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It is a common conception that the church is among the most segregated of American institutions, yet there is little research to identify the extent of racial-ethnic homogeneity or to explain what factors propel diversity within religious communities. Research that does exist draws primarily on individual level data and treats diversity as a categorical variable. This paper introduces a continuous measure of racial-ethnic diversity. It also brings attention to contextual features (region and location size) and organizational features (faith group, church structure, and socioeconomic characteristics) of local religious communities in order to understand the importance of proximity and similarity in promoting racial-ethnic integration. The analysis employs the 1993 American Congregation Giving Study, a sample of 625 congregations and parishes from five Christian traditions. Findings suggest that religious communities are not wholly monochromatic. Patterns of diversity differ by faith group, region, and location size. A discussion of implications concludes the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A theory of religious activity based on principles of supply-side economics has generated considerable controversy in the sociology of religion. This theory posits that religious pluralism increases rates of religious activity by promoting competition between churches. This paper tests "supply-side theory" with data describing US Mormons. Results uncover patterns in Mormon church activity that refute the theory. The paper outlines several characteristics of Mormonism that explain its deviance from the theorized outcome, and suggests a scope condition for supply-side theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, there has been a call for social scientific studies of religion to start taking “place” seriously. This paper adds to this growing literature by embedding religious commitment within place. We propose that the tension religious groups experience with their surroundings partly depends on local contexts and that certain types of local contexts may generate more tension. These contexts include regions in which the nonreligiously affiliated constitute the majority of the population, such as the American Pacific Northwest (PNW) region. Analysis of qualitative data on evangelical and liberal Protestants from western Oregon and western Washington suggests that they are aware of and experience tension with the regional PNW culture, which shapes their religious experience. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Status gains made by evangelicals in recent decades create new factions within the evangelical movement, potentially distinguishing college-educated evangelicals from their less-educated counterparts in their attitudes on issues that separate other Americans along the dividing lines of social class. This paper tests the influence of evangelical identity upon a particular social issue by investigating Americans’ attitudes about Wal-Mart—a company that has historically appealed to evangelicals but not higher-status Americans. Using data from a 2005 survey of roughly 1,400 Americans, I find that self-identified evangelicalism is consistently associated with approval of the controversial retailer, while college education is linked to disapproval of Wal-Mart. However, the same effect does not persist among evangelicals, for whom college education has no consistent, significant effect on the odds of judging Wal-Mart unfavorably. I suggest that education may function differently for evangelicals than for the larger population, offsetting the liberalizing effects that are typically assumed to accompany attending college. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Ten years have passed since the events of the late 1980s spurred James Davison Hunter to write his book Culture wars, which was published in 1991. Since then political world has witnessed several shifts that call into question the durability of this conflict. This paper examines both the current state of the culture war and its precipitating trends over the past decade. In doing so, it is necessary to determine whether evangelicals have been softening their traditionalist moral positions on issues like women's roles, homosexuality, nonmarital sexuality, birth control, abortion, suicide, and euthanasia. It is also necessary to determine the nature of any fluctuations in evangelical morality relative to that of religious progressives and moderates. Specifically, three questions are addressed. First, are evangelicals leaving the socioeconomic margins of society? Second, is evangelical morality becoming more liberal? And finally, is the culture war dissipating? Using data from the 1988 and 1998 General Social Surveys, results indicate that evangelicals are capitulating on some -- though not all -- arenas of moral conflict, but that the cultural tension between evangelicals and religious progressives remains strong. The evidence suggests that, consistent with Christian Smith's subcultural identity theory, evangelicals will likely continue to experience a cultural tension with the larger culture, but this tension is not likely to result in anything resembling warfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the mid 1980s, religious environmental activism in the United States increased dramatically. Based on field study of this emerging movement, this paper proposes three models or ethics of Christian-related eco-theology: Christian stewardship, eco-justice, and creation spirituality. As a portrait of the boundaries of this movement, the paper focuses in detail on Christian stewardship and creation spirituality. It then examines religious environmentalism through the cultural shift/change frameworks of McLoughlin, Swidler, Inglehart, Beckford, and Robertson [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the current religious mood in the tinned States and reflects upon its manifestations in the mid-1990s. It is argued that the religious mood has shifted -- away from the cognitive and fixed beliefs and toward the experiential arid expressive. It is further argued that given this change it is difficult to assess the current religious situation, especially given sociology-of-religion's reliance upon institutional categories and empirical indicators. Religious capital, like social capital, is not easily gauged without attention to new forms of community allowing individuals opportunity to express themselves as whole persons. A plea is made for a sociology of religion more attuned to body, mind, and self and thus to the dynamic and experiential qualities of religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims toward a better integration of the sociology of culture and the sociology of religion in the study of American Catholicism. It discusses Catholicism as a cultural discourse, the concept of ideological structures, and the implications of a cultural approach for Warner's "new paradigm" and rational choice theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various issues related to the Association for the Sociology of Religion (ASR) in the U.S. in September 2011. It says that the 73rd annual meeting of the ASR was held in Las Vegas, Nevada, the highlights of which include Peter Beyer's Presidential Address entitled "Socially Enraged Religion in a Post-Westphalian Global Context: Remodeling the Secular/Religious Distinction." According to the author, 2012 ASR president Roger Finke will be recruiting a new ASR executive officer. The results of the News and Announcements 2011 Elections are also discussed.

American sociology has not taken and does not take religion as seriously as it needs to in order to do the best sociology possible. Despite religion being an important and distinctive kind of practice in human social life, both historically and in the world today, American sociologists often neglect religion or treat it reductionistically. We explore several reasons for this negligence, focusing on key historical, conceptual, methodological, and institutional factors. We then turn to offer a number of proposals to help remedy American sociology's negligence of religion, advance the study of religion in particular, and enhance sociology's broader disciplinary capacity to improve our understanding and explanation of human social life. Our purpose in this analysis is to stimulate critical and constructive discussion about the significance of religion in human life and scholarly research on it. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

For more than a century most U.S. colleges and universities have functioned as secular institutions. But how religious are American college and university faculty in their personal lives? We answer this question by analyzing data from a new, nationally representative survey of the American professoriate. Contrary to the view that religious skepticism predominates in the academy, we find that the majority of professors, even at elite research institutions, are religious believers. We go on to examine the distribution of faculty religiosity across institutions, fields, and other variables, and identify a number of issues that future research--sensitive to the fact that religious faith and academic life, at least in the American context, are by no means mutually exclusive--should take up. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the role and place of religion in contemporary democratic societies, particularly in American public life. Four models are proposed for thinking about religion in public: (1) Religion over the Public Landscape (in which religion is necessary for the health of public and political life); (2) Religion Banned from the Public Landscape (in which religion is kept mostly out of public and political life); (3) Public Landscape as Religious Space (in which the health of the republic depends on a shared, civil religion); and (4) Public Landscape as Varied Topography (in which religion is not initially treated as a special case, but rather is treated like any other more or less comprehensive view that may offer a voice in public and political debate). I champion this final model and argue that the risk of allowing religion in public and political exchange is not as great as the promise of inviting it in. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I analyze support for religiously orthodox teachings among U.S. Catholic laity. I find orthodoxy to be positively correlated with religious experience. While most Catholics disagree with official teachings regarding contraception and the celibate priesthood, a significant minority endorse these orthodox positions. In analyses of a national sample of U.S. Catholics, orthodox attitudes are found to be more common among those who have been on a religious pilgrimage. The finding is interpreted using concepts from Durkheim's sociology of religion, Stark and Finke's claims about the relationship between religious ritual and acceptance of religious explanations, and Wildavsky's theory that preferences are endogenous to institutions. Building on these analyses, I address a question about the structural consequences of pilgrimage, and conclude with a call for further quantitative research about pilgrims' experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a teaching strategy that examines the various ways that Americans have used the Bible in justifying their point of view on social issues in the U.S. The lesson's purpose is to enable students to explore the religion's impact on people's belief about the society, as well as the impact of the society on religion. The strategy highlights two cases on how the Americans have employed the Bible, from supporting the revolution against British rule to defending the institution of slavery. In addition, the lesson's time frame, objectives, background preparation, and procedures are also presented.

The article reports on the U.S. Farm Security Administration (FSA) photographs, taken in the 1930s and 1940s as part of then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, and the author's use of them to study Christian communities. The author explains that he studied the collection looking for illustrations of how people used religious objects and images in their homes and found many examples of "material Christianity" including crucifixes, scripture mottoes, and church calendars. He also found in the collection photographs of churches, gospel trucks, religious rituals and social gatherings, and church leaders. He discusses the difficulties in researching the subjects of the photographs and the ways the photographs represent African Americans and religion in the U.S. of the time.

How non-Christian religious groups should be politically recognized within Western multicultural societies has proved to be a pressing contemporary issue. This article examines some ways in which American policies regarding religion and multiculturalism have shaped Hindu Indian American organizations, forms of public expression and activism. Specifically, I look at three examples of the impact of such policies on Hindu Indian Americans representing strategic arenas in the socio-political recognition of ethnic groups, and also crucial moments in the institutionalization of an American Hinduism. I also show how the activism of Hindu Americans is reshaping the contours of religion, society and polities in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On November 7, 2000, despite the ardent pleas of clergy from across the spectrum of religious traditions, South Carolina voters repealed a constitutional amendment to pave the way for a state lottery. In a state known for intense evangelical religiosity, this outcome raises several important questions about the political influence of religion and religious leaders. In this article we offer a history of the religious aspects of the lottery debate in South Carolina and an empirical look at the relationships between religious factors and support for the lottery among South Carolina voters. Specifically, we explore the extent to which involvement in evangelical Protestantism, political salience of religion, and clergy cues affected public support for a state lottery. Data for the empirical analysis are drawn from an October 3, 2000 poll of 450 South Carolinians who had voted in two previous elections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines Salvadoran immigrants' views of both their participation in the church and the role the church plays in their lives. The focus is on Catholic and Evangelical churches among Salvadoran immigrants in three locations — San Francisco, Washington, D.C. and Phoenix, an approach that allows the examination of the effects of receiving communities on the role religious institutions play in immigrant life. Data come from qualitative field research conducted in the 1990s and 100 in-depth interviews, complemented with interviews of religious leaders and community workers. Catholic and Evangelical churches, following distinct religious teachings, provide different avenues for immigrants to achieve their goals — collective and individual — and enrich the immigrants' lives and their surrounding communities, an outcome that seems independent of the specific receiving community. Although both churches provide assistance, the approach they take (and the religious teachings that shape how assistance is provided) may influence the immigrants' long-term integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trends and patterns of religious mobility have played a central role in theoretical controversies in the sociology of religion. Early examinations focused on how social status might motivate religious switching, and recently scholars have claimed that diminishing status differences between denominations have opened denominational boundaries and led to higher rates of religious mobility. Scholars working from rational actor perspectives have generated several hypotheses. First, human capital ana adaptive preference theories suggest that switching will remain infrequent, and will tend to occur between similar denominations. Second, "strict church" perspectives argue that demanding sectarian denominations will have higher retention, and be more attractive destinations. Third, market niche perspectives argue that niche overlap will foster high rates of religious mobility. Finally, theories emphasizing normative constrain is on religious chokes suggest that quasi-ethnic religious groups will have a greater hold on members. This article examines trends and patterns of religious mobility in the US. between 1973 and 1998 using data from the General Social Surveys. Retention rates, distributions of original and destination affiliations, and mobility tables are compared across three periods, and four broad cohorts using log-multiplicative association models. I find some support for hypotheses generated by status theories, and for several propositions from rational actor theories, however the decline of denominationalism perspective is unsupported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the role of gender in the sociology of religion as seen through the eyes of Stephanie Howland, a female Methodist minister in rural Missouri. She does not identifies herself as a feminist. She does not believe that her gender affects how her congregation views her. For pioneer clergy women, gender and work combined in an altogether new fashion with particular, sometimes less than positive, consequences. She concludes that life for most beginning clergywomen is now different. She believes that the element of faith is missing everywhere. Faith, according to her plays a central role in the world. Her faith is not a simple brand of spiritual reductionism whereupon community and congregational problems can be explained by God. Stephanie backgrounds the issue of gender. Not to deny Stephanie's expression of God in her life, but a social science backed question might ask what her calling might have been had she not grown up with clergywomen and benefited from the experiences of the pioneer generation.

Promise Keepers are a fascinating phenomenon in contemporary life in the U.S. as of March 2000. It strikes right at the cultural intersection of religion, gender and racial relations, public life, and national identity--an intersection in such flux that any movement confronting it will garner attention, criticism, and support. Promise Keepers are a reactionary reassertion of patriarchal authority; they are a pawn of Christian Right political operatives; they are another sign of the evangelical religious revival. Promise Keepers is a new phenomenon; it is another example of that old-time religion; it is political; it is religious. Promise Keepers does have the strong culture of evangelical Protestantism as a backdrop that helps foster solidarity, but again, that culture is as likely to lead men away from engagement with the larger public sphere as to politicize them. Prison Keepers seem actively to avoid other steps that might increase its national and political presence. Its haphazard and on-again, of-again organizational structure not a recipe for political effectiveness in current polity. And perhaps even more crucially, it lacks ideological agreement and unity of purpose within the movement to do too much politically. The motivations that bring men to Prison Keepers are too wrapped up with participants' private lives, there is too much suspicion of politics and government action among evangelicals, the men come with too many different agendas, and they vary enough in their material and cultural interests to allow anything more that the most general moral exhortation.