The process of becoming a born-again Christian is one that has intrigued social scientists for decades but has never been studied in a large-scale way, using panel data. While sociologists have tried to conceptualize and operationalize how one converts to a new religious experience, many political scientists have used “having a born-again experience” as a way to classify evangelical Protestants. While there is a great deal of scholarship devoted to understanding how born-again Christians navigate the social and political world, the direct impact of adopting a born-again status has eluded scholars. Using panel surveys from three different polling organizations, this work analyzes how those who convert and de-convert to born-again Christianity change their political and religious behaviors in after the switch. Analysis indicates that conversion and deconversion is not uncommon among the population, occurring in approximately 1 in 10 survey respondents. Results indicate that women, younger Americans, and those with less educations are more likely to change their conversion status. Of those who do make a switch, few significantly change their partisanship, while shifts in church attendance are more common and this is confirmed through statistical modeling. These findings fill a gap in scholars’ previous understanding of the changes in behavior and political orientation following a shift in born-again status—something that was only studied at the aggregate level in prior work. This research offers an additional angle for scholars who are seeking to understand the caused by religious switching in the United States.

中文翻译：

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重生是一种变革性的体验吗？三组面板数据的结果

几十年来，成为重生基督徒的过程一直吸引着社会科学家，但从未使用面板数据进行过大规模研究。虽然社会学家试图将一个人如何转变为一种新的宗教体验概念化和操作化，但许多政治科学家已经使用“重生的体验”作为对福音派新教徒进行分类的一种方式。虽然有大量的学术研究致力于了解重生的基督徒如何驾驭社会和政治世界，但学者们却无法理解采用重生身份的直接影响。这项工作使用来自三个不同民意调查组织的小组调查，分析了那些皈依和不再皈依重生基督教的人在转换后如何改变他们的政治和宗教行为。分析表明，转换和去转换在人群中并不少见，大约每 10 个调查受访者中就有 1 个发生。结果表明，女性、年轻的美国人和受教育程度较低的人更有可能改变他们的转换状态。在那些确实做出改变的人中，很少有人会显着改变他们的党派关系，而教堂出席人数的变化更为常见，这通过统计模型得到证实。这些发现填补了学者们之前对重生地位转变后行为和政治取向变化的理解的空白——这在先前的工作中只在总体层面进行了研究。这项研究为寻求了解美国宗教转变造成的原因的学者提供了一个额外的角度。