ABSTRACT
Individual affiliation with a religious group or organization is central to a full understanding of the effects of religion on politics. Indeed, the usual first step in describing a person's religion is ascertaining his or her denominational preference, be it membership in a specific denomination, affiliation with a local congregation, association with a broad religious grouping, or no preference at all. Although scholars have routinely recognized gross denominational divisions in survey research, it has never been clear whether such measures refer to ethnic histories, doctrinal beliefs, social status, or social group attachments, and such measures have often been characterized by imprecision and social desirability effects as well. Indeed, political scientists have tolerated undesirable measurement properties in religious denomination because it was a standard face-sheet item inherited from the early days of opinion research, and many scholars were unconvinced that it mattered in any event. Recent theoretical and empirical work, however, has improved our understanding of denominational preference and suggests that "knowing God's many people" is valuable in analyzing political attitudes and behavior.
