The Structure of Religious Environmentalism: Movement Organizations,Interorganizational Networks,and Collective Action

Historically, religious groups have been absent from the American environmental movement, but since the late 1990s a host of new religious environmental movement organizations (REMOs) have emerged. Little is known about REMOs or how religion structures the nascent movement field. Drawing on interviews with leaders of 63 REMOs in the United States, we examined whether theological frames and religious affiliations, on the one hand, and environmental interests, on the other, shaped the formation of information exchange and joint action between REMOs. The results show that shared religious affiliations and theological frames are directly associated with joint action between REMOs. In contrast, shared environmental interests are associated directly with information exchange, but not joint action. The results suggest that cultural aspects of religion are linked to the structure of the religious environmental movement.     

The Mobilization of Evangelical Protestants in the Nonprofit Sector: Parachurch Foundings Across U.S. Counties, 1998–2016

The political mobilization of evangelicals has been widely chronicled, but their mobilization in the civil sector has received far less attention. That mobilization is embodied in parachurch organizations, which are nonprofits infused with religious purpose but independent of congregations and denominations. Here we examine the features of local communities that account for variation in the creation of parachurch organizations. Drawing upon a broad number of theoretical approaches, we develop a series of expectations about the variation in parachurch foundings across counties. Using IRS registration records and a diverse set of other secondary data sources, we assess the impact of religious structures and cultures, organizational densities, and government and social movement contexts on parachurch foundings across U.S. counties. Our analysis finds that counties with higher rates of adherence to evangelical Protestantism generate more parachurch organizations, but only if the county is not too saturated by evangelicals. On the other hand, counties with higher rates of adherence to Catholic, mainline Protestant, and Latter‐Day Saint traditions generate fewer parachurch organizations.     

Social Capital,Race, and Personal Fundraising in Evangelical Outreach Ministries

This study examines the relationship between social capital inequality, race, and personal fundraising within evangelical outreach ministries (EOMs). Drawing on quantitative and qualitative data that assess the personal fundraising experiences and outcomes of a large sample of EOM workers (N = 715), I demonstrate that the fundraising challenges and deficits faced by EOM workers are best understood as deficits in the social capital of these individual workers. Multivariate analyses affirm that social capital deficits (that is, having smaller social networks and networks with fewer resources) negatively affect the fundraising experiences and outcomes of EOM workers, especially for racial minorities. Findings also evidence a strong correlation between the paucity of minority EOM workers’ social capital and the extent to which they must seek bridging social capital from white individuals and churches. This study concludes with implications for the financing of American evangelical parachurch organizations, the sustained racial and socioeconomic homogeneity of EOMs, and theories of social capital exchanges within interracial religious organizations.