John P. Bartkowski

TO VEIL OR NOT TO VEIL? A Case Study of Identity Negotiation among Muslim Women in Austin, Texas

The increasingly pervasive practice of veiling among Muslim women has stimulated a great deal of scholarly investigation and debate. This study brings empirical evidence to bear on current debates about the meaning of the veil in Islam. This article first examines the conflicting meanings of the veil among Muslim religious elites and Islamic feminists. Although the dominant gender discourse among Muslim elites strongly favors this cultural practice, an antiveiling discourse promulgated by Islamic feminists has gained ground within recent years. This study then examines how these discursive disputes affect gender identity negotiation among veiled and unveiled Muslim women living in Austin, Texas. Interviews with these women highlight how their gender identities reproduce and reformulate existing Muslim gender discourses. Special attention is paid to the subjective disparities and points of congruence between both groups of respondents. This study concludes by suggesting avenues for future research on the intersection of gender, religion, and cultural difference.

Veiled Submission: Gender, Power, and Identity Among Evangelical and Muslim Women in the United States

The past decade has witnessed a proliferation of studies that illuminate devout womens affiliation with conservative religious communities. Despite the increasingly multicultural character of contemporary social and religious life, few studies to date have compared the experiences of conservative religious women across faith traditions. Guided by insights from cultural theory, this study begins by comparing elite gender discourses within evangelical Protestantism and Islam. Elite evangelical gender debates hinge on biblical references to womens submission. Similarly, Muslims dispute the meaning of the veil to Islamic womanhood. After outlining the contours of these debates, we draw on in-depth interview data with evangelical and Muslim women to demonstrate how these two groups of respondents negotiate gender in light of their distinctive religious commitments. In the end, we reveal that the unique cultural repertoires within these two religious communities enable women to affirm traditional religious values while refashioning such convictions to fit their post-traditional lifestyles.

Love Thy Neighbor? Moral Communities, Civic Engagement, and Juvenile Homicide in Rural Areas

While juvenile homicide garnered a tremendous amount of attention from the general public, the media, and policymakers around 1990, macro-level research examining intercommunity variations in juvenile homicide is generally sparse. In addition, most studies addressing this topic focus on urban areas, neglecting the equally important issue of juvenile homicide in rural communities. This analysis extends prior research by investigating the structural sources of variation in rural juvenile homicide rates and by examining the influence of religion on this phenomenon. Informing our analyses with theoretical insights drawn from the moral communities and civil society literatures, we investigate the protective effects of civically engaged religious denominations on juvenile family, acquaintance, and stranger homicides in rural counties. For comparative purposes, we also perform parallel analyses on a sample of urban areas. The empirical analyses of county-level data using negative binomial regression estimation techniques indicate that the presence of civically engaged religious adherents is inversely associated with juvenile homicide in rural areas (net of the effects of a range of control variables), but that this protective effect is primarily confined to juvenile family homicides. In contrast, the measure of civically engaged denominations has no effect on juvenile homicide in urban areas. We conclude with a discussion of the theoretical importance of these findings and directions for future research.

DISTANT PATRIARCHS OR EXPRESSIVE DADS? The Discourse and Practice of Fathering in Conservative Protestant Families

Despite the burgeoning research literature on paternal involvement, the relationship between religion and fatherhood has received remarkably little attention from empirical researchers. Our investigation illuminates this understudied dimension of fathering by examining how conservative Protestant gender ideologies impact paternal involvement in evangelical households. Our study begins with an examination of insider documents—nemely, gender and family advice manuals—written by conservative Protestant luminaries. One group of conservative Protestant advice authors argues that paternal involvement and masculine role modeling in the home is crucial to the proper formation of childrens distinctive gender identities, while a rival coterie of authors advocates ungendered spousal roles and shared parenting responsibilities. We then turn to data from wave 1 of the National Survey of Families and Households to gauge the distinctiveness of parenting practices among conservative Protestant fathers. We find that conservative Protestant fathers are considerably more likely than their nonevangelical counterparts to engage in paternal supervision and affective parenting. Such findings underscore the complexity of fathering in conservative Protestant households and illuminate several fruitful directions for future research on the religious dimensions of paternal involvement.

Conservative Protestantism and the Division of Household Labor among Married Couples

To date, few studies have examined the role of religion, especially conservative (i.e., fundamentalist and evangelical) Protestantism, in shaping the division of housework. The authors begin by reviewing popular writings on gender and family life by contemporary conservative Protestants, focusing on the competing discourses of traditionalist and egalitarian evangelicals. Then, the authors analyze data on a large U.S. sample of married couples from Wave 1 of the National Survey of Families and Households to compare conservative Protestant housework patterns with those among nonevangelical couples. Conservative Protestant wives perform more housework overall and spend more time doing “female-typed” labor than their nonevangelical peers. These differences are then traced to religious variations in spousal and household resources and also to a distinctive evangelical gender ideology. Interestingly, few religious differences in mens housework patterns are observed. Implications of these findings are discussed and several promising directions for future research identified.

Gender, Religious Tradition and Biblical Literalism

Several studies examine biblical literalism to categorize Christian denominations and predict attitudes and behaviors. Yet, few studies have identified the predictors of literalist orientations. In this study, we use structuration theory and gender theory to develop hypotheses concerning gender differences in literalist ideologies based on the degree of organizational patriarchy among religious traditions. Analyses using two national data sets demonstrate that women are relatively more inclined than men to embrace a literalist ideology in patriarchal religious organizations than in mainline organizations. We argue that a literalist ideology provides a compensatory schema to conservative Protestant women, who are generally denied access to organizational resources, especially positions of leadership and authority, in such organizations. We conclude by identifying the implications of our findings for research on gender, religion and patriarchal organizations.

The Timing of First Marriage Are There Religious Variations

Using survey data from a nationally representative sample, this article explores how marriage timing varies across major religious denominations. Survival analysis indicates that net of statistical controls, Catholics, moderate Protestants, conservative Protestants, and Mormons marry significantly earlier than their unaffiliated counterparts. This holds true for women and men. However, no statistical differences emerge between Jews, liberal Protestants, and the unaffiliated. As surmised, auxiliary statistical tests reveal additional religious subcultural variations: (a) Jews tend to marry later than Catholics, conservative Protestants, and Mormons; (b) Catholics also marry later than conservative Protestants and Mormons; (c) no statistical difference surfaces between Mormons and conservative Protestants; and (d) differences between Catholics and liberal Protestants as well as between Jews and liberal Protestants are statistically negligible. These findings systematically support the denominational subcultural paradigm in the case of marriage timing.

Scripture, Sin and Salvation: Theological Conservatism Reconsidered

Using insights from ethnographic studies of conservative Protestant congregations, the authors propose and test a refined conceptual model of theological conservatism that accounts for three key components of a theologically conservative worldview: (1. epistemology, a belief in the Bible as the inspired word of God, (2. ontology, assumptions about the pervasiveness of human sinfulness, and (3. soteriology, the conviction that salvation is made possible through a commitment to Jesus Christ. Structural equation modeling is used to examine the reliability and validity of this model across data sets and relativity to current approaches used in the study of religion. The proposed measure exhibits a substantial improvement for defining and interpreting the influence of religious conservatism across and within sociodemographic groups in contemporary American society.

Civic Participation, Regional Subcultures, and Violence: The Differential Effects of Secular and Religious Participation on Adult and Juvenile Homicide

This analysis extends prior macro-level homicide research by examining the links between civic participation, regional subcultures of violence, and age-specific homicide rates. To this end, an integrated community resource perspective was developed and this approach was contrasted with community deficit perspectives. To lend greater specificity, the distinctive effects of religious and secular participation on community levels of juvenile and adult homicide were also considered. Analyses of county-level adult and juvenile homicide offending patterns suggest that regional subcultures as well as religious and secular forms of civic participation play important—yet age-graded—roles in reducing interpersonal violence.

Claims-Making and typifications of voodoo as a deviant religion: Hex, lies, and videotape

A small number of researchers and social commentators have called attention to negative perceptions about voodoo in U.S. cultural discourse. Yet, remarkably little scholarship has examined the nature, scope, and source of these perceptions in a systematic fashion. In this paper, I use key insights from social constructionism to examine three different typifications of voodoo as broadcast by the U.S. news media. I begin by outlining the constructionist perspective, focusing most pointedly on the nature of claims-making and its relationship to typifications (i.e., distinctive constructions) of a social problem. Then, I examine in detail three specific typifications of voodoo as promulgated by various sets of primary and secondary claims-makers in recent years. These respective typifications portray voodoo as (1) a religion based on black magic and witchcraft; (2) a melange of superstitious beliefs used for deceptive purposes; and, (3) a cult religion which sanctions human torture and sacrifice. I conclude by discussing the implications of my findings for claims-making and media representations about unconventional religious groups.