Religious Affiliation and Employment Bias in the Labor Market

Religious affiliation and employment bias is examined in Athens, Greece by implementing an experimental field study. Labor market outcomes (occupation access, entry wage, and wait time for call back) are assessed for three religious minorities (Pentecostal, evangelical, and Jehovah's Witnesses) compared to the religious majority (Greek Orthodox). Results indicate that religious minorities experience employment bias as measured by access to job interviews, entry wages, and wait time for call backs. Moreover, religious minorities face greater constraints on occupational access in more prestigious jobs compared to less prestigious jobs. Occupational access and entry wage bias is highest for religious minority women. In all cases, Jehovah's Witnesses face the greatest bias; female employers offered significantly lower entry wages to Jehovah's Witnesses than male employers.     

Jehovah's Witnesses in Eastern Germany: ‘Reconfigurations’ of Identity

Abstract

The aim of the article is to look at the process of ‘reconfiguration’ of Jehovah's Witnesses' identity in the area which comprises the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) and societal and state responses to it. Over 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall Jehovah's Witnesses are one of the largest minority religions in eastern Germany. Being a religious minority in a region that is both stigmatised by the socialist past and considered the most secular part of Europe raises a number of issues. Among these, the question of the identity of the movement and its societal reception plays a crucial role. During the time of the GDR Witnesses built their identity against the state and its functionaries. Persecutions not only destroyed or changed the lives of many members but also strengthened them. Moreover, being a victim of the socialist system provided a basis to build upon after the Unification. A 16-year struggle for the status of public law corporation in the ‘new’ state – accomplished in 2006 – only reinforced such identification. Nowadays, however, Witnesses in the former GDR have to face a new challenge: building a reliable identity not in opposition to the state or upon their role as victims, but only on the basis of their religion.     

When festinger fails: Prophecy and the watch tower

Within its history, the Watch Tower has often set dates for the coming of Christ's millennial reign. The ability of Jehovah's Witnesses to endure the failure of these interpretations of Biblical prophecy reveals the power of the Watch Tower to withstand what would seem to be fatal challenges to its system of belief. In what has become a classic study, the social psychologist Leon Festinger has argued that such disconfirmations of prophecy lead only to deepened conviction and increased proselytism to persuade others that the original belief was correct. Applying Festinger's hypothesis to the prophetic speculation of the Watch Tower, I argue that his model fails to recognize how complex organizations and systems of belief shape responses to disconfirmed prophecy. Indeed, the history of Jehovah's Witnesses demonstrates that organizational structure and ideology constitute crucial variables for any analysis of reaction to prophetic failure. It is the very power of the Watch Tower as a millenarian movement that allows not only the rationalization of disconfirmation but the retrospective denial of the prophecy itself.     

Religious Stage Development Among Converts to Different Religious Groups

Only a few studies have dealt with the relationship between faith development theory and conversion or apostasy, though some have called for these studies. In this study, I compare religious judgment and religious stage transformations of 47 converts, focusing specifically on four case studies of conversions to Christianity, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Unitarian Universalists. The research was conducted from 2001 to 2006 in the midwestern United States and utilized religious dilemmas, narrative biographical interviews, and content analysis. It was found that there was a close affinity between a person's conversion or apostasy narrative and their trajectory of religious judgment.     

Disciplined Litigation,Vigilant Litigation,and Deformation: Dramatic Organization Change in Jehovah's Witnesses

Jehovah's Witnesses' long‐term development presents an interesting case of evolution in line with the “deformation thesis,” an attempt at explaining dramatic shifts in organizational forms, activities, and even beliefs in controversial religious minorities. Derived from resource mobilization tradition, this thesis assumes that radical transformations result from major defensive resource allocation mandated by negative reactions of societal institutions. This is especially the case with reference to the adoption by Jehovah's Witnesses, a millenarian group, of a “disciplined litigation”strategy in the 1940s, a pattern later to be incorporated in religious activities and beliefs of the organization. Today, disciplined litigation and its successor, “vigilant litigation,” seem legitimate ways to adapt to the prevailing religious climate and structure. As such, it can be conceived as a model for defensive moves taken by “younger” controversial religious minorities and reflects the enormous influence of the law and legal systems in shaping minority religions.     

Refus transfusionnel

After a twenty-year hiatus, the issue of transfusion refusal issued by Jehovah's Witnesses comes up in legal news with the decision of May 20, 2022 rendered by the Council of State. During these 20 years the rights of patients and the autonomy of the person have been considerably strengthened. Although the refusal of treatment is clearly stated in the law, the High Administrative Court nevertheless maintains its position.     

Comparing the Geographic Distributions and Growth of Mormons,Adventists, and Witnesses

Mormons, Adventists, and Witnesses have all felt called to take their teachings to the world and have experienced growth. However, they have varied considerably in both their geographic spread—where they have developed a presence over time—and also in where they have been more successful numerically. The result is sharply differing profiles: Adventists are concentrated more in the developing world; Witnesses and Mormons are proportionately stronger in the developed world, but in different parts of it. Within countries, Witnesses and Mormons are more urban, while Adventists are more concentrated in rural regions; Adventists also tend to be poorer than Witnesses and especially practicing Mormons. The article explores why these differing patterns developed, expanding on a recently developed theoretical model by Cragun and Lawson that religious growth depends on the synchronization of supply and demand and their corresponding components.     

Cults and the law: A discussion of the legality of alleged cult activities

Recent news reports show that there is, yet again, increasing concern regarding cults and satanic cults. Among the concerns raised is the fear that cults may be engaging in illegal activity, including abducting and sacrificing humans. A survey was conducted in the United States and Canada to assess the attitudes of people regarding cults and satanic cults, and to identify those activities in which people believe cults engage. It is suggested that all religions began as “cults” and a brief review of the law concerning the free exercise of religion demonstrates that several religious groups have been treated with suspect, and have even been referred to as cults (e.g. Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons). Results from the survey are used to consider the extent to which the activities in which cults are thought to engage are legal. It is concluded that many of the activities in which cults are believed to engage are really mere beliefs that are protected by the first amendment. For those activities that are illegal, it is suggested that current laws are adequate to protect society from whatever harm people believe cults pose.     

Social Perceptions of Religiosity: Dogmatism Tarnishes the Religious Halo

Researchers have provided much evidence in support of a religious halo effect—the tendency for people to evaluate a religious target more favorably than a nonreligious counterpart. This experimental study (N = 361 U.S. adults) extended previous work beyond the dichotomy of religious versus nonreligious by varying a fictional target's degree of belief. Only religious participants exhibited a nonspecific pro-religious bias consistent with the religious halo effect, favoring religious over not religious and very over somewhat religious targets. However, indicators of dogmatic thinking (e.g., I am so sure I am right about the important things in life, there is no evidence that could convince me otherwise) degraded target evaluations by religious and nonreligious participants alike. Results suggest that religiosity's positive associations depend upon an assumption of strong but flexible belief and underscore the importance of studying social perceptions of religious fundamentalists.     

Hare Krishna and Sanatan Dharm in Britain: The Campaign for Bhaktivedanta Manor

Bhaktivedanta Manor, the main centre for ISKCON (the ‘Hare Krishna movement') in Britain, has been under threat of closure for over ten years. The centre—which is a place of pilgrimage for many thousands of Indian Hindus in Britain—is considered by its local authority to be used inappropriately, since it does not have the required planning permission to be a place of public worship. In their view, Bhaktivedanta Manor should be used only as a theological college. ISKCON have challenged this position, and through a series of legal and political battles have tried to prevent the local authority from taking enforcement action. The campaign against closure by ISKCON demonstrates the large support this ‘new’ religion has among the Hindu population of Britain, and indeed has played an important part in developing the relationship between Hindus and the Hare Krishna movement. But the campaign also demonstrates a key point about the role of religious freedom within British law, as the series of legal challenges by ISKCON have highlighted how the right to religious worship is subject to other factors, such as planning regulations.     

Insights from a deradicalization program in Indonesian prisons: The potential benefits of psychological intervention prior to ideological discussion

Discussions that are based on religious understanding and aimed at reducing terrorists' hostility have been used as a central part of terrorist deradicalization programs in many countries where acts of Islamic terrorism are prevalent. Currently, various psychological approaches such as presenting social support and providing counseling sessions are being applied alongside religious discussions. Observers of these programs have reported benefits and positive responses to the psychological approaches, but there is still a lack of empirical evidence confirming this. In the current study, we examine the effects of two psychological interventions—emotional expression training and cognitive flexibility training—in predicting detainees’ acceptance of the idea of democratic life. We investigated the observational records taken during the psychological interventions and religious discussions. Results showed no main effect of emotional expression and cognitive flexibility in predicting one’s acceptance of democratic civil life, but there was a significant interaction between the two predictors. Among those who scored high in cognitive flexibility, detainees who scored also high in emotional expression were significantly more agreeable towards the state’s sovereignty over belief in an Islamic caliphate during religious discussions. Our findings suggest that psychological interventions do indeed offer benefits for detainees’ deradicalization programs.     

Whose harm? Which metaphysic?

Douglas Diekema has argued that it is not the best interest standard, but the harm principle that serves as the moral basis for ethicists, clinicians, and the courts to trigger state intervention to limit parental authority in the clinic. Diekema claims the harm principle is especially effective in justifying state intervention in cases of religiously motivated medical neglect in pediatrics involving Jehovah’s Witnesses and Christian Scientists. I argue that Diekema has not articulated a harm principle that is capable of justifying state intervention in these cases. Where disagreements over appropriate care are tethered to metaphysical disagreements (as they are for Jehovah’s Witnesses and Christian Scientists), it is moral-metaphysical standards, rather than merely moral standards, that are needed to provide substantive guidance. I provide a discussion of Diekema’s harm principle to the broader end of highlighting an inconsistency between the theory and practice of secular bioethics when overriding religiously based medical decisions. In a secular state, ethicists, clinicians, and the courts are purportedly neutral with respect to moral-metaphysical positions, especially regarding those claims considered to be religious. However, the practice of overriding religiously based parental requests requires doffing the mantle of neutrality. In the search for a meaningful standard by which to override religiously based parental requests in pediatrics, bioethicists cannot avoid some minimal metaphysical commitments. To resolve this inconsistency, bioethicists must either begin permitting religiously based requests, even at the cost of children’s lives, or admit that at least some moral-metaphysical disputes can be rationally adjudicated.

     

Religious or Minority? Examining the Realisation of International Standards in Relation to Religious Minorities in the Middle East

Abstract

The Middle East region has had a long, and periodically impressive, record of religious diversity, yet there is much concern regarding the contemporary standing of its religious minorities. Rather than assessing the chequered historical record of religious minorities in the Middle East, the purpose of this article is to provide an assessment of how international human rights standards may best be utilised to advance their rights. The contention of this article is that the human rights of religious minorities in the Middle East have primarily been considered under the lens of freedom of religion or belief. Relevant though this framework is to their concerns, it will be suggested that promoting the rights of the Middle East's religious minorities through the framework of minority rights may provide a more promising avenue for their protection. The purpose of the article is therefore to provide a reassessment of how best to negotiate the rights of religious minorities in the Middle East. The focus will be on formal legal and political obstacles to the enjoyment of their rights entitlements. Though a broader contextual analysis also assessing economic, cultural and sociological factors would be highly informative, it lies beyond the scope of this article. Despite the fact that minority rights provisions apply to members of minorities alongside all other human rights – among them freedom of religion or belief – the two lenses of minority rights and freedom of religion or belief highlight somewhat different provisions and protections. The two are certainly not mutually exclusive or in contradiction with one another, but a state that prioritises one set of legal and policy options over the other will arrive in different places.     

Social,Political, and Institutional Constraints on Religious Pluralism in Central Asia

During the second half of the 1990s, many of the post-Soviet states, after a brief flirtation with a religious free market, began to approve laws that curtailed some of the freedoms acquired in the first flush of independence. The paper examines the ways in which the five Central Asian States have handled the issue of religious freedom. Although many of the initial demands for restrictions on religious pluralism came from leaders of 'traditional' religions, these arguments have been reinforced by other arguments. On the one hand, the urge to control religious diversity is a product of an old Soviet mentality, but it also reflects wider religious and political concerns. These encompass public anxieties about the activities of poorly understood religious movements, political manipulation of religious 'threats' to justify authoritarianism, and nationalist concerns about religious diversity as a threat to social stability and the nation-building process. This paper explores the growing pressures on religious pluralism in Central Asia (with special reference to the experience of Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan) focusing on the social, political, and institutional constraints that appear to be driving the revitalisation of state control over religious life.     

Jehovah's Witnesses in Germany: Prisoners during the Communist Era ∗

Abstract

Commentators on religious freedom disagree on the rationale for its protection. This question of why we protect religious freedom is important because it influences the manner and scope of the protection of religious freedom by the state. The legal philosopher Timothy Macklem argues, in line with some fideistic approaches to the study of religion, that the value of ‘faith’– of belief without reason to believe – justifies the protection of religious freedom. This paper offers a critique of Macklem's account. It argues that this account is inconsistent with a correct view of the nature of reasons, that it overestimates the circumstances in which faith is valuable, that it fails adequately to consider the connections between faith and false beliefs, and that its conclusions imply a much weaker protection of religious freedom than is common in liberal states. This paper also indicates aspects of faith that are valuable, beyond those discussed by Macklem. It is hoped that it will contribute to the debate on the value of faith as well as the broader debate on the justification of religious freedom.     

Religious belief,ethics, biological principles and assisted conception

New reproductive technologies present ethical challenges to religious believers. In order to distinguish beneficial applications from harmful ones, believers should be guided by religious teachings and also be aware of current scientific knowledge. In this paper relevant spiritual principles from Baha'i writings are outlined and it is suggested that Christians and Muslims may identify similar principles in their own sacred texts and religious authorities. Medical procedures in assisted conception are also described, and it is explained that biological development from gametogenesis to birth is a continuum of processes rather than a series of events. It is suggested that ethical debates about the moral status of the embryo and related ethical issues do not lead to agreement on a single spiritually significant point in development, but in the current state of knowledge it can be argued that individuation at about fourteen days is of major significance. Striving for an absolute position should be avoided as scientific knowledge is relative and will change in the future.     

Principles of Religious Prosociality: A Review and Reformulation

Historically, religion and religious belief have often been credited as the source of human morality. But what have been the real effects of religion on prosocial behavior? A review of the psychological literature reveals a complex relation between religious belief and moral action: leading to greater prosocial behavior in some contexts but not in others, and in some cases actually increasing antisocial behavior. In addition, different forms of religious belief are associated with different styles of co-operation. This body of evidence paints a somewhat messy picture of religious prosociality; however, recent examinations of the cognitive mechanisms of belief help to resolve apparent inconsistencies. In this article, we review evidence of two separate sources of religious prosociality: a religious principle associated with the protection of the religious group, and a supernatural principle associated with the belief in God, or other supernatural agents. These two principles emphasize different prosocial goals, and so have different effects on prosocial behavior depending on the target and context. A re-examination of the literature illustrates the independent influences of religious and supernatural principles on moral action.     

Buddhist prajÑĀ and Greek sophia

The present review examines five books, one by a non-Baha'i, three by a Baha'i academic, and one by a Baha'i non-academic. The non-Baha'i volume, which is very short, is by a Danish sociologist of religion, Margit Warburg. It forms a solid explanatory text informed by a lengthy experience of the Baha'is both in Denmark and abroad. This review discusses, inter alia, three volumes by a Baha'i sociologist, Peter Smith. While the three titles are very different books, taken together they form an intelligent presentation of the religion from the perspective of a thoughtful insider. Finally, the article looks at a completely different sort of book, an intelligent portrayal of Baha'ism from its spiritual and moral perspectives by Moojan Momen. This last brings readers closest to typical fare for believers and new converts.     

THE TIGHTROPE WALKER

Contrary to a widespread interpretation, Wittgenstein did not regard credal statements as merely metaphorical expressions of an attitude towards life. He accepted that Christian faith involves belief in God's existence. At the same time he held that although as a hypothesis, God's existence is extremely implausible, Christian faith is not unreasonable. Is that a consistent view? According to Wittgenstein, religious faith should not be seen as a hypothesis, based on evidence, but as grounded in a proto‐religious attitude, a way of experiencing the world or certain aspects of it. A belief in religious metaphysics is not the basis of one's faith, but a mere epiphenomenon. Given further that religious doctrine is both falsification‐transcendent and that religious faith is likely to have beneficial psychological effects, religious doctrine can be exempt from ordinary standards of epistemic support. An unsupported religious belief need not be unreasonable. However, it is hard to see how one could knowingly have such an unsupported belief, as Wittgenstein seems to envisage. How can one believe what, at the same time, one believes is not likely to be true? This, I argue, is the unresolved tension in Wittgenstein's philosophy of religion.