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Journal Article | Politics and Religion
Betsy Cooper, Daniel Cox, Melissa Deckman, Ph.D., Robert P. Jones, Ph.D.,
02.07.2017

In this research, PRRI board chair Melissa Deckman and PRRI’s Dan Cox, Robert Jones and Betsy Cooper argue that concerted efforts by Tea Party leaders, Republican politicians, and leading Christian Right figures to establish and promote a connection between Christian faith and the free-market system has helped shift the economic attitudes of white evangelical Protestants in a more conservative direction. Recent survey data finds that white evangelical Protestants express greater skepticism about an active role of government in society and believe economic growth is more likely to be spurred by a reduction in taxes rather than in public investments. The authors show that identifying with the Tea Party is linked with the adoption of more conservative positions on economic issues. While partisanship, class, and in some cases, age, serves to modify the views of some evangelicals, by and large, evangelicals have come to embrace the conservative fiscal message promoted by both the Republican Party and the Tea Party movement.

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