RELIGIOSITY, CHURCH SOCIAL TEACHING, AND SOCIOPOLITICAL ATTITUDES: A RESEARCH NOTE ON MARITAL HOMGAMY AS SOCIAL CONTEXT FOR U.S. CATHOLICS.

Increasingly, social scientists are paying attention to the manner in which religious values and contexts affect political behavior. This paper, based on a Catholic sample from three NORC General Social Surveys (1977, 1978, 1980) examines effects of marital context on sociopolitical attitudes that are consistent with Catholic social teachings. These data do not support the hypothesis that homogamous Catholics ` sociopolitical positions are more consistent with church teaching on justice and peace issues. Further, identification with the church, as measured in the GSS, displays an anomalous pattern between justice and peace issues. The slight tendency for heterogamous Catholics to exhibit greater consistency with church teaching on justice and peace issues was interpreted in terms of differences in learning prescriptive and proscriptive ethics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]