Rodney Stark

Hellfire and Delinquency

Religious training is assumed to prevent delinquency by promoting the development of moral values, acceptance of conventional authority, and belief in the existence of supernatural sanctions. The relations between church attendance and these presumed consequences are examined. Children who attend church are no more likely than non-attenders to accept ethical principles; they are only slightly more likely than non-attenders to respect conventional authority; they are much more likely to believe in the literal existence of the Devil and a life after death. Those variables affected by church attendance, however, are unrelated to the commission of delinquent acts, while those variables strongly related to delinquency are unaffected by church attendance. The lack of a relation between church attendance and delinquency is thus “explained.”

RELIGIOUS ECONOMIES AND SACRED CANOPIES: RELIGIOUS MOBILIZATION IN AMERICAN CITIES, 1906*

For generations, sociologists have believed that cities are less hospitable to religion than are rural areas and that where many faiths compete for followers, the credibility of each is reduced. In this essay we attempt to explain why these received truths are, in fact, nostalgic myths. We try to demonstrate that religious participation is and ought to be higher in cities and that competition among religious bodies increases levels of religious mobilization. Our analysis is based on the 1906 U.S. Census of Religious Bodies, and the units of analysis are the 150 largest cities-all of those having an estimated population of 25,000 or more.

Secularization, R.I.P.

From the beginning, social scientists have celebrated the secularization thesis despite the fact that it never was consistent with empirical reality. More than 150 years ago Tocqueville pointed out that the facts by no means accord with [the secularization] theory, and this lack of accord has grown far worse since then. Indeed, the only shred of credibility for the notion that secularization has been taking place has depended on contrasts between now and a bygone Age of Faith. In this essay I assemble the work of many recent historians who are unanimous that the Age of Faith is pure nostalgia - that lack of religious participation was, if anything, even more widespread in medieval times than now. Next, I demonstrate that there have been no recent religious changes in Christendom that are consistent with the secularization thesis - not even among scientists. I also expand assessment of the secularization doctrine to non-Christian societies showing that not even the highly magical folk religions in Asia have shown the slightest declines in response to quite rapid modernization. Final words are offered as secularization is laid to rest

Gender and Religiousness: Can Socialization Explanations Be Saved?1

It has long been assumed in sociology that gender differences in religiousness are a product of differential socialization. Yet, there is little empirical support for this assumption. To address this gap in the literature, this study draws on an extensive investigation of the relationship between differential socialization and differential religiousness. Using the American General Social Surveys and the World Values Survey, this article analyzes the relationship between traditional gender attitudes and gender differences in religious beliefs and behavior. Surprisingly, these data show no relationship between the two. Therefore, a new set of hypotheses based on an alternative model involving risk preference is proposed. Results strongly support this new approach. Women are more religious than men to the extent that being irreligious constitutes risk‐taking behavior. This model is able to predict differential religiousness in a wide variety of religious and cultural settings. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Religion as Context: Hellfire and Delinquency One More Time*

More than 10 years ago the author proposed a contextual-interactional explanation of the fact that research done on the West Coast fails to find a relationship between religious commitment and delinquency, while studies done elsewhere invariably find a strong negatit)e correlation. Unfortunately, because of various deficiencies, subsequent studies that claimed to test the contextual explanation have not done so-leaving the literature more confused than ever. In an effort to clarify matters, this paper carefully restates the contextual thee and then tests it on data from a ve7y large survey of high school seniors. The results demonstrate the erastence of a very potent contextual effect.

Networks of Faith: Interpersonal Bonds and Recruitment to Cults and Sects'

A long tradition in social science explains recruitment to religious cults and sects on the basis of a congruence between the ideology of a group and the deprivations of those who join. A more recent approach to recruitment argues that interpersonal bonds between members and potential recruits are the essential element. In this paper we first show that these are complementary, not competing, approaches. Then, because the available evidential base for the role of interpersonal bonds is limited and qualitative, we present quantitative data pertaining to three quite different radical religious groups. In each case there is overwhelming support for the crucial role played by social networks in the formation and growth of such groups. Next we seek the boundaries of this phenomenon.Available studies suggest that not merely cult and sect recruitment, but commitment to conventional faiths as well, is supported by social networks.However, networks do not seem to play an important role in acceptance of mildly deviant occult beliefs. Belief in seances and tarot cards, for example, seems to spread via the mass media with little mediation by social networks. We discuss the implications of these findings for a theory of cult and sect recruitment.

Physiology and Faith: Addressing the “Universal” Gender Difference in Religious Commitment

That men are less religious than women is a generalization that holds around the world and across the centuries. However, there has been virtually no study of this phenomenon because it has seemed so obvious that it is the result of differential sex role socialization. Unfortunately, actual attempts to isolate socialization effects on gender differences in religiousness have failed, as have far more frequent and careful efforts to explain gender differences in crime. There is a growing body of plausible evidence in support of physiological bases for gender differences in crime. Making the assumption that, like crime, irreligiousness is an aspect of a general syndrome of short–sighted, risky behaviors leads to the conclusion that male irreligiousness may also have a physiological basis. If nothing else, this article may prompt creative efforts to salvage the socialization explanation.

Religion and Delinquency: the Ecology of a "Lost" Relationship

Confusion has developed in the literature over whether religious commitment decreases delinquent behavior. In this paper we show that conflicting findings stem from variations in the religious ecology of the communities studied. In communities where religious commitment is the norm, the more religious an individual, the less likely he or she will be delinquent. However, in highly secu larized communities, even the most devout teenagers are no less delinquent than the most irreligious. This is why the initial studies found no religious ef fects on delinquency. Each was based on highly secularized West Coast com munities, and the results generalize only to similar communities in that area. Elsewhere in the nation, studies have found strong religious effects on delin quency. Using a national sample of sixteen-year-old boys from eighty-seven high schools, we show there is a very substantial negative relationship between religious commitment and delinquency in the great majority of schools-those schools in which religious students are a majority. But the relationship vanishes in the most highly secularized West Coast schools. The theoretical implications of these marked ecological effects are assessed.

Religion, Deviance, and Social Control

Does religion have the power to regulate human behavior? If so, under what conditions can it prevent crime, delinquency, suicide, alcoholism, drug abuse, or joining cults? Despite the fact that ordinary citizens assume religion deters deviant behavior, there has been little systematic scientific research on these crucial questions. This book is the first comprehensive analysis, drawing on a wide range of historical and contemporary data, and written in a style that will appeal to readers from many intellectual backgrounds.

Mobilizing local religious markets : Religious pluralism in the Empire State, 1855 to 1865

Recent theoretical developments propose that when the state deregulates religion pluralism and competition will emerge and overall levels of religious participation will be high. In this essay we return to nineteenth century America when a religious free market was first emerging to examine how pluralism generated higher levels of church attendance. We use data from the state census of 1865 to explore the religious situation in 942 towns and cities of New York State. Our results strongly support the pluralism thesis demonstrate demographic effects on church attendance and explain the conflicting findings of past research on the relationship between pluralism and religious participation. (authors)