Are white evangelical Protestants lower class? A partial test of church-sect theory

Philip Schwadel

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

Testing hypotheses derived from church-sect theory and contemporary research about changes in evangelical Protestants' social status, I use repeated cross-sectional survey data spanning almost four decades to examine changes in the social-class hierarchy of American religious traditions. While there is little change in the social-class position of white evangelical Protestants from the early 1970s to 2010, there is considerable change across birth cohorts. Results from hierarchical age-period-cohort models show: (1) robust, across-cohort declines in social-class differences between white evangelical Protestants and liberal Protestants, affiliates of "other" religions, and the unaffiliated, (2) stability in social-class differences between white evangelical Protestants and moderate, Pentecostal, and nondenominational Protestants, (3) moderate across-cohort growth in social-class differences between white evangelical Protestants and Catholics, and (4) these patterns vary across indicators of social class. The findings in this article provide partial support for church-sect theory as well as other theories of social change that emphasize the pivotal role of generations.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)100-116
Number of pages17
JournalSocial Science Research
Volume46
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2014
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Evangelical protestant
  • Generations
  • Religion
  • Social change
  • Social class

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Education
  • Sociology and Political Science

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