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Barack Obama, Clerical Politics SHADOWS OF THE CROSS: BARACK OBAMA, CLERICAL POLITICS, AND GAY RIGHTS COMPARTMENTALIZATION IN THE BLACK CHURCH By THOMAS JAMES O’TOOLE A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Government Cornell University February 2016 © 2016 Thomas James O’Toole ii SHADOWS OF THE CROSS: BARACK OBAMA, CLERICAL POLITICS, AND GAY RIGHTS COMPARTMENTALIZATION IN THE BLACK CHURCH Thomas James O’Toole, Ph.D. Cornell University 2016 This dissertation evaluates the political decision-making process of black clergy around President Obama’s gay rights agenda. Specifically, I use quantitative and qualitative techniques to determine how clergy shaped their public discourse in response to the liberalization of Obama’s beliefs on gay rights throughout his presidency. My analysis finds that a range of cues, including sociodemographic, ideological, and contextual factors, drives the decision of clergy to speak out for or against Obama on gay rights. Furthermore, I find that clergy rely on compartmentalization and issue pivoting in order to balance overall support for Obama with repudiation of his gay rights agenda. Finally, I find that, contrary to conventional thinking on attitudes toward social regulatory issues, clergy exhibit a continuum of mainstream and radical beliefs on gay rights. These findings collectively suggest that the popular narrative of homophobia among black church leadership should be revised in favor of less monolithic treatments. iii BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Thomas O'Toole was born in upstate New York and was raised a devout Catholic, which sparked his interest in the intersection of politics and religion. Thomas currently serves as Executive Director of the Cornell Institute for Public Affairs (CIPA), Cornell University’s Master of Public Administration (MPA) program. He pursued his PhD. through the Cornell Department of Government while working full-time as an administrator at CIPA. As part of his responsibilities at CIPA, Thomas designs, implements and evaluates all student professional development activities related to the graduate field of public affairs at Cornell, including maintaining institutional relationships with organizations in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors and facilitating job and internship placements for CIPA students. He teaches CIPA's core course on "Issues in Public Administration," a seminar on “Comparative Public Administration,” and has collaborated on projects and educational programming with the White House, the United Nations Division of Public Administration and Development Management, the United Nations World Food Programme, and the International Food Policy Research Institute. He has also taught introductory courses on American Government and Politics for the State University of New York (SUNY) at Cortland. Thomas earned his Bachelor of Arts (BA) in International Relations at Bucknell University (magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, departmental honors), his Master of Public Administration (MPA) and Master of Arts (MA) in Government from Cornell University, and his teaching and research interests include public administration, religion and politics, civil rights and liberties, and civic engagement. He lives in Ithaca, New York with his wife of fourteen years and their three amazing children. iv DEDICATION For Jen, who constantly reminds me to shine light upon the shadows of this world, and for my parents, who, together, have walked a million miles. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation was written under the guidance of several very patient mentors. Foremost, my Chair, Dr. Michael Jones-Correa, stuck with me throughout this entire project, and, though quite a long journey (my fault entirely) it was an extraordinarily valuable and rewarding experience working with him. I would also like to thank other members of my dissertation committee, Dr. Suzanne Mettler, whose work on policy feedback dynamics has presented me with a number of interesting prospects for future research, and Dr. Jamila Michener, who was kind enough to join my committee late in the game, and whose perspectives on race and public policy were invaluable. I am very grateful to Dr. Theodore Lowi, a longstanding mentor of mine who was integral in drawing me to the field of American Studies, as well as shaping the early stages of research and writing for this dissertation, and Dr. Elizabeth Sanders, who served as a fourth reader for my dissertation defense. As an Employee Degree Program (EDP) student, I also have to thank all of the faculty, staff, students, and alumni of the Cornell Institute for Public Affairs (CIPA) for their patience and encouragement as I completed this project. In particular, I have had the good fortune of working with three outstanding CIPA Directors—David Lewis, Norman Uphoff, and Sharon Tennyson, who were not only generous in providing me with the time and space necessary to finish, but who also provided me with insight from their own fields to inform my research. In terms of data collection and analysis, Dr. Kenneth Clarke, head of Cornell United Religious Works, was very generous with his time and insight as I developed my survey instrument and interview script. Cornell’s Survey Research Institute, and the Cornell Statistical Consulting Unit, especially Francoise Vermeylen, provided invaluable support as I developed my statistical analyses (this statistics novice could not have made it through without you). Vestiges of learning vi from scores of mentors throughout my undergraduate and graduate studies can be gleaned in this dissertation; Dr. Hilbourne Watson, my undergraduate thesis advisor, who was pivotal in refining my writing for academic audiences; Dr. Richard Peterec, my undergraduate advisor, who (correctly) steered me away from a career in law and toward a career in academia; and many others, including Dr. Thom Travis, Dr. Emek Ucarer, Dr. Loren Ryter, Dr. Burke Hendrix, and Dr. Robert Harris. None of this would have been possible without the support of my wife Jennifer, and our three children, Elsbeth, Kyra, and Henry. I have spent far too many beautiful, sunny days cloistered in my office working on this project rather than spending time with my family, and I hope they will forgive me for the sacrifices I asked them to make. Finally, I would like to thank my parents for their constant encouragement; I have had the great fortune of meeting many, many extraordinary people in my life—from a pope, to several presidents, to some of the most distinguished scholars in the world; through it all, my parents remain the smartest and strongest people I know, and I love them for it. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 1.1: Research Question 1 1.2: Theoretical Contributions 6 1.3: Chapter Outline 19 CHAPTER 2: THE BLACK CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES 21 2.1: The Black Church 21 2.2: The Historical Black Church 25 2.3: Social Gospel and the Civil Rights Era 32 2.4: The Black Church in Flux 37 2.5: Resurgence: 1990-Present 40 2.6: The Role of Clergy in Shaping Political Activism in the Black Church 43 2.7: The Narrative of Homophobia in the Black Church 47 CHAPTER 3: THE BLACK CHURCH AND THE MODERN PRESIDENCY 56 3.1: The Black Church: From Clinton Through Obama 56 3.2: The “Obama Effect” on Black Clergy 72 CHAPTER 4: ANALYSIS OF BLACK CLERGY SPEECH ON GAY RIGHTS 80 4.1: Overview: Assessing the “Better Safe Than Sorry” Strategy 80 4.2: Survey Design and Hypotheses 84 4.3: Survey Response Profile and General Descriptive Findings 92 4.4: Descriptive Statistics, Sociodemographic Factors 95 4.5: Descriptive Statistics, Contextual Risk Factors 99 4.6: Descriptive Statistics, Clergy Political Behavior and Attitudes 103 4.7: Bivariate and Multivariate Analysis 109 4.8: Multivariate Descriptive Statistics 115 4.9: Summary of Findings and Discussion 121 CHAPTER 5: SHADOWS OF THE CROSS 125 5.1: Role of Education and Gender in Support for Obama’s Gay Rights Agenda 125 5.2: Implications of the Expanding Role of Women in the Black Church 131 5.3: Questioning Post-Denominationalism in the Black Church 133 5.4: Open-Ended Response Data 134 5.5: The Pivot from Gay Rights Discourse 146 5.6: Summary 156 CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION 158 6.1: Summary of Findings and Project Limitations 158 6.2: The Evangelical Divide in the Black Church 161 6.3: Implications and Directions for Future Research 168 APPENDIX A: SENIOR CLERGY SURVEY OF RELIGION AND POLITICS 177 APPENDIX B: CODEBOOK 183 viii TABLE OF CONTENTS (CONT.) APPENDIX C: STATISTICAL ANALYSES 209 APPENDIX D: INTERVIEW SCRIPT 278 REFERENCES 280 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1: Religiosity of Blacks and US Population as a Whole Figure 1.2: Calfano’s Model of Clergy Decision-Making Figure 3.1: Changing Attitudes on Gay Marriage: 2001-2012 Figure 4.1: Percentage of Survey Respondents by Denomination Figure 4.2: Intensity of Preaching on Obama’s Gay Rights Agenda Figure 4.3: Mean Intensity Score by Denomination Figure 4.4: Mean Intensity Score by Education Level Figure 4.5: Mean Intensity Score by Whether Pastor Receives a Salary Figure 4.6: Mean Intensity Score by Perception of Congregation Opposition to Obama Figure 4.7: Mean Intensity Score by Perception of Congregation Opposition to Obama’s Gay Rights Agenda Figure 4.8: Mean Intensity Score by Perception of Congregation Opposition to Obama’s Gay Rights Agenda Figure 4.9: Mean Intensity Score by Concern for Loss of Credibility Figure 4.10: Mean Intensity Score by Perception of Obama’s Authenticity as a Christian Figure 4.11: Mean
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