Why doesn't Canada have an American-style Christian Right? A Comparative Framework for Analyzing the Political Effects of Evangelical Subcultural Identity
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29173/cjs570Keywords:
Religion and Politics, Evangelicals, Conservative Protestants, Canada and the United StatesAbstract
Political commentators have asked if Canada could see the rise of an American-style “Culture War,” where evangelical Protestants are rallied by moral issues to support the Conservative party. This paper argues that even though Canadian evangelicals are just as morally conservative as American evangelicals, they work from very different understandings about the relationship between religious morality and national identity. We predict that rank-and-file Canadian evangelicals will be less responsive to political mobilization around moral issues because they construct their subcultural identity differently than American evangelicals. This paper uses a multimethod strategy to analyze the political impact of evangelical subcultural identity, a cultural mechanism that mediates the political effects of moral attitudes. We illustrate this multidimensional concept of subcultural identity through survey data, in-depth interviews, and comparative-historical data. This comparative framework for studying subcultural identity helps explain why the content of evangelical Protestant morality becomes linked to political behaviour in some national contexts and historical periods but not others. Résumé. Les commentateurs politiques se sont demandé si le canada pouvait voir l’émergence d’une « Guerre culturelle » de type américain, qui verrait les Protestants évangéliques soutenir le parti conservateur sur la base de questions morales. Dans cet article, nous soutenons que bien que les évangéliques canadiens soient tout aussi conservateur sur le plan moral que les évangéliques américains, ils comprennent de façon très différente la relation entre morale religieuse et identité nationale. Nous prédisons que la base des évangéliques canadiens est peu susceptible de répondre à une mobilisation politique sur des questions morales, parce que son identité sous-culturelle est construite différemment de celle des évangéliques américains. Cet article mets en œuvre des méthodes croisées pour analyser l’impact politique de la sous culture évangélique, comprise comme un mécanisme culturel qui influence l’effet politique de dispositions morales. Nous illustrons le concept multidimensionnel d’identité sous-culturelle en mobilisant des données quantitatives, des entretiens approfondis, et des données historiques comparatives. Une utilisation comparative du cadre de l’identité sous culturelle permet d’expliquer pourquoi le contenu de la morale évangélique protestante n’affecte les comportements politiques que dans certains contextes nationaux et périodes historiques.Downloads
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Canadian Journal of Sociology | ISSN 1710-1123