil leadership positions? Should gay men and lesbians have the right to get married? Gender and sexuality are contentious topics in both private and public debate, sparking conflict in American families, religious communities, and national politics. Examining beliefs about gender and sexuality across religious groups provides an opportunity to consider not only attitude change, but also how social groups distinguish themselves from one another (Edgell, 2012; Lamont and Moln ar, 2002). Gender and sexuality are both central for boundary drawing among religious groups and often seem to operate in tandem (Tranby and Zulkowski, 2012), but do American religious groups reveal similar patterns for attitude change on both of these issues? Is it possible that those in conservative Protestant denominations are adapting more on one issue while distinguishing themselves more on the other? To investigate the questions at hand, I use General Social Survey (GSS) data and a work and family focused gender attitude scale (Cotter et al., 2011) to first compare overall religious group differences and then compare rates of attitude change over time. Following the examination of gender attitudes, I compare them to attitudes toward the morality of homosexuality and same-sex marriage. Though I examine and discuss all major American religious groups, I focus on evangelicals because American evangelicalism exemplifies the drawing of symbolic boundariesdthey use moral stances to distinguish the people

Are women universally more religious than men? Some research on gender differences has argued tha... more Are women universally more religious than men? Some research on gender differences has argued that biology leads women to be innately more religious than men, but other research has highlighted the importance of avoiding universal claims and recognizing complexity. This brief note uses General Social Survey data to report gender differences in predicted religiosity by religious category across eight measures. In the United States, gender differences seem to be primarily a Christian phenomenon. Although women reveal higher levels of religiosity across Christian groups, this trend does not extend to non-Christian groups. Furthermore, there is variation even among Christian groups, with women not revealing higher levels of religiosity for all measures. Nevertheless, there does seem to be a general trend for women to report daily prayer more often than men. These findings further problematize the idea that there are innate gender differences in religiosity rooted in biology, and provide a descriptive foundation for future attempts to explain why (American) Christian groups reveal gender differences in religiosity.

Purpose The purpose of this chapter is to bring three recent and innovative feminist science and ... more Purpose
The purpose of this chapter is to bring three recent and innovative feminist science and technology studies paradigms into dialogue on the topics of subjectivity and knowledge.

Findings
Each of the three frameworks – feminist postcolonial science and technology studies, queer ecologies, and new feminist materialisms – reconceptualizes and expands our understanding of subjectivity and knowledge. As projects invested in identifying and challenging the strategic conferral of subjectivity, they move from subjectivity located in all human life, to subjectivity as indivisible from nature, to a broader notion of subjectivity as both material and discursive. Despite some methodological differences, the three frameworks all broaden feminist conceptions of knowledge production and validation, advocating for increased consideration of scientific practices and material conditions in feminist scholarship.

Originality
This chapter examines three feminist science and technology studies paradigms by comparing and contrasting how each addresses notions of subjectivity and knowledge in ways that push us to rethink key epistemological issues.

Research Implications
This chapter identifies similarities and differences in the three frameworks’ discussions of subjectivity and knowledge production. By putting these frameworks into conversation, we identify methodological crossover, capture the coevolution of subjectivity and knowledge production in feminist theory, and emphasize the importance of matter in sociocultural explorations.

This paper has two goals, one descriptive and the other prescriptive. The descriptive goal is to... more This paper has two goals, one descriptive and the other prescriptive. The descriptive goal is to introduce and describe standpoint theory—an epistemological framework from sociology—and describe how it relates to the current evangelical gender debates as well as historical slavery debates. The prescriptive goal is a call for theologians to consider adopting a standpoint hermeneutic, which would involve being more self-reflexive about power and privilege. Theologians using a standpoint hermeneutic would (1) work from the standpoint of the disadvantaged, (2) ground interpretations in personal interests and experience, (3) maintain a strategically diverse discourse, (4) create knowledge that empowers the disadvantaged, (5) and include voices from as many social locations as possible in the project of religious knowledge generation.

Successful social movements gain an inside voice and reshape the larger system from within. Knowi... more Successful social movements gain an inside voice and reshape the larger system from within. Knowing the extent to which the Tea Party movement has gained a voice within the Republican Party is vital to understanding the current state of party politics in America. This study analyzes the presence of the goals contained within the Tea Party movement's Contract from America in the Republican platform, finding that each plank of the contract was represented in the 2012 Republican national platform. Increased emphasis on the constitution and fiscal responsibility did not come at the expense of the inclusion of social conservatism or religion. Placing fiscal conservatism within a context of morality and responsibility to God, the 2012 platform reveals a move toward the fusionism popularized by Reagan. The incorporation of Contract from America goals indicates assimilation of Tea Party ideology within the GOP, potentially precipitating the movement's decline. By adopting Tea Party movement compatible ideology, the Republican Party shifted further right, possibly alienating moderate voters in the 2012 election.

Women's Studies International Forum. 2014. Volume 44. Issue 3. Page 10-16., 2014

This paper explores the question of subjectivity, of who or what counts as a subject, bringing th... more This paper explores the question of subjectivity, of who or what counts as a subject, bringing three feminist science studies frameworks into dialogue: feminist postcolonial science studies, new feminist materialisms, and queer ecologies. As critical frameworks, each challenges Western modernity and marginalizing exceptionalisms, hierarchies, and binaries, calling for a more inclusive subjectivity. However, they diverge on whether they seek to finish the humanist project and extend subjectivity to all humans or move to post-humanism and question the very notion of subjectivity. Feminist postcolonial science studies challenges the Western/Non-Western divide of subjectivity, queer ecologies challenges the human/non-human divide, and new feminist materialisms challenges the life/nonlife divide. In their calls for greater inclusivity, the frameworks move expansively from subjectivity located in all human life, to subjectivity in all life, to subjectivity—if there is such an individually located thing—in matter. I argue that bringing these perspectives into dialogue is useful methodologically and politically.

Politics, Religion & Ideology. 2013. Volume 14, Issue 1. Pages 94-113.

Successful social movements gain an inside voice and reshape the larger system from within. Knowi... more Successful social movements gain an inside voice and reshape the larger system from within. Knowing the extent to which the Christian Right has gained a voice within the Republican Party is vital to understanding the current state of party politics and civil religion in America. This study considers sociohistorical developments in the Christian Right and analyzes the placement of the goals contained within the Christian Coalition's Contract with the American Family in Republican platforms. The goals, which sought the legislation of morality, were in alignment with and an outworking of the larger social and ideological context of the Christian Right and its legitimating myth. Each of the goals of the CAF was placed within the 2000 Republican platform to varying degrees, from increased emphasis on what was already present to shifted focus or new inclusion of previously absent propositions. The incorporation of Coalition goals indicated assimilation of Christian Right ideology within the GOP, precipitated the Coalition's demise as a dissenting social movement organization, and widened the religion gap in American politics. The election of George W. Bush and dominionist interpretation of following events illustrate an increased Christian Right influence from within the Republican Party, which shifted further right in conjunction with the Christian Coalition's decline.

Refereed Articles and Book Chapters by Landon Schnabel

Marijuana and same-sex marriage are two of the fastest changing and most widely debated opinion a... more Marijuana and same-sex marriage are two of the fastest changing and most widely debated opinion and policy issues in the United States. Research has examined public opinion on marijuana legalization and same-sex marriage legalization individually, but has neglected to examine these two issues together. We use General Social Survey data from 1988 to 2014 to compare four groups: (1) those who support neither; (2) those who support marijuana but not same-sex marriage legalization; (3) those who support marriage but not marijuana legalization; and (4) those who support both. This study provides four key findings: (1) marijuana and same-sex marriage attitudes have changed simultaneously; (2) most people hold these attitudes in tandem, and there has been a precipitous decline in the percentage of people who support legalizing neither and a remarkable increase in the percentage who support legalizing both; (3) attitudes toward both issues are liberalizing across all social and ideological groups, suggesting a society-wide redefinition of both behaviors as publicly accepted issues of individual autonomy; and (4) the support bases for marijuana and marriage legalization vary systematically by sociodemographic characteristics. We conclude that notions of individual autonomy may be increasingly important to the American public and their beliefs about what the government should regulate.

Despite increasingly frequent mass shootings and a growing dissatisfaction with current gun laws,... more Despite increasingly frequent mass shootings and a growing dissatisfaction with current gun laws, American opposition to federal gun legislation remains strong. We show that opposition to stricter gun control is closely linked to Christian nationalism, a religious cultural framework that mandates a symbiotic relationship between Christianity and civil society. Using data from a national population-based survey, we show that Christian nationalism is an exceptionally strong predictor of opposition to the federal government enacting stricter gun laws. In fact, of all the variables we considered only general political orientation has more predictive power than Christian nationalism. We propose that the gun control debate is complicated by deeply held moral and religious schemas that discussions focused solely on rational public safety calculations do not sufficiently address. For the substantial proportion of American society who are Christian nationalists, gun rights are God-given and sacred. Consequently, attempts to reform existing gun laws must attend to the deeper cultural and religious identities that undergird Americans' beliefs about gun control.

An extensive literature demonstrates that religion is a key determinant of Americans' social and ... more An extensive literature demonstrates that religion is a key determinant of Americans' social and political attitudes. This literature, however, has neglected an important measure of everyday religious practice, preference, and socialization: religious media consumption. We take a key social issue where attitudes have been shown to be largely shaped by religion-same-sex relationships-as an example to determine whether religious media consumption predicts social attitudes net of the measures typically included in the literature on religion and attitudes: affiliation, practice, and literalism. We draw on data from three national surveys, each of which contains different measures of religious media consumption and attitudes toward various same-Portraits of American Life Study. Both multivariate and propensity score matching analyses demonstrate that religious media consumption independently predicts lower support for same-sex relationships in all three surveys. We propose that religious media consumption is a key measure of religious practice, preference, and socialization that shapes Americans' views toward social issues through both direct messages and by fortifying subcultural boundaries.

Social scientists agree that women are generally more religious than men, but disagree about whet... more Social scientists agree that women are generally more religious than men, but disagree about whether the differences are universal or contingent on social context. This study uses General Social Survey data to explore differences in religiosity between, as well as among, women and men by level of individual earned income. Extending previous research, I focus on high earners with other groups included for comparison. Predicted probabilities based upon fully interacted models provide four key findings: (1) There are no significant gender differences among high earners; (2) high-earning women are less religious than low-earning women; (3) high-earning men are more religious than low-earning men; and (4) differences among women and among men at different earnings levels are just as large as average differences between women and men. Further analyses demonstrate that the relationship between gender, earnings, and religiosity varies by race. The findings demonstrate the utility of intersectional approaches for understanding gender differences in religiosity. Beyond the implications specific to the gender differences in religiosity literature, this study also indicates that religion is an important, yet often underemphasized, aspect of our intersectional selves.

Feminist science and technology studies calls the researcher to reconsider subjectivity in three ... more Feminist science and technology studies calls the researcher to reconsider subjectivity in three ways. First, who or what has subjectivity? Second, is subjectivity a property of an individual being with sentience, or is it a more diffuse process? Third, who or what acts in meaningful ways to impact social relations (and are thus worthy of sociological study)? According to feminist STS, the conferral of subjectivity has been nationalized, racialized, and sexualized, and the influence of nonhuman life and nonliving matter has been underemphasized. We suggest that sociological research could benefit from a more expansive understanding of subjectivity and a more interactive (or “entangled”) notion of social-material relations. Human relations and action may be considered not just in the context of the human and social, but also the nonhuman and material. To make the implications of feminist STS more concrete, we offer specific applications of feminist STS methodologies across a range of sociological methods and topics.

Does religion help or hinder gender equality worldwide? Are some major world religions more condu... more Does religion help or hinder gender equality worldwide? Are some major world religions more conducive to equality than others? This study answers these questions using country-level data assembled from multiple sources. Much of the research on religion and gender has focused on the relationship between individual religious belief and practice and gender attitudes. This study, alternatively, compares the macro effects of the proportion of religious adherents in a country on two indicators of material gender equality: the United Nations Gender Inequality Index and the Social Watch Gender Equity Index. Comparing the world’s four largest religious groups reveals that the largest distinction is not between any of the three largest faiths—Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism—but between the religious and the non-religious. The more non-religious people in a country, the more gender equal that country tends to be. This finding holds when accounting for human development and other country-level factors, as well as in instrumental variable analysis.

This study uses General Social Survey data to compare gender and homosexuality across American re... more This study uses General Social Survey data to compare gender and homosexuality across American religious groups from the 1970s to 2014, examining three possible patterns for how evangelical attitudes relate to those of other groups: (1) they are similar; (2) they are different, but move together over time; (3) they are different and converge or diverge over time. Evangelical gender attitudes regarding work and family issues are more conservative than those of all other groups, but are adaptive to broad trends, changing at a rate similar to those of other groups. Evangelical attitudes toward the morality of homosexuality and same-sex marriage are more conservative than those of all other religious groups, and their rate of change is slower over time. Separate trends on the two issues suggest that gender and sexuality attitude change is decoupled, especially among evangelicals who are adapting more on gender while increasingly distinguishing themselves on same-sex relationships. A three-stage process of religious tension appears to characterize evangelical identity-building: (1) similarity, (2) distinction, and (3) adaptation. Should women be supported in the workplace and hold civil leadership positions? Should gay men and lesbians have the right to get married? Gender and sexuality are contentious topics in both private and public debate, sparking conflict in American families, religious communities, and national politics. Examining beliefs about gender and sexuality across religious groups provides an opportunity to consider not only attitude change, but also how social groups distinguish themselves from one another (Edgell, 2012; Lamont and Moln ar, 2002). Gender and sexuality are both central for boundary drawing among religious groups and often seem to operate in tandem (Tranby and Zulkowski, 2012), but do American religious groups reveal similar patterns for attitude change on both of these issues? Is it possible that those in conservative Protestant denominations are adapting more on one issue while distinguishing themselves more on the other? To investigate the questions at hand, I use General Social Survey (GSS) data and a work and family focused gender attitude scale (Cotter et al., 2011) to first compare overall religious group differences and then compare rates of attitude change over time. Following the examination of gender attitudes, I compare them to attitudes toward the morality of homosexuality and same-sex marriage. Though I examine and discuss all major American religious groups, I focus on evangelicals because American evangelicalism exemplifies the drawing of symbolic boundariesdthey use moral stances to distinguish the people

Are women universally more religious than men? Some research on gender differences has argued tha... more Are women universally more religious than men? Some research on gender differences has argued that biology leads women to be innately more religious than men, but other research has highlighted the importance of avoiding universal claims and recognizing complexity. This brief note uses General Social Survey data to report gender differences in predicted religiosity by religious category across eight measures. In the United States, gender differences seem to be primarily a Christian phenomenon. Although women reveal higher levels of religiosity across Christian groups, this trend does not extend to non-Christian groups. Furthermore, there is variation even among Christian groups, with women not revealing higher levels of religiosity for all measures. Nevertheless, there does seem to be a general trend for women to report daily prayer more often than men. These findings further problematize the idea that there are innate gender differences in religiosity rooted in biology, and provide a descriptive foundation for future attempts to explain why (American) Christian groups reveal gender differences in religiosity.

Purpose The purpose of this chapter is to bring three recent and innovative feminist science and ... more Purpose
The purpose of this chapter is to bring three recent and innovative feminist science and technology studies paradigms into dialogue on the topics of subjectivity and knowledge.

Findings
Each of the three frameworks – feminist postcolonial science and technology studies, queer ecologies, and new feminist materialisms – reconceptualizes and expands our understanding of subjectivity and knowledge. As projects invested in identifying and challenging the strategic conferral of subjectivity, they move from subjectivity located in all human life, to subjectivity as indivisible from nature, to a broader notion of subjectivity as both material and discursive. Despite some methodological differences, the three frameworks all broaden feminist conceptions of knowledge production and validation, advocating for increased consideration of scientific practices and material conditions in feminist scholarship.

Originality
This chapter examines three feminist science and technology studies paradigms by comparing and contrasting how each addresses notions of subjectivity and knowledge in ways that push us to rethink key epistemological issues.

Research Implications
This chapter identifies similarities and differences in the three frameworks’ discussions of subjectivity and knowledge production. By putting these frameworks into conversation, we identify methodological crossover, capture the coevolution of subjectivity and knowledge production in feminist theory, and emphasize the importance of matter in sociocultural explorations.

This paper has two goals, one descriptive and the other prescriptive. The descriptive goal is to... more This paper has two goals, one descriptive and the other prescriptive. The descriptive goal is to introduce and describe standpoint theory—an epistemological framework from sociology—and describe how it relates to the current evangelical gender debates as well as historical slavery debates. The prescriptive goal is a call for theologians to consider adopting a standpoint hermeneutic, which would involve being more self-reflexive about power and privilege. Theologians using a standpoint hermeneutic would (1) work from the standpoint of the disadvantaged, (2) ground interpretations in personal interests and experience, (3) maintain a strategically diverse discourse, (4) create knowledge that empowers the disadvantaged, (5) and include voices from as many social locations as possible in the project of religious knowledge generation.

Successful social movements gain an inside voice and reshape the larger system from within. Knowi... more Successful social movements gain an inside voice and reshape the larger system from within. Knowing the extent to which the Tea Party movement has gained a voice within the Republican Party is vital to understanding the current state of party politics in America. This study analyzes the presence of the goals contained within the Tea Party movement's Contract from America in the Republican platform, finding that each plank of the contract was represented in the 2012 Republican national platform. Increased emphasis on the constitution and fiscal responsibility did not come at the expense of the inclusion of social conservatism or religion. Placing fiscal conservatism within a context of morality and responsibility to God, the 2012 platform reveals a move toward the fusionism popularized by Reagan. The incorporation of Contract from America goals indicates assimilation of Tea Party ideology within the GOP, potentially precipitating the movement's decline. By adopting Tea Party movement compatible ideology, the Republican Party shifted further right, possibly alienating moderate voters in the 2012 election.

Women's Studies International Forum. 2014. Volume 44. Issue 3. Page 10-16., 2014

This paper explores the question of subjectivity, of who or what counts as a subject, bringing th... more This paper explores the question of subjectivity, of who or what counts as a subject, bringing three feminist science studies frameworks into dialogue: feminist postcolonial science studies, new feminist materialisms, and queer ecologies. As critical frameworks, each challenges Western modernity and marginalizing exceptionalisms, hierarchies, and binaries, calling for a more inclusive subjectivity. However, they diverge on whether they seek to finish the humanist project and extend subjectivity to all humans or move to post-humanism and question the very notion of subjectivity. Feminist postcolonial science studies challenges the Western/Non-Western divide of subjectivity, queer ecologies challenges the human/non-human divide, and new feminist materialisms challenges the life/nonlife divide. In their calls for greater inclusivity, the frameworks move expansively from subjectivity located in all human life, to subjectivity in all life, to subjectivity—if there is such an individually located thing—in matter. I argue that bringing these perspectives into dialogue is useful methodologically and politically.

Politics, Religion & Ideology. 2013. Volume 14, Issue 1. Pages 94-113.

Successful social movements gain an inside voice and reshape the larger system from within. Knowi... more Successful social movements gain an inside voice and reshape the larger system from within. Knowing the extent to which the Christian Right has gained a voice within the Republican Party is vital to understanding the current state of party politics and civil religion in America. This study considers sociohistorical developments in the Christian Right and analyzes the placement of the goals contained within the Christian Coalition's Contract with the American Family in Republican platforms. The goals, which sought the legislation of morality, were in alignment with and an outworking of the larger social and ideological context of the Christian Right and its legitimating myth. Each of the goals of the CAF was placed within the 2000 Republican platform to varying degrees, from increased emphasis on what was already present to shifted focus or new inclusion of previously absent propositions. The incorporation of Coalition goals indicated assimilation of Christian Right ideology within the GOP, precipitated the Coalition's demise as a dissenting social movement organization, and widened the religion gap in American politics. The election of George W. Bush and dominionist interpretation of following events illustrate an increased Christian Right influence from within the Republican Party, which shifted further right in conjunction with the Christian Coalition's decline.

Marijuana and same-sex marriage are two of the fastest changing and most widely debated opinion a... more Marijuana and same-sex marriage are two of the fastest changing and most widely debated opinion and policy issues in the United States. Research has examined public opinion on marijuana legalization and same-sex marriage legalization individually, but has neglected to examine these two issues together. We use General Social Survey data from 1988 to 2014 to compare four groups: (1) those who support neither; (2) those who support marijuana but not same-sex marriage legalization; (3) those who support marriage but not marijuana legalization; and (4) those who support both. This study provides four key findings: (1) marijuana and same-sex marriage attitudes have changed simultaneously; (2) most people hold these attitudes in tandem, and there has been a precipitous decline in the percentage of people who support legalizing neither and a remarkable increase in the percentage who support legalizing both; (3) attitudes toward both issues are liberalizing across all social and ideological groups, suggesting a society-wide redefinition of both behaviors as publicly accepted issues of individual autonomy; and (4) the support bases for marijuana and marriage legalization vary systematically by sociodemographic characteristics. We conclude that notions of individual autonomy may be increasingly important to the American public and their beliefs about what the government should regulate.