June 2005 Article Abstracts Vol. 46 Issue 3

2004 Presidential Address

LINKING RESEARCH AND SOCIAL ACTION:
VIOLENCE, RELIGION AND THE FAMILY

NANCY NASON-CLARK

The contradictions, dilemmas, and promise of sociology outside the boundaries of the academy are of growing interest within our own professional ranks. By reflecting upon my own research on violence, religion, and the family over the last fifteen years, my Presidential Address to the Religious Research Association argues that we must link research and social action. But while the pursuit of a public sociology can be rewarding, it is also riddled with tensions. I address three erroneous beliefs about linking research and activism and then focus on six challenges facing scholars who are determined to translate their research findings into various forms of social action in pursuit of a just society.

ASSESSING RELIGIOUS BELIEFS

SOME UUs ARE MORE U THAN U:
THEOLOGICAL SELF-DESCRIPTORS CHOSEN BY UNITARIAN UNIVERSALISTS

JAMES CASEBOLT

TIFFANY NIEKRO

As part of a longer survey, Unitarian Universalists (N = 206) selected from a list of theological labels those they would use to describe their own religious beliefs. Factor analysis revealed three factors: The first had strong loadings for terms referring to unitary and primarily Western views of the Divine. The second included terms referring to Neopagan or New Age theologies. The third corresponded most closely to humanism. The term Universalist loaded strongly onto the first factor, Unitarian Universalist strongly onto the second factor, and Unitarian moderately onto the first and third factors. Respondents whose initial membership was prior to or followed the 1961 merger of the Unitarian and Universalist traditions in America differed on their identification with the terms Unitarian and Unitarian Universalist.

ASSESSING BELIEF ABOUT THE BIBLE: A STUDY AMONG ANGLICAN LAITY

ANDREW VILLAGE

Belief about the bible was examined among 404 Anglican churchgoers in England with summated scales measuring conservative-liberal beliefs about the bible, morality and religious exclusivity. Two other scales were developed to assess the extent to which beliefs were held dogmatically. The BIBLE scale was unidimensional, internally reliable (Cronbach’s alpha = .91) and closely correlated with scales measuring moral beliefs (r = .58, p <.01) and religious exclusivity (r = .73, p <.01). Scores were highest (most conservative) in Evangelical churches, intermediate in Broad churches and lowest in Anglo-catholic churches. Conservative belief in the bible was related negatively to education level in all traditions, and positively to attendance in Evangelical churches but not in other traditions. It was unrelated to either gender or age. Liberal belief in the bible was not related to lack of religiosity as measured by church attendance or bible-reading frequency. Dogmatically held belief was evident among both conservatives and liberals and those who held the strongest beliefs in either direction tended to dismiss those who held alternative views. Belief about the bible can be assessed along a conservative-liberal construct that distinguishes liberal belief from unbelief.

EVANGELICAL SOLIDARITY WITH THE JEWS: A VEILED AGENDA?
A QUALITATIVE CONTENT ANALYSIS OF
PAT ROBERTSON’S 700 CLUB PROGRAM

ERIC GORMLY

The 700 Club television program presents a mix of information and opinion through a news and talk show format. Religious perspectives are often used to frame the high level of social and political content in the show. Using qualitative content analysis, two weeks of the program following the September 11 attacks were analyzed to distill its positions on Israel and the Jewish faith. Through the use of such devices as representative anecdotes and rhetorical narratives, Robertson’s essential message is that the U.S. must support Israel’s hard-line policies to combat Palestinian terrorism or risk the survival of Israel and America. But the key motivation for this position rests on the belief by many Evangelical Christians that apocalyptic events are coalescing in Israel, and that U.S. policy can and must help lay the foundation for Christ’s return.

SECULARIZATION IN NON-WESTERN SOCIETIES

SECULAR CZECHS AND DEVOUT SLOVAKS: EXPLAINING RELIGIOUS DIFFERENCES
PAUL FROESE
Czechs are some of the least religious people in Eastern Europe. In contrast, their close neighbors and one-time compatriots, the Slovaks, are vastly more religious. What explains this marked difference in religiosity between two regions that have shared a common history throughout the twentieth Century? Statistical analyses of demographic differences do not yield any convincing answers. Instead, the religious differences between Czechs and Slovaks are rooted in the historical relationship between religion and nationalism in both regions. This paper provides a historical framework in which to understand current religious differences and shows that secularization is a complex phenomenon which depends heavily on church relations with nationalist sentiment.

NONOFFICIAL RELIGION IN SOUTH KOREA: PREVALENCE OF FORTUNETELLING AND OTHER FORMS OF DIVINATION

ANDREW EUNGI KIM

Nonofficial religion, also called “folk,” “common,” or “popular” religion, refers to religious and quasi-religious beliefs and practices that are neither accepted nor controlled by official religious groups. As the religion of the general populace, nonofficial religion comprises such diverse elements as superstition, magic, the paranormal and the occult as well as astrology. Traditionally, these non-institutionalized religions had exerted profound influences on the lives and worldviews of large numbers of people all across the world. Even today a considerable number of individuals, irrespective of age, gender, class and education differences, still engage in nonofficial religious beliefs and practices. In spite of the continuing relevance of nonofficial religion in modern life, however, little scholarly attention has been paid to the topic. South Korea is no exception. There has to date been no sociological analysis of the nature of nonofficial religion in the country. To redress this imbalance, this paper examines the main aspects of nonofficial religion in South Korea and probes the ways in which Koreans practice it. Belief in extrascientific explanations and techniques, particularly fortunetelling and other variants of divination, remain popular in South Korea: nonofficial religious beliefs and practices are fairly common among Koreans who now live in the vastly modernized and urbanized society, and nonofficial religion is patronized almost evenly by people of diverse backgrounds. Many practitioners of nonofficial religion are also adherents of official religion. The paper then re-examines the secularization debate in light of nonofficial religion in South Korea.