Who Would Jesus Vote For? A Redemption Church Small Group

tonygill — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 08:00:39 +0000

Visit our Facebook Fan Page to see how this group of evangelicals are planning to vote in the 2012 presidential election.

Scholars have long known that religious belief and practice plays a salient role in determining one’s voting behavior. Those scholars have relied upon opinion polls and statistical analysis to flesh this out, though rarely do we get a glimpse into the actual thought process of how religious folks think about their politics. In this very unusual podcast, we open that “black box” to listen in on how a group of sixteen evangelical churchgoers and their pastor talk about politics with a presidential election coming up. These folks belong to Redemption Church in Duvall, WA (a church featured several times on this show), and they are participating in one fo the church’s “small groups” (or “regroup”) known as Theology on Tap, wherein interested church members gather in a local bar, drink beer, and discuss some heady theological issues. The topic for this evening’s discussion was “Who would Jesus vote for?” The conversation defies a typical linear narrative (as do many small group discussions), so we won’t provide one here. However, become a “fly on the wall” to this exchange of ideas and be prepared to hear some interesting and suprising statements from the congregants. The participants hit on topics ranging from whether an evangelical can conscientiously vote for a Mormon, to figuring out what constitutes “moral” issues as compared to “policy” issues, to why white evangelicals vote differently than African-American evangelicals. One of the members even makes the bold claim that Jesus would vote Republican, though he himself would vote Democrat. Hear the surprising justification for this that harkens back to the economist Simon Kuznets! Near the end of the discussion (at about the 57 minute mark), Pastor Matt Boswell claims that Jesus wouldn’t vote for anybody, but for use regular folks that is a cop-out for not voting, to which an audience member agreed. Listen in to how this evangelical dilemma is resolved, with the most profound answer of the evening coming by one of the participants at the 1 hour and 7 minute mark. If anything, this will disavow you of your notion that all rural evangelicals are just a bunch of dumb hillbillies. Or maybe not. The discussion is passionate, but at the end they all raise a glass and proclaim their true love for Jesus, their church, and one another. Go to our Facebook Fan Page and “like” us to find out the poll results of how these backwoods evangelicals are planning to cast their vote and possibly for a little discussion of what happened at the “after party.” Special thanks to the Duvall Grill and Tap Room for hosting this event and allowing us to record. Recorded: October 16, 2012.

Larry Witham on the Economics of Religion

tonygill — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 09:00:39 +0000

Author and former journalist Larry Witham joins Tony to talk about his recent book Marketplace of the Gods: How Economics Explains Religion. Just as the title says, Larry Witham investigates a new and growing field within the social scientific study of religion that is often refered to as the “religious economies” perspective. Dating back to insights from Adam Smith, more recent scholars such as Rodney Stark, Roger Finke and Laurence Iannaccone have begun using insights from microeconomic (or “rational choice”) theory to explain a wide variety of religious behavior and institutional organization. Larry details the history of this field and how he came to be interested in it. We then discuss some of the basic premises of this approach and how economic theories of religion explain behavior at the household, group and market level. Contrary to popular images, we talk about how this approach is not necessarily “all about money,” but rather it deals with how religious actors (worshippers or clergy) try to achieve their goals in a world of scarcity and have to make difficult decisions that maximize the best possible outcomes. We turn to the various critiques of this approach and note that it may have complimentarities with other theories of religion. This is an excellent podcast to listen to in conjuction with a number of the previous episodes featuring economists (see below). Finally, as a special treat, Larry gives us a peek at his next book project about attending art school. Recorded: December 27, 2010.

Research On Religion » altruism

Who Would Jesus Vote For? A Redemption Church Small Group

Larry Witham on the Economics of Religion