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This paper examines the theoretical and historical development of the term "cult," from its inception in the work of Troeltsch to more modern delineations of the term in the work of researchers studying new religious groups. The usurpation of the term by popular usage associated with strong negative connotations is discussed, along with efforts by a few contemporary scholars to salvage the term by redefining it in ways which attempt to combine traditional and popular meanings. The futility of this approach is discussed, and the paper concludes with suggestions that scholars should avoid the term and that it should not be allowed to be used in legal proceedings because of its confused and negatively connoted meaning in contemporary society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the issue of church involvement in social justice actions. The question addressed is whether the church can involve itself in social action without losing the support of church members. In this paper I have examined the church membership support of the Campaign for Human Development the Catholic church's education-action program which, especially through its grant-making program, concretely addresses the issue of poverty and powerlessness. This study shows that in spite of the very sensitive and sometimes controversial issues confronted by the Campaign, the church membership has not withdrawn its support of the program. On the contrary, over the past three years membership contributions to the Campaign have risen at a rate of about 22 percent nationally. The findings in this paper also suggest that the annual rate of increase in membership support is even greater in those areas where the local church-diocese, parish, or clergy-have been more visibly involved in the justice education or funding activities of the Campaign for Human Development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to examine patterns of social participation among middle class neo-Pentecostals. This paper presents evidence, based on the study of a neo-Pentecostal group in western Virginia, that participation in a group with sect-like characteristics does influence the participant's pattern of organizational involvement. The evidence strongly indicates that neo!Pentea costals decrease the variety and amount of their social participation after joining the neo-Pentecostal group. The growth of neo-Pentecostalism has brought into question prior socio-logical approaches to Pentecostalism which emphasized socio!economic deprivation. Neo-Pentecostalism has emerged among those who are not economically and/or socially deprived in the conventional sociological sense. The socio-economic approach to Pentecostalism was closely associated with traditional sect-church theory. In the literature Pentecostalism was identified as sectarian and appealing primarily to the lower socio-economic classes of society.

This paper examines the nature and social impact of religion in contemporary South Korea in order to bring into relief the main characteristics of the country religious culture. The paper shows that South Korea is religiously diverse, with traditional religions such as Shamanism and Buddhism coexisting peacefully with Christianity. The paper also shows that the county has experienced a rapid growth of religions, especially Christianity, since the early 1960s and that the Christian "success story" is largely due to the religion's incorporation of beliefs and practices that promise the fulfillment of such material wishes as wealth and health. It is also shown that the influence of religion is actually expanding in South Korea today, as religious organizations continue to not only expand their involvement in social and welfare services but also extend their ownership and operation of commercial enterprises in such fields as the mass media, education, health care and publication. As regards the impact of religion on social class, politics, and attitudes toward social values, the paper shows that Buddhists have generally lower level of educational attainment, occupy lower economic class and hold more conservative political views and social values than Christians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some twenty years ago, the general theme for the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association focused on the ways in which various professions made use of sociologists and their research in pursuing the goals of their professions. Thus papers at that meeting described how sociologists contributed to medical, educational, political and other institutions. I was invited to read a paper on how sociological research was used by religious groups. This paper was later published in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion under the title "Uses of Sociology: By Religious Bodies" (Fuku-yama, 1963). In 1984 this writer was invited by the Lilly Endowment to study the current status of organized social research in the churches, particularly as these activities were institutionalized in denominations, councils of churches and theological seminaries. This project provided a welcomed opportunity to bring the earlier study up-to-date and this paper is a summary of what was reported to the Lilly Endowment in 1985. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between social contact with gays and lesbians and beliefs about homosexuality, and explicitly investigates whether this relationship is different for Christian evangelicals than for others. We find that although social contact with gays and lesbians is related to beliefs about homosexuality in ways predicted by social contact theory, those with a gay or lesbian friend hold more positive attitudes, this is not the case for Christian evangelicals. In fact, analyses reveal that the effect of social contact for Christian evangelicals is significantly less than the effect for non-evangelicals. Results suggest that social contact alone is not enough to positively change Christian evangelicals' beliefs about gay and lesbian individuals. This research adds to our knowledge about social contact by providing empirical evidence that all subgroups of the population are not affected equally by social contact with minority groups-an important piece of information for theoretical developments and policy makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Japan, quantitative accounts of religious membership range from more than one and a half times the total population to thirty percent or less, and we do not have a solid understanding of who these religious affiliates are. This paper addresses four core questions to provide a clearer portrayal of Japanese religious affiliation: 1) What is the approximate number of Japanese who claim religious affiliation? 2) How do the figures presented in this study differ from previous statistics and why? 3) Are there significant differences between individual affiliates and those who claim to have a "household" religion? And 4) What are some of the theoretical explanations for religious affiliation in Japan? Using data from large nationally representative probability samples of Japanese adults, multivariate analysis indicates that some deprivation measures (e.g., unemployment and low education and income levels) help explain individual affiliation with "New Religions" but not with Buddhist or Christian groups, and socialization controls (e.g., gender, age, social engagement, and traditional attitudes) can predict belief in Buddhist, New Religion, and Christian religions. Insufficient data have hindered research on this important topic in the past. This study takes advantage of new resources and supports findings from qualitative research, enabling us to explore who are religious affiliates in Japan and why they might claim such associations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The political involvement of Christian denominations in the last several decades has been shaped by a number of factors, such as the agendas particular denominations choose to pursue, whether issues are defined as moral or political ones, independent clergy activity, opinion gaps between elites and lay people, interaction with special interest groups, and the presence of inter-denominational coalitions. Conversely, restructuring theory suggests that as denominational identities and loyalties decline and parishioners become more divided in their political views, their denominations are less likely to take political action because of the internal conflict that would result. This paper examines denominational political activity on the subject of homosexuality to see if it conforms to restructuring theory, or if it could be better understood by historical factors. The evidence from this study shows that, while restructuring theory may help explain contemporary denominational political action in some limited situations, the aforementioned historical factors continue to explain much of the existing patterns of activity on this specific issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The political involvement of Christian denominations in the last several decades has been shaped by a number of factors, such as the agendas particular denominations choose to pursue, whether issues are defined as moral or political ones. independent clergy activity opinion gaps between elites and lay people, interaction with special interest groups, and the presence of inter-denominational coalitions. This research note summarizes the public policy positions taken on the subject of homosexuality for the twenty-five largest denominations in North America, as well as additional denominations represented by the National Association of Evangelicals, the National Council of Christian Churches. the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, and the Canadian Council of Churches. The paper also reports the strategies and tactics used, and how the denominations' political activity compares with previous patterns of engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a case study involving a religious congregation affiliated with the Churches of Christ (Campbellite Tradition). A key component of their ministry is a program entitled Outreach. In addition to providing food, clothing, shelter, substance abuse education, and counseling through the church. Outreach also includes direct intervention and education to those who are HIV+ or who are suffering from AIDS. This facet of the program includes providing bleach kits for disinfecting needles as well as facilitating condom distribution. The present paper provides a qualitative report of this congregation's work. We have interviewed the congregation's Evangelist/Director and other church leaders; we have reviewed the church's promotional and teaching materials; we have also included several references to sermon transcripts from which we derive a synthesis of this congregation's sense of its mission. We are able to show that, despite its ties to a fundamentalist denomination and its strong adherence to a morally conservative ideology, all of the components of Outreach are consistent with the congregation's central values, and, paradoxically, work to enhance their material and social interests in the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through interviews with thirty-seven individuals, I compare personal "identity accounts "for women who agree with Church doctrines, those who disagree and leave the Church, and those who disagree and remain loyal to Catholicism. Surprisingly, women who leave and women who agree with Catholic doctrines have similar accounts for what it means to be a Catholic. The central part of this paper is devoted to understanding women who are dissatisfied and remain committed Catholics. These women view Catholic identity as negotiable, finding meaning and voice in their parish and in the wider Church. This group also believes in their own abilities to make changes in the doctrines of the Church, revealing that individualist religious identities may actually foster commitment. Findings expand research on religious identities and have implications for the relationship of personal identity accounts to institutional change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Church of God (COG, Cleveland, Tennessee) is one of the largest Pentecostal denominations in the world. A distinctive characteristic of Pentecostalism in general, and of the COG in particular, is glossolalia, which is accepted as biblical war- rant for possession by the Holy Ghost. This paper uses historical documents, especially articles in the Church of God Evangel (COGE) to document that, as the early COG carefully socially constructed the importance of tongues-speaking as evidence for Holy Ghost possession, they also encouraged, supported, and utilized serpent handling as another biblically warranted sign. Over time, however, as the church grew from a small sect to denominational status, it came to oppose serpent handling. The churches that refused to abandon this practice became "renegade" Churches of God and remain as such to the present time. Recent modifications in church-sect theory account for both the maintenance of serpent handling as a high-cost religious practice among renegade Churches of God and its abandonment as a high-cost religious behavior within the more mainstream COG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Offenbacher's statistical study (1901) comparing the school enrollment of German Protestants to Catholics plays an important part in support of the claim that Protestants historically have been more favorably disposed to modernity. This study found that Protestants surpassed Catholics in enrollment at the various types of secondary schools, and particularly at those institutions emphasizing science, mathematics, and other "practical" subjects. Weber and Merton interpret Offenbacher's findings as a statistical demonstration of a Protestant proclivity for capitalist enterprise and scientific endeavor respectively. This paper challenges Weber's and Merton's idealist interpretations by reference to the Kulturkampf, a religious-political confrontation of the 1870s and 80s between Protestants and Catholics that produced striking denominational differences in employment opportunities in theology. Given the differences in vocational specialization that marked the various German schools, these differences in opportunities are found to have played a decisive part in producing the denominational differences in school enrollments reported in Offenbacher's study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sociologists have expended little effort to examine the experiential dimension of religion. When social scientists have turned their attention to religious experience. They have used a definition of the concept which has overly restricted its scope. This paper is based upon the ethnographic study of an African Methodist Episcopal congregation made up primarily of the working poor and near-poor. I use the data to study the reported experiences of congregational members concerning the action of spiritual beings in their everyday lives, and I discuss the role of social ties and the cultural devices of metaphor and narrative in shaping these experiences. Finally, I demonstrate the influence of social location-primarily race and class-on attributions to supernatural agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses exchange theory and symbolic interactionism to explain why some members of affluent churches give more money to their churches than others do. The two theories produced four independent variables: one stressing exchange theory (benefit orientation), one stressing symbolic interabtionism (belief orientation), and two combining elements of both (intrinsic religiosity and participation). Data from 30 affluent congregations indicate that the most important sources of giving are income, intrinsic religiosity, and participation. Exogenous variables, belief orientation, and benefit orientation have smaller effects. We conclude by stressing the value of linking the two theories in future research, rather than stressing one over the other. Appeals and activities which combine the inherent value of faith with the benefits members derive from religious commitment are more likely to inspire giving than ones which stress faith and ignore benefits or ones which appeal to self interests and ignore faith. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Justice, the value dominant in the Old Testament in general and among the teachings of the Prophets, is absent from the New Testament. The ideal of justice has been replaced in the New Testament by love (agapae). Using a sociological frame of reference, this paper advances reasons for this change. The argument is that this change is due to the socio-political conditions that affected the rise of Christianity as a religion and community, as well as the need for developing an identity independent of its Jewish origin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing numbers of women are entering the ordained ministry of the Christian Church. Whether they embrace or challenge traditional female roles, clergywomen are changing some aspects of the ministry, not least through their skills at counselling and their person centered focus. By comparing British and American data, this paper argues that female ministers differ from their male colleagues in terms of their personal characteristics, their reasons for choosing the den cal profession and the factors they find rewarding and costly about their service to the church. While their numbers have increased, clergywomen still face a variety of obstacles to their ministry. These include structural barriers, placement difficulties, resistance amongst laity, opposition from clergymen and the traditionally masculine symbolism and liturgy of the church. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the influence of the urban setting on the numerical growth and decline of churches in a southern city. Using a typology of urban location developed by Douglas Walrath, the paper shows how greatly churches are influenced by their environments. In one type of environment none of the churches were growing, but in other settings all of the churches were either growing or at least on plateaus. The source of this influence appears to be found in the basic structure of mainline Protestant churches in America. These tend to be conservative, neighborhood-based organizations and are composed of entrenched social groups. As such, they resist change when change is necessary and in most cases are not only affected by their settings but are largely controlled by them. In addition to demonstrating the massive impact of church location on growth and decline, the purpose of the study was also to illustrate a case study technique for area study and church planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Project Understanding was a program to involve suburban churches in combatting racism in six metropolitan areas. This paper reports data from a part of the evaluation of the Project aimed at assessing its effects on church members' attitudinal racism. Attitudinal racism was conceptualized as multi-dimensional, using four scales to measure racial attitudes in a matched sample of members before and after the Project. Using t-tests to evaluate the difference of means, we found significant changes in racial attitudes in the anticipated direction in the post-test as compared with the pre-test. When those reporting involvement in the Project were compared with those not involved, there was more change in the attitudes of the non-involved than the involved. However, the involved were significantly less racist in attitudes before and after the Project than the non-involved, leading to speculation about a ceiling effect. Other characteristics of the two groups were compared. Those involved had characteristics that may have predisposed them to participate. A brief summary of other Project findings also is included. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports some findings drawn from a case study which investigated the effect of the inter-organizational environment on the origins, survival struggles, and structural transformation of a local inter-faith coordinating agency. The organization under study was the Metropolitan Interfaith Association (MIFA) of Memphis, Tennessee. inter-organizational analysis was used to explore the vulnerability of such an organization. While the research does not allow for unequivocal conclusions, it is safe to conclude that the vulnerability of the agency derives from its dependence upon local churches. Most of these churches have been reluctant to support MIFA. This reluctance is derived from three main sources: the agency's issue orientation, the difference in the nature of incentive systems between the agency and its members (e.g., local churches), and the new organizational form of the agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A 138-item questionnaire was completed by 448 wives of clergy in six mainline Protestant denominations, chosen to represent relatively orthodox to liberal theologies. This paper examines five distinct levels and nine different aspects of the respondents' satisfaction in husband-wife interaction. Although levels of satisfaction were generally high, the wives discriminated widely among aspects of the relationship, with love and affection and sexual satisfaction highest in proportions expressing enthusiasm. An index of overall satisfaction was related to traditional religious practices and agreement that fulfillment came through the husband, but it also was high for those who held paying jobs and whose composite role-orientation was individualistic. The variety of reported behaviors as well as attitudes, beliefs, and satisfactions put an end to the old stereotype of clergy wives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explanations of political conservatism and liberalism have primarily incorporated the notion of minority status and religious conservatism. This paper suggests an additional explanation rooted in religious values. The two dominant religious values, particularly evident in Christianity and Judaism, are love and justice. Love, it is argued, directs one's concern for the alleviation of his fellowman's problems and is thus concerned more with treatment titan prevention. This concern thus makes the development of political conservatism possible. In contrast, the value of justice is concerned with the allocation and abuse of power, which directs one's attention more upon the system than the individual, and thus fosters the development of a politically liberal ideology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Bible is an important text in American history, but research analyzing the social consequences of reading the Bible is very limited. Research focusing on religious practices or religiosity with Bible reading as part of a scale shows a tendency towards conservatism and traditionalism, as do more literalist views of the Bible. In the present study, biblical literalism is treated as a powerful context guiding one's reading. The focus here is a quantitative view of Bible reading, deploying two 'conservative' and two 'liberal' moral/political scales and two competing views for how Bible reading may function. Results indicate that Bible reading is positively related to both of the liberal scales as well as the conservative scales for non-literalists, but not for those with literalist Bible views. The findings begin to show the importance of independent Bible reading, how it may function differently for literalists and non-literalists, and highlights the degree to which literalism and Bible reading are different constructs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the weeks leading up to Easter 2006, several books on Canada's bestseller's list questioned traditional Christian beliefs surrounding the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Through a textual analysis of a random sample of Easter Sunday sermons, this study seeks to determine whether Canadian clergy chose to respond to the challenges raised by these contradicting pop culture voices. Secondarily, this study explores the presence of biblical content and generic pop culture content in the sermons in order to determine whether clergy in certain denominations are predisposed to privilege one of the two over the other. Our analysis found 38% of the sermons contained one or more references to popular culture. Works of pop culture that featured unorthodox accounts of Jesus' death and resurrection were cited most often. While liberal Protestant clergy and conservative clergy (i.e. evangelicals and Catholics) referenced and condemned these unorthodox works in almost equal measure, liberal clergy were twice as likely as conservative to cite pop culture in their sermons. Conversely, the sermons of conservative Protestant clergy (and to a lesser extent Catholic clergy) relied most heavily on quotation and exposition of sacred text for their content. Implications of these findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relative explanatory power of institutional and contextual factors as explanations for the growth of the Jehovah's Witnesses in the United States between 1945 and 2002 are compared through the use of a basic demographic approach. The analysis demonstrates that the growth of the Witnesses during this time frame is best explained by institutional, and not contextual factors. The theoretical implications of this line of research are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The experience of the relatively rapid integration of women professionals into two institutions, the churches and the military, was used to identify both organizational blind spots and principles for better integrating women, The presence of women brought to light several pre-existing organizational problems that were previously unrecognized, ignored or considered the responsibility of the individual. They included conflicts between jobs and careers, between careers of both husbands and wives, and between specialists and generalists. Study of the process of integrating women illustrated the effect of bureaucratization or professionalization, the use of alternate means to an end when the normal channel is blocked, the importance of differences in polity or structure and the process of intergroup contact in successfully integrating women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides information about various developments related to religion. The goal of the American Lutheran Church's Office of Research and Analysis is to: "Serve as the central research agency to keep this Church informed as to the effect of changes in society on this Church." According to Carl F. Reuss, Director, "This calls us to monitor and evaluate trends, problems, and issues in church and society as these effect the ministry of The American Lutheran Church; to circulate summarized data on and analyses of urgent human and social needs which may require action by The American Lutheran Church; to develop carefully researched and theologically responsible statements sensitive to the diverse viewpoints within The American Church; and to give leadership to effect a high quality of research within ALC units so as to eliminate duplication and overlapping and to insure attention to critical questions." The Center for Parish Development is a specialized research and development agency which helps local congregations become "more faithful, vital, and effective centers of Christian ministry and mission.

This work proposes a new method to construct a measure of religiosity by utilizing information obtained from Google Trends. The proposed measure, named Christian Religiosity Revealed by Search, is built upon ten comparisons between religious and non-religious topics, and is shown to perform better than the frequently used Gallup Poll and World Values Survey religiosity scores in explaining some economic and political indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this 2018 Presidential Address to the Religious Research Association, I explore the applied religious identity of the Association. This address also addresses the manner in which individual basic research efforts could benefit from key practices of an applied research mindset. This applied identity is central to the Religious Research Association as I show from a sketch of its history and through references to previous Presidential addresses. I then discuss three questions that an applied orientation raises for individual research, for dissemination of research findings, and for the future of the Association. I propose answers to this final question that suggest out possible directions forward for the Association to strengthen its distinctive identity characteristic while also addressing the current needs of the broader religious community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does the call to pursue justice live in the hearts and minds of contemporary Christians? If so, to what extent? In order to address these questions, our research team used a community-based research approach to investigate how Christians in a specific denomination (the Christian Reformed Church in North America) conceptualize the relationship between justice and faith, what priority justice holds in their lives, and the barriers and enablers they identify to pursuing justice. This article reports on the findings of a survey that was distributed to a representative sample of 264 congregational members across Canada. Findings show that understandings of justice from 'the pew' are multifaceted even if conceptually vague. Yet justice is clearly understood as being connected to faith even if there is ambiguity as to how it fits into the spectrum of Christian life. There is subsequently a need to assist congregants in translating their awareness of injustice and desire for justice into action. In particular, survey results emphasize the importance of pairing a Christian vision for justice with opportunities to experience exemplars of justice work. Further research could explore the extent to which these on-the-ground perspectives are shared across Christian and other faith traditions, and across world regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Worldviews play an important part in shaping and driving people's more specific environmental attitudes and behaviors. In a religious context, attention to eco(theo)logical worldviews, defined as foundational beliefs about the relationships between God, the Earth and humanity, helps researchers and environmental practitioners alike to better understand the religious frameworks which may foster or impede environmental action. This study draws on data from the 2011 Australian National Church Life Survey to examine churchgoers' beliefs about the presence of God in nature and human dominion over the environment. Australian churchgoers strongly affirmed the presence of God in the natural world, but were less affirming of dominion theology. Dominion varied between church traditions, but beliefs about the presence of God did not. The beliefs predicted a range of measures of environmental attitudes and behaviors. The results regarding dominion are consistent with findings from other countries, and the research extends previous limited work on the sanctification of nature to a concept of the presence of God in the natural world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This address examines the complex processes whereby cultural understandings of the sacred and, consequently, religious identity are negotiated in the contemporary social world. Two key processes of negotiation are delineated, namely, religious evanescence and religious evocation. Religious evanescence reflects efforts to deemphasize or sever connections to the sacred. By contrast, religious evocation consists of activities that emphasize or enhance linkages to sacred things. Groups actively manage their relationship to the sacred, and thus their religious identities, by engaging in evanescent or evocative practices. Moreover, the rejection of sacred things (evanescence) and the affirmation of them (evocation) are not mutually exclusive processes. They can be enlisted strategically, selectively, and even in combination with one another to suit a wide variety of social contexts and normative expectations. Boundaries in relation to the sacred are, therefore, sites for contradictory and innovative social processes. The contested and fluid boundaries that define the genre of 'Christian rock' serve to illustrate these processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The participation of gays and lesbians in all aspects of society is continually disputed in the United States. Religion is one of the key battlegrounds. The extent to which religious congregations include lesbians and gays in congregational life is vital to the wider debate over homosexuality because congregations consistently influence more Americans than any other voluntary social institution reported by Putnam (Bowling alone: the collapse and revival of American community, Simon and Schuster, New York, ). Using nationally representative data from the 2006-2007 National Congregations Study this analysis investigates the level of acceptance of gays and lesbians within congregations as well as which congregations are most likely to allow lesbians and gays to become involved. I find that religious tradition, theological and political ideology, location, and demographic composition of congregations all influence the degree to which gays and lesbians are included into congregational life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses a new religious movement within one of the oldest ecclesiastical organizations in Christendom-the Catholic Church. The Catholic New Evangelization (NE) is an intra-ecclesial movement articulated and inspired by the late Pope John Paul II. Our analysis of this movement focuses on the emerging tensions between the contrasting individualist and communalist orientations of what we call 'Vatican II Catholics' and 'NE Catholics,' respectively. We examine responses to NE rhetoric and its implementation in the Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit's central services, the archdiocesan seminary, and two local Detroit parishes. At these sites, the NE rhetoric, especially in its emphasis on having a 'personal relationship with Jesus,' has intensified individual versus community tensions among Catholic professionals and lay leaders in the Detroit area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using survey data from the Netherlands, we find that Muslims have relatively high levels of religious philanthropic behavior and relatively low levels of secular philanthropic behavior, whereas Hindus have relatively low levels of religious philanthropic behavior and higher levels of secular philanthropic behavior. Results indicate that the community explanation and the conviction explanation of the relationship between religion and philanthropic behavior are both valid to some extent when it comes to differences in philanthropic behavior between Christians, Muslims, and Hindus. In addition, we find a relationship between group orientation in worship rituals on the relation between religion and philanthropic behavior. The more group-oriented the worship rituals, the stronger the relation between religion and philanthropic behavior. The results suggest that Durkheim's theory (La Suicide: Etude de Sociologie. Presses Universitaires de France, Paris, ) may only be valid in a Christian context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In just one generation the cultural face of Canadian society has been transformed. The relative level of immigration has increased rapidly as has diversity among those immigrants. This article reports on the findings of a national survey that offers a baseline of how and to what extent local Canadian Christian congregations are responding to this cultural diversity. In particular, it explores how churches are integrating immigrants within the life of their local congregations. This article uses a systems change perspective to frame immigrant integration. This perspective emphasizes three requirements for change: vision, structure and processes that promote immigrant integration. Data was collected using an online survey of urban congregations in the nine urban Canadian communities having an immigrant population above the national average (20% foreign-born). Using these data this article explores the full range of immigrant integration efforts from the initial welcome to inclusion into congregational life. It describes the present status of immigrant integration, details reported successes and challenges and notes respondent suggestions for better integration. Results of this survey provide first-time baseline insights into how a range of urban Christian congregations from across Canada are presently responding to the Canadian immigrant reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]