ABSTRACT
The socioeconomic bias in exposure to political churches further shows the variations in churches as well as the consequences in these variations. The 1984-1988 National Black Election Study was heavily utilized in previous examinations of political churches. This is a very solid data resource, having been used in several seminal studies of black political behavior. Allison Calhoun-Brown describes political churches as churches that "communicate political activity as a norm". Unfortunately, the National Black Election Study's use as a research tool on political churches is somewhat constrained in that all of the measures are directly related to elections or campaigns. Exposure to political information is controlled for because it allows for an understanding of who is more able to recognize political messages in church. The church membership literature discusses increased openness in selection as Americans have begun to shed past denominational identification, but also argues that church selection is still highly constrained.
