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Social policy and religion are intertwined at many levels and in ways that are changing rapidly. Religious (and other) non-government organisations have stepped in to fill the vacuum left by [...]

There was a certain pious man among the heathen named Job, but he [thought that he had] come into this world only to receive [here] his reward, and when the [...]

Although a variety of research projects have been conducted on the benefits of religious coping in older adults, no direct comparison between atheism and religious faith has been published. The study reported in this paper tackled this issue by interviewing two matched groups of people aged over 60 years living in southern England, one of II informants with strong atheistic beliefs, and the other of eight informants with strong religious beliefs. Five paired comparisons were undertaken to examine the role of the content of the belief system itself in coping with different negative stresses and losses commonly associated with ageing and old age. The pairs were matched for the nature of the loss or stress that the two people had experienced, but the two individuals had opposed atheistic and religious beliefs. The analyses showed that all the study participants--regardless of their beliefs--were coping well, and suggested that a strong atheistic belief system can fulfil the same role as a strong religious belief system in providing support, explanation, consolation and inspiration. It is postulated that the strength of people's beliefs and how those beliefs are used might have more influence on the efficacy of coping than the specific nature of the beliefs. Further research into the strength of belief systems, including atheism, is required to test and elaborate this hypothesis. KEY WORDS--belief systems, mental health, coping, atheism, religious belief, finitude. doi:10.1017/S0144686X09990353

THE ARTICLES IN THIS SECTION CONTINUE THE DISCUSSION OF how changeable and unstable any supposed boundary between the religious and the secular has been, looking particularly at this dissolving binary [...]

This study considered the nature of continuing bonds with deceased relatives in a sample of Pakistani Muslims living in the United Kingdom. Ten participants (1) were interviewed following a cultural psychology approach and transcripts were analyzed using grounded theory methodology. Dreaming, talking with others about the deceased, following the deceased's example, keeping memories and mementos, and doing actions thought to help the deceased were forms of continued relationship found. These were intertwined with the process of grieving and were influenced by the family, culture, and religion. Religion was a strong influence on the prominence given by participants to finishing well and on the notion of doing actions thought to help the deceased. Cultural mores, such as the community, and collectivist ethos and the expectation that emotion would be expressed around the time of death, were found to be supportive for some but sources of tension for other participants. Expressing a continuing bond through following the deceased's example so as to make them proud or happy seemed to be reinforced by cultural roots in respect for elders. Participants gave instances of tensions in areas such as expression of emotion and communality versus individualism that arose as a result of their position between two cultural frameworks, some illustrating how assimilation into the host culture set up conflict with the expected norms of their family/ancestral culture. The study highlights how understanding different cultural and religious influences may enrich the concept of continuing bonds. DOI: 10.1080/07481180903251554

Studies of religion's public roles typically concern the ways in which religious frameworks justify opinions and actions. This article draws from participant-observation research to show how people also use religion to define the boundaries of group identities and relationships. Importantly, people do this in situation-specific ways that we cannot predict from people's religious reasons for public actions. Evidence comes from two religiously-based organizations sponsored by the same local religious coalition, studied during 1998 to 2000 in a midsized U.S. city. One group is an alliance of lay people representing different churches, who organized volunteering and community development projects with a low-income minority neighborhood. The other is an alliance of clergy, representing different churches, that organized public events against racism. In each case, group members used religious terms to argue sharply over civic identity despite sharing the same religious reasons for their goals. Resolving the disputes required redefining or reemphasizing the boundaries of collective identity. The dynamics highlighted in my analyses provide new ways of understanding how people use religion to include or exclude others in civic relationships. Even more broadly, they reveal how religion can enhance or impede collaboration across social status and religious divides.

It is a pleasure to respond to Melendez and LaSala's (2006) critique of my article 'Epistemological Frameworks, Homosexuality, and Religion: How People of Faith Understand the Intersection between Homosexuality and [...]

Despite the high visibility of religiously charged international social conflicts, the unique role of religion often is overlooked in social science research and theory. Some studies ignore religion, others conflate religion with other identities. Virtually all lack adequate data. We respond to these deficiencies by testing a theory-driven model of a particular form of social conflict, religious persecution. We investigate the proposition that religious regulation leads to religious persecution. Using measures coded from the 2003 International Religious Freedom Reports, we consider how both social regulation and government regulation of religion in 143 countries affect the level of religious persecution. We also consider and test competing hypotheses, particularly Huntington's clash-of-civilizations thesis. We find strong support for the religious economies arguments and only limited support for the clash-of-civilizations thesis and other competing arguments.

Sexual prejudice is linked to hate crimes, mental health, risk behaviors, and stigma. Few studies have examined sexual prejudice among Latinos. We surveyed 382 college students in Puerto Rico. A structural model tested whether contact and positive experiences with homosexuals, perceived similarities with peers' attitudes toward homosexuality, and religiosity were predictive of sexual prejudice among Puerto Rican young adults. Sex differences in the structural model were explored. With the exception of peers' attitudes toward homosexuality, all study variables predict sexual prejudice. No sex differences were found. Implications for decreasing sexual prejudice among Puerto Rican youth in a college setting are discussed. KEYWORDS. Sexual prejudice, discrimination, homophobia, homosexuality, gender, gay and lesbian, college, Latino, attitudes, religion

Background: Socio-cultural explanatory factors for mental health problems determine help seeking behaviors. The study aimed to understand the reasons mentally ill patients and their families in India choose to seek help from a religious site. Materials and methods: Persons with mental illness and their families were interviewed at religious sites using a guideline questionnaire. Issues such as significant life events, explanations for perceived abnormal behavior and reasons for choosing a specific religious site for 'treatment' were explored. Discussion: Seeking religious help for mental disorders is often a first step in the management of mental disorders as a result of cultural explanations for the illness. This behavior also has social sanctions. Key words: chronic mental illness, religious sites, qualitative study, ritualistic practices

Reducing religion to a mere ethnic marker has stifled the debate about its social and political significance in Northern Ireland. This article puts forward a constructivist argument, which understands religion as a dynamic of personal and group identification, as the key to illuminating its social significance. Drawing on analysis of in-depth interviews it finds four main ways in which religion informs processes of social identification and community construction in Northern Ireland: where it acts as an identity marker; where religious rituals play a practical role, or religious ideas play a symbolic role, in the construction of community; and, where doctrine can legitimize oppositional social identifications. In fact, specifically religious structures and religious ideas remain socially significant beyond the confines of the most devout. Thus, rather than just marking out ethnic identities, this article argues that religion generally provides some substantive content to processes of categorization and social comparison in Northern Ireland., Whilst nearly nine out of ten people in contemporary Northern Ireland select a Protestant or Catholic identification, common sense, as well as the literature, tells us that conflict has not [...]

Close systematic analysis of interaction episodes depicted in the vita of a thirteenth-century religious virtuosa reveals the basic social elements connecting charismatic agency to a contingent structural moment in the medieval ecclesia. During the contingency phase a dynamic human network drawn from small ruling circles assumed sect-like characteristics to incorporate the special charismatic gifts of Juliana Mont-Cornillon, who provided the unifying symbol in their human quest for legitimate domination and control. The case analysis illustrates contemporary theorizing in church-sect typologies by describing the dynamic micro-processes of a religious movement and negotiations for power behind the illusory veneer of a univocal institutional church. These processes resulted in an integration of the new Feast of Corpus Christi, which simultaneously recognized, incorporated, and quarantined the pneumatic source and feminine voice of Juliana., INTRODUCTION The Roman Catholic ecclesia reached an apogee in the thirteenth century, a historical period referred to by Le Goff as one of the essouflement and excess of the grand [...]

This article places Northern Ireland within the unfolding sociological debate on religion in modern Britain. It measures secularization along Casanova's three dimensions (1994): religious differentiation, decline and privatization. It finds that Northern Ireland has, in common with Britain, high levels of religious differentiation, grey areas of religious belief and little convinced secularism. However. Northern Ireland differs in that it has higher levels of religious affiliation and practice, and religion plays more roles in civil society than it does in other parts of Britain. The article explores the role of conflict in forming these religious trends, asking if they represent a persistence of the sacred, or simply mask deeper ethnic divisions. It concludes that the social dimensions of religion are just as important as the supernatural, and that they often inform each other. Finally, it suggests that the dynamics of religious change are comparable across regions and, as such Northern Ireland might be a useful case study for British policy makers, particularly as it becomes increasingly multicultural and religiously plural. KEY WORDS Britain / conflict / multiculturalism / Northern Ireland / religion / secularization

Using data from a national and intergenerational survey in 1997, this study examines the link between religion and intergenerational assistance between parents and adult children. Two possibilities are tested. First, religion and assistance are positively associated because religion promotes general prosocial and helping beliefs and behaviors. Second, assistance is greater between parents and adult children who are religiously congruent because strong intergenerational relations are based on parent-child consensus on values and beliefs. The hypotheses are tested separately for continuously married and divorced parents, and interaction models are estimated to determine if the effect of religion varies between adult daughters and sons. Findings support the second argument--religious congruence is more important than individual religiosity in influencing intergenerational assistance. The link between religion and assistance is positive among continuously married parents and adult children, but religion has a mostly negative effect among divorced parents and adult children. Assistance is especially low when either the divorced parent or adult child or both are evangelical Protestants. The disparity in the findings may highlight the different religious and family philosophies of conservative versus mainline religions.

The author of this article uses research to show that issues of afterlife, supernatural, paranormal as depicted within mass media are only a part of the cultural pressures that define adolescent religious beliefs in the U.S.

Western forms of protest were fundamentally altered in the early nineteenth century. Scholars from a 'contentious politics' perspective have identified this rupture in protest forms with the emergence of the 'national social movement' and explain the rupture as the result of interactions with national states. Scholars from a 'life politics' perspective argue that the paradigmatic movements of today have moved beyond the political struggles of the nineteenth century and toward a new form of protest that unfolds within civil society and fuses matters of personal and social change. Protests in the United States in the 1830s, however, raise serious doubts about both of these claims. The first U.S. national social movements were not a heritage of the state and they engaged in a form of life politics. The temperance and antislavery movements emerged in interaction with religious institutions--not state institutions--and pursued goals that mixed personal and social transformation. A cultural mechanism combining the evangelical schemas of public confession and the special sins of the nation launched sustained and interregional protests. The intensive and extensive power of these confessional protests called individual and nation to repent and reform, and mobilized actors and resources within a national infrastructure of religious institutions to challenge drinking and slavery.

This paper examines the sociological component of the urban community-based professional education programs at New York Theological Seminary (NYTS), focusing on the auxiliary Master of Professional Studies program offered at Sing-Sing Prison. NYTS serves urban poor and socially marginal populations and is the only seminary in the country to require social theory and social research methods course work. Explored is the simultaneous use of social theory and sacred texts as teaching tools and intervention strategies in the educational and personal transformation processes of men incarcerated for violent crimes. A survey of NYTS Sing-Sing alumni further documents the impact of the MPS program and facilitates our conclusion that community faith-based corrections can be transforming encounters as demonstrated, by one important measure, in a low recidivism rate. KEYWORDS Community religion, methodology, prison inmate, social theory

The present investigation is one of the first theoretical studies of young persons entering boot camp. The sample in the present study consists of 326 males, aged 15 to 24 years, in the only boot camp in Arkansas. The purpose of the study is to examine the effects of religiosity within a hypothesized theoretical model with reciprocal relationships of drug use among boot camp inmates. This model is tested with two-stage least squares regression, and all hypothesized relationships, with two exceptions, are supported. The findings show that attachment to caregivers is inversely related to associations with peers who engage in illicit behavior, whereas being abused by an adult is positively related to these associations. These associations have inverse reciprocal relationships with religiosity and secular beliefs, and are positively related to use of excuses for illicit acts, which are positively related to drug use. Drug use increases with advances in age and among white persons (versus persons of color), and use of drugs has positive reciprocal relationships with selling illicit substances and carrying a gun. Conceptual and practice implications of the study are discussed. KEYWORDS Boot camp, religion, drugs, delinquency, juvenile

Social scientific accounts of inmate behavior, generally, and inmate religious behavior, particularly, have, by and large, failed to account for the critical questions raised by philosophical hermeneutics and linguistics. This paper uses insights from key figures in each discipline as foci in investigating the methods criminologists employ in reporting what inmates say about the carcereal experience. These methods are mainly found to magnify the voice of the report writers to such a degree that often inmates themselves do not speak. KEYWORDS Evaluation methodology, religion, inmates, hermeneutics, linguistics

In a qualitative study of twenty adult ex-offenders, all having served lengthy sentences for serious crimes, the authors found that religiosity and strong expressions of shame played a prominent role in their ability to live productive lives after the prison experience. Those who have reintegrated into the community were compared with individuals who either committed new crimes or violated the conditions of their parole. KEYWORDS Shame, prison, religion, reintegration, inmate, forgiveness

This paper discusses the reasons for inmate religious involvement in the correctional environment. Participant observation and seventy individual interviews were employed to gather the ethnographic data in two large maximum-security prisons located in the northeast United States. Content analysis and constant comparison methods were used to develop analytic categories and to compare results across research sites and between denominational groups. It was revealed that inmates practice religion for a variety of reasons depending on the sincerity of their intentions. The results introduce insight into why inmates practice religion in prison, provide valuable information for those who administer religious programs, and are shown to be theoretically linked with findings of prior research conducted in the correctional environment. KEYWORDS Ethnography, religion, inmate, meaning, social support, prison

A theory of religious conversion, social attachment, and social learning guides this study of prison religion and its influence on the rehabilitation of adult male offenders. The study found the religious involvement of inmates in a large medium/maximum security prison in South Carolina was extremely varied and extensive. During a one-year period 49% of the incarcerated men (779 out of 1,579) attended at least one religious service or program. Over 800 religious services or meetings, across many different denominations and religious groups, were held during the year. Two prison chaplains, four inmate religious clerks and 232 volunteers who donated about 21,316 hours of work to the prison (the equivalent of 11 full-time paid positions) made this high level of programming possible. The estimated yearly cost of these religious services was inexpensive at between $150 to $250 per inmate served; in contrast, other effective correctional programs cost around $14,000 per person. Controlling for a number of demographic and criminal history risk factors, logistic regression found an inverse relationship between intensity of religious involvement and the presence or absence of in-prison infractions. As religious involvement increased the number of inmates with infractions decreased. The findings of the study provide greater insight into the nature of religion in prison setting and support the view that religion can be an important factor in the process of offender rehabilitation. KEYWORDS Religious conversion, social attachment, social learning, prison religion, offender rehabilitation

This overview situates the essays and studies in this collection in the current cultural and religious context of faith-based initiatives from the White House and from a number of religious groups that affect the justice and correctional system in the U.S. The paper creates a unity among the articles by organizing them around four different but interconnected levels of inquiry concerning the relationship between religion, the community and offender rehabilitation. First, questions of intelligibility such as, what is it? Second, questions of troth such as, is it so? Third, questions of ethics such as, is it good? Fourth, religious questions such as, is it loving? By exploring some of the answers to these questions by the authors, the paper shows how the collection of articles advances our knowledge about the relationship between religion, the community, and offender rehabilitation. In addition, the insights of the authors help to reframe the current public debate about whether there is a positive role for faith-based programs in the justice system to a debate about how to foster and ensure the authenticity of that role. KEYWORDS Religion, faith communities, rehabilitation of offenders, faith-based initiatives

The author focuses on the Boy Scout and Girl Guide organizations in South Africa to examine how they handled post-World War I internationalism, racism, sexism, and religious diversity.

Changing cultural conditions in three quite different settings - a highly industrialized Canada, an increasingly post-industrial United States, and an industrializing Brazil - have led many observes to assert that the religious markets in the three countries are fairly open. However, an examination of affiliation patterns reveals that the traditionally strong religious groups in the three societies are succeeding in maintaining monopolies. Identification with the long-established mainline churches remains both very stable and high, despite the activities and claims of religious competitors. Religious affiliation continues to be largely inherited, complete with important social, psychological, and emotional associations. Nevertheless, general cultural specialization has contributed to an accelerated inclination on the part of Canadians, Americans, and Brazilians to look to religious groups for highly specific services. These include programs with spiritual and social justice emphases, and rites of passage pertaining to birth, marriage, and death. Religious groups have responded to such market demands by expanding their religious menus and, in the process, largely neutralizing the offerings of religious competitors. The result is very tight specialized religious markets in all three countries. Identification prevails, but the related impact of religion at the level of the individual is extremely specific and limited., Since at least Comte, advocates of what has come to be known as 'the secularization thesis' have maintained that science, and the specialization associated with advanced societies weaken the role [...]

This paper analyses the decline of religious beliefs, of nationalist tendencies and of confidence in institutions. The empirical data gain in substance from the fact that the same trends are observed in many European countries. Sociologically it is possible to show whether God is present or absent from people's minds. Belief in the existence of God is an observable social fact. The decline of nationalism is analysed in terms of national pride, confidence in the army, defeatism and trust of neighbouring European countries. A significant proportion of Europeans do not have confidence in parliament, high administration, parties, unions, corporations and courts., Religion, nationalism and authority were the traditional pillars of the old state-societies of Western Europe. Three generations ago it was still a sacrilege to critize them. The church sanctified the [...]

The civic monster is the result of alienation, through denial, repudiation and dis-nomination. The evidence of its existence is readily found in books and films created to invoke fear and horror, as well as in members of the society. One example is the homosexual monster, whose existence has been constantly criticized by religious members of the society. however modern narratives have, however, depicted that the scene created by the staked monster is immoral rather than moral.

Most older people in the West still lead conventional lifestyles and practice traditional forms of religion. For most of the elderly who belong to modern societies, religion has a positive effect. This was revealed by a study of the interconnections between religion and old age in the West. The study also considered current trends where New Age thinking has resulted in the establishment of quasi-religious movements, as well as the regrouping of religions to combat the challenges posed by the modern or post-modern society.

Research recently has begun to examine the link between religion and social control. It has been noted that religion, in particular Protestant conservatism, does play a role in shaping public opinion, and as a result, public policy on crime, crime control, and justice. The present research examines the issue of public support for random drug testing by focusing on the role of religion, specifically religious affiliation, in shaping public opinion. Analysis of survey data from a city in the Southwest identifies two separate dimensions of public support for random drug testing - a utilitarian dimension that is grounded in safety concerns, along with a normative dimension that reflects conservative moral beliefs, including a concern with the 'evil' of drugs. Evidence from the data also indicates that conservative Protestants, compared to liberal-moderate Protestants, Catholics, and those with no affiliation, display higher levels of normative-based support for random drug testing. Researchers are encouraged to further explore the role of religion in shaping public support for the development of drug policies and other more general social control policies.

Objective. The research explores the impact of Roman Catholic and conservative Protestant churches on state abortion policy. Methods. Data are state measures of membership in pro-life churches, abortion policies, interest group membership, public opinion toward abortion, and other factors that previous research suggests may be relevant to abortion policy. Results. Religion is a significant factor in abortion policy, but not in simple ways. The impact of conservative Protestants is indirect, through public opinion: states with many evangelical Protestants have more people with pro-life attitudes. In contrast, the impact of Catholics is both direct and indirect: there is a direct pro-life impact, that is not mediated by public opinion, which reflects the capacity to lobby state governments, and an indirect pro-choice impact through provoking larger state memberships in the National Abortion Rights Action League in states with many Catholics. Conclusions. While there is one Roman Catholic church, with a diverse membership but unified leadership and doctrine on the abortion issue, there are many conservative Protestant churches with no unified leadership. The authors suggest that these structural differences account for the different ways conservative Protestants and Roman Catholics influence state abortion policy.

The concept of secularization of religion is studied to provide greater logical consistency. The theory of religious changes in advanced industrial, globalized society is analyzed. The redefinition of religious theory, in terms of modern sociological theory, may help understand the role of general sociology in modifying sociological studies of religion.

A study of the fertility patterns of German Americans in Gillespie County, Texas, during 1850-1910 uses data constructed from census readings, civil and religious registrations and tax assessment sheets. Using a variety of methods to find the effect of religion, ethnicity, and occupation of spouse as well as other demographic and social variables to determine marital fertility, a general decline was found in fertility rates. Language, religion, and spousal occupation influenced the fertility of women in Gillespie County, Texas and was reflected in an overall decline in fertility in the US.

The growing movement to abolish corporal punishment in public education is creating controversy and conflict in communities. The present survey data indicate that individuals affiliated with fundamentalist Protestant denominations are more supportive than others of corporal punishment in the schools. The authors suggest that religion is likely to be the dimension along which the public is mobilized in controversies concerning this issue and that the greater punitiveness of Protestant fundamentalists might also be linked to other policy debates concerning the appropriate response to transgressions.

Characterological and situational factors that may contribute to loneliness were explored in 153 mature Australian women, comprising 70 women religious matched for age with 83 women who did not belong to a religious congregation. Each subject completed a questionnaire containing measures of emotional and social loneliness, personality, social network, and cognitive processes. For these women, aspects of personality, social network, and cognitive processes predicted loneliness. In addition, women religious reported higher levels of emotional loneliness than women from the comparison group. Although there was a difference in the extent of loneliness between women religous and other mature women, the groups were, in fact, more similar than different. The findings support a characterological rather than a situational explanation of loneliness.

This study examines religious differences in attitudes toward divorce laws among U.S. adults. Using pooled data from the 2000-2006 NORC General Social Surveys ( = 5,683), we find that frequency of religious attendance and belief that the Bible is the Word of God are strong predictors of support for stricter laws governing divorce. Indeed, these religious indicators are much more important than conservative affiliation. Conversely, more secular individuals, that is, those who do not attend religious services and consider the Bible only a book of fables and moral teachings, are substantially less supportive of tightening existing divorce laws. Understanding the role of religion in shaping AmericansE attitudes toward divorce laws can illuminate the scope and boundaries of connections between the institutions of marriage and religion in the contemporary United States as well as inform policy implications for the future of divorce law reform.

Theory suggests that relationship inequity will be associated with less marital and personal distress among the more religious, and that this interaction effect will be stronger for women than men. Data are from 178 married couples experiencing the third trimester of pregnancy of their first biological child. Five outcome variables were assessed for each spouse: marital satisfaction, love, marital conflict, depression, and anxiety. Consistent with equity theory, perceived relative advantage was related in a nonmonotonic fashion to all outcomes, with increasing advantage predicting better outcomes up to the equity point, but worse outcomes afterwards. Sanctification of marriage appeared to be a more important moderator of inequity effects than general religiousness. In particular, relative advantage had weaker effects among higher sanctifiers. The influence of relative advantage was also conditioned by gender. WivesE psychological well-being appeared to be more adversely affected than menEs because of considering oneself overbenefited in the relationship. Moreover, the interaction between sanctification and relative advantage was somewhat stronger for wives.

The different African beliefs and cultural practices and their intersection with ethical values and principles are discussed to arrive at an indigenous Afro-centric social work model to promote healing. Social workers needs to debate whether they should respect and accept cultural practices that violate the rights of others.

A study to assess the link between social work and spirituality in the context of modernity and religion is conducted. Results show that religious beliefs still influence the work of social workers who are usually members of faith-based or religious organizations.