Christopher P. Scheitle

Accounting for the uncounted: Computing correctives for the 2000 RCMS data

The 2000 Religious Congregations and Membership Study (RCMS) provides the most complete enumeration of religious congregations and their members by counties. Yet, this invaluable data collection suffers from two serious limitations. First, many denominations and religious groups did not participate in the study, resulting in serious undercounts of the total membership. Second, the undercounts are closely related to race and ethnicity. These two limitations distort both the descriptive and inferential statistics calculated from the RCMS data. This research computes two correctives for the RCMS study. The first provides a more accurate estimate for the national church adherence rate by counting the uncounted. The second corrective improves adherence rates for counties, states, and urban areas by adjusting for the racial and ethnic groups undercounted. After accounting for the uncounted, we estimate that the national adherence rate is 63 percent rather than the 50 percent estimated by using the RCMS data alone.

High-cost Religion, Religious Switching, and Health

Previous research has devoted significant attention to understanding the link between health and personal religious beliefs and practices, typically finding that more religious people tend to have better health. However, almost no attention has been given to how switching religious groups or leaving religion altogether is related to self-reported health. Due to selection and causation mechanisms, switching from high-cost groups that are theologically and culturally exclusive could be associated with poor health more than switching from other religious groups. Using data from the 1972 through 2006 General Social Surveys, we examine the relationship between health and religious switching as moderated by the religious tradition of origin. We find that people who are raised and stay in high-cost sectarian groups, such as the Latter-day Saints and Jehovah’s Witnesses, have better self-reported health than those raised and staying in other religious traditions. However, people who leave such groups are more likely to report worse health than those who leave other groups.

Religious and Spiritual Change in College: Assessing the Effect of a Science Education

A long line of research has attempted to examine an assumed conflict between religious belief and scientific knowledge by assessing the religious beliefs of individuals with a high level of scientific training and education, such as faculty at universities. This research has established that there are differences in levels of religious belief across different disciplines, but because of data limitations it has not been able to adequately assess the causal nature of these differences. The research presented here overcomes these limitations using longitudinal data examining different dimensions of religious and spiritual belief among undergraduates. Using four latent variable concepts assessing both positive and negative dimensions of traditional and nontraditional forms of belief, the analysis shows no evidence that students in the natural sciences show a greater decrease in religious belief compared with students in other fields.

On the varying meaning of "open and affirming".

Some religious denominations offer programs where member congregations can signal their acceptance of all gender identities and sexual orientations. The United Church of Christ (UCC) created one of the earliest of such programs in the mid-1980s by which congregations can adopt an “Open and Affirming” identity. However, there has been little research examining this program and how it has evolved over time. Research suggests that organizational innovations like the Open and Affirming program often become institutionalized over time, leading to changes in how the program is expressed or conducted. We examine Open and Affirming (ONA) congregations in the UCC to see if the manner in which they express their ONA identity depends on when they adopted the identity. We find that early adopters of such programs are more likely than later adopters to focus on sexual orientation. While this could be seen as a troubling pattern, we argue that it could represent greater awareness of the Open and Affirming programs meaning, which has allowed for greater flexibility in its expression.

Bringing Out the Dead: Gender and Historical Cycles of Spiritualism

Interest in the spirit world has blossomed since the 1990s. Four in 10 Americans claim to have been in touch with the dead. Mainstream movies featuring ghosts have made millions, television shows featuring mediums are broadcast throughout the country, books concerning the spirit world have made the New York Times bestsellers list, and the deceased have been increasingly put to work by Madison Avenue. Developed here is a theory of the relations between historical cycles of spiritualism, womens interest in that movement, and how that is related to womens visibility and power within society. It is argued that women have historically had a fairly constant interest in the spirit world. Spiritualisms current popularity is a result of women having more power and visibility, giving the spirit world a prominence in society that it previous only had during spiritualism “boom” periods when men became interested.

Religious Affiliation, College Degree Attainment, and Religious Switching

Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to better understand the connection between religious affiliation and educational attainment and how this connection has changed over time. Methodology/Approach – We utilize the cumulative 1972–2008 General Social Surveys to examine the relationships between childhood religious affiliation, college degree attainment, and religious switching across three birth cohorts. Findings – We find in early cohorts that traditions such as Conservative Protestantism and Catholicism are negatively associated with college degree attainment. However, switching out of those traditions is positively associated with obtaining a college degree. In later cohorts, these effects disappear. Social implications – The finding that the relationships between religious affiliation and educational attainment are dramatically changing over time means that scholars, educators, and religious groups might need to revise their current thinking concerning the topic of religion and education. Originality/Value of chapter – This research helps us better understand the complexities involved when thinking about the role of religion in education and vice versa. By explicitly considering the different causal and temporal factors involved, this analysis provides a more nuanced understanding of the connection between religious affiliation and educational attainment.