Religious Brand Loyalty and Political Loyalties

Numerous works have detailed the breakdown of brand loyalty within society over the last forty years and its results. Whether examining political loyalties, religious loyalties, or loyalties to brands such as Lucky Strike cigarettes, each study has noted a lowering of traditional barriers to switchingbrands and the creation of a nation of individualist choosers (Friedman 1990). Here I attempt to suggest some connections between religious and political loyalties. Using the 1993 General Social Survey, I operationalize religious loyalty in four ways and suggest three mechanisms through which religious loyalty is connected to political loyalty: psychological ties, socialeties,and social circumstances. I find significant effects of different conceptions of religious loyalty encouraging party loyalties, steadfast voting, and loyalty to on party's presidential candidates across two elections.     

A Religious Point of View

The purpose of this paper is to show connections between Wittgenstein's approach to philosophy and the writings on religion of two authors whom we know Wittgenstein read and admired: William James and Leo Tolstoy. Wittgenstein stresses certain attitudes toward philosophical ‘problems’ which resemble the attitudes that James and Tolstoy connect with religious faith. There are also similarities of phrases and expressions. It is not possible to say that these writers influenced the way Wittgenstein regarded philosophy, but it suggests that he recognized the similarities between their approaches and his despite the differences in subject. Consequently it helps to clarify why he would speak of his approach to problems as being from ‘a religious point of view’ even though its orientation is not specifically religious.     

Contextual Inequalities in Religious Youth Programming

Religious congregations are hypothesized to be a community organization affected by contextual inequalities. Survey and interview data are analyzed to investigate the type and prevalence of youth programming in a geographic area. Rather than drawing a sample of religious congregations in the area, the telephone survey was conducted with every congregation located in the three contiguous cities. Coupled with the high response rate (98.9%), this allows for a unique analysis of a total population of congregations in the specified area. In-person interviews were also conducted with religious youth ministers sampled from the broader population of congregations. U.S. Census (American Factfinder, 2000) data on the areas in which the congregations were located was linked to survey and interview data. Results demonstrate contextual effects in religious youth programming, net of denomination, congregation size, and budget. The availability and type of youth programming in different locations relates to the inequalities embedded in these contexts. This study indicates that social disorganization theories apply to religious organizations not in inequalities of the number of congregations located in any particular area but in inequalities in the level of youth programming density available within those congregations.     

Conflicting Loyalties: A Literature Review

Because most counselors are employees of institutions and agencies rather than private practitioners, the problem of dual, sometimes conflicting, allegiance to the employer and to the client has long been an issue. The ethical code of the American Personnel and Guidance Association acknowledges this ambiguity, but it does not offer precise directions for its resolution. It is assumed that counselors may turn to the professional literature for direction to resolve the dilemma. This article surveys the relevant literature in an attempt to discover the nature of the direction available to counselors as they deal with conflicting loyalties.     

Religious Naturalism and the Religion-Science Dialogue: A Minimalist View

Although its roots go back at least to Spinoza, religious naturalism is once again becoming a self–conscious option in religious thinking. This article seeks to (1) provide a generic notion of religious naturalism, (2) sketch my own "minimalist" variety of religious naturalism, and (3) view the science–religion dialogue from both of these perspectives. This last will include reflection on the nature of scientific practices, the contributions of religious traditions to moral reflection, and Ursula Goodenough's "religiopoiesis."     

论李维汉的宗教观

李维汉的宗教观是他参加革命以后,立足并服务于中国革命和建设的全局,特别是在领导中国共产党的统一战线工作的实践过程中逐步形成和发展起来的。他的宗教观包含丰富的内容,涉及宗教和宗教问题的基本理论以及正确处理中国宗教问题的基本原则,构成了一个比较完整的体系,是马列主义宗教观与中国宗教国情正确结合的产物,是马列主义宗教观中国化的重要成果。特别是关于社会主义时期宗教问题的思想,创造性地丰富和发展了毛泽东思想的宗教观,在很大程度上构成了党和国家宗教工作的理论依据,在中国化的马克思主义宗教观发展史上占有重要历史地位。     

Philosophical Implications of Religious Pluralism

Journal of Indian Council of Philosophical Research - Living in multi-religious societies in almost all parts of the world, religious diversity is a fact of life for all of us in the contemporary...     

Religious Implications of Western Personality Theory

The purpose of this article is to outline some of the religious implications of Western personality theory. It begins with broad comments about the general theoretical tradition of the West, especially of secular disciplines such as psychology. Next, it sketches briefly the religious implications of many aspects of the three forces of psychology, i.e., psychoanalysis, behaviorism, and humanism, with special emphasis on some of the more classical theorists, such as Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, B. F. Skinner, Albert Bandura, Carl Rogers, and George Kelly. Lastly, it paints some broad-brush strokes regarding alternatives to these three forces, specifically, two types of postmodern understandings of religious persons and their contexts, social constructionism and hermeneutics.     

Implications of Religious Identity Salience,Religious Involvement,and Religious Commitment on Aggression

Social identity can affect perceptions of external threats and the type of response elicited to those threats. Religion is a social identity with eternal group membership and revered beliefs and values; thus, religious identity salience, religious commitment, and religious involvement may have implications for aggressive responses to perceived threats to a person’s religious identity. In a sample of 176 Christians, Muslims, and Jews, we investigated whether people respond aggressively to collective threat as a function of religious identity salience, religious commitment, and religious involvement. Religious commitment was positively related to anger only when religious identity was salient. Religious involvement was negatively related to anger and hostility only when religious identity was salient. Religious identity salience appears to act as a moderator by either enhancing perceptions of threat or by activating internal religious beliefs and values.     

Spiritual and Religious Implications of Aging with HIV: A Conceptual and Methodological Review

ABSTRACT

Spirituality and religious practices can buffer people from stressful life circumstances and promote positive biopsychosocial outcomes. The beneficial effects of spirituality and religious practices have been documented in aging and HIV. Unfortunately, little is known about spirituality and religious practices in older adults with HIV. As the number of older adults with HIV increases, with an estimated 91,000 adults over 50 being diagnosed with this disease in the United States, spirituality and religious practices may help HIV-positive people to age successfully. Crisis competence and spiritual trajectories are ways of conceptualizing spiritual development when confronting aging with a life-changing event such as a being diagnosed with HIV. Methodological issues in studying spirituality in adults aging with HIV are identified including defining spirituality and religiosity, heterogeneity of the population, timing of diagnosis, mode of transmission, sexual orientation, religious and cultural stigma, and hardiness. Implications for possible interventions are also posited.     

Religious Identity-Inconsistent Attending: Its Correlates and Political Implications

The foundation of religious measurement in surveys presumes that individual religious affiliation (“What is your present religion, if any?”) accurately describes the religious community in which respondents are involved. But what if it doesn't? In a recent survey of 4,000 Americans, we asked whether their current congregation matches their religious identity and about a fifth of Americans indicated that it does not. We document the degree of this inconsistency, its correlates, and its implications, focusing primarily on the politics that congregants are exposed to from clergy and the attitudes they hold about salient political matters. The identity-inconsistent attenders often vary significantly from identity-consistent attenders, which serves to introduce considerable measurement error in the use of a religious tradition measure to depict American religion. The results suggest that salient disagreement induces a sizable population to migrate to a congregation outside their religious identity.     

Religious Orientation and Multidimensional Perfectionism: Relationships and Implications

To investigate relationships between religiosity and multidimensional perfectionism, the researchers administered measures of religious orientation and multidimensional perfectionism to 242 undergraduate students. The researchers found that more religious students had higher scores on an adaptive dimension of perfectionism (personal standards) but not on any of the measures of maladaptive perfectionism, suggesting that religious persons may be perfectionistic in adaptive, but not in maladaptive, ways.     

Religious and Psychological Implications of Positive and Negative Religious Coping in Iran

This study examined the religious and psychological implications of religious coping in Iran. University students (N = 224) responded to the Brief Positive and Negative Religious Coping Scales along with measures of Religious Orientation, Integrative Self-Knowledge, Self-Control, Mindfulness, Self-Compassion, Self-Esteem, Guilt, Shame, and Self-Criticism. As in previous research elsewhere, Positive Religious Coping was stronger on average than Negative Religious Coping, and Positive and Negative Religious Coping predicted adjustment and maladjustment, respectively, In addition, this study demonstrated that direct relationships between Positive and Negative Religious Coping appeared to be reliable in Iran; that Positive Religious Copings was broadly compatible with, and Negative Religious Coping was largely irrelevant to, Iranian religious motivations; and that Negative Religious Coping obscured linkages of Positive Religious Coping with religious and psychological adjustment.     

Waiting for Paternity: Interpersonal and Contextual Implications of the Timing of Fatherhood

The aim of this study was to examine the effects of life-span contextual variation on father-child relationships. Sixty families in which both parents were either younger than 26 or older than 29 when they began childbearing, and whose child was between the ages of 3 and 5 at the time of the study participated. Videotaped observations of father-child play were collected. Questionnaires were also administered to fathers, assessing their marital satisfaction, work-home compatibility, and social network attributes. Older fathers established stronger connections to extra-familial contexts and displayed greater reliance on verbal mechanisms to engage children during play. Younger fathers maintained a more traditional style of fathering and engaged their children through physical stimulation. The implications of these findings for models of father-child relationships were explored.     

Sexual Attraction and Religious Therapists: Survey Findings and Implications

Five hundred Christian therapists returned surveys describing their beliefs and behaviors regarding sexual attraction and sexual expression toward their clients. Four groups of Christian therapists responded: psychologists, licensed therapists, nonlicensed therapists, and lay counselors. Christian therapists' responses are compared with those from a similar survey of 456 psychologists selected without regard to religious values. Most groups of Christian therapists are less likely than previously surveyed psychologists to report sexual attraction and fantasy toward clients, but the differences between Christian psychologists and other psychologists are minimal. Religious factors that may increase the stigma of admitting sexual attraction are considered.     

Religious Affiliation and Attendance Among Immigrants in Eight Western Countries: Individual and Contextual Effects

This study examines the religious affiliation and participation of immigrants from a large-scale, comparative perspective. I propose a "specific migration" framework, in which immigrants' religiosity is an outcome of both individual characteristics and contextual properties related to immigrants' country of origin, country of destination, and combinations of origin and destination (i.e., communities). I use notions discussed in the religion and migration literature that fit into this scheme. To test these ideas, I collected and standardized 20 existing surveys on immigrants in eight Western countries, yielding about 38,000 immigrants. Applying multilevel models, I found, among other things, that: (1) immigrants from countries with higher levels of modernization express lower levels of religious commitment; (2) immigrants in religious countries are more religious themselves; and (3) the well-documented higher levels of religious commitment among women is not generalizable to immigrants.