Not only do few studies address the issue of how religious belief relates to political ideology,

but little attempt has also been made to analyze this relationship from a comparative
perspective. Using data from the International Social Survey Program, we examine how
images of God, as measured by God's perceived level of engagement and authority, relate
to political ideology in seven Western industrial and postindustrial societies. We find that
variation in images of God has no effect on whether individuals are politically liberal or
conservative in five of seven countries. Nonetheless, beliefs about God are strongly related
to abortion and sexual morality attitudes in every country, but only sporadically related to
ideas about social and economic justice. In the end, we argue that theological beliefs tend to
be unrelated to a general measure of political ideology, not because religious beliefs are
politically unimportant in these societies, but rather because religious perspectives are rarely
fully liberal or conservative in their political orientation. In addition, we find that Americans
hold unique views of God in comparison to other countries in our sample and that the
American tendency to view God as more active and authoritative affects policy attitudes in
ways contrary to the effects of church attendance.