The Moral Minority: Evangelical Protestants in Northern Ireland and Their Political Behaviour
| Author | Claire Mitchell,James R. Tilley |
| Published date | 01 October 2004 |
| Date | 01 October 2004 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2004.00497.x |
| Subject Matter | Article |
The Moral Minority: Evangelical
Protestants in Northern Ireland and
Their Political Behaviour
Claire Mitchell
Queen’s University Belfast
James R. Tilley
Nuffield College, University of Oxford
It has long been asserted that strong evangelical religious beliefs underpin strong unionist and
loyalist political attitudes in Northern Ireland. Although recent literature has argued for a wide
diversity of political attitudes amongst evangelicals, this has not been quantified. Based on analy-
sis of the 1991 Northern Irish Social Attitudes Survey and the 1998 Northern Ireland Life and
Times Survey, this article argues that evangelicals are attitudinally different to other Protestants
in Northern Ireland. However, their distinctiveness arises from their conservative moral attitudes
and not, as widely claimed, from stronger unionist political values. Indeed, in terms of party iden-
tification, in 1991 evangelicals were less likely than other Protestants to support the Democratic
Unionist Party (DUP). And although there has been a small shift towards the DUP over the course
of the 1990s, it is not due to any strengthening of the unionism of evangelicals, but rather
the increasing importance of moral conservatism in predicting voters’ party choice in Northern
Ireland.
There is currently much debate about the political attitudes of evangelical Protes-
tants in Northern Ireland. Until recently, the dominant assumption has been that
strong evangelical religious beliefs are closely allied with strong unionist and loyal-
ist political attitudes.1In response to this, a growing literature has begun to under-
line the wide spectrum of exclusive to inclusive political (and often apolitical)
positions amongst evangelical Protestants.2
Evangelical protagonists on each side seek to claim that their orientation to
politics is the most prevalent trend and growing most quickly in strength. An
academic verdict on this, or weighing of these positions, has not yet been offered.
The purpose of this article, therefore, is to establish to what extent evangelical
Protestants in Northern Ireland comprise a distinct group, in so far as they
differ from other Protestants in their attitudes and, in particular, their party
identification.
To this end, we ask whether evangelicals have a particular set of political attitudes
and party preferences and whether these are constant over a time of political
upheaval in Northern Ireland, 1991–1998. We begin by comparing the social
demographics of evangelicals to non-evangelical Protestants. We find these groups
to be similar and evangelicals to be, if anything, slightly better educated than
POLITICAL STUDIES: 2004 VOL 52, 585–602
© Political Studies Association, 2004.
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586 CLAIRE MITCHELL AND JAMES R. TILLEY
non-evangelical Protestants, contradicting findings of lower evangelical educational
attainment in the US. Second, we examine whether evangelicals are stronger
unionists than non-evangelical Protestants and whether they are more likely to
support the hardline Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). In fact, we find that the
distinctiveness of evangelicals arises not from their unionism, but mainly from their
conservative moral attitudes. Moreover, in 1991, evangelicals were not more but
less likely to express a preference for the DUP than other Protestants. This situa-
tion appears to be in flux, however, for there has been an increase of importance
between 1991 and 1998 of a moral conservatism–liberalism dimension as a source
of party choice in Northern Ireland. The most morally conservative Protestants are
now more likely to vote for the DUP in preference to the Ulster Unionist Party
(UUP), and this appears to have increased evangelical support for the DUP over
the 1990s.
Evangelicalism in Northern Ireland
Evangelicalism is a broad umbrella movement comprising a variety of conservative
to liberal theologies. However, it comprises several core tenets – which Johnston
calls a ‘triad of beliefs and practices’ (2000, p. 219). These are a belief in author-
ity of scripture, the need for personal conversion and the necessity of evangelism
or, at least, the active practice of their beliefs (see also Thomson, 1998; Jordan,
2001). Outside these, there is a variation of theological positions – for example, in
attitudes to ecumenism, predestination, the role of the Holy Spirit and the appro-
priate relationship to the state. Evangelicals are also found in a broad range of
denominations, from smaller Baptist and Brethren to mainstream Anglican,
Presbyterian and Methodist churches (Johnston, 2000, p. 218; Boal et al., 1997).
However, despite this diversity, it is strong oppositional Protestant evangelicalism
that has received the lion’s share of academic analysis and media attention in
Northern Ireland.
Indeed, the connections between evangelical Protestantism in Northern Ireland
and a strong unionist or loyalist political position are well documented. In Rose’s
words (1971), this group are the Protestant ‘ultras’. For Todd (1987), religious fun-
damentalism is a key ideological underpinning of what she calls ‘Ulster loyalism’
– the most inward-looking and oppositional strain of Protestant politics. Bruce
(1994) makes a similar point when he argues that evangelicals and gunmen re-
present the strongest contingent of Ulster loyalists, the integrity of whose convic-
tions can be relied upon in times of crisis by less politicised, and less religious,
members of the Protestant community. The specific interrelations of Protestant the-
ology and unionist politics are well established in literature and do not need much
rehearsal here. It is frequently argued that Ulster Protestants regard themselves as
a ‘chosen people’, similar to the Israelites in the Old Testament, who have been
given Ulster by God as their promised land (Akenson, 1992). This combines with
anti-Catholicism (Brewer, 1998), an antipathy to Catholic teachings and institu-
tions, to create strong opposition to what is perceived to be a ‘priest-ridden’ Irish
state. This is not to say that evangelical Protestants have been the foot soldiers of
loyalist paramilitary organisations. As Bruce (2001) quite rightly points out, most
evangelicals are peaceful and law-abiding. However, the issue is not so much one
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