The Use of Faith in Legislative Decision-Making

Abstract

In recent decades, same-sex marriage has emerged as a national political issue. As a result, state legislators have sponsored and passed statutes on an array of issues directly related to this topic. This chapter investigates how faith influences an individual legislator's political judgment in the early-stages of decision making related to sponsored bills. At this stage in the legislative process, influences are minimized. The findings indicate that even while legislator's partisanship and ideology largely structure decision-making, legislators as conservative Protestants are more likely to responds when issues involve morality.