Evangelical Protestants, Individualistic Churches, and Economic (In)-Equality in the American States

Through churches, religion shapes social values and conditions the institutional environment where all political and hence economic activity occurs. Religious groups have different ideas about the role of religion in the affairs of the broader community. In particular, churches instill in members either communitarian or individualistic values. This is the most important characteristic of religious groups that arguably helps explain the nature of the relationship between religion and material rather than moral outcomes. Moreover, in the US conservative religious groups have thrived and now dominate the religious marketplace, taking up market share that could be held by churches promoting communitarian rather than individualistic religious perspectives, which conservative religious groups tend to promote. Accordingly, the research proposed here is designed in part to examine the current relationship between the most notable among these types of religious groups, Evangelical Protestants, and economic inequality.