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

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

Nearly all previous studies specifically examining links between abortion attitudes and opinions on welfare and capital punishment fall into this second category of research. Cleghorn (1985), the only researcher to explore the association between abortion and welfare attitudes, found no significant relationship between the two. Similarly most studies have found no relationship (Granberg 1978; Granberg and Granberg 1981; Cleghorn 1986; Jordan 1995), or only a slight relationship (Sawyer 1982), between abortion and death penalty attitudes. Again, however, these studies have focused on attitudes of the public as a monolith. We are aware of just one study has that analyzed the association between death penalty and abortion attitudes and has done so while separating Catholics from other groups. Recently, Kelly and Kudlac (2000) have reported an association between pro-life abortion and anti-death penalty attitudes among Catholics, an association that has grown since the 1980s. These researchers conclude that consi stent life advocacy may be having success in the case of the death penalty. In the empirical analyses that follow, we attempt to confirm the Kelly and Kudlac findings. And we go beyond existing research by examining whether there is an association between Catholics' abortion and welfare reform attitudes.

In summary, research on the consistent life ethic can be methodologically improved in two ways. First, it is necessary to determine whether the association between abortion and other attitudes is different for Catholics than it is for other members of the public. The existing literature offers hints that this approach could be fruitful. For example, the findings of Finlay (1985) and Jelen (1990:123) indicate that Catholic consistency on abortion, euthanasia, and suicide is high in comparison to other religious groups. Neither Finlay nor Jelen commented on these findings. Nonetheless, such distinctive consistency among Catholics' attitudes is a pattern that can be expected if their opinions have been affected by Catholic leaders rather than external social influences that affect all members of the public. Second, research can be improved by recognizing that, even among Catholics, the Bishops' advocacy is not likely to have the same influence on all people. We suspect that it is most likely to be accepted by Ca tholics who are frequent Mass attendees. The primary reason is that attending Catholics are simply more likely to be exposed to official Church teachings through sermons and interaction with other parishioners and therefore to become aware of the consistent life ethic in the first place. Attendance may also be a partial reflection of attachment to the Church or the salience of Catholicism in people's lives and therefore reflect willingness to consider the Church's political teachings. Thus, in some analyses, we examine the attitudes of frequently-attending Catholics separately from other Catholics.

DATA

Data Set and Subsample

Our data come from the post-election portion of the 1996 National Election Studies [NES] (Rosenstone, Kinder and Miller 1998). [3] These data are especially useful for our purposes because they contain two measures of attitudes toward welfare reform, including a question about the welfare "child cap." Moreover, the 1996 NES took place-in the midst of national debate over welfare reform, when it was likely to be a salient issue in the mind of the public.