A different kind of evangelical : an examination of the political diversity that exists within evangelical Protestantism.

While anecdotally people understand that not all evangelicals are white, Republican, conservatives who only vote for Republicans little research has been done to support these anecdotes. In this dissertation, I analyze nationally representative samples of adults in the United States in order to: 1) describe the cross-pressures that people face when their political identity is not in line with the majority of political identities in their religious tradition; 2) examine how different groups of evangelicals, based on party identification and political ideology, report the most important problem facing the United States today; and 3) uncover diversity that exists within evangelicalism using their policy preferences (operational ideology) and not just their self-reported political ideology (symbolic ideology). The results from these analyses will allow researchers to better understand that diversity of thought exists within evangelicalism, and it will help add complexity and diversity to the study of evangelicals.