USA - Religious practices like church attendance and affiliation tend to correspond with conservative political positions, but frequent Bible reading can actually correspond with liberal ones, according to a Christianity Today analysis of the Baylor Religion Survey.
The more often someone reads the Bible on their own, the more likely they were to oppose the Patriot Act, oppose the death penalty, see science and religion as compatible and support “social justice” initiatives, the 2007 survey showed.
“Unlike some other religious practices, reading the Bible more often has some liberalizing effects—or at least makes the reader more prone to agree with liberals on certain issues,” Christianity Today said. “This is true even when accounting for factors such as political beliefs, education level, income level, gender, race, and religious measures (like which religious tradition one affiliates with, and one’s views of biblical literalism).”
The magazine reported that for each increased level of Bible-reading frequency on a five-point scale, the survey found:
13 percent decrease in support for the Patriot Act
45 percent increase in support for abolishing the death penalty
22 percent decrease in seeing religion and science as incompatible
35 percent increase in agreement that people should “actively seek social and economic justice in order to be a good person”