| Despite the importance of morality to religious conservatives, they have consistently demonstrated low levels of moral reasoning in past research. Evangelical Christian students (n = 104) from two seminaries were administered the Defining Issues Test-Version 2 [DIT 2] (Rest & Narvaez, 1998); the Christian Fundamentalist Belief Scale [CFBS] (Gibson & Francis, 1996); the Moral Identity Measure [MIM] (Aquino & Reed, 2003), the Christian Inventory of Moral Behavior [CIMB-R] (Needham & Friedman, 2004); the Self-Expansive Level Form-Brief (Friedman, 2004a); and a semistructured questionnaire. Follow-up interviews explored the rationale for moral decision-making of 10 participants selected from among those who demonstrated low scores on the DIT 2 but high scores on the MIM and the CIMB-R.; Compared to archival data, participants scored higher on the CFBS, establishing this sample as fundamentalist; lower on the DIT 2, establishing this sample as low on principled reasoning (i.e., moral reasoning based on thinking like moral philosophers conceptualized as high in cognitive development); as well as higher on the MIM, supporting this sample as high on moral identity (i.e., based on self-concept organized around moral themes). The CIMB-R, measuring reported moral behaviors, did not correlate significantly with the DIT 2, supporting that moral behavior was independent from principled reasoning in this sample. Using thematic analysis, the follow-up interviews yielded three categorical bases for moral decision-making; namely, obedience to Biblical instruction, prayer mindedness, and concern for others.; Participants' moral decision-making appears closely tied to moral identity as defined by Christian beliefs and value system, not to principled reasoning, suggesting that Evangelicals and other religious conservatives may use approaches alternative to those used by secular groups in moral decision-making---but these appear no less developed or complex, simply different. Specifically, the Evangelical subculture may adhere primarily to a moral code based on an ethic of divinity in which the self is conceptualized as spiritual instead of secular and where moral decision-making is seen as bound by adherence to Biblical authority and relationship to both God and humankind, rather than to an individual's secular preference based on autonomy and relativism as measured in the DIT 2 through principled reasoning. |
