In From Pews to Politics: Religious Sermons and Political Participation in Africa, Gwyneth H. McClendon and Rachel Beatty Riedl investigate how religious teachings communicated through sermons influence individuals’ decision to participate in politics. The diversity of the Christian denominations in sub-Saharan Africa where religion remains a vital aspect of social life provides an ideal context to study the implications of sermon content on political participation. The authors employ an integrative, multi-method approach that allows them to build a persuasive argument throughout the book. In doing so, the authors not only illuminate how religious messaging shapes political behavior in the African context, but they suggest multiple correctives to theoretical assumptions that likely have implications far beyond the continent.
Some recent studies in the field of religion and politics have questioned religious leadership's ability to directly influence what congregants think and do. These works have argued that the effect of religious messages on political attitudes and behavior is conditional on social network effects, i.e., how these messages are discussed within the smaller groups in the congregation. To the contrary, McClendon and Riedl convincingly argue that the effect of religious leadership on political behavior could be direct. In addition, the messages of the clergy need not be explicitly political to influence political action. In fact, the main argument of the book is that religious answers to metaphysical questions delivered in the sermons influence political behavior.
These answers show distinct denominational differences. Pentecostal religious messages attribute problems to individual responsibility and lack of faith and increase political participation by inducing political efficacy and empowerment compared to mainline Protestant and Catholic messages, which attribute the problems of the world to institutional or structural inequalities.
In addition, most studies in the field suggest that the effect of religious social gatherings on political participation works through increasing civic skills or political information, or strengthening group identity and consciousness. McClendon and Riedl emphasize the critical role of religious ideas communicated during these social gatherings. Importantly, the authors also show that the effect of religious teachings is prone to decay throughout the week. Using evidence from surveys and focus groups, they demonstrate that the messages are salient and their effects on relevant attitudes and behaviors are stronger after the sermon and the day following it compared to the other days of the week. Such evidence challenges the conventional view that religious beliefs and teachings exert a constant and enduring influence on political attitudes. It also points to the need to consider contextual influences when studying the effects of religious beliefs and behavior on political action and mobilization.
The authors build these arguments gradually throughout the book and support them with rich empirical data. Chapter 2 describes the demographic characteristics of the congregants of the denominations under consideration. It shows that there are no clear demographic characteristics that distinguish followers of one denomination from the others. This suggests that the differences in political participation patterns between the members of these denominations cannot be attributed to differences in demographic factors alone. In Chapter 3, the authors provide compelling evidence about the differences in sermon content of these denominations using computer-assisted text analysis of sermon content, supplemented by focus group studies. The analysis shows that mainline Protestant and Catholic sermons clearly differ from the Pentecostal sermons in their focus on institutional and structural unfairness as obstacles to wealth. On the other hand, Pentecostal sermons attribute the source of problems to the individual and highlight the possibility of change through human agency.
Chapter 4 tests the effects of differences in sermon content on political participation using innovative laboratory experiments. Random assignment of participants into sermon content in the lab setting allows the authors to observe the effects of sermons on all individuals, regardless of whether they self-select into a specific sermon content or not. They find that exposure to Pentecostal message increases likelihood of political participation among members of all religious denominations compared to exposure to mainline Protestant and Catholic messages. Additional experiments show that the effect of the Pentecostal message occurs through increasing political efficacy, hope, and self-confidence. Members of all religious traditions are affected by the message, meaning that the empowering effects of Pentecostal messages are effective for all listeners. Still, the effects are stronger among those who identify as Pentecostal, suggesting that sermons strongly influence those who hear them regularly (p. 135). Chapter 5 discusses the activation model of sermon influence with data from focus groups and surveys. McClendon and Riedl show that the effects of sermons on political attitudes and behavior are strongest right after the sermon (Sundays and Mondays) and decay over the week. This indicates that religious teachings do not exert a constant effect on beliefs and behaviors but need to be constantly primed or activated, even in highly religious settings such as sub-Saharan Africa.
Finally, Chapter 6 moves from individual to group level analysis and discusses how religious groups engage in politics. The chapter presents historical and contemporary evidence from Zambia, Uganda, and Kenya. These countries differ in their levels of democracy and religion-state arrangements and have varied levels of hierarchy in religious organizations. Yet, despite these differences, in all cases, Pentecostal groups act as empowered players, focusing on change through leadership and personnel change while Catholics and mainline Protestants focus on institutional change and prefer to address structural causes of poverty and underdevelopment. The differences in religious groups’ approach to political change are in line with the metaphysical teachings communicated in sermons identified in Chapter 3.
The book thus provides a highly impressive account of the role religious teachings play in influencing political participation. The authors are very explicit about the limitations of the question under consideration (i.e., they do not consider what influences sermon content) and careful in their discussion and evaluation of the empirical evidence. McClendon and Riedl also provide excellent discussion of the implications of their findings and their relevance for the broader literature.
The book should therefore be of interest to religion and politics scholars as well researchers of African politics, as it convincingly shows the influence of religious teachings on political life in sub-Saharan Africa.
