White Religion, Politics, and Racial Resentment in the United States

In popular American discourse, White conservative Christianity is nearly synonymous with both conservative politics and racial resentment. I argue that while White religious conservatives’ racial resentment comports with their politics, racial resentment should be more relevant to political differences among White religious moderates, liberals, and the nonreligious due to the relative ubiquity of conservative politics among religious conservatives. Using nationally representative survey data, I show that racial resentment is indeed strongly associated with White conservative politics but that this association is minimized among religious conservatives. In contrast, among White religious moderates, liberals, and the nonreligious, racial resentment is a robust predictor of conservative politics. These results shed light on the political relevance of racial resentment for White Americans who are not religiously conservative, as well as under what conditions religious conservatives are and are not more politically conservative than other White Americans.