Declining Religious Authority? Confidence in the Leaders of Religious Organizations, 1973–2010

One view of secularization is that it can be conceived of as declining religious authority. Although studies conducted in the 1990s suggested that confidence in the leaders of religious organizations—a promising indicator of religious authority—decreased in the 1970s and 1980s, research has not examined recent trends. The goals of this study are to (1) examine trends in confidence using data from the early 1970s through 2010 and (2) use recent advances in age-period-cohort analysis to provide a more robust empirical examination of these trends. Using data from the cumulative General Social Surveys, 1973–2010, the results suggest that, even after considering age effects, period declines in confidence have continued, but declines by birth cohort were primarily among those born in the boomer and early post-boomer generations (roughly 1945–1970) relative to those born earlier (pre-1945) or later (post-1970). Moreover, these effects appear to be due mainly to differences in religious participation, especially among more recent cohorts. In particular, there has been a rebound in confidence among members of the younger generation who attend religious services.     

The Effect of Religion-Supported Programs on Health-Related Behaviors in Adolescence

Much research has found a relationship between religion and teens?? health related behaviors. The majority of this research focuses on personal religious beliefs and behaviors. But, many religious organizations also sponsor nonreligious activities. There is reason to think that nonreligious programs sponsored by religious organizations will be more likely than school and community-based extracurricular programs to be associated with healthier behaviors, even for youth who are not personally religious. The current study compares the influence of involvement in nonreligious activities that are supported by religious and other organizations for teen health outcomes. Using two waves of longitudinal data from the National Study of Youth and Religion the current study finds that involvement in religion-supported programs is associated with feelings of well-being, better physical health, less alcohol use, and delayed initiation into first sex. Conversely, involvement in activities sponsored by nonreligious organizations is associated with more alcohol use and initiation into sex.     

The Persistence of Faith Among Nonheterosexual Christians: Evidence for the Neosecularization Thesis of Religious Transformation

The neosecularization thesis, which combines the "secularization" and "postsecularization" paradigms, argues that religion is in a constant state of transformation (thus persistence). It also argues that the examination of "secularization" needs to be conducted on three levels: macro, meso, and micro. Drawing from a quantitative and qualitative study involving 565 nonheterosexual Christians in the United Kingdom, this article aims to lend credence to the neosecularization thesis, focusing on the micro, or individual, level only. This article highlights the lack of influence and impact of religious authority structures on the respondents' views of sexuality and spirituality. Data also demonstrated that, in the construction of the respondents' identity and Christian faith, as well as the fashioning of Christian living, religious authority structures were considered the least significant factor, compared to the respondents' employment of human reason and biblical understanding, within the framework of lived experiences. On the whole, data suggested that the self, rather than religious authority structures, steers the respondents' journeys of spirituality and sexuality. This is evidence of the impact of the "detraditionalization" process on the late modern religious landscape, where the basis of religious faith and practice is primarily predicted on the self, rather than traditions and structures.     

Institutionalized Norms,Practical Organizational Activity,and Loose Coupling: Inclusive Congregations’ Responses to Homosexuality

Congregations vary widely in their responses to homosexuality. Among those inclusive congregations that integrate gays and lesbians into congregational life, why do some adopt a formal organizational statement of welcoming while others do not? Drawing on the new institutionalism and inhabited institutions literatures, this study is the first quantitative examination of the concept of “loose coupling” within religious organizations regarding homosexuality. Analyses using nationally representative congregational data (National Congregations Study) indicate that particular types of inclusive congregations are more likely to loosely couple their practical activity from their formal organizational stance. These findings suggest that inclusive religious organizations respond to myths and norms from various organizational fields and that agentic actors inhabiting the organization influence it by responding, interpreting, and making sense of those institutional norms. The analyses also indicate that loose coupling is one avenue through which particular types of religious organizations respond to the transformation of societal norms with innovation.     

Protestant Clergy and the Culture Wars: An Empirical Test of Hunter's Thesis

Examinations of culture wars typically assess the attitudes of the American public. This study instead focuses on culture wars among religious elites—clergy—and tests three aspects of the culture wars thesis: (1) whether religious elites are engaged in culture wars, (2) whether clergy attitudes are polarized on these issues, and (3) whether religious authority or religious affiliation is more salient in creating culture wars cleavages. Using data from a large random sample of Protestant clergy, we find a substantial amount of engagement in culture wars by all types of Protestant clergy. The amount of polarization is more attributable to views of religious authority (i.e., biblical inerrancy) than to religious tradition. Moreover, polarization among clergy is somewhat more evident on culture wars issues than on other social and political issues. These findings are generally supportive of the culture wars thesis and should help return examinations of culture wars back to where they were originally theorized to be waged: among elites.     

The Social Context of Organized Nonbelief: County‐Level Predictors of Nonbeliever Organizations in the United States

Many recent social scientific studies have noted that the percentage of Americans with no religious affiliation is on the rise, but few have examined the nonbeliever organizations that some of these “nones” might join. This study uses an original data set, the first attempt at documenting the population of local nonbeliever organizations in the United States, to explore where these groups are more likely to flourish. Though one might assume that less religious counties, as measured by the percentage of those with no stated religious affiliation, would be more likely to contain nonbeliever organizations, this article provides evidence that they emerge more frequently and in greater numbers in counties with proportionally more evangelical Protestants. The percentage of evangelicals among a county's population is strongly associated with both the existence (dichotomously coded) and the number of nonbeliever organizations, even when controlling for a range of demographic and institutional factors.     

The Response of Mainline Protestant Clergy Members to the Moral Panic Regarding Harry Potter

This article builds upon and expands an earlier research project on the moral panic that surrounded the Harry Potter books and movies from 1997 through the first decade of the twenty-first century. Soulliere focused on the publications and public pronouncements of religious groups and leaders, media, and research organizations linked together by “the promotion of traditional values and a conservative ideology as well as a Judeo-Christian worldview, primacy of the family, and emphases on biblical foundations and authority” (Soulliere paragraph 14), which he refers to as the Christian Right. The current study seeks to discover the degree to which, if any, this moral panic extended beyond the Christian Right into the pulpits of mainstream Protestant denominations.     

“And Who Is My Neighbor?” Religion and Immigration Policy Attitudes

This study explores immigration reform as a possible new "moral" issue upon which American religious elites and organizations take public positions. It is argued that religion is a key independent variable necessary for understanding the determinants of public attitudes regarding immigration policy. Theoretical expectations are formed from the ethnoreligious, religious restructuralism, and minority marginalization frameworks. Quantitative evidence is presented, that demonstrates that those who attend religious services more frequently are more likely to support liberal immigration reform policies. Members of minority religions, notably Jews and Latter-day Saints, are also more likely to empathize with the plight of undocumented immigrants and support liberal immigration reform measures.     

Secularity and Irreligion in Cross‐National Context: A Nonlinear Approach

As part of the conversation about the characteristics and scope of secularization in contemporary society, the implications of low levels of self‐defined atheism and explicit rejection of religion in nations with low levels of religious beliefs are not yet sufficiently explored. In response, this study uses aggregated data from the World Values Survey, the European Values Study, and Cross‐National Socio‐Economic and Religion Data from the Association of Religion Data Archives to investigate the relationships between nonbelief, atheism, and lack of confidence in churches or religious organizations. Regression findings show a concave curvilinear relationship between secularity (measured as the percentage of the population that does not believe in God) and irreligion (measured as (1) the percentage of self‐defined atheists in a country and (2) the percentage of individuals in a country who have no confidence at all in religious organizations). In other words, this study suggests that nonbelief is associated with an increase in self‐defined atheism and the lack of confidence in religious organizations, but that this effect wanes the more secular a society is. The findings further highlight the complexity of nonreligiosity and imply that a linear association cannot be assumed between measures of secularization, secularity, and irreligion.     

Born a pastor,being a woman: biographical accounts on gendered religious gifts in the Diaspora

Women’s presence in Pentecostal leadership positions has slowly increased over the past decades, which raises new questions on the reconfiguration of gender roles and its relationship with religious doctrines. Based on empirical research, this article examines the construction of female leadership and religious authority within Pentecostal churches in a diasporic context. We draw upon biographical narratives of six female Pentecostal pastors—three African and three Latin American—who are leaders in Pentecostal churches in Spain. Our aim is to understand which conditions allowed these women to obtain positions of leadership in a mainly male dominated Pentecostal milieu and analyse the discursive articulation of Pentecostal conservative views on gender issues with local dynamics in the construction of female religious authority. The article shows that the authority of these women within the church realm is forged and legitimated through a religious narrative, one that empowers them as religious leaders without challenging their (and other women’s) subaltern role in the domains of social and family life.     

Dianomy: understanding religious women's moral agency as creative conformity

This essay seeks to contribute to work on moral agency of religious women through the creative naming of a dynamic that is emerging in recent scholarship. Drawing on fieldwork in Iran in 2004, I argue that prominent models of agency based on autonomy, heteronomy, and theonomy are unable take into account both religious influence on and individual creativity of women's actions. I propose the neologism, "dianomy," meaning dual-sources of the moral law, to account for moral agency that relies neither exclusively upon the self as a source of moral authority nor exclusively upon religious traditions. Dianomy also attempts to comprehend creative ruptures in obedience to tradition, even when these innovations are unintentional. Such a concept is particularly important in order to correct past tendencies to ignore or even negate feminist politics that do not resist or strategically reform religious norms. With dianomy, tactical moves, actions that are not "freely chosen," and even happy accidents can be studied as productive within traditional religious communities. I call these types of actions, which confound the actions theorized by autonomy, heteronomy, and theonomy, "creative conformity."     

Gifts of Money and Gifts of Time: Folk Religion and Civic Involvement in a Chinese Society

Drawing on representative survey data collected in Taiwan, this study examines the effects on volunteering of Chinese folk religion. We find (1) practicing ancestor worship lowers people’s likelihood of donating to secular groups while local deity worshippers are more likely to donate money to religious organizations. (2) Sectarian group membership can significantly promote members’ odds of volunteering in religious groups. (3) Individual folk religion is positively associated with the odds of religious giving and volunteering. (4) Individual folk religion adherents mainly donate to Buddhism, Taoism, and Folk Religion, but on an occasional basis.     

Religious Organizations and Government: An Ecclesial Lutheran “Take”

Sharp debates exist today about the appropriate relationship between religious organizations and government, with views ranging from Christian nationalism to strict secularists. This essay explores a mediating position expressed in the conceptual phrase that religious bodies should “work with civil authorities in areas of mutual endeavor, maintaining institutional separation and functional interaction.” The essay uses historical and ecclesial sources to describe the struggles and underpinnings that lead to this position and then unpacks its meaning and import. While originating from within the conceptual and ecclesial American Lutheran tradition, the essay points to this approach as a public proposal for sound relationship between religious communities and political authority in the United States.     

Shi‘i Islamic cosmopolitanism and the transformation of religious authority in Senegal

Senegalese “conversion” to Shi‘i Islam resulted from cosmopolitan interactions with West Africa’s resident Lebanese population and Iranian revolutionary ideologies. Shi‘i advocates spread their religious convictions through teaching, conferences, holiday celebrations, and media publicity. Key to their success are libraries full of Arabic and French texts from Iran and Lebanon. Inherent in Islamic education is the authority bestowed on those who are knowledgeable, and with the spread of religious knowledge through books, media, and the Internet comes a broadening of the scope of religious authority and resulting conflict with or accommodation of old political communities. Senegalese converts to Shi‘i Islam use their literacy in Arabic and individually acquired libraries of Islamic legal books to bypass the authority of Sufi marabouts. Some keep their feet in both Sunni and Shi‘i worlds, and their ability to compare religious texts of both traditions wins them disciples. Shi‘i minorities claim autochthony and authenticity in Senegal through narrating revisionist historical accounts of the spread of (Shi‘i) Islam to Africa. Conferences commemorating the martyrdom of Imam Husayn during the Shi‘i mourning period in the month of Muharram target Sufi Muslims who also love the family of the Prophet. Shi‘i leaders skillfully detach this foreign religious ideology from Middle Eastern politics and make this branch of Islam relevant to Senegalese through establishing religious centers as NGOs, which work to bring health care and economic development to neighborhoods in the name of Shi‘i Islam.     

The challenges and future of applied Islamic ethics discourse: a radical reform?

In this paper, I explore the concept of applied Islamic ethics, the facts, its challenges, and its future. I aim to highlight some of the deep-rooted issues that Muslims have faced historically and continue to experience today as they apply religious guidance to their daily lives. I consider the causes and rationale behind the current situation and look beyond to suggest ways in which this may evolve, calling for a radical reform. Muslims throughout the world are experiencing a deepening crisis of identity and confusion about their faith's principles and practices. I suggest how improvements might be achieved, in order to gain more coherence and understanding. This approach recognizes the importance of inviting an in-depth, deliberate analysis of relevant dialogues between religious experts of the text (scholars) and practitioners, those working at the grassroots. This approach remains faithful to the fundamental principles of the Islamic sources but also considers our present context. I recommend a shift in authority from scholars alone to a more inclusive, critical engagement of practitioners. Through this more comprehensive methodology of applied Islamic ethics, I suggest that Muslim communities, organizations, and individuals can remain faithful to their religious principles while, at the same time, actively participating in and contributing to our evolving societies. While I recognize that this will be a long process, I am confident that with applied Islamic ethics, the current feelings of confusion, self-doubt, and even apathy, given the previous failed processes of adaptation and reform, will give way to a new confidence in knowing how to address contemporary challenges.     

An Emergent Threat: Christian Clergy Perceptions of the Emerging Church Movement

Although there have been several attempts to study the dimensions of the Emerging Church movement (ECM) through close observation and survey data, we know little about its diffusion into American religious cultures. We undertook this project by attempting to capture whether Christian clergy thought about the movement and how consistently they considered it. Our analysis of survey data from several denominations suggests that the ECM is less well known among the clergy they are reacting against (evangelicals). Opinions turn not on partisan identity, but on religious authority, which is precisely the ground on which the ECM presents its challenge to evangelicalism. In this way, the ECM appears to be following a path paved by the decline of denominationalism.     

Religious Discrimination in the Workplace: A Review and Examination of Current and Future Trends

Purpose

Over the last decade, religious discrimination claims have risen more rapidly compared to most other protected categories under the Civil Rights Act (CRA). The goal of this review paper is to summarize the psychological and HR practitioner-focused research on religious discrimination as it relates to the CRA to understand these religious discrimination claims. In doing so, this review also highlights what future research is needed, and what the challenges and practical implications of religious discrimination are for managers.

Design/methodology/approach

We conduct a systematic literature review of the psychology and business research on religious discrimination.

Findings

Building from the literature review and case law, we highlight four trends that contribute to religious discrimination in the workplace: (1) legal ambiguities, (2) increased religious diversity in the American workforce, (3) increasing expression of religious beliefs, and (4) the unique nature of religion.

Implications

The trends identified in our review paper highlight the need for employers to understand and address religious discrimination issues in the workplace and the lack of empirical research in this area points to a critical gap in our understanding of workplace religious discrimination that warrants future research.

Originality/value

In addition to highlighting trends that contribute to religious discrimination in the workplace, this literature review addresses where there are gaps in the existing research that call for further research and offers practical implications for employers and organizations.     

Religious Networking Organizations and Social Justice: An Ethnographic Case Study

The current study provides an innovative examination of how and why religious networking organizations work for social justice in their local community. Similar to a coalition or community coordinating council, religious networking organizations are formal organizations comprised of individuals from multiple religious congregations who consistently meet to organize around a common goal. Based on over a year and a half of ethnographic participation in two separate religious networking organizations focused on community betterment and social justice, this study reports on the purpose and structure of these organizations, how each used networking to create social capital, and how religion was integrated into the organizations' social justice work. Findings contribute to the growing literature on social capital, empowering community settings, and the unique role of religious settings in promoting social justice. Implications for future research and practice also are discussed.     

Faith‐Based Decisions? The Consequences of Heightened Religious Salience in Social Service Referral Decisions

Previous research suggests that clergy members are often an initial contact for people seeking advice or social services and clergy often refer such individuals in need to outside agencies. Recent "faith-based initiatives" seek to engage churches and religious groups more deeply in social service delivery, potentially changing the mix of organizations to which clergy might refer people in need. In addition, public debates about faith-based social services have drawn attention to religion, often in politically divisive ways. Using semi-structured interviews and vignettes in which key characteristics of outside agencies are experimentally varied, we explore the implications of this heightened attention to religion on clergy referrals. We find that increasing the salience of religion affects clergy referral choices, with some clergy even willing to sacrifice quality care and resources for an individual in need when religious options are available as referral choices. We argue that this occurs at least in part because making religion salient in policy and referrals makes religious differences salient as well.     

Parental Participation in Religious Services and Parent and Child Well-Being: Findings from the National Survey of America’s Families

Using data from the 1999 and 2002 National Survey of America’s Families, a large-scale nationally representative sample, this study finds that parental religious attendance is positively associated with parent self-rated health, parent mental well-being, positive parenting attitudes, child health, and child school engagement. Although the strength of these associations varies to some extent according to socio-demographic factors, the interactive patterns are not consistently predictable. Moreover, parental health and well-being and positive attitudes toward parenting appear to be important pathways linking parental religious attendance to child well-being. These findings suggest that opportunities for participation in local religious services offered by faith-based organizations may be fruitful avenues through which the government and society can help American families enhance parent and child well-being.