Politics not primary reason people leaving churches, study suggests

Extreme political views might be driving some people away from churches, but the actual number of departing parishioners is not that large and those who do leave the pews are mostly marginally involved with the institution, according to a new study co-authored by a UB political scientist.

“All we’re really seeing here is a little churn,” says Jacob Neiheisel, assistant professor in the Department of Political Science and one of the authors of the study published in the American Journal of Political Science with Anand Sokhey, an associate professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and led by Paul Djupe, an associate professor at Denison University.