An examination of the effect of church attendance on African American political ideology in the 2004 presidential election

Religion has been recognized as a significant developer of political beliefs in the lives of African Americans. Through churches, African Americans have found the necessary organizational and psychological tools that reduce the associated costs of political activities but also reinforce particular political beliefs among networks in the churches. The influences of the churches have been measured mainly through church attendance, which remains the primary metric of religious participation.;This study should help future researchers and campaign analysts understand how working with African American religious institutions can benefit the more liberal sectors of political parties. I used data from the 2004 National Politics Study in regression analysis in order to investigate the influence of church attendance on the ideologies of African American members, specifically whether attending church made an African American more or less likely to be politically liberal. My results indicated that church attendance made African Americans more likely to be of a politically liberal ideology.