Religious Transmission Versus Religious Formation: Preadolescent-Parent Interaction*

Religiousness on the part of youth can result from transmission across generations and it can stem from a nurturant parent-child relationship. Interaction could occur between these variables. These relationships were tested using data from 2724 adolescents in grades 4–8 in intact families in southern Minnesota. The dependent measure involves five items measuring religious attendance, belief, and devotional practice. Both parental religiousness and support were significant predictors of preadolescent religiousness, with the former the better predictor. There was no significant interaction between these two predictors, and this finding is discussed in the context of a culture supportive of religion. Females were more religious than males. Paternal and maternal measures were similar in their abilities to predict religiosity, although a significant interaction existed between sex of preadolescent and material religiousness, with sons scoring especially low on religion when their mothers also scored low.     

The Religious Factor Revisited

Four decades have passed since the publication of Gerhard Lenski's The Religious Factor. While generally regarded as a classic in the sociology of religion, the book has had a curious history, largely because of the interest it generated in differences between Protestants and Catholics. In this paper I provide an alternative reading of The Religious Factor's impact on sociology of religion that points to its larger theoretical implications. I argue that the book should be understood in relation to continuing debates about the classification of religious traditions, differentiation among socioreligious groups, intergroup relations among religious traditions, and friendship ties within religious communities. Through understanding these contributions, the book's legacy as well as continuities and new opportunities in the study of religion can be appreciated.     

Religious effects on environmentalism

Understanding of religious influences on environmentalism has been biased by political conflicts. This article summarizes the demographic parameters of environmental concern, then evaluates religious and political influences on that concern and related activity, using General Social Surveys data. It assesses influences on willingness to pay for environmental programs, individual environmental behaviors, and participation in political activities for related causes. Young people and women express greater environmental concern, but older persons more often engage in individual environmental activities such as recycling. The association of fundamentalism with political conservatism compounds interpretation of religion because political conservatives are antagonistic to environmentalism. Religious affiliation strength has positive effects on environmental concern, and worship attendance has positive effects on individual environmental behaviors, when fundamentalism and political variables are controlled. This article is part of the third stage of literature on religion and environmentalism in which positive as well as negative patterns are recognized.     

Religious dominance and empathy

Theory and Society - Why do some religious authorities empathize with outsiders while others espouse xenophobia? This paper argues that church leaders are less likely to display empathy when their...     

Religious Culture and Political Action

Recent work by political sociologists and social movement theorists extend our understanding of how religious institutions contribute to expanding democracy, but nearly all analyze religious institutions as institutions; few focus directly on what religion qua religion might contribute. This article strives to illuminate the impact of religious culture per se, extending recent work on religion and democratic life by a small group of social movement scholars trained also in the sociology of religion. In examining religion's democratic impact, an explicitly cultural analysis inspired by the new approach to political culture developed by historical sociologists and cultural analysts of democracy is used to show the power of this approach and to provide a fuller theoretical account of how cultural dynamics shape political outcomes. The article examines religious institutions as generators of religious culture, presents a theoretical model of how religious cultural elements are incorporated into social movements and so shape their internal political cultures, and discusses how this in turn shapes their impact in the public realm. This model is then applied to a key site of democratic struggle: four efforts to promote social justice among low-income urban residents of the United States, including the most widespread such effort—faith-based community organizing.     

Integrating Religious and Sexual Identities: The Case of Religious Homosexual Men in Singapore

Abstract

The sexual and religious ecosystem in Singapore represents an intricate interplay of factors that religious homosexuals navigate to attain a well-adjusted personal identity. A qualitative research project was conducted to understand how Christian and Muslim homosexual men in Singapore integrate their religious and sexual identities. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine religious homosexuals to elicit responses on their dual-identity experience, and coping strategies. Narrative analysis revealed three themes (and a number of subthemes): (1) Intrapersonal factors (a personal journey, knowledge seeking, reinterpreting belief system, redemption by good deeds, and love prevails over sin), (2) Interpersonal factors (segregating social circles, involvement in the gay community, role models, and social support), and (3) Sociopolitical factors (state and societal tolerance of homosexuals, and homosexual events). Interestingly, the participants assigned positive attributes to being both religious and homosexual, and reported that embodying both identities was enriching than if they had possessed just one of the two identities. This suggests that integrating positive psychological frameworks (e.g., stress-related growth) to existing ones may provide a more holistic account of identity integration among religious homosexuals.     

The Sociology of Religious Organizations

Whether willingly or not, the sociology of religion has become increasingly influenced by organizational theories and research. Despite objections, the sociology of religious organizations is an area of study rising in prominence. Growth comes from both explicit and implicit applications of organizational theories. In a push toward more explicit connections, we review three organizational theories with particular relevance to the study of religion: organizational ecology, resource dependence, and new institutionalism. For each, we suggest possible paths for future research. Methodological challenges complicate this research. Religious organizations vary widely in size and scope. The advent of new nationally representative surveys of religious congregations opens new analytic opportunities, although these data remain limited in significant ways. In closing, theoretical and methodological implications for the sociology of religious organizations are discussed.     

Religious Discrimination in Social Work

Abstract

Using quantitative and qualitative methods, this study explored perceptions of compliance with the ethical standards related to religion (N = 222). As posited, perceptions of ethical compliance were lower among social workers who affirmed a conservative or orthodox theological orientation compared to those who affirmed a liberal or progressive theology. Standards of particular concern were those related to (a) social work education about religious diversity and the oppression religious people encounter and (b) efforts to prevent and eliminate religious discrimination. In concert with these findings, qualitative analysis indicated two areas of major concern: institutional settings, such as academia, and colleagues. Respondents reported being demeaned, denigrated, ridiculed, and scorned by social work colleagues due to their religious beliefs, particularly in educational settings. Interestingly, 44% of both orthodox and progressive respondents knew of clients who had experienced discrimination due to their religious beliefs at the hands of social work colleagues.     

Religious affiliation and the family

The process of religious affiliation is mediated by institutions such as the family, which provide a network of ties to the public sphere. Variations in the likelihood of those with no religious affiliation in high school (N=900) becoming church members by the time they reach 30 are explained in terms of a combination of individual attributes, such as educational and spatial mobility, and changes in structural location, such as the transition to marital and parental status. Panel data from the Career Development Study show that women's chances of affiliation are more affected than are men's by parents' religious homogamy, getting married, and having children.     

Ambiguity In Yolngu Religious Language

For Muslims universally, the mosque is the place of prostration to the Almighty. Its design, however, is left to local cultures. The mosque is both architecturally unique and contextual: the present essay explores the development of mosque architecture in Indonesia through different eras and is developed from my field research, as well as from my experience living there and working as an architect and urban planner between 1993 and 2005.     

Measuring Religious Identities in Surveys

The purpose of this article is to acquaint the broader publicopinion research audience with what has been a salient issuewithin the community of scholars of religion. We address thequestion of how best to conceptualize and measure religiousidentities in research on contemporary American society. Weconsider the main approaches to the measurement of religiousidentification with regard to their backgrounds, their assumptionsabout the importance of understanding religious identities inhistorically relevant terms, and the practical considerationsof survey measurement. Using data from the General Social Survey,particularly recent innovative efforts to obtain informationon subjective association with particular religious traditionsand/or movements (e.g., Pentecostal, fundamentalist, evangelical,mainline, or liberal Protestant), we compare the two main approaches:the traditional "denominational" approach, where religious identitiesare assumed to be associated with religious denominations, andthe subjective approach, where religious identities are assumedto be captured by a set of "nondenominational" reference categorieslinked to particular historical religious traditions or socialmovements. We conclude that both approaches have substantialpredictive validity, and the most effective strategy for futureresearch may be one that uses a combination of approaches, ratherthan one that relies entirely on a single method of measurement.     

Religious Orthodoxy and Entrepreneurial Risk-Taking

The relationship between entrepreneurship and religion is complex (Dana 2010 Dana, Leo Paul. 2010. “Entrepreneurship and Religion”. In ed, Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing.  [Google Scholar]), and religion can help or hamper the entrepreneurial process, depending on the context and culture (Dana 2009 Dana, Leo and Paul. 2009. Religion as an Explanatory Variable for Entrepreneurship. International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, 10(2): 87–100. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]; Dodd and Gotsis 2007 Dodd, Sarah Drakopoulou and George, Gotsis. 2007. The Interrelationships between Entrepreneurship and Religion. International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, 8(2): 93–104. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). This article examines religious orthodoxy and its connection to one aspect of the entrepreneurial process—risk-taking within existing organizations. Using multinomial logistic regression to analyze data from the 2010 Baylor Religion Survey, the researchers find that religious orthodoxy is negatively associated with entrepreneurial risk-taking, even after controlling for traditional variables associated with entrepreneurism. It supports the idea that beliefs—and not just adherence or behaviors—are important to understanding the connection between entrepreneurial processes and religion.     

A New Approach to Religious Commitment

Abstract

The authors propose a new framework for studying religious commitment. Commitment is viewed as a general social process which occurs in various aspects of life (e.g., marriage, work, politics, and religion). It consists of subjective and behavioral components. Religious commitment is defined as the interaction between people's religious consciousness and religious participation. Other religious beliefs, feelings, and intellectual inclinations are considered to be parts of people's religious orientations, not aspects of commitment as other approaches have suggested. Data from members of six Christian denominations are used to explore this conceptualization and the relationships among these variables. Some determinants and consequences of commitment also are considered. The evidence yields several propositions regarding factors that affect commitment and the effects of religion on people's attitudes and behaviors. The paper's implications for future research on religious commitment in particular and commitment in general also are discussed.     

Episodic Volunteering at a Religious Megaevent

In preparation for Pope Francis's visit to Philadelphia and the 2015 World Meeting of Families, organizers looked for thousands of volunteers to help carry out these events. This is common for many one‐time and episodic events, such as large sporting events (from marathons to Special Olympics), arts and cultural events (such as festivals and concerts), and fundraising events. After the pope's visit, volunteers were asked to respond to a questionnaire about their experiences and the volunteer management of the event; 2,408 responded (34.4 percent). Data on motivation, who volunteered, recruitment, training, assignment, supervision, communication, satisfaction, and suggestions for improvement were elicited. We focused on episodic volunteering at a religious event and on a broad spectrum of issues pertaining to management of episodic volunteers. Our findings add to the knowledge regarding volunteer management and also add to conceptual understanding of the distinction between ongoing and episodic volunteers.     

当代国际恐怖主义的“宗教动员”

以宗教名义进行社会动员,是当代全球恐怖主义的一个重要特征。宗教动员下的恐怖主义已成为当代恐怖主义的主导势力,并经历了三重路径,且每条路径中都表现出国际“安全阀”遭到双重的破坏和挑战。梳理当代国际恐怖主义因“宗教动员”而泛滥的路径,可以为国际反恐提供某种思路,从而消除恐怖主义进行“宗教动员”的不良后果,并优化良好的宗教发展环境。     

Religious giving in the united states

Research on religious giving in the United States contains several important lessons. Denominations differ immensely in their giving levels, with conservative Protestants giving the most, liberal Protestants giving at moderate levels, and Catholics giving the least. Personal religious commitments and the level of one's disposable income are the main determinants, but, in addition, interpersonal factors produce a strong skew in the amounts given. Annual pledging and deliberate planning of giving have clear effects.