Christian campus-ministry groups at public universities and opposition to same-sex marriage

This study investigates Christian campus-ministry groups at public universities to understand how these groups may be associated with students same-sex marriage attitudes. Based on a multilevel modeling analysis with 292 students from 30 such groups, we found the religious tradition of the campus-ministry group moderated how student participation in the group and student religious conservatism were associated with opposition to same-sex marriage. Specifically, greater participation in evangelical Protestant or Catholic campus-ministry groups was positively associated with opposition to same-sex marriage, whereas the association was not significant for students in mainline Protestant groups. Moreover, the association between student religious conservatism and opposition was positive and significant in evangelical Protestant and Catholic groups, but was not significant in mainline Protestant groups. This shows that the association between student religious beliefs and opposition to gay marriage may be different depending on the type of campus-ministry group a student attends. Implications and limitations also are discussed.