Religion and politics is notoriously difficult to study. A personâ??s religion can take many forms. Itâ??s what someone does; itâ??s also what a person believes; and itâ??s also the religious community the person belongs to. Sociologists often call these the three Bâ??s (belief, behavior, and belonging). Each of the â??bâ??sâ? overlap. To make matters more complicated, these aspects of belief are intertwined with demographics like race, ethnicity, geography, gender, and education.
How can we sort out what part of religion shapes politics? How do we compare people while taking into account other factors?
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