Following up on Islamic law in Britain

This NY Times article revisits the recent developments in Britain about the legal recognition for Islamic Sharia courts. See this earlier post for some of the economics.

More faces of religious competition

I am keeping my comments short here because there are so many.

• A college fraternity or sorority is a club by almost any definition let alone our economic one. It should not be surprising then that they provide a forum for people to promote and foster religious ideals in college students. See this Chicago Tribune article about religious fraternities.
• The Salvation Army is now accepting credit cards according to this Associated Press release. This should not decrease contributions, but will it increase them? By how much? Many people do not want to take time out of their hurried shopping to make a contribution even though they often use the "I don't have any change" excuse. If it is the opportunity cost of time that prevents contributions, then accepting credit cards will not help much as it does not increase the number of people contributing. On the other hand, if people are constrained by the number of bills in their wallet, then the people who already contribute may now be willing to contribute more than before because they can charge it.
  
• The Mandaeans practice one of the world's oldest religions, but they are nearing extinction according to this Chicago Tribune article. The religious marketplace, like other marketplaces, experiences exit as well as entry.
  
• Finally, here's a Wall Street Journal article about atheists' increased attempts to compete with religion. The very end of the article gets to the relevant economics. One issue is whether atheists can compete with the variety of goods and services offered by religious groups, including the many club goods. The writer seems to question their ability to compete, though it would have been nice if the writer explored this in more detail:

  Still, leading activists say nonbelievers tend to be just as wary of organized atheism as they are of organized religion -- making it tough to pull together a cohesive movement. "A pastor can say to his flock, 'All rise,' and everyone rises. But try that in an atheist meeting," said Marvin Straus, co-founder of an atheist group in Boulder, Colo. "A third of the people will rise. A third will tell you to go to hell. And a third will start arguing....That's why it's hard to say where we're going as a movement."

The various faces of religious competition

Some recent news articles and items illustrate the various dimensions of religious competition. Sorry I don't have time to say more about them.

From the recent AP Religion News in Brief:

• Hindu militants in India have attacked and even killed Christians and destroyed churches. This is an example of "social regulation" by citizens not government, which we will discuss next week in class.
  
• Churches must also find ways to innovate in producing their religious goods and services. An Episcopal Church in NY removed two dozen pews to improve the "feel" of the religious meetings. You can apparently get one of those pews for "only" $300 on Craigslist.
• As religious organizations adapt in order to compete in the religious marketplace, some members may not like the adaptation, and this can lead to the break-up of a Church. The Episcopal Church has faced such internal pressures recently.
  

Also from the AP, see this article about secular humanists using advertisements on buses as a way to compete with religion as the holiday season approaches. Humanists argue that they provide a good substitute for religious belief and activity.

Ten-year anniversary of the International Religious Freedom Act

October 27, 2008, just last week, marked the ten-year anniversary of the International Religious Freedom Act (also see wikipedia). In short, the IRFA made it a matter of U.S. foreign policy to promote religious freedom around the world. On H.W. 7, you will read more about this act and the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.

In honor of this tenth anniversary, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has a Q&A with Allen Hertzke, a close observer of the creation of the IRFA.

Tidbits from today's AP "Religion news in brief"

Want a Christian-themed license plate for your car? You can get one in South Carolina... at least, that is, until and unless the courts decide it violates church-state separation laws.

Want to read your Hebrew prayers on your BlackBerry? For $30 you can download the JewBerry software. Yeshiva University President said, "I love it, because now I can not only look how the market is doing, but I can also say my evening prayers."

See the full AP news brief here. You can read about the 8th-grader sent home for dressing like Jesus on Halloween, about a ruling that keeps crosses on a city's logo, or, on a more serious note, about the Dalai Lama's deteriorating hopes for Tibet.

New religious regulations in Krygyzstan

As reported here, government officials in Krygystan, a small central Asian country, yesterday passed a bill that places new restrictions on the operations of religious groups. If President Bakiyev signs the bill, which is expected, certain types of proselytizing will be outlawed and religious teaching in private schools will be forbidden.

Critics say the bill curtains fundamental human rights. Supporters say the bill promotes better oversight and reduces religious tensions. Economists of religion say that the regulations are an attempt to curtail religious competition that will benefit religious groups already entrenched in the society by reducing religious consumers' viable religious alternatives.

I do not know the background of the bill or what are the particular interests of those who promoted it. A student could look more into this and write up what they found, using economics to talk about the incentives of the different relevant actors.

Religion and the election

The Pew Forum has a web site dedicated to assessing the election. Check this site soon for all sorts of facts and figures about how people of different religious groups voted in the election.

Surfing the world wide church

This Newsweek article mentions attempts to use the Internet to replicate (or replace) the traditional community component of religion. Instead of going to church, just log in online. At some Christian sites, you can even participate in the communion online, which is a different kind of openness in communion than that mentioned in an earlier post.

Many religious groups use advances in technology to either provide their religious services more effectively or to provide new types of religious goods. We sometimes think that religious groups abhor new technology, but this attitude is more the exception than the rule. Throughout history, religious groups and individuals have incorporated new technologies just as other groups and individuals. Think of printing presses used centuries ago to produce religious tracts and holy writings. Today, most churches have some presence online even though most do not actually hold religious services online. Another article from today even describes a new Catholic television station that is only available online.

Providing religious services such as communion online is just another example of religious entrepreneurship. One interesting question for us is how good a substitute the online church is for in-person church. The article mentions how some aspects of community can be replicated online while others cannot. This matches our club theory; some of the goods that are produced collectively at an in-person church service cannot be closely replicated online. Thus, online church for many people will be an imperfect substitute for church in person. However, there are some who will prefer the online experience. The interesting thing will be to see how large this particular market becomes. Given that young people, in particular, enjoy networking online, I would not be surprised to see this type of market survive in some form, though it will not likely have a large market share.