Chris Juszczyk Source 1

The small question I'll be looking at in this journal entry is what kind of impact do churches have politically? My thesis question is asking what the role of church in terms of contemporary American politics?

Djupe, Paul A., and Christopher P. Gilbert. The Political Influence of Churches. Cambridge:    Cambridge UP, 2009. Print.

Djupe is saying that black ministers have quite a bit of influence over how the church 
goers view politics and how active they are in politics specifically elections. When 
members of the church were asked if the ministers have great political influence over 
there congregations, more than half of the people agreed that the minister has this 
strong influence. There is still debate over other how are religions other than protestant 
in christianity are politically affected. The highest of those polled, are black 
protestants, with almost 95% strongly agreeing that the minister has a impact on their
political choices. It seems to do largely with the relationship between the members in the
church and the minister. 

This source got me thinking about the types of churches that have members affected the 
most. I was assuming that catholics were influenced the most politically, but this source 
makes me see that political influence is stronger within black protestant churches.
Maybe I should think about shaping my thesis to include specifically black protestants.
I agree with most of what this source says mainly because I didn't have any idea which
churches affected political views of its members. The source did a pretty extensive poll
in many churches and areas so their argument is backed up well. The source didn't actually
answer my research question completely. This source told me more about who was effected 
rather than how it actually affected things politically. I still think this source has 
good validity and it helped me look at who was affected politically.

This source has led me to ask how the ministers in black protestant churches affect 
elections if so many of their members believe they are affected politically. It also makes
me wonder how they can be this politically influential as a tax-exempt organization. 
Shouldn't there be consequences for potentially altering the outcome of an election?
These seem to be the right questions to be asking because they're critical and it allows  me to dig deeper into the issue. Next my research should look at the impact these political
influence have on elections or other political events. So far I've been able to answer if the church has a role in contemporary American politics at all. Also I've learned which 
types of churches are affected the most.