Modernization theory is used to understand why conservative Protestants tend to be intolerant. We explain this tendency as a consequence of a religious worldview that privileges a sacred group and that exhibits a mistrust of the individual Using a random sample of ''Middletown'' residents (N = 500), we tested the proposition that conservative Protestants are willing to ban controversial books from public libraries because they are more likely to be theologically fundamentalist and morally traditionalist. Control variables were generation, gender, education, and political conservatism The results support the importance of fundamentalism in explaining the association between conservative Protestantism and intolerance. In addition, it was found that among mainline Protestants, moral traditionalism was related to intolerance. Conservative Protestants can believe in civil intolerance because of their anti-modem, fundamentalist theology. Among mainline Protestants, because specific moral issues are more salient than theological matters, support for book banning results from a fear of moral decay.
