The Catholic "Consistent Life Ethic" and Attitudes Toward Capital Punishment and Welfare Reform

Sociology of Religion, Fall, 2001 by Paul Perl, Jamie S. McClintock

Paul Perl [*]

American Catholic Bishops have advocated a combination of issue positions that is unique within American political culture. The "consistent life ethic" combines opposition to abortion with liberal stances on other issues conceptualized as life-affirming. Based on evidence that very few people hold this combination of attitudes, previous researchers have concluded that the Bishops' advocacy has had little or no success (Kenski and Lockwood 1988; Cleghom 1986; Jelen 1990). We argue, however, that success of consistent life advocacy is best evaluated in terms of the strength of association between attitudes toward abortion and other issues. Furthermore, most previous research has failed to analyze Catholics separately from other Americans, even though lay Catholics are the advocacy's central target. Using data from the 1996 National Election Studies, we analyze the relationship between attitudes on abortion and two other issues: capital punishment and welfare reform. We find that abortion op position strongly pr edicts capital punishment opposition among Cathalics, but also among Mainline Protestants. Among Catholics, this relationship is strongest for frequent Mass attendees. Abortion opposition among frequently-attending Catholics also predicts opposition to the welfare "child cap." Contrary to most other scholars, but in accord with Kelly and Kudlac (2000), we conclude it is likely that consistent life advocacy has affected attitudes of some Cathalics.

INTRODUCTION

In recent years, scholars of religion and politics have been interested in the extent to which religious leaders are able to influence the political attitudes of their flocks (e.g., Mobley 1984; Tamney, Burton and Johnson 1988; Wilcox 1989, 1992; Jelen and Wilcox 1993; Welch, Leege, Wald and Kellstedt 1993; Huckfeldt and Sprague 1995; Jelen and Chandler 1996; Robinson and Goren 1997). In this paper, we investigate a very specific case of political advocacy by religious leaders: the promotion by Catholic Bishops of the "consistent life ethic." This ideology integrates a pro-life stance on abortion with positions on other sociopolitical issues that are also conceptualized by the Bishops as life-affirming. Because it combines a "conservative" position on abortion with "liberal" positions on many other policy areas, the ethic lies almost completely outside the realm of mainstream political culture and is rejected by most elites of both the right and left. This unusual characteristic creates a unique advantage for examining the ability of religious leaders to form the political worldview of their followers. If lay Catholics could be shown to accept the principles of the consistent life ethic, it might be difficult to attribute such acceptance to forces at work in the general culture -- that is, to factors other than the Bishops' advocacy itself.

Most previous researchers (Cleghorn 1986; Kenski and Lockwood 1988; Jelen 1990; but cf., Kelly and Kudlac 2000) conclude that consistent life advocacy by the Catholic Bishops has been a failure, noting that there is little public support for the combination of principles they have preached. We argue, however, that most existing research is methodologically deficient. In particular, most research has examined the attitudes of the American public as a monolith. We believe this approach is inadequate. The Bishops' advocacy, while taking place in the context of national debate over the abortion issue, is more likely to influence Catholics -- and frequently attending Catholics in particular -- than other members of the general public. Furthermore, relatively few prior studies have measured the strength of association between abortion attitudes and attitudes on other "life" issues. Before judging whether consistent life advocacy has been successful, it is necessary to examine whether Catholics are more likely than others to display attitudinal "consistency" on abortion and additional issues.

Using data from the 1996 National Election Studies, we examine attitudes on abortion and two other issues that have recently been prominent in the Bishops' consistent life advocacy: capital punishment and welfare reform. Analyses are conducted separately for three denominational groupings: Catholics, Mainline Protestants, and Evangelical Protestants. Our results confirm recent findings by Kelly and Kudlac (2000) that among Catholics, pro-life attitudes on abortion correspond to death penalty opposition. However, we are surprised to discover a similar relationship among Mainline Protestants. We also find that among frequently attending Catholics, pro-life attitudes on abortion predict opposition to a welfare "child cap," net of political ideology. This relationship is unique to Catholics. Contrary to the judgements of most other scholars, but in accord with Kelly and Kudlac (2000), we feel it is likely that consistent life advocacy by the Catholic Bishops has successfully influenced the attitudes of some lay Catholics.

THE CONSISTENT LIFE ETHIC