Chris Juszczyk Source 2

For this journal I will be researching what impact churches can have on elections.


Campbell, David E. "ACTS OF FAITH: Churches and Political Engagement." Political Behavior        26.2(2004): n. pag. Print.


Campbell identifies the counter arguments point that more time is spent in the evangelical protestant church which can equate to less time spent participating in politics. These 
Evangelical protestants will take political action when their beliefs are threatened 
though. When political debates come up about morality thats when Evangelical protestants
 have gotten involved. In addition to this these protestants tight social network
 encourages political recruitment which causes political mobilization. It is shown that 
evangelical protestants spent on average over twice the amount of time in church than mainline protestants. This promotes greater social and political connection to the church. 


This source changes my thinking in different ways. This source introduces the counter 
argument so it makes me look more at both sides of the argument. It now made me focus
more on specific dominations that have considerable more involvement in the church like
the evangelical protestants. I agree with the source in the fact that if members have
more of a social involvement in the church they could also be more influenced politically.
I disagree with the counter argument's point that more time in the church equals less
time participating in politics. I think they just participate in different ways. This 
source didn't give me an answer on how churches impact elections quanitiatively but it 
did help me to see that they do have an impact politically. I still think this source
has validity. I also didn't consider that specific dominations could have a greater 
political impact that others.


This source comes into conversation with my first source by agreeing in some areas. This
source agrees that specific dominations are influenced politically but brings into the 
argument the idea of social connections. In addition Campbell also introduces the idea
that having a greater time commitment with the churches "we see that evangelicals report contributing over twice as much time per week to their church than do mainline 
Protestants: 2.3 hours per week, compared to just over one hour for mainline 
Protestants and just under an hour for Catholics" (162). This is specifying a 
specific domination just like Djupe does "the central role of ministers in black 
churches, who hold considerable sway over their members' attitudes and activism" 
(31). I agree with them both because they give significant evidence for how 
specific dominations can impact their members politically.


I was assuming all denominations could have political impact on their members but 
that may not be the case. A new question this source had me asking is how much of 
an impact the evangelical protestants have politically. Also I wonder which
 denomination has the greatest political impact and why? I should be trying to get deeper and figure out how these political influences influence elections. This is 
where I believe I should take my research next. The answers I have so far is that
 certain denominations can have a greater impact politically than others and there are much factors that go into this influence. For example race, denomination, time spent in the church, and other social factors.