Volume 15 (2019)

Most research on congregational membership dynamics focuses on recruitment or commitment with considerably less attention paid to congregational or denominational exit. I propose that human capital theory, typically used to theorize employee turnover, can also predict membership turnover in voluntary associations, including religious ones. Members in voluntary associations learn their association’s organizational culture, knowledge of which is a form of capital that makes participation in the organization more enjoyable and thereby increases an individual’s likelihood of remaining with the organization. Because some organizations have similar cultures, organizational cultural knowledge may be transferable to other organizations. I argue that individuals who have more organizational cultural knowledge specific to their organization should be less likely to leave, because they maximize their capital by remaining where it can be used. To test these hypotheses, I use survey data from current and past members of twelve congregations. The findings support the hypotheses and contribute to research on religious capital and member retention.

Strain theory has long argued that many forms of strain, especially pertaining to economic disadvantage, can lead to feelings of anger and frustration. Research has shown that economic disadvantage is associated with a variety of negative outcomes, including violence. While strain theory has made the assumption that social control serves to inhibit juvenile criminal behavior, no study to date has answered questions about how other types of social control such as religiosity may moderate the relationship between economic disadvantage and adolescent violence. Waves I and II of the National Study of Adolescent Health were used to investigate the moderation effects of religiosity on the economic disadvantage and violence relationship. Tobit regression was used. Results indicate that the relationship between economic disadvantage and violence is increased by public religiosity but diminished by private religiosity.

Frequent interaction among group members fosters affective commitment. Establishing a strong bond to the group is especially important for strict, high cost groups, and yet some such groups have beliefs that make frequent interaction difficult. We use the Old Order Amish as a case study to examine the use of visiting groups to foster interaction among the members of a non-communal, strict religious group for which regular interaction among all members is difficult. Our results indicate that the visiting group provides interaction and positive emotional experiences for the core group, the guests of the core group, and those who are visited. In addition to providing face to- face interaction with members who are otherwise isolated from the community, the activities of the visiting group are published via a scribe report in an Amish newspaper. As such, the entire community receives information on community members and benefits from the interactions of the visiting group.

The article discusses the relationship between religious and political worldviews and argues that both types of phenomena share three features: they offer (a) robust structures of meaning (nomizations), (b) clear moral guidelines (Manichaeism), and (c) a prophecy of the future(eschatologies). Using data from the European Values Study of 2008/2009 (n = 29,995) we found that Catholic and Orthodox respondents reveal higher amounts of conservatism than the average respondent whereas Protestants are slightly more liberal and socialist. Orthodox individuals had the highest affinity for fascist worldviews. Multilevel logit regression models further show that especially fascist and conservative worldviews are based on nomizations, Manichaeism, and eschatological beliefs. The same accounts for all religious worldviews with the lowest effects found for Protestants and the highest for European Muslims. Analyses also show that the three basic elements of worldviews are more relevant for individuals living in countries with greater economic deprivation and inequality.

Given the socio-political environment of the United States, the identities of religious and racialized Muslims have been scrutinized. Using qualitative semi-structured interviews with religious Muslim American men, I explore discussions that indicate a preference for some strategies for managing stigma over others. I focus specifically on name-changing as a strategy that is polarizing in interview data. Based on my findings I conclude that religious names are a prominent identifier of Muslim identities and may be managed by changing names or choosing nicknames. Furthermore, statements made by Muslim men that center on the management of identities through name-changing come with ingroup value-judgements which appear to reveal a hierarchy in the desirability of certain stigma management strategies over others for these religious Muslim men. This preferential stigma management can be interpreted as boundary work whereby religious Muslims—who regularly attend mosques—construct meaning around unapologetically presenting one’s religious identity. This investigation is relevant to discussions that center on the racialization process, boundary work, and the experiences of Muslims in the post-terror United States.

Is one virtue perceived as better than another? Although the seven deadly sins (SDS: gluttony, envy, greed, lust, pride, sloth, wrath) have received some degree of investigation, the corresponding contrary virtues have been relatively unaddressed. Similar to past research on the SDS we investigated how religious and nonreligious individuals in the United States distinguish the relative weight of the corresponding seven virtues (temperance, kindness, charity, chastity, humility, diligence, patience). The method involved used a survey-format of 16 questions in which respondents (N = 599, 254 males, 343 females) were asked to rate the corresponding seven virtues as well as answer demographic grouping variables. A repeated measures analysis of the sample found a cultural "virtue pattern" ranging from self-focused to other-focused and falling into a threshold-based responding for some groups. A mixed-factorial ANOVA analysis across different groups that were differentiated by gender, religion, age, marital status, and politics found moderating variables, including a "Chastity Effect" that has bearing on past research of the SDS. The results not only provide between-group moderating differentiation but also reveal patterns of responding for how contemporary society perceives virtues within and across religious and non-religious groups in the United States, including revealing two factor analysis clusters of Giving v. Withholding virtues.

How and why have attitudes on abortion among Protestant institutions shifted? I use a comparative historical approach and study official abortion stances, archival materials, and periodical articles of the largest and most prominent Mainline Protestant denominations from 1960 to today. I find that Mainline Protestant stances on abortion have shifted dramatically over time, but in strikingly homogenous ways across denominations. In 1960, no Mainline Protestant denomination supported abortion access. During a first wave of shifting from 1966-1972, all denominations suddenly supported expanding abortion rights. During a second wave of shifting from 1988-1992, all denominations stated new hesitations to abortion access. I argue that shifting stances on abortion are connected to how a religious group negotiated shifting ethnic, religious, and political boundaries in the United States since the 1960s. During the first wave of shifting, Mainline Protestants were united by a common enemy: Catholics. During the second wave of shifting, the opponent shifted from Catholics to Evangelical Protestants, who had different political identities and who were sometimes sitting in the Mainline Protestants own pews.

State laws compelling citizens to comply with elements of religious law – also known as religious legislation – are globally pervasive. Previous research has well documented the incidence of myriad examples of religious legislation. These laws’ practical effect on citizens’ behavior, however, has been less examined. This article looks at the effect of one piece of religious legislation: state laws enforcing the Ramadan fast. It demonstrates that the use of state power to sanction violations of religious law significantly increases citizens’ compliance with this religious law.