Findings from 5,543 individuals from the General Social Survey that covered six presidential elections, from 1980 to 2000.

>white support for Republicans is influenced by religious tradition, biblical authority, social class and gender while black democratic support is homogeneous across these same factors.

Tendency of Protestants, Catholics and others to vote Republican, increases with income.

>wealthy biblical literalist Protestants vote strongly Republican, while low-income biblical literalist Protestants still favor Republicans, but much more weakly.

>biblical literalist, low-income Catholics tend to vote Democratic; and the link between wealthy Catholics and the Democratic Party is much weaker.

"We believe this reflects differing interpretations of the Bible, where lower-class Catholics, versus Protestants and upper-class Catholics, believe the Bible advocates social redistribution, and that this interpretation is associated with a preference for the Democrats," said Hirschl.

>As for gender and religious identity's influence on voter's choice, men favor the Republican Party more than women. "Women tend to want more government programs to support children, child care and social services, but this varies by biblical belief, race and social class," write the authors.

Hirschl added that resolving such social questions as poverty and childhood hunger "may require speaking across religious and secular worldviews, and then agreeing on a course of action."

Tags: race, class, gender, religion, American voters,

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