The Orthogonality of Liberalism and Conservatism Among American Evangelical Protestants

Kerlinger's (1984) criterial referents theory, which states that responses to conservative sociopolitical issues will be negatively correlated with responses to liberal issues among conservative samples, was tested. Seventy politically aware U.S. evangelicals completed an opinion survey on liberal and conservative religious and political issues. Liberal items were hypothesized to be highly correlated with the operationally defined construct of “liberalism,” conservative items were hypothesized to be highly correlated with the operationally defined construct of “conservatism,” and liberal and conservative constructs were hypothesized to be negatively correlated. A factor analysis revealed that the first and second hypotheses were supported, but the third was not. These findings raise questions regarding the common practice of placing liberalism and conservatism at opposite ends of a single continuum.