Article Abstracts
March 2007

Bridging The Denomination-Congregation Divide:
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Congregations Respond to Homosexuality

Wendy Cadge
Brandeis University

Heather Day
Bowdoin College

Christopher Wildeman
Princeton University

A growing body of research examines conflicts over homosexuality in national religious organizations, but little research explores variation in how local congregations are responding to the issue. We focus on twenty-one congregations in the northeastern and southwestern United States that belong to one mainline Protestant denomination, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). We ask how local factors and national denominational actions influence how these congregations are addressing homosexuality. Before a recent national denominational study, local situations and factors led congregations to respond to homosexuality in a broad range of ways. Since the national study, there is much less variation in congregations’ responses, illustrating how a denomination can use a national study to frame and shape local considerations of a controversial issue. This article bridges the gap between studies of homosexuality focused on denominations and those focused on congregations to show how denominational actions can shape local considerations. More broadly, this article illustrates the range of ways congregations may respond to controversial issues in their national denominations and one strategy, a national study, which a denomination may adopt to frame and shape such conflicts.

Hospitable or Hostile Environment:
Sexual Harassment in the United Methodist Church

Gail Murphy-Geiss
Colorado College

In 1988, the United Methodist Church went on record in their opposition to sexual harassment. A study of sexual harassment in the denomination was mandated, and later updated in 2005. This paper discusses some of the findings of that update, focusing on the gender and the clergy/lay status of both perpetrators and victims. Based on 1800 surveys from leaders in the denomination, the study suggests that (1) rates of sexual harassment against women have remained fairly stable, but reports of sexual harassment against men have risen sharply, especially regarding the more ambiguous types of harassment, (2) most perpetrators against both women and men continue to be men, and (3) perpetrators are now found more among the laity than the clergy. Overall, the earlier concern about sexual misconduct by male clergy remains, but the added problem of sexually harassing laity warrants attention. In addition, more research is needed about same-sex sexual harassment (SSSH) in the context of a traditional institution like the church.

Married Clergy Women:
How They Maintain Traditional Marriage Even as they Claim New Authority

Susan Cody-Rydzewski
LaGrange College

The family lives of religious women have attracted considerable attention from social scientists in recent years. Researchers have considered the ways in which religious couples negotiate matters of marital authority. Much of the interest in this area seems to lie in the awareness of contradictions between a society that is increasingly secular and the simultaneous resurgence of interest in religious conservatism and “family values.” Wives and husbands struggle to reconcile their religious beliefs with social realities, especially economic factors that require them to share responsibilities for providing. Previous studies have found that religious couples engage in various forms of strategizing to reestablish or reaffirm conventional patterns of patriarchal authority within marriage. However, very little attention has been paid to the ways in which being a clergywoman affects the dynamics of marriage, especially the balance of power. In this study, through in-depth interviews with thirty-three southern clergywomen, I examine clergywomen’s perceptions of how being a minister has influenced their marriages; specifically, I consider the negotiation and distribution of marital authority since their ordination.

Forsaking All Others:
How Religious Involvement Promotes
Marital Fidelity in Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Couples

David C. Dollahite
Brigham Young University

Nathaniel M. Lambert
Florida State University

This study reports results from in-depth interviews with 57 highly religious, middle-aged married couples from the major Abrahamic faiths (Christianity, Judaism, Islam) living in New England and Northern California. Grounded theory was employed to create a conceptual model describing the ways that religious couples draw on their beliefs and practices to stay faithful to their marital vows. Couples reported that religion promoted marital fidelity in four important ways: (1) religious belief and practice sanctified their marriage and thereby improved marital quality, which indirectly promoted fidelity; (2) religious vows and involvement fortified marital commitment to fidelity; (3) religion strengthened couples’ moral values, which promoted fidelity in marriage; (4) religious involvement improved spouses’ relationship with God, which encouraged them to avoid actions such as infidelity that they believed would displease God.

Research Note
Variety in the Sangha:
A Survey of Buddhist Organizations in America

Buster G. Smith
Baylor University

Despite increasing attention from scholars, the study of American Buddhism still suffers from minimal statistical data at the national level. This report presents organizational-level information on 231 American Buddhist centers, drawn from a recent national survey. Results include information about the type of Buddhism practiced, congregational ethnicity and language, number, age and marital status of members, activities and outreach of the center, and evangelical goals. Combined these results illustrate the vast amount of diversity among Buddhist organizations in America.

Research Note
Between Religion and Spirituality:
New Perspectives in the Italian Religious Landscape

Franco Garelli
University of Turin

The concept of “spirituality” that has been used to describe changing beliefs in an increasingly globalized and pluralistic world can be useful also in describing the Italian religious panorama. The peculiarity of the Italian case, characterized by a comparative monopoly on part of the Catholic religion and by a connotation of “cultural belonging” to Catholicism, highlights how the category of spirituality cannot be employed, as some authors do, in opposition to the concept of religion. Starting from research data on a sample of 2150 Italians, the article offers a typology describing the different relationships between the religious dimension and the spiritual dimension: beside the agnostic-atheists and cultural-ethnic religiosity, profiles of critical spirituality, “unbalanced” religiosity, and “integrated” religiosity are featured. The categories of religion and spirituality, therefore, do not annul each other, but each plays an important role in the definition of the Italian contemporary religious panorama in the various age, gender, cultural capital, and environmental contexts in which believers live.