Mainline Protestants Research Articles

Happily Religious: The Surprising Sources of Happiness Among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Adults

This article analyzes the impact of religion on reported levels of subjective well‐being (general happiness) among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) adults. Although previous studies find religious affiliation to be a significant predictor of subjective well‐being among the general population in the United States, limited quantitative research investigates general happiness among sexual and gender minorities. This study augments the existing literature by using a national survey of LGBT adults conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2013. The results show that religious affiliation is a significant predictor of LGBT individuals’ happiness. LGBT individuals who identify as Catholic, agnostic or atheist, or with no particular religious affiliation report lower levels of happiness compared to mainline Protestants. Surprisingly, no significant differences are found between mainline Protestants (whose church doctrine often accepts same‐sex relations) and evangelical Protestants (whose church doctrine often condemns same‐sex relations). In addition, income is the only control variable that affects general happiness. Our analysis reveals interesting differences in the determinants of subjective well‐being between the LGBT and general population.

Theology Matters: Comparing the Traits of Growing and Declining Mainline Protestant Church Attendees and Clergy

Using surveys, this study gathered and examined demographic and religious characteristics of attendees and clergy of a group of growing mainline Protestant churches in Canada and compared them to those from declining mainline Protestant churches from the same geographical region and group of denominations. In total, 2255 attendees from 22 churches (13 declining and 9 growing) participated along with their church's clergy (N = 29). Several notable differences between the characteristics of growing and declining churches were identified. When other factors were controlled for in multivariate analysis, the theological conservatism of both attendees and clergy emerged as important factors in predicting church growth.

Book Review: Margaret Bendroth. The Last Puritans: Mainline Protestants and the Power of the Past

Book Review: Margaret Bendroth. <i>The Last Puritans: Mainline Protestants and the Power of the Past</i>

Zur Ritualität des Gottesdienstes evangelischer Landeskirchen

Summary On the Rituality of the Sunday Service in Mainline Protestant Churches: Christian Walti’s Study on Liturgical Interaction in the Swiss Reformed Church. The article informs about the results ofWalti’s empirical study published in a 700-page volume based on a new theory of rituality. A comparison with Roman Catholic rituality and that of charismatic worship services further reveals the differences. The article ends with suggestions on what improvements are realistic and possible.

INFLUENCE OF THE CIVIC COMMUNITY RELIGIOUS ENVIRONMENT ON FAMILY POVERTY: A MULTILEVEL ANALYSIS.

This study integrates research in the civic community tradition and structuralist and individualist perspectives on poverty to assess the relationship between religious-based civic community structures and family poverty in the United States. Using multilevel analyses of 2006-2008 American Community Survey, 2000 Census of Population and Housing, and 2000 Religious Congregations and Membership Survey data, results demonstrate that the presence of Mainline Protestant and Catholics adherents within communities - measured as the percentage of a community's population comprised of Mainline Protestant and Catholic adherents - is significantly and negatively associated with family poverty risks, net of other family and community factors. That is, in communities with a greater presence of Mainline Protestants and Catholics, there were also lower risks of families being in poverty. These findings suggest the importance of the ecology of religion within communities in understanding poverty outcomes for families.

Trans‐Congregational Triadic Closure: Churchgoers’ Networks Within and Beyond the Pews

Triadic closure is the common tendency for connections to emerge between people's social network ties. This phenomenon has clear implications for congregational networks and may underlie many of the social benefits associated with church involvement. Less documented in the sociology of religion, however, is the occurrence of triadic closure involving congregational and noncongregational relationships within people's close personal networks. To conceptualize this boundary‐spanning network overlap, we elaborate the concept of trans‐congregational triadic closure (TCTC). Using data from the Portraits of American Life Survey—a project that examines both general and congregation‐specific networks of U.S. adults—we consider how religious tradition, macro‐level context, and individual factors predict the occurrence of TCTC in churchgoers’ networks. Findings suggest pronounced differences between evangelicals and mainline Protestants, a considerably lower likelihood of TCTC in densely populated areas, and higher likelihoods of TCTC corresponding with long durations of congregational involvement. We conclude by noting some of the implications of TCTC for the lives of individual believers and for religious organizations, and suggest ways that this concept could elucidate further aspects of contemporary religious life.

Wage Differentials in the United States: Does Religious Participation Matter?

Using data on non-Hispanics from the 2005 Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), this article examines the within-religion association between religious participation and wages for mainline Protestants, conservative Protestants, and Catholics, the three major religious groups in the United States. While previous studies have examined this relationship for women only and using ordinary least squares (OLS), this article further analyzes gender differences and differences along the wage distribution using a quantile regression (QR) approach. The results indicate that high participation in religious services is associated with lower wages among mainline Protestant women and men, and among Catholic men. Among Catholic women, those who are not participating in religious activities earn higher wages relative to those who participate on a weekly basis. Furthermore, this advantage is more pronounced at high wages, as the QR estimates show. These results suggest the importance of defining religious participation in a manner that allows the detection of nonlinear effects. In addition, the findings speak to the importance of religion in the lives of individuals and may benefit policies dealing with male-female wage differentials.

Charting the moral life courses: A theory of moral development in U.S. evangelical and mainline Protestant cultures

Drawing from qualitative analyses of interviews, ethnographic data, and a review of interdisciplinary literature, this manuscript puts forth a theory of moral life course narratives among U.S. evangelical and mainline Protestants. This theory delineates the relationship between religious worldviews and conceptions of moral behaviors, and the manner in which these worldviews and attendant moral conceptions change across the life course for community members. Grounded theory analyses of 32 participants’ divinity-based moral discourses were interpreted in conjunction with their worldviews, as well as church, home, and school contexts. Analyses indicated that evangelical children highlighted their moral transgressions because they regarded themselves as still quite close to a sinful birth. Evangelical adults, who had been saved and were moving toward God, temporally and spiritually distanced themselves from the morally wrong deeds of their youth. Meanwhile, mainline children and adolescents rarely reasoned about their moral experiences in terms of divinity. This finding is understood in light of their church’s emphasis on developing an individualized relationship with God over time. The study and resultant theory elaborate cultural constructions and transmissions of moral life course narratives that, in turn, provide a framework for understanding when, why, and how divinity enters into moral meaning making for cultural community members. We conclude by advocating for theoretical, methodological, and analytical approaches that expose the cultural nature of developmentally dynamic moral selves.

Socially organized sentiments: Exploring the link between religious density and protest mobilization, 1960–1995

Extensive research has shown individual religiosity to have an impact upon U.S. protest participation. But very little work has examined the role of religious density in a community on the likelihood of protest mobilization. Our research links the religious density across 62 counties in New York State to various protest mobilization issues during the period of 1960–1995. In this research, we develop a theory of socially organized sentiments to examine religious influences on overall protest event mobilizations in local communities, a specific example of a more general theory that can link community structure to multiple forms of civic engagement. The impact of various religious traditions is assessed by using measures for the density of religious population per congregation of three religious traditions—Mainline Protestantism, Evangelical Protestantism and Catholicism. The analysis also assesses the likelihood of mobilization concerning four specific issues—African-American civil rights, gender, anti-nuclear/peace, and anti-poverty movements.

The Last Puritans: Mainline Protestants and the Power of the Past. By Margaret Bendroth. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2015. ix + 246 pp. $27.95 paper.

The Last Puritans: Mainline Protestants and the Power of the Past. By Margaret Bendroth. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2015. ix + 246 pp. $27.95 paper.

Religiosity and social trust: evidence from Canada

Using the latest wave of the Canadian Ethnic Diversity Survey, I investigate whether religious identity and religious intensity associate with the degree to which people trust others, controlling for a wide range of characteristics. The analysis shows that Canadian Roman Catholics are appreciably less trusting than mainline Protestants, and religious nones are situated in between these two groups. With regard to religious intensity, I find that higher commitment negatively correlates with trust in unknown others for Roman Catholics. The reverse is true for Protestants. Results also show stark cross-denominational variations within Protestantism, as two highly committed denominations of Mennonite and Pentecostal are found to be the most and the least trusting religious groups in Canada. No non-Christian religious minority is found statistically significantly less trusting than Canadian Roman Catholics. Considering particularized trust in one’s neighbours and co-workers yields comparable conclusions.

Recommending a Child Enter a STEM Career

Apparent conflicts between religion and science are often observed in the United States. One consequence of such conflicts might be that religious individuals will be less likely to recommend their children pursue a career in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). We examine this possibility using a nationally representative survey focused on a variety of issues related to religion and science. We find that, compared to religiously unaffiliated individuals, evangelical Protestants, mainline Protestants, Catholics, and Jews are less likely to say that they would recommend a child enter the pure STEM careers of physicist, engineer, or biologist. These differences are weaker or nonexistent for the more applied STEM careers of physician and high school chemistry teacher. The religious tradition effects observed for the pure STEM careers are primarily mediated by lower levels of interest in science and higher levels of creationist views among those groups relative to the religiously unaffiliated.

Erratum.

Child DevelopmentVolume 87, Issue 3 p. 982-982 ErratumFree Access Erratum This article corrects the following: The Moral Reasoning of U.S. Evangelical and Mainline Protestant Children, Adolescents, and Adults: A Cultural–Developmental Study Lene Arnett Jensen, Jessica McKenzie, Volume 87Issue 2Child Development pages: 446-464 First Published online: December 11, 2015 First published: 18 May 2016 https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12560AboutSectionsPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat In [1], the following error was published: Figures 2 and 3 appeared with incorrect legends; the figures appear below with the correct legends. We apologize for this error. Figure 2Open in figure viewerPowerPoint Hypothesized Expression of Templates among Evangelical Protestants. Figure 3Open in figure viewerPowerPoint Hypothesized Expression of Templates among Mainline Protestants. Reference Jensen, L. A., & McKenzie, J. (2016). The moral reasoning of U.S. evangelical and mainline Protestant children, adolescents, and adults: A cultural-developmental approach. Child Development, 87, 446– 464. doi:10.1111/cdev.12465 Volume87, Issue3May/June 2016Pages 982-982 FiguresReferencesRelatedInformation

Religion and Public Opinion Toward Same‐Sex Relations, Marriage, and Adoption: Does the Type of Practice Matter?

This study examines how religion's impact on Americans’ attitudes toward same‐sex practices varies by the type of practice being considered. We theorize that same‐sex romantic and family practices such as sexual relations, marriage, and adoption represent distinct practice types, differing in degrees of legality, cultural legitimacy, and in their internal power dynamics. Consequently, we expect that Americans view each practice type somewhat differently and their opinions on each may be influenced by religion in distinctive ways. Drawing upon national‐level data, we estimate and compare the relative net effects of a comprehensive battery of religious measures on support for gay sex, marriage, and adoption, both for the full sample and across religious traditions. Analyses demonstrate that public opinion toward gay sexual relations is more strongly related to religious practice and theological conservatism compared to attitudes regarding same‐sex marriage or adoption. Moreover, frequent religious practice and conservative theological beliefs about the Bible tend to be more strongly associated with attitudes toward same‐sex relationships for evangelicals, compared to mainline Protestants and, to a lesser extent, Catholics. Findings ultimately affirm that the type of same‐sex practice being considered (sex, marriage, or adoption) serves to moderate religions’ impact on Americans’ support for such practices.

‘Give us the words’: Protestant faith leaders and sexuality education in their churches

A small sample of faith leaders from the USA’s three largest Mainline Protestant denominations (American Baptist, Evangelical Lutheran Church of America and Methodist) were interviewed as part of a case study regarding sexuality education in their churches. The interview schedule, based on a previous Alan Guttmacher Institute designed questionnaire, prompted responses related to sexuality education delivery in church, denominational policies on sexuality education, thoughts on churches’ role in sexuality education, and characteristics of an ideal sexuality education curriculum for their church. Transcripts of the interviews were analysed using an open coding process to create a comprehensive understanding of themes and patterns in the data. Transcripts were then reviewed, identifying notable quotes and comments that aligned with the trends and patterns that had emerged. Interviews revealed five themes, (a) the church’s role in sexuality education, (b) congregation reaction, (c) negatives related to teaching sexuality education, (d) God’s intent for sex, and (e) the ideal curriculum. Faith leaders’ comments indicated that churches may be an underutilised but willing partner in comprehensive sexuality education efforts, but need support from health/sexuality educators to build and deliver the curriculum.

Narrating and Navigating Authorities: Evangelical and Mainline Protestant Interpretations of the Bible and Science

Research on the way Protestants interpret the Bible in relationship to science has tended to focus on biblical literalists; less research, however, has examined the heterogeneity of how nonliteralists interpret the Bible. Utilizing data from semi‐structured interviews with 77 evangelical and mainline Protestants who attend high‐SES congregations, we find that members of both groups draw on similar interpretation strategies in discussing the Bible and evolution. Both eschew literal interpretations of the Bible, demarcate boundaries between the Bible and science, and subsume evolution under broader theological beliefs. Mainline Protestants and evangelicals differ in the way they interpret miracles, with mainline Protestants revealing more openness to scientific and social interpretations of the Bible's miracles, while evangelicals emphasize God's authority over nature. Findings show that different strategies are evoked depending on the issue discussed, revealing implications for a deeper understanding of the way different traditions provide resources for interpreting the Bible and its relationship to scientific issues. Finally, findings contribute to a more robust knowledge of boundary work between the Bible and science as institutional and epistemic authorities.

Book Review: Father Tim's Church Survival Guide

Father Tim's Church Survival Guide. By Tim Schenck. New York: Morehouse Publishing, 2015. vii + 168 pp. $14.00 (paper).Given continuing reports in the United States on declining Christian affiliation, especially for mainline Protestants (the latest Pew survey having just been released even as I type this), I mistook the title of Tim Schenck s book to refer to the church's survival in times of growing disaffection with Christianity and faith. I was ready to chide author and publisher gently for such a breezy approach as the title suggests to a thorny subject that many pastors must agonize over, plowing through libraries of the emergent, emerging, renewal, tribal, and missional church literature-not to mention the volumes devoted to strategies for stewardship and evangelism-as we fret that our parish will be the next to close.The title refers not to the survival of the church, however, but addresses those requiring counsel in how they themselves can survive the absurdities of the Episcopal Church. The question immediately arises: Why would anyone want to, when increasing numbers of defectors (witness the latest Pew survey) promise plenty of company if one simply left? For those who need more than the monthly wry observations of Jay Sidebotham's cartoons for the Church Pension Group's liturgical calendar, and would like to binge on a compendium of the more nonsensical folkways of Episcopal congregational life, this book is a prayer answered.I mean the word disarming literally. The author immediately disarms all possibility of criticism: 'Within these pages you'll find satire, snark, and tweaking of our beloved Church, but it's all done out of love. Mostly.... My take on church life isn't for everyone-clergy who take themselves too seriously will hate it. The humorless will be offended (p. 1). The humorless, whom he later characterizes as grim, sanctimonious, and judgmental (p. 162), are duly warned.The author is perhaps too modest in promising only some snark. That tone pervades the book, and he is justly proud of his prodigious talent for producing it. He even offers a reasoned defense of it as compatible with Christian discourse. Of course, high-octane snark must be difficult to maintain, and occasional glimmers of sincerity peek through, as when the author modestly confesses to enjoying the start of the program year, and celebrating baptisms and funerals. These snark-free moments provide welcome relief. …

‘Conversion therapy’ and homosexuality — never an appropriate treatment for children or adolescents

One of the most remarkable changes in our society over the past 15 years has been the dramatic and widespread liberalization of mainstream Americans' views on homosexuality. The statistics on public opinion regarding same‐sex marriage are indicative: in 2001, Pew reported 35% in favor of gay marriage and 57% opposed. By 2015, the pattern was essentially reversed, with 55% supporting and only 39% opposing gay marriage. Support is highest among those aged 34 or younger (70%); white, mainline Protestants (62%) or those with no religious affiliation (82%); and Democrats (66%). The evolution of public opinion parallels progress on the legal front that culminated in the landmark Supreme Court ruling in June 2015 legalizing gay marriage in all 50 states.

Beyond Cooties and Crushes: The Potential for Evangelical Leadership in Christian Engagement with Islam

For those who are concerned about Islamophobia and wish to combat it within the context of religious liberty in America, this essay offers a proposal that evangelical Christians, who are thought to be part of the problem, can become leaders in interfaith engagement with Islam. The people most prepared to understand the experience of being Muslim in America are Evangelicals, and the real hope is that fervently orthodox Christians and Muslims may live in a peaceable community. We need Evangelicals to take the lead. What tempers Mainline Protestants, what has prepared them for interfaith engagement, is intellectual doubt, but this is also their limitation. What can temper and prepare Evangelicals to lead us in interfaith engagement toward Islam is confessional humility, after the example of St. Paul and in the image of Christ.

The Moral Reasoning of U.S. Evangelical and Mainline Protestant Children, Adolescents, and Adults: A Cultural-Developmental Study.

This cultural-developmental interview study examined moral reasoning in relation to religious culture (evangelical, mainline Protestants), age (children, adolescents, adults), and moral issue (public, private; N = 120). Compared to adolescents and adults, children used more Ethic of Autonomy and less Ethic of Community reasoning. With age, differences between religious cultures became pronounced. Mainline adults invoked an Ethic of Divinity for private issues. Evangelical adolescents and adults used this ethic frequently, but more for public than private issues. These and other findings indicate that evangelical and mainline Protestants diverge on what should be society's moral lingua franca, and cast new and nuanced light on America's "culture wars." Results furthermore highlight comodulation of development and culture that requires life course research on moral reasoning.