James M. Penning

Religious Commitment, Political Conservatism, and Political and Social Tolerance in the United States: A Longitudinal Analysis

This paper seeks to clarify certain theoretical and empirical aspects of the nature of the relationships between political conservatism and religious commitment on the one hand and political and social intolerance on the other. Several conceptual problems associated with previous studies of the topic ate note& and data which circumvent such problems ate analyzed in order to assess more adequately the true nature of the relationships under study.

Sojourners in the wilderness : the Christian right in comparative perspective

While the Christian Right has been the subject of a good deal of scholarly analysis, it has not been adequately studied within a comparative context-across time, across different institutional systems, or across different religious communities. In Sojourners in the Wilderness, a host of distinguished scholars examine these dimensions of the Christian Right. The contributors analyze the Christian Right historically-what is its relationship today with earlier manifestations? How have its organizational structures and strategies changed over time?; Sociologically-what are the current opportunities for Christian Right inroads within African-American, Catholic, and Jewish communities?; and politically-what accounts for the affinity between many evangelical Protestants and the Christian Right within the American political context, while such an affinity appears to be lacking in other political contexts?

The Religion of Bill Clinton

President William Jefferson Clinton is one of the most complex, enigmatic persons to ever occupy the American presidency and there is little doubt that long after Clinton’s controversial presidency, scholars, and citizens alike will continue to puzzle over questions relating to his personality, character, and religious life.

The Political Activities of Reformed Clergy in the UnitedStates and Scotland

This paper examines Reformed clergy across two different settings - the United States and Scotland in an effort to determine how theological orthodoxy is related to political participation. The paper demonstrates that (1) clergy in both settings tend to be politically active (2) the level of clergy political activity tends to be greater in the United States than in Scotland (3) the relationship between orthodoxy and political activity is complex, varying by the specific type of activity examined and (4) while theologically orthodox and modernist clergy tend to differ in the nature of their political activities, there is no longer a major gap in level of political activity between the two groups of ministers.