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Religion on Capitol Myths Hill & Realities

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Religion on Capitol Hill is the first in-depth presentation of the religious beliefs and values of the United States Congress. It clarifies misconceptions. It shatters time-honored as well as recently formulated myths. It explores legislative voting behavior. And it suggests that religious belief has important but complex connections to political issues. Peter Benson and Dorothy Williams find, for example, that different beliefs in “salvation” are strongly linked to how members vote on such issues as relief of hunger, international aid, and military expenditures. The authors provide often surprising answers to the question, What do we really know about the values and motivations of the people we elect to run our affairs of state? Religion on Capitol Hill is an important guide to understanding Capitol Hill legislators and the decisions that determine American domestic and foreign policy. From extensive interviews with members of the 96th Congress, Benson and Williams formulate answers to such questions as, How important is religion in the lives of congressional members? Are they more or less religious than the public? What are their ultimate values? What role does religion play in legislative decisions on civil liberties, abortion, free enterprise, hunger, and government spending? The authors identify six types of religious outlook in Congress that cut across all denominational lines, and they link each outlook to a particular voting pattern. Their findings explode myths about atheism, secular humanism, and the existence of evangelical Christians as a unified political front in Congress. At the same time, Religion on Capitol Hill identifies real connections between religious commitment and a liberal or conservative political stance. The scientifically conducted research clarifies the relationship between church and state, explaining for time how religion and politics connect on Capitol Hill. Religion on Capitol Hill is a well-researched, eye-opening, always-informative look into the minds and religious convictions of our national legislators. Benson and Williams present a more stable, more human, and in some ways more encouraging picture of Congress than the American public has ever seen before. The portrait painted here is representative of the Congress as a whole-a portrait that, probably for the first time, lets us see behind speeches and votes to the interior dynamics that shape the people who create laws by which our nation lives.

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Publisher

San Francisco : Harper & Row., 1982

Collation

Paperback, 236 hlm, 14.5x21.5 cm

Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

0-06-060780-7

Classification

NONE

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