Faith, Race, and Immigration: Assessing the Effect of Religiosity on Racial Beliefs and Attitudes

Abstract How much, if at all, does religiosity influences racist and xenophobic beliefs? Evangelical support for bigoted and xenophobic policies is not a new phenomenon. Yet, despite the abundant scholarship on religiosity and race, we know little about the mechanisms through which scholars posit we are observing these negative outcomes. Namely, does religiosity affect support for bigoted and xenophobic attitudes? Alternatively, are demographics and belief systems more important predictors of bigoted and xenophobic attitudes? This paper is not an assessment of if religion affects politics or if politics affects religion. My contributions to the literature on race and politics include finding that religiosity has significant direct and indirect effects on attitudes toward racial minorities. I find that 10% of the negative effect on attitudes toward African Americans and 30% of the negative effect on attitudes toward Hispanics, immigrants, and the undocumented is an indirect effect of religiosity mediated through demographics and belief systems.