Denominational Differences in White Protestant Communality

Abstract

Differences in religious communality orientations, i.e., the role of religion in shaping a person's group life and self-identification, among members of religiously conservative and liberal Protestant denominations in samples of two cities, were evaluated in terms of Gordon's assimilation paradigm. Specifically, religion of friends, church participation, religious selfidentification, and intermarriage attitude were studied. Results indicated that conservative denominations were decidedly more communal than the liberal ones. Important differences persisted within both whiteand blue-collar categories. Non-church Protestants differed sharply from the liberal as well as the conservative denomination members, as nearly all were low in communal orientation. Researchers in the sociology of religion have tended to neglect an important area of study: religious group life or communality. Aspects of religious life such as belief, practice, and experience have received extensive attention, and religious affiliation has been correlated with nearly every conceivable variable from sex to politics (for a review see Demerath, 1968). But the role of religion in the group life of modern Americans has been virtually ignored. Do members of the several religious faiths prefer and depend upon co-religionists for social and psychological support in their primary group life? To what extent do they anchor their sense of social location and self-identification in their religious group? How strong are their feelings regarding the greatest threat to religious group solidarity of all: intermarriage? Will Herberg (1960) was one of the first modern scholars of religion in America to reconsider the importance of religion in the group life of the American people. Shortly after Herberg's essay, Gerhard Lenski (1961) raised the question of socio-religious group solidarity and presented empirical evidence which indicated that the religious factor figured prominently in the lives of Detroit Protestants, Catholics, and Jews. The most systematic discussion of religious communality and relevant literature may be found in Milton Gordon's Assimilation in American Life (1964). Evidence suggesting strong Jewish communalism is rather convincing (cf. Kramer and Leventman, 1961; Ringer, 1967; and Goldstein and Goldscheider, 1968). White Protestant and Catholic c mmunality has received considerably less attention. In one of the few available c ntemporary studies, Wilensky and Ladinsky (1967) reported that religion was much more important than occupation in a sample of largely Protestant lawyers and engineers as a factor in friendship