Knowing Church Teachings Lowers Religious Voters' Support for Abortion and Gay Marriage

Why This Matters. Political scientists have long argued that political sophistication conditions whether mass publics take cues from elites. Eric Schmidt tests that claim in a religious context by asking: does knowledge of church teachings—what the paper calls religious–political sophistication (RPS)—shape how religious Americans form opinions on hot-button social issues?

A New Measure of Religious–Political Sophistication. Schmidt introduces and pilots an RPS scale that asks respondents factual questions about their church's official teachings on specific political issues. The measure is designed to capture whether lay adherents know what their religious authorities teach, rather than simply reporting their own views.

Data and Measurement on the 2014 CCES. The paper uses original RPS items fielded on the 2014 Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES). Schmidt validates the measure and links respondents' RPS scores to their self-identified religious tradition and reported frequency of church attendance.

Key Findings.

• Among evangelical Protestants and Roman Catholics, higher RPS scores—especially when combined with frequent church attendance—are associated with reduced support for abortion rights and for same-sex marriage.
• Schmidt addresses a common measurement worry—that respondents might merely assume their clergy share their personal views—and argues the RPS items are not fatally contaminated by such interpolation.

What This Means. The results suggest that knowing official church teachings is a distinct channel of political communication that helps explain how religious identities translate into policy preferences. Schmidt recommends that scholars of religion and politics routinely incorporate RPS-style measures to better capture the informational pathways shaping religious publics' attitudes.