Clergy Response to Domestic Violence: A Preliminary Survey of Clergy Members,Victims, and Batterers

Although the presence of both religious organizations and violence in American communities is pervasive, scant attention has focused on how to best enroll clergy and religiously oriented resources in the battle against family violence. Given that it is not uncommon for women or couples to seek counseling or advice from clergy before accessing community-based resources, the frequency, nature, and utility of these contacts were assessed in this exploratory study from the perspectives of 47 female victims and 70 male perpetrators of domestic violence. Forty-one clergy members from various denominations were also surveyed about their contacts with those seeking help for domestic violence. Results indicated that 43% of the victims and 20% of the perpetrators did seek help from clergy. Almost all of the victims who contacted clergy reported satisfaction with the counsel they received. All clergy respondents reported counseling people who had experienced domestic violence during their career, and 80% had violence-related contacts in the past year. The service-related implications of these clergy contacts from victim, perpetrator, and clergy perspectives are discussed.     

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.     

Spirituality and Trauma: The Role of Clergy in the Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

An increased awareness of the spiritual aspects of health and illness has recently led to changes in psychiatry residency training as well as hospital accreditation requirements. The spiritual impact of trauma has been an area of particular interest, as trauma evokes certain existential questions and crises. It is estimated that from 5–11% of trauma survivors will go on to develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Given the spiritual challenges of the experience of trauma, patients with PTSD could benefit from spiritual assessment and intervention as part of their overall treatment plan, and clergy can be utilized to perform this. The literature exploring the spiritual impact of trauma and the use of clergy in the treatment of trauma survivors is reviewed. The methods used by three chaplains in a residential treatment program for PTSD at one facility are described and discussed. Both the literature and the experiences of the clergy suggest that exploration of trauma-related existential conflicts in patients with PTSD is beneficial. However, there is a notable dearth of controlled scientific studies evaluating the effectiveness of spiritual interventions with this treatment population. The need for controlled studies to verify the usefulness of spiritual assessment and intervention in patients with PTSD is noted, and a more rigorous analysis of how clergy can best serve this treatment population is encouraged.     

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.     

Saints and Sinners: Training Papua New Guinean (PNG) Christian Clergy to Respond to HIV and AIDS Using a Model of Care

Papua New Guinea has experienced a growing HIV/AIDS epidemic. The Christian Churches have played a vital role in responding to HIV, through community support, encouragement and social change. Strong, effective Church leadership can help create safe environments of care and support for those infected and for prevention of HIV. Method A series of trainings in capacity development for clergy were undertaken by the National AIDS Council Secretariat (NACS)/National HIV/AIDS Support Project (NHASP). Results A model “Church’s Response to HIV and AIDS in a Care Continuum” was developed to assist the training. This paper discusses the model and the lessons learned.

The Catholic Church and the crisis: the case of Portugal

This article investigates the role of the Roman Catholic Church in Portugal in the aftermath of the economic and financial crisis. Through a focus on the case of Lisbon, we explore how the crisis resulted in increased collaboration between religious organizations and the public administration. The crisis in fact changed the opportunity structure of the Portuguese Catholic world, which has reacted basically in three different ways. Firstly, the Episcopal Conference has pointed out the relevance of subsidiarity in the welfare field—and, more broadly, as a principle of societal organization—in the attempt to re-negotiate its role and relevance within Portuguese society, drawing on the activity and the reputation of the Catholic organizations. Secondly, Caritas and the National Commission of Justice and Peace have been quite vocal in denouncing the shortcomings of the Government and the effects of the austerity measures, calling for equality and justice and putting pressure on the Episcopal Conference as well as the central government. Thirdly, local organizations—including religious organizations, such as Caritas—have been gaining a new important role in the coordination and provision of welfare services, as the crisis accelerated the trends towards subsidiarity and governance.     

The Glory of God is a Human Being Fully Alive: Predictors of Positive Versus Negative Mental Health Among Clergy

Clergy fulfill vital societal functions as meaning makers and community builders. Partly because of their important roles, clergy frequently encounter stressful situations. Further, studies suggest that clergy experience high rates of depression. Despite this, few studies have examined protective factors for clergy that may increase their positive mental health. We invited all United Methodist clergy in North Carolina to participate in a survey. Of church‐serving clergy, 85 percent responded (n = 1,476). Hierarchical multiple regression was used to assess the predictors of three positive and four negative mental health outcomes. The three sets of predictors were: demographics, which explained 2–10 percent of the variances; variables typically related to mental health (social support, social isolation, and financial stress), which explained 14–41 percent of the variances; and clergy‐specific variables, which explained 14–20 percent of the variances, indicating the importance of measuring occupation‐specific variables. Some variables (e.g., congregation demands) significantly related to both positive and negative mental health, whereas others (e.g., positive congregations, congregation support) significantly related primarily to positive mental health. In addition to their intervention implications, these findings support separate consideration for negative versus positive mental health.     

Identity Importance and the Overreporting of Religious Service Attendance: Multiple Imputation of Religious Attendance Using the American Time Use Study and the General Social Survey

The difference between religious service attendance measured using conventional surveys and time diaries has been attributed to identity processes; a high level of religious identity importance may prompt overreporting on a survey question. This article tests the hypothesized role of identity importance as an individual determinant of overreporting and the result of socially desirable behavior. A time diary measure of attendance (from the American Time Use Study 2003–2008) is imputed for conventional survey data (from the General Social Survey 2002–2008) using the multiple imputation for multiple studies procedure ( Gelman, King, and Liu 1998a ). Logistic regression models predicting self‐reported attendance and overreported attendance are estimated using identity importance as a key covariate and controlling for demographic variables associated with attendance. Identity importance is a strong predictor of both self‐reported and overreported attendance. Attendance, while a biased measure of actual behavior, may be a good indicator of religiosity.     

Using census data in the management of religious diversity: an Australian case study

Abstract

Mapping and measuring religious diversity has become critical to the management of interreligious relations in the 21st century. The data about religious identification provided by the Australian census since the formation of Federal Government in Australia, and prior to that in the Colonies, has provided detailed information about the extent of and changes in religious diversity in the nation and in particular cities. Because the census also provides very detailed information about where people of different religions live, it can provide information about the extent to which religious groups are residentially segregated, a factor which affects how people of different religions relate to each other. The methodological issues related to measuring diversity are discussed and the utility in urban contexts of a ‘dissimilarity scale’ is demonstrated. The unique contribution of census data to the mapping and management of religious diversity in Australia is presented.     

Understanding Pay Satisfaction: The Limits of a Compensation System Implementation

Although a common organizational intervention, research investigating the impact of compensation system implementation on employee outcomes is limited. As one type of intervention, job evaluation usually includes substantial employee participation in order to improve employee pay satisfaction. This assumption, however, is rarely validated. To address this weakness, the present study examines, in a quasi-experimental field study at a manufacturing firm (N = 168), the extent to which participation in the job evaluation process during a compensation system implementation influences pay satisfaction. Both longitudinal and between-group comparisons failed to show a participation effect on pay satisfaction, casting doubt on the organizational development benefits of this common intervention.     

The Contribution of Physical Activity to Health-Related Quality of Life: New Population Estimates from National Survey Data

Sedentary lifestyles have been linked to higher rates of stroke, hypertension, depression, certain types of cancers, and cardiovascular disease, and increased risk of mortality. The link between physical inactivity and health has led to research on how physical activity (PA) interventions might improve health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Estimates of HRQoL improvements are typically focused on targeted at-risk groups, however. Given that almost half of the U.S. adult population is physically inactive, it would be helpful to broaden our understanding of how PA relates to quality of life for the population at large. In this study, we calculated the HRQoL gains attributable to PA across three nationally representative data sets that use different quality of life measures, and assessed the reliability in the results. The data sets used were the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), and the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). Quasi-likelihood regression modeling with a beta distribution was used to generate the estimates. We found mean HRQoL scores were very similar across the three data sets and the estimated HRQoLs gained from PA varied only slightly, suggesting that all three provide reliable estimates for the general population.

     

Religion and the decision to donate organs: Exploring the potential role of religious leaders

The two‐step flow model of communication (Katz, 1957 ) suggests opinion leaders obtain critical information from the mass media and, in turn, communicate this information to interpersonal contacts such as friends, family and co‐workers. It is suggested that religious leaders (RLs) may serve as opinion leaders on the topic of organ donation by debunking donation myths, promoting donation during worship services, or communicating the benefit of donation to families faced with the opportunity to participate in living or cadaveric donation. The current study examined the personal knowledge, experiences, and willingness to communicate about organ donation in a sample of RLs (N = 59) in Rochester, New York. Structured interviews were conducted in summer and fall of 2009 with a random sample of RLs. Results indicate a disparity between RLs' expressed personal support for donation and their engagement in donor registration. Approximately one‐quarter of RLs have spoken about donation during a religious service and many indicate their knowledge is not sufficient to discuss organ donation in detail. Results elaborate on how RLs may be trained to serve as opinion leaders in the promotion of organ donation. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Countries Mimicking Neighbors: The Spatial Diffusion of Governmental Restrictions on Religion

Conceptualized as efforts to deny religious freedoms, previous research explains the presence of governmental restrictions on religion by isolating national governments, asserting that the primary determinant is a country's internal structural characteristics. These approaches overlook why the levels of governmental restriction on religion are spatially clustered and increasing in distinct patterns. Utilizing spatial analysis and data from the Religion and State Project, this article demonstrates that governmental restrictions on religion are spatially clustered, not independent from neighboring countries, and that increases in a country's level of restrictions reflect similar changes in bordering countries. Spatial clustering emerges through the diffusion of policies, where national governments mimic their neighbor's policies and practices even when accounting for internal structural characteristics. The article concludes that while a country's internal structure is clearly a predictor of policies, national governments are not isolated from neighbors where the level of restrictions are susceptible to external influence.     

The Wisdom of Individuals: Exploring People's Knowledge About Everyday Events Using Iterated Learning

Determining the knowledge that guides human judgments is fundamental to understanding how people reason, make decisions, and form predictions. We use an experimental procedure called 'iterated learning,' in which the responses that people give on one trial are used to generate the data they see on the next, to pinpoint the knowledge that informs people's predictions about everyday events (e.g., predicting the total box office gross of a movie from its current take). In particular, we use this method to discriminate between two models of human judgments: a simple Bayesian model ( Griffiths & Tenenbaum, 2006 ) and a recently proposed alternative model that assumes people store only a few instances of each type of event in memory (Min K ; Mozer, Pashler, & Homaei, 2008 ). Although testing these models using standard experimental procedures is difficult due to differences in the number of free parameters and the need to make assumptions about the knowledge of individual learners, we show that the two models make very different predictions about the outcome of iterated learning. The results of an experiment using this methodology provide a rich picture of how much people know about the distributions of everyday quantities, and they are inconsistent with the predictions of the Min K model. The results suggest that accurate predictions about everyday events reflect relatively sophisticated knowledge on the part of individuals.     

Towards the Good Life: A Population Survey of Dimensions of Quality of Life

The aim of the analyses presented here was to explore subjective and objective components and predictors of self-rated quality of life (QoL). The vehicle for the study was a questionnaire module on perceptions of quality of life, which was commissioned by the authors for inclusion in the Office of National Statistics (ONS) Omnibus Survey in Great Britain. For the survey, 2033 randomly sampled adults aged 16 and over were interviewed in their own homes (77% response rate). Multiple regression analyses showed that relatively little of the variance in overall QoL ratings was explained by the objective, socio-demographic indicators (5%), and the addition of the health status indicator (reported longstanding illness) contributed nothing. The subjective ratings of life in self-nominated areas of importance explained the most, with those who did not prioritise the area at all as the referent (relationships, finances, own health, others' health, work and social life). These variables contributed over twice as much as the objective and health status variables, indicating the relative importance of self-nominated 'important areas of life' over theoretically important, objective variables and reported illness. However, the final model still only explained a modest amount of the variance in quality of life ratings (16%), confirming the amorphous nature of quality of life.     

The naked truth: mindfulness and the purification of religion

To arrive at an understanding of what drives the much debated spiritual turn in Western Europe, we study the spiritual trajectories and identifications of mindfulness practitioners in the formerly predominantly Roman Catholic context of Flanders in Belgium. Fifteen semi-structured interviews addressed their religious and spiritual biographical trajectories as well as the symbolic boundaries they draw with adjacent religious and spiritual groups. We find marked evidence of a process of ‘religious purification’, which unfolds as a critique of the formal and external aspects of both religion (organisations, dogmas, ritual) and spirituality (woolly and frivolous New Age word games). To validate and justify, alternatively, the ‘pure’ and ‘grounded’ spirituality that results, those concerned consistently invoke the authority of science.     

Public Responses to Community Compensation: The Importance of Prior Consultations with Local Residents

A company that wants to implement an industrial project with adverse local impacts can offer the members of the affected community compensation for bearing the burdens associated with the project. In the current study, participants evaluated such a situation from the perspective of observer. Depending on experimental condition, they learned that a company either had or had not consulted members of the affected community prior to deciding on the compensation offer. The compensation offer was either public goods compensation or individual monetary compensation. We hypothesized and found that the decision‐making process was considered fairer and the company was perceived as more concerned with the local public interest when the company had consulted local residents prior to deciding on the compensation offer. Also, the company was believed to be more concerned with the local public interest when it offered public goods compensation instead of individual monetary compensation. Perceived concern and perceived fairness predicted the perceived trustworthiness of the company, and this, in turn, predicted how participants anticipated the members of the affected community to react to the compensation offered by the company. The study thus demonstrates the importance of consultations with local residents in the process of deciding on compensation measures. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Survey Zoroastrians: Online Religious Identification in the Islamic Republic of Iran

This article contributes to the internationalization of survey methodology by discussing a case from a totalitarian state, the Islamic Republic of Iran. In 2020, GAMAAN (The Group for Measuring and Analyzing Attitudes in Iran) conducted an online survey on religion. The survey had 50,000 participants, around 90 percent of whom lived in Iran. This article discusses the result that, after weighting, 8 percent identified as Zoroastrian—many times the number of Zoroastrians as recorded by scholarship on Iranian Zoroastrianism. We dub this phenomenon “Survey Zoroastrianism” and offer an explanation for this finding. After describing the position of Zoroastrianism in modern Iran and adding two further online surveys conducted by GAMAAN in 2022, we discuss the Survey Zoroastrians’ demographics and their religious and political views. The analysis shows that participating in surveys beyond the government's control provided affordances for performing alternative identity aspirations tied to notions of nationalism and civilizational heritage.     

汉语塞-元-塞音序列语境效应机制探讨

以汉语塞-元音节(/pa/、/pi/和/pu/)及其声学线索的非言语模拟音为语境音,汉语/ta/-/ka/连续体为目标音,在3个实验中考察了语境音对汉语听者识别目标音的影响及潜在机制。实验1发现3个塞-元音节的语境效应与频谱对比效应的预期部分一致,与发音特征理论的预期相矛盾。实验2和实验3发现3个塞-元音节关键声学线索(第二共振峰轨迹)的非言语模拟音和所有共振峰轨迹的非言语模拟音表现出类似的语境效应,二者与3个塞-元音节的语境效应总体上一致,但细节方面存在一些差别。实验结果表明塞-元-塞音序列的语境效应主要源于语境音节关键声学线索的差异,这为听觉理论提供了支持,但语境音的语音范畴也部分影响到3个音节的语境效应模式。另外实验结果发现远离目标音关键声学线索频率区的语境音也促进了特定语音范畴的识别,可能由于语境音激活了相应语音范畴的声学线索。