Tea Party Values
Another week, another religion survey. Last week, the Pew Forum's survey on American religious knowledge garnered widespread media coverage and discussion, primarily for its unequivocal demonstration that atheists and agnostics are generally more knowledgeable about religion than adherents. This week, to less fanfare, but perhaps more significance, the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) released its biennial American Values Survey for 2010 at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., on "Religion, Values, and the Mid-Term Elections." What made this survey particularly interesting is its special focus on the religious values of the Tea Party movement.
In their own summary of their findings, the PRRI researchers say that the survey both confirms and challenges conventional wisdom about this movement. More accurately--and more editorially--one might say that it brings the Tea Party's incoherence into greater focus. The PRRI says that it is predictable that those who identify those as Tea Party "members" (as opposed to "sympathizers") are more likely to be white (80 percent), supportive of small government, supportive of Sarah Palin, and regard Fox News as their most trusted source for news. But they are more surprised that nearly half identify themselves as religious right evangelicals, even more call themselves social conservatives, and over three-quarters are Republican sympathizers.
While we may not have had hard data on these attributes before, I doubt that many who have closely observed the Tea Party are particularly taken aback by these findings. Despite disavowals in the media, which many have taken at face value, the statistics confirm what many have suspected. In all the Tea Party gatherings I have seen here in Washington, the participants have been overwhelmingly white, though leaders within the movement have tried to downplay that or to promote the few members of color taking part. And the large number of signs and paraphernalia bearing Christian messages seen among the crowds indicated that there was indeed a considerable evangelical faction on hand.
The PRRI says that those who identify themselves as Tea Party "members" make up 11 percent of the U.S. adult population (though other surveys, using other indicators and wording, have indicated up to about 30 percent calling themselves sympathetic with the Tea Party and its aims). 43 percent hail from the South, far more than from any other region of the country, which also helps to make the other attributes understandable. There is an approximate 55-45 percent split between men and women, and half are over the age of fifty. Close to half report household incomes above the median U.S. income of $44,389.
Where the survey gets interesting, and even disturbing, is in its examination of more specific attitudes in politics and religion. Tea Partiers are more likely than any other group (55 percent) to say that America is now a Christian nation, as opposed to 42 percent of all respondents and 43 percent of White Evangelicals. Asked if they think it's a problem that some people have more of a chance in life than others, 64 percent of Tea Partiers say "No" (compared to 41 percent of all respondents. In addition, 58 percent of Tea Partiers believe that minorities get too much government attention (versus 37 percent of all respondents) and 65 percent believe that immigrants are a burden on the country (versus 48 percent of the general population).
Theologian Susan Thistlethwaite, responding to the report at the Brookings event, says that these findings indicate that Tea Party members are "more comfortable with white privilege as a value and believe that leveling the playing field for minorities is not the business of government." She also noted that such attitudes are at odds with traditional Evangelical values such as caring for the neighbor and lifting up people in need. Columnist E. J. Dionne interpreted the findings by saying the Tea Party is "the old right with a cable network, a group of talk shows, social networking, some rather wealthy donors, Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck."
Without denying the very legitimate concern about the economy that marks the Tea Party, and nearly every American these days, Thistlethwaite's comments, as well as the data itself, confirms my longstanding sense that the deeper issue behind the Tea Party gatherings is anxiety and anger over the dismantling of white male privilege. The racial, gender, regional, and even class make-up of most Tea Party members suggest that the anxiety of the economy has to do with something other than federal debts and deficits, since there aren't any serious proposals coming from within the movement as to how to reduce either. Rather, one hears complaints about programs whose object of concern are the most vulnerable in society, especially the poor, the unemployed, and the uninsured. For many, the election of Barack Obama to the presidency must look like a despised Equal Opportunity program run amok.
Of course, such attitudes toward the disadvantaged, minorities, and immgrants don't mark every member of this movement, but that the statistics lean overwhelmingly toward the majority of them cannot be dismissed lightly, and must be read through the lens of our fraught history of expanding equality and opportunity for all. The mean-spirited and offensive signs, chants, and T-shirts seen at Tea Party rallies cannot be written off a mere flukes of a fringe group within their ranks. They must be regarded as the direct products of the beliefs of the majority of the persons in this movement. And the religious commitments of most Tea Party members would also imply that they are convinced that such attitudes are blessed by and compatible with Christian faith.
This past week we also some startling and depressing new statistics on poverty in America. Here in Washington, D.C., three out of every ten children live in poverty. Worse, 43 percent of all African American children in D.C. live in poverty--up from 31 percent just two years ago, an increase of one-third. Those numbers are dire enough, but coordinated with the PRRI numbers, the upshot is this: two-thirds of Tea Party members would not consider the disadvantage that those children are facing as a result of poverty to be a problem. And nearly 60 percent would think that those 43 percent of African American children nevertheless "get too much government attention." Those young, unnamed and faceless, yet vulnerable ones give the substance to and put the real abrasion in the PRRI statistics, one that we can't ignore.
Preachers may be loath--and rightly so--to call out the Tea Party from the pulpit, even on these matters of very real Christian concern. But we certainly may call out the rising numbers in childhood poverty and ask, again and again, what our responsibility is to the least of these, both as a church and a society. The Tea Party as a movement may pass away, but these deplorable attitudes toward the most vulnerable will likely remain entrenched in our society, seeking out power and influence, whether or not they are attached to something that is garnering so much media attention. That may be the gift that the Tea Party--and PRRI's statistics about it--is giving us now: it gives us more urgency to address these very real inequalities in our midst, and to counter with the Gospel those beliefs that would say it's "not a problem."
In their own summary of their findings, the PRRI researchers say that the survey both confirms and challenges conventional wisdom about this movement. More accurately--and more editorially--one might say that it brings the Tea Party's incoherence into greater focus. The PRRI says that it is predictable that those who identify those as Tea Party "members" (as opposed to "sympathizers") are more likely to be white (80 percent), supportive of small government, supportive of Sarah Palin, and regard Fox News as their most trusted source for news. But they are more surprised that nearly half identify themselves as religious right evangelicals, even more call themselves social conservatives, and over three-quarters are Republican sympathizers.
While we may not have had hard data on these attributes before, I doubt that many who have closely observed the Tea Party are particularly taken aback by these findings. Despite disavowals in the media, which many have taken at face value, the statistics confirm what many have suspected. In all the Tea Party gatherings I have seen here in Washington, the participants have been overwhelmingly white, though leaders within the movement have tried to downplay that or to promote the few members of color taking part. And the large number of signs and paraphernalia bearing Christian messages seen among the crowds indicated that there was indeed a considerable evangelical faction on hand.
The PRRI says that those who identify themselves as Tea Party "members" make up 11 percent of the U.S. adult population (though other surveys, using other indicators and wording, have indicated up to about 30 percent calling themselves sympathetic with the Tea Party and its aims). 43 percent hail from the South, far more than from any other region of the country, which also helps to make the other attributes understandable. There is an approximate 55-45 percent split between men and women, and half are over the age of fifty. Close to half report household incomes above the median U.S. income of $44,389.
Where the survey gets interesting, and even disturbing, is in its examination of more specific attitudes in politics and religion. Tea Partiers are more likely than any other group (55 percent) to say that America is now a Christian nation, as opposed to 42 percent of all respondents and 43 percent of White Evangelicals. Asked if they think it's a problem that some people have more of a chance in life than others, 64 percent of Tea Partiers say "No" (compared to 41 percent of all respondents. In addition, 58 percent of Tea Partiers believe that minorities get too much government attention (versus 37 percent of all respondents) and 65 percent believe that immigrants are a burden on the country (versus 48 percent of the general population).
Theologian Susan Thistlethwaite, responding to the report at the Brookings event, says that these findings indicate that Tea Party members are "more comfortable with white privilege as a value and believe that leveling the playing field for minorities is not the business of government." She also noted that such attitudes are at odds with traditional Evangelical values such as caring for the neighbor and lifting up people in need. Columnist E. J. Dionne interpreted the findings by saying the Tea Party is "the old right with a cable network, a group of talk shows, social networking, some rather wealthy donors, Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck."
Without denying the very legitimate concern about the economy that marks the Tea Party, and nearly every American these days, Thistlethwaite's comments, as well as the data itself, confirms my longstanding sense that the deeper issue behind the Tea Party gatherings is anxiety and anger over the dismantling of white male privilege. The racial, gender, regional, and even class make-up of most Tea Party members suggest that the anxiety of the economy has to do with something other than federal debts and deficits, since there aren't any serious proposals coming from within the movement as to how to reduce either. Rather, one hears complaints about programs whose object of concern are the most vulnerable in society, especially the poor, the unemployed, and the uninsured. For many, the election of Barack Obama to the presidency must look like a despised Equal Opportunity program run amok.
Of course, such attitudes toward the disadvantaged, minorities, and immgrants don't mark every member of this movement, but that the statistics lean overwhelmingly toward the majority of them cannot be dismissed lightly, and must be read through the lens of our fraught history of expanding equality and opportunity for all. The mean-spirited and offensive signs, chants, and T-shirts seen at Tea Party rallies cannot be written off a mere flukes of a fringe group within their ranks. They must be regarded as the direct products of the beliefs of the majority of the persons in this movement. And the religious commitments of most Tea Party members would also imply that they are convinced that such attitudes are blessed by and compatible with Christian faith.
This past week we also some startling and depressing new statistics on poverty in America. Here in Washington, D.C., three out of every ten children live in poverty. Worse, 43 percent of all African American children in D.C. live in poverty--up from 31 percent just two years ago, an increase of one-third. Those numbers are dire enough, but coordinated with the PRRI numbers, the upshot is this: two-thirds of Tea Party members would not consider the disadvantage that those children are facing as a result of poverty to be a problem. And nearly 60 percent would think that those 43 percent of African American children nevertheless "get too much government attention." Those young, unnamed and faceless, yet vulnerable ones give the substance to and put the real abrasion in the PRRI statistics, one that we can't ignore.
Preachers may be loath--and rightly so--to call out the Tea Party from the pulpit, even on these matters of very real Christian concern. But we certainly may call out the rising numbers in childhood poverty and ask, again and again, what our responsibility is to the least of these, both as a church and a society. The Tea Party as a movement may pass away, but these deplorable attitudes toward the most vulnerable will likely remain entrenched in our society, seeking out power and influence, whether or not they are attached to something that is garnering so much media attention. That may be the gift that the Tea Party--and PRRI's statistics about it--is giving us now: it gives us more urgency to address these very real inequalities in our midst, and to counter with the Gospel those beliefs that would say it's "not a problem."
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