Jerry Z. Park

'To Whom Much Has Been Given...' Religious Capital and Community Voluntarism Among Churchgoing Protestants

Research on volunteering behavior has consistently found a positive relationship between religion and volunteering. Using a sample of churchgoing Protestants (N=1,738) from the Religious Identity and Influence Survey we examine the specific influences of religiosity, religious identity, religious socialization, and religious social networks on local volunteer activity in church programs and non-church organizations, as well as general volunteering tendencies. These influences are presented within the theoretical framework of religious capital. Logistic regression techniques were applied to determine the strength of the contribution of these influences by all measures to some degree, but religiosity (specifically participation in church activities) remains the strongest influence. Significant religious influences overall are most pronounced with the context of church-related volunteering which suggests that churchgoing Protestant exhibit a strong sense of community identity through their local churches. A discussion of these results and their implications for volunteering follows.

Tolerant (In)Civility? A Longitudinal Analysis of White Conservative Protestants' Willingness to Grant Civil Liberties

Past research has found conservative Protestants to be less willing than most Americans to grant civil liberties to unpopular groups. In light of evidence of high and growing civility by Smith (2000) and Hunter (1984), there is god reason to believe that conservative Protestants are becoming less distinctive with regard to granting civil freedoms. We update and expand previous research on conservative Protestants and civil liberties by examining the civil liberties measures in the General Social Survey over a 26-year period, with special attention to explaining conservative Protestantisms rejection of civil liberties. In comparison to mainline Protestants and Catholics, we find that conservative Protestants are still less willing to grant civil liberties to unpopular groups, though important qualifications apply. Various explanations are examined.

Exceptional Outgroup Stereotypes and White Racial Inequality Attitudes toward Asian Americans

Stereotypes of outgroups help create social identificational boundaries for ingroups. When the ingroup is dominant, members employ individualist sentiments to justify their status. In this study, we build on advances in social psychological research that account for multiple outgroup stereotypes. We argue the Asian American model minority stereotype is analogous to the “cold but competent” position of perceptions toward Asians in Fiske’s stereotype content model. Asian Americans are perceived to be exceptional to other minority groups, and we hypothesize that perceived competence is associated with individualist sentiments directed at Blacks and Latinos. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Freshmen, we find support for our hypotheses but find that perceived coldness has no relationship to individualist sentiments. We discuss the implications and directions for further research.

Sunday Celluloid: Visual Media and Protestant Boundaries with Secular Culture

We examine how ministers in two religious traditions use discourse on secular visual media as a means of establishing symbolic group boundaries. We compare content in 100 evangelical and mainline Protestant sermons, each of which makes at least one reference to secular cinema. We find that mainline ministers largely promote “expanding” boundaries with secular culture, that evangelical ministers promote “contracting” and “expanding” boundaries in roughly equal measure, and that ministers from both traditions sometimes promote “selectively permeable” boundaries. We explore prevailing frames employed by ministers to promote the respective boundaries, and we discuss implications for studies of culture and religion.

Work, Occupations, and Entrepreneurship

This chapter provides an overview of research on the relationship between religion and work, occupations, and entrepreneurship. It begins with a review of Max Weber’s well-known Protestant Work Ethic thesis and problematizes it using extant research from sociology, psychology, and business. The relationship of religion to workplace outcomes is complex, neither always positive nor always negative. We highlight various dimensions of religion and their implications from job satisfaction to work-life balance strategies. We review growing scholarship on the role of religious stratification in the workplace as well. We introduce new research examining the impact of religion on entrepreneurship and close with suggestions for future research.