Political Orientations by Denominational Affiliation

Here's a nice figure from this blog post at RNS:

The post's author identifies some interesting lessons to take away from the figure, so I suggest you read to the post's bottom.  One note:  the title of the blog post is a bit misleading, as the figure is not about the political ideologies of churches but rather the ideologies of their members.

Research on Religion Podcast on USCIRF

This week's Research on Religion podcast is an interview with Robert George on the USCIRF.  Catch it here!

Freakonomics Podcast on Religion and Happiness

The latest Freakonomics podcast discusses the relationship between religion and happiness.  Go here to listen.  Data reveal a strong positive correlation between religious participation and happiness, but it is surprisingly difficult to identify a causal relationship between the two.  Religion can make people happy, but happy people may be more inclined to be religious.  The podcast discusses this complexity with its usual wit and humor.

Interplanetary Religious Competition

Usually when we conceptualize religious competition, we think of local markets.  Denominations export missionaries to foreign markets to proselytize, for example.  This leads to competition in a local market, but two denominations competing in one local market may also compete with each other in a market in a different location.  An example might be Seventh-day Adventists and Jehovah's Witnesses competing for converts in a town in Brazil and in a town in Cote d'Ivoire.

But can you imagine competing in different planets?  Why not?  Pope Francis has just stated that he would be willing to baptise aliens - even Martians.  He said: "who are we to close the doors."   See article here.  Actually, this is not the first time that baptizing extra-terrestrial beings has been mentioned by a Pope.  Pope Benedict XVI apparently once said that he would baptize an alien if the alien asked to be baptized.

USCIRF 2014 Annual Report

The USCIRF just released the 2014 Annual Report on religious freedom around the world.  See the press release here. This issue includes a special 15th anniversary retrospective.

Church: Fast or Slow?

A new book argues that the successful practices of megachurches cannot be mass-produced by small, local churches.  Instead, these small local churches should promote "slow church," drawing lessons from the slow food movement.  The slow food movement discourages the eating of fast food and encourages eating of locally grown and produced food.  Fast food, here a metaphor for the not-fully-satisfying meal of the megachurch, is viewed as not fully satisfying the community needs of the churchgoer.  See here for a RNS article about the new book and the issues it discusses.

This argument is a neat example of how religious leaders and groups draw ideas from the secular world in informing how they might or should conduct their religious operations.  Our economic analysis cannot assess whether their argument is correct or incorrect, and, of course, different religious consumers may prefer different kinds of religious services.  But the issues of club production and religious capital permeate the article despite the lack of those labels.  And at the least, the slow church people have a nice image around which to market themselves.

Speaking of Schism and Property Rights

What timing!  Earlier this week we discussed how the ownership of church property may factor into a congregation's decision to break away from a denomination.  Well, there has just been an interesting court ruling in Montana on a real-life case of this very issue.

Faith Lutheran Church, a congregation in Great Falls, Montana, decided by vote to ends its affiliation with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America due to the ELCA's ordination of gay clergy.  According to the congregation's founding constitution, two-thirds support was needed to authorize disafilliation, but 90% in favor of disaffiliation was needed for the church property and endowment to go with the break-away congregation.    The vote revealed 71% in favor of disaffiliation, with 29% voting to stay.  Those that stayed, renamed the New Hope Lutheran Ministry, thus had legal claim to the property even though they had a much smaller membership than the break-away group (which kept the same Faith Lutheran Church name).  However, the break-away group took over control of the property immediately after the vote.

New Hope sued to keep the property, with Faith Lutheran claiming that the dispute was about religious doctrine so that a court intervention giving New Hope the property would violate First Amendment rights.  The case went to trial and appeals and just yesterday the Montana Supreme Court  ruled that the original constitution was a legitimate contract and thus there was no reason for courts to intervene in a manner contrary to the group's constitution.  For more legal information, see the write-up at Religion Clause, but for the newsy piece, see this article from a local newspaper.

Did those who voted for breaking-away automatically assume they would keep the property and the endowment?  Would they have voted in favor of breaking-away if they anticipated this legal ruling?

Digital Innovation by the Tzu Chi

The Religion News Service has a new article about the role of online technology is fostering the activities of the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation.  Tzu Chi, which emphasizes activism and donation above traditional Buddhist practices such as meditation, was established under 50 years ago but has millions of members.  As the article explains, the organization uses social media extensively to spread its spiritual message and build community ties--or, as we would say, the social media builds religious capital. The USA web site of the Tzu Chi can be found here.