Research On Religion » Mormons

David Smith on Episodic Religious Persecutions (Encore Presentation)

tonygill — Sun, 13 May 2018 08:00:57 +0000

Although the United States is often viewed as a beacon for religious freedom around the world, thanks in large part to the institutionalization of the First Amendment, the practice of religious toleration has often fallen well short of the ideals set for itself. Prof. David Smith, lecturer in the Department of Government & International Relations and a faculty member at the United States Studies Center at the University of Sydney (Australia), discusses his explanation for episodic religious persecution in the United States. Using the Latter Day Saints in the 19th century and Jehovah’s Witnesses in the early 20th century as comparative case studies, he argues that religious minorities that are seen as threats to the established political order will quickly find themselves victims of state-sanctioned persecution.

We begin the discussion with Prof. Smith’s personal journey to this topic. For an Australian studying American politics, a field dominated by quantitative studies of contemporary political behavior, the choice of such a historical topic seems a bit unique. Nonetheless, David points out how the eyes of a foreigner can often uncover interesting behavioral patterns that often go unnoticed by natives. This leads us to a discussion of how “mythic ideals” within a nation often do not match with historical practice, particularly given that human beings are quite fallible when it comes to reaching noble goals.

David then jumps into a detailed elaboration of the persecuted path of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (i.e., Mormons) in the 19th century, from their early days in New York and Ohio, through an “extermination order” in Missouri, to the mob execution of their leader Joseph Smith, and finally through their travails into Utah territory and the struggles to become a state. Along the way, David drops hints at his explanation to come, including how the presence of the Mormons in different areas affected the political calculus among existing elites. David places the debates over polygamy and political partisanship into a context of broader struggles for political power that were affecting the nation in the pre- and post-Civil War era. We learn some interesting things about how Harriet Beecher Stowe, famed feminist crusader, changed her position on whether or not Mormon women should be given the right to vote, and how Reed Smoot (half of the infamous Smoot-Hawley tariff act) was prevented from taking his seat in the US Senate because of ongoing concerns over polygamy.

We then jump into the early 20th century to discuss the rise of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, a seemingly innocuous group of Christians who refused to salute the flag or have their children recite the Pledge of Allegiance in school. Such actions, combined with their visible proselytizing presence, provoked a number of local organizations such as the American Legion to consider them a serious threat to American nationalism. Combined with concern over the balance of political power at the local level and their stand against military service at a time war was on the horizon, a rash of physical harassment of Witnesses arose in the late 1930s and early 1940s, dissipating around 1941/42 when roughly half of the Witnesses young male missionaries were jailed. We further discuss the reasons why the Witnesses were targetted, but not groups such as the Mennonites and Amish, another religious group that resisted military service and spoke German!

Prof. Smith shows how both of these instances of religious persecution were theoretically linked by how each group — Mormons and Witnesses — were perceived as a political threat to the existing state power structure. We then discuss how his explanation played out in other historic instances of religious persecution (or lack thereof) including Catholics, Jews, and the Nation of Islam (a homegrown Muslim group). Interestingly, while the Nation of Islam was facing persecution (around the time of the Witnesses), political authorities were encouraging Muslim immigration from overseas. We also explore why Muslims over the past decade and a half (since September 11, 2001) have not seen the levels of persecution or harassment experienced by the Mormons and Witnesses. David closes with some thoughts on how future persecutions might be contained. Recorded: January 7, 2014.

Religious Persecution and Political Order in the United States, by David Smith.

United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney.

RELATED PODCASTS

Patrick Mason on Anti-Mormonism and Mitt Romney.

Lynita Newswander on Mormons in America.

Jason Jewell on Locke and Religious Toleration.

Mark Koyama on Jewish Expulsions.

Anthony Gill on Religion and Religious Liberty (An EconTalk simul-podcast).

Anthony Gill on the Political Origins of Religious Liberty.

Michael McBride on Religious Free-Riding and Mormons.

Carmel Chiswick on the Economics of American Judaism.

Quin Monson on Norms, Religion, and Politics

tonygill — Sun, 31 Dec 2017 09:00:11 +0000

How do people view other religions? Are there norms of tolerance (or intolerance) that Americans hold in common? If there are differences in these norms, do they cut across political affiliation? These are some of the questions that Prof. Quin Monson, associate professor of political science at Brigham Young University, sets out to answer in a paper that he co-authored with his BYU colleagues Christopher Karpowitz and Kelly Patterson. We discuss their recent findings published in the journal Politics & Religion entitled “Who’s In and Who’s Out: The Politics of Religious Norms.” Before that, though, we include a bit of banter about what it is like being a political science professor and having to answer questions about why we can’t seem to predict the outcome of recent elections. Prof. Monson shares some insights here and notes that scholars are trying to rectify some recent errors and are rediscovering some important research from the past.

We then jump into the world of norms and norm enforcement. Quin defines what norms are — the collective consciousness of a community — and provides a few examples of norms and how they operate. We talk about the norm of standing in line and “first come, first served” and how violations of this commonly known rule are enforced. Prof. Monson notes that the more that is at stake with respect to a norm, the more individuals will seek to sanction a norm violator. He also mentions Tony’s recent work on tipping (gratuities), allowing him to post a link to that conversation below! Quin further illustrates the role of norms in politics through an earlier study he conducted on how voters perceive privacy at the ballot box. A field experiment conducted at polling sites, wherein tape was placed around voting booths to signify a private space had an effect on how poll workers interacted with citizens. We then review the difficulty in measuring norms within a quantitative framework.

This conversation on measuring norms leads us into Quin’s recent survey experiment on the religious attitudes people hold and whether they are willing to sanction people with respect to “inappropriate” statements against certain denominations. We briefly cover the history of religious discrimination in American that includes anti-Catholicism, anti-Mormonism, and anti-Semitism. Prof. Monson leads us then through an interesting survey experiment he conducted with the help of the Cooperative Congressional Election Study, a research project involving some 50,000 subjects that can be broken down into 1,000 person modules for specific projects. Quin reviews the pre- and post-test design of the study and explains how he and his colleagues sought to measure religious intolerance and the willingness to chastise other individuals for holding such views. He reads a vignette that was given randomly to respondents which was based off of some comments that comedian and social commentator Bill Maher had made towards religion. They modified this statement to include the religious categories of Catholics, Mormons, Jews, evangelical Christians, Muslims, and Mitt Romney. The latter was added as an interesting control given the 2012 test surrounded the presidential election involving Mitt Romney, the first Mormon presidential candidate. The findings from this study indicated that the level of anti-Semitism and anti-Catholicism was relatively low, and that individual respondents were often upset at people holding such views. The largest effect, though, related towards whether or not individuals would sanction comments calling Muslims “weird.” Democrats were more likely to disapprove or sanction negative statements against Muslims, whereas Republicans were not. Quin mentioned that this may be have been a precursor of what happened in the political rhetoric of the 2016 election. We finish off the podcast with Quin’s thoughts on how norms may be changing in society and what things he has most learned throughout his career. Recorded: December 15, 2017.

“Who’s In and Who’s Out: The Politics of Religious Norms,” by Christopher Karpowitz, Quin Monson, and Kelly Patterson (requires subscription).

Seeking the Promised Land: Mormons and American Politics, by David Campbell, John Green, and Quin Monson.

Cooperative Congressional Election Study.

Anthony Gill on Tipping (EconTalk podcast mentioned during discussion).

RELATED PODCASTS

David Campbell & Quin Monson on Mormons and Politics in America.

Patrick Mason on Anti-Mormonism and Mitt Romney.

David Smith on Episodic Religious Persecutions.

Lynita Newswander on Mormons in America.

Jeremy Castle on Religion and Voting Behavior.

Luis Bolce and the Media and Anti-Fundamentalism.

Bradley Wright on Religion, Race, and Discrimination.

Laura Olson on Attitudes toward Religious Free Exercise.

Jason Jewell on John Locke and Religious Toleration.

Corwin Smidt on Religion, Elections, and the God Gap.

Gerald De Maio on the Electoral God Gap.

Carrie Miles on Religion, Gender, and Missionaries

tonygill — Sun, 31 May 2015 08:00:50 +0000

What is the relationship between religion, economics, and gender? Dr. Carrie Miles — senior scholar in residence at Chapman University and non-resident scholar at Baylor’s Institute for Studies of Religion — discusses her path-breaking work on this topic, as well as her work as executive director of Empower International Ministries. Our conversation winds through Mormon theology, Genesis, the industrial revolution, and countries in Africa to explore how both economic production and theology can shape gender roles throughout history.

The podcast begins with Carrie reminiscing on how she started in such an interesting, and underexplored, topic. She recounts her Mormon roots and curiosity about the reshaping of gender roles in the LDS Church during the 1970s when she was working on her dissertation in organizational psychology at the University of Chicago. This discussion takes us on a path of examining how agrarian production in the household defined gender roles and how the industrial revolution, which took more and more production away from the home, impacted these traditional roles. We talk about everything from the work of Gary Becker to the transformative effect of the plow.

We next turn to some theology of gender, focusing on the first three chapters of Genesis. Carrie describes how the development of economic scarcity that arises when humans leave the Garden of Eden had an impact on shaping our understanding of the economic positions of men and women. She contrasts this with more egalitarian gender roles noted in the first two chapters of Genesis. Emphasis is placed upon the notion of “The Curse” in Genesis 3, as this will become important in our later discussion of Christian missionaries and their impact in Africa. We then do move on to a discussion of missionaries and how their biblical translations affected the economic and cultural structure of various African nations. Given that agriculture in Africa was still largely viewed as women’s work during the 19th and 20th centuries, whereas the plow had made it more of man’s work in Europe, missionaries preaching the Book of Genesis had the unintended effect of reinforcing agrarian gender roles at a time when household production was changing. Dr. Miles recounts a number of stories from her own personal work in Africa as to how such interpretations were seen.

We finish with a discussion of the work Carrie does with Empower International Ministries, which places a focus on gender issues as part of its general missionary strategy, and also what she has learned via the course of her studies. Recorded: May 20, 2015.

The Redemption of Love: Rescuing Marriage and Sexuality from the Economics of a Fallen World, by Carrie Miles.

Empower International Ministries.

RELATED PODCASTS

Proselytism, Humanitarianism, and Development: A Panel Discussion.

Rebecca Shah on Religion and the Enterprising Poor in India.

Robert Woodberry on Missionaries and Democracy.

Terry Olsen on Faith-Based Humanitarianism and World Vision.

Allison Pond on Being a Mormon Missionary.

David Campbell & Quin Monson on Mormons & Politics in America

tonygill — Sun, 09 Nov 2014 09:00:58 +0000

Join us on our Facebook fan page or Twitter feed for regular updates. Subscribe to us on iTunes for free.

Are Mormons a “peculiar people,” particularly as it pertains to politics? Two LDS political scientists — David E Campbell of Notre Dame and J Quin Monson of Brigham Young University — join us in our first-ever dual guest appearance to discuss this topic. We examine a variety of research findings recently published in their book Seeking the Promised Land: Mormons and American Politics, also written with John C Green (who is not a Mormon).

After a bit of personal revelations by our two guests, we jump first into a bit of sociology of religion and explore the unique distinctiveness of the Latter Day Saints. Prof. Monson elaborates on what the authors call the “paradox of Mormonism,” wherein the LDS are a quintessentially American faith, but also “outside” of American culture. We examine whether Mormons can be called a distinct religio-ethnic group, perhaps akin to Jews. Both Dave and Quin share some personal experiences growing up and being educated outside of the Mormon heartland of Utah, and they school Tony in what it means to “speak Mormon.” In respect to this “paradox of Mormonism,” Tony wonders why the LDS remain one of the most devoutly patriotic subgroups in America despite having faced enormous persecution throughout their history.

We then turn to the political identify of Mormons and Tony points out that few, if any, presidential candidates ever make a whistle stop in Utah. Prof. Campbell explains that Mormons are remarkably cohesive in their Republican affiliation (much like African-American Protestants and Jews when it comes to the Democrat Party), but it wasn’t always this way. Dave covers the Mormon partisan re-alignment that has occurred over the past half century or so and in the process we review one of our favorite topics — the God gap, an increasing cross-denominational tendency for those who are deeply religious to prefer the GOP, while secular society has trended Democrat. (See our list of additional podcasts on this topic below.) We also cover a series of specific issues to note that Mormons are not necessarily monolithic in their views and often have political preferences that are a bit at odds with the Republican base, particularly when it comes to immigration. We discuss the reasons for this more pro-immigrant stance and how it might relate to the missionary goals of the LDS. Tony also brings up the issue of school choice vouchers, a GOP-favored policy, and how it went down to a resounding defeat in Utah several years back. Both Quin and Dave offer their explanations.

We follow the discussion on political preferences with an examination of whether or not religious leaders influence the voting behavior of the LDS laity. We talk a bit about the organizational structure of the church. Quin points out that there is virtually no politicking that goes on from the pulpit, but there are numerous conversations in the hallways of the ward (i.e., the LDS version of a parish or congregation). Tony brings up the recent case of Mormon involvement supporting Proposition 8, a California initiative that was designed to reverse a state supreme court ruling and define marriage as strictly between a man and a woman. The LDS Church and many of its individual members took a great deal of heat for their support of Proposition 8, and this leads us to a discussion of the efficacy of religious groups becoming closely involved in political causes.

We finish with some reflections on whether or not Mormons have broken the political “glass ceiling” with the recent presidential candidacy of Mitt Romney in 2008 and 2012. Dave brings up some thoughts about how this campaign both affected the perception of Mormons in politics — with Republicans becoming more friendly to the denomination while Democrats became a bit more negative on it — and how Mitt affected Mormonism itself. We close with the two authors giving their personal reflections on what they learned throughout the process of writing their book. Recorded: October 31, 2014.

RELATED LINKS

Seeking the Promised Land: Mormons and American Politics, by David E Campbell, John C Green, and J Quin Monson.

David E Campbell’s bio at University of Notre Dame’s political science department.

J Quin Monson’s bio at Brigham Young University’s political science department.

American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us, by Robert Putnam and David E Campbell.

RELATED PODCASTS

Lynita Newswander on Mormons in America

Allison Pond on Being a Mormon Missionary

Patrick Mason on Anti-Mormonism and Mitt Romney

Michael McBride on Religious Free-Riding and the Mormon Church

David Smith on Episodic Religious Persecutions

Jeremy Lott on Mormons, Pope Francis, and Ugly Churches

Ken Wald on the Puzzling Politics of American Jews

Corwin Smidt on Religion, Elections and the God Gap

Gerald De Maio on the Electoral Religion Gap

Larry Iannaccone on Sacrifice, Stigma, and the Economics of Religion

tonygill — Sun, 21 Sep 2014 08:00:33 +0000

Why do ultra-orthodox Jews wear such strange garb? Why do two-year mission trips and prohibitions on alcohol enhance the organizational strength of the Latter Day Saints? We answer these questions and many more with Prof. Larry Iannaccone, an economist at Chapman University and the founder of the Association for the Study of Religion, Economics, and Culture.

Our interview begins with a gushing review of Larry’s work by Tony, who considers Prof. Iannaccone as an instrumental influence in his own work. We talk about whether (and how) economics can be used to understand religious behavior. Larry recounts the difficulty he had in getting other academics to take the economics of religion seriously, how he built this perspective up into a community that includes hundreds of scholars, and then Tony reminisces about his first encounter with this eclectic economist.

We then turn to the main question at hand, which is to examine why some of the most demanding religious faiths tend to have the most committed members and also tend to grow faster than religions that “cost less.” This puzzle has been one that has vexed the minds of sociologists of religion for decades, including the great Dean Kelley in his book Why Conservative Religions are Growing. We contextualize this puzzle in terms of a simple economic framework. One would naturally expect that if an organization imposes high costs on its members, fewer people would be interested in joining (as per ye olde economic textbook rule — the more you charge for something the less you get of it). Tony also notes that in his classes he asks students to design what they would consider to be a successful religion and the majority of responses tend to be “laid back, low cost” type faiths. But then Larry runs through a list of the more strict denominations — e.g., Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, ultra-orthodox Jews — and we see that these are some of the most vibrant religious communities out there. He also reviews some of the evidence for the strength of these “high cost” religions, including regular attendance, financial contributions (as percentage of member income), extracurricular participation in church groups, and intensity of friendship networks.

The next segment of the interview focuses on why requiring seemingly irrational sacrifices and stigmatizing behavior helps build group strength. This is set into the context of collective action theory, a major topic of research in the social sciences. There are two principal reasons why high-cost religions are successful. First, high-cost sacrifices screen out free-riders — i.e., people who want the benefit of the group without having to contribute much to the provision of it. Larry notes that religious congregations have certain features that categorize them as “club goods,” wherein the quality of the good or service provided is dependent upon how many individuals contribute whole-heartedly to the provision of the good. We talk about churches where all members sing with passion tend to be more enjoyable than churches where people merely mumble their way through the hymns. A high-cost sacrifice, or a stigmatizing behavior that might ostracize an individual in the broader culture, gets the “mumblers” (free-riders) to reconsider whether they want to join or not. Those who do join have self-selected into a pool of individuals who will be fervent in their participation.

The second reason for the success of strict religions is that the members who do enter (or remain in) the congregation do participate fervently to the congregation and the overall benefits obtained are much higher than the costs of the sacrifice or stigma. In other words, people who do pay the high costs of strict sects find out that they got a good bargain. Larry and Tony provide their own illustrations of how this works.

We finish the interview with a brief discussion of how this theory can apply to other groups ranging from prison gangs to environmental groups. Larry also details an experiment he conducted with Jason Aimone, Michael Makowsky, and Jared Rubin that provided further evidence in support of this theory. While his previous work on this topic back in the 1990s was based upon a number of empirical sources, including survey research, this new experiment (based upon the voluntary contribution method game) shows how the theory still stands under a completely different lens of scrutiny. Tony notes how this research represents a major contribution to political economy and should net Larry a Nobel Prize. (Yeah, he is that excited about it.) Larry then ends with a short discussion of where the boundaries of the economics of religion need to be pushed. Recorded: September 8, 2014.

Association for the Study of Religion, Economics, and Culture.

Note: Prof. Iannaccone’s publications are generally in academic journals that are behind paywalls, but can be accessed with educational accounts. The following are a list of the ones we talked about and readers are encouraged to visit them at their leisure:

“Endogenous Group Formation via Unproductive Costs,” Review of Economic Studies (2013) 80, 1215-36. With Aimone, Makowsky, and Rubin. (This is the article with the experimental game.)

“Sacrifice and Stigma: Reducing Free-Riding in Cults, Communes, and Other Collectives, “Journal of Political Economy (1992) 100, 271-91.

“Why Strict Churches Are Strong,” American Journal of Sociology (1994) 99, 1180-1211.

“The Market for Martyrs,” Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion. (2006) 2. (Online journal free with registration.)

“Religious Extremism: The Good, the Bad, the Deadly” Public Choice (2006) 128, 109-29. With Berman.

RELATED PODCASTS

Larry Witham on the Economics of Religion.

Eli Berman on Religious Terrorism.

Sean Everton on Dark Networks.

Michael McBride on Religious Free-Riding and the Mormon Church.

Michael McBride on the Economics of Religious Leadership.

Colleen Haight on the Oracle of Delphi.

Jared Rubin on Christian and Islamic Economic History.

Timur Kuran on Islamic Economics.

Donald Kraybill on the Amish and Old Order Mennonites.

Robert Nelson on Environmentalism as Religion.

Russ Roberts & Anthony Gill on Religion and Religious Liberty.

Michael McBride on Religious Free-Riding and the Mormon Church

tonygill — Sun, 02 Mar 2014 16:29:45 +0000

While the RoR staff is on a short break, we are running a “Best of…” show with Michael McBride. This was one of Tony’s favorite interviews and dates back to the early days of the show back in 2010.

Prof. Michael McBride – associate professor of economics at the University of California, Irvine – discusses how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day States (known informally as the Mormon Church) is organized to overcome free-rider problems. We begin our podcast with an observation that the LDS Church has maintained a high rate of growth, members show remarkable satisfaction with their church, and how the church relies on a remarkable network of unpaid volunteers serving as clergy and in other organizational positions. Mike then lays out the theory of religious clubs that has been used to explain the growth of strict churches. We then focus the majority of our attention on how the LDS Church is organized and how they overcome the common tendency of individuals to free-ride on the voluntary efforts of other. Perhaps more than most denominations, Mormons have been able to solve this problem and obtain high levels of participation from their members. McBride also notes that some free-riding is actually important for church growth and discusses how the LDS works with “free-riders” to increase their levels of engagement. At the end of the podcast we speculate as to why other denominations haven’t adopted the LDS form of organization. Prof. McBride is also affiliated with UCI’s Center for the Study of Democracy, the Institute for Mathematical Behavioral Sciences and the university’s Religious Studies Program. Recorded: September 20, 2010.

RELATED LINKS

Prof. Michael McBride’s website.

“Club Mormon: Free-Riders, Monitoring, and Exclusion in the LDS Church” by Michael McBride.

“Why Churches Need Free-riders: Religious Capital Formation and Religious Group Survival” by Michael McBride.

UCI’s Religious Studies Program.

Why Conservative Churches Are Growing by Dean Kelley (Mercer University Press, updated edition 1996).

RELATED PODCASTS

Michael McBride on the Economics of Religious Leadership.

Allison Pond on Being a Mormon Missionary.

Lynita Newswander on Mormons in America.

Patrick Mason on Anti-Mormonism.

David Smith on Episodic Religious Persecution.

Marc von der Ruhr on Megachurch Recruitment and Retention.

Eli Berman on Religious Terrorism

David Smith on Episodic Religious Persecutions

tonygill — Sun, 09 Feb 2014 09:00:38 +0000

Join us on our Facebook Fan Page for regular updates.

United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney.

RELATED PODCASTS

Patrick Mason on Anti-Mormonism and Mitt Romney.

Lynita Newswander on Mormons in America.

Jason Jewell on Locke and Religious Toleration.

Mark Koyama on Jewish Expulsions.

Anthony Gill on Religion and Religious Liberty (An EconTalk simul-podcast).

Anthony Gill on the Political Origins of Religious Liberty.

Michael McBride on Religious Free-Riding and Mormons.

Carmel Chiswick on the Economics of American Judaism.

Jeremy Lott on Mormons, Pope Francis, and Ugly Churches

tonygill — Sun, 04 Aug 2013 08:00:28 +0000

What happens when a Catholic journalist walks into a Mormon church service just a few weeks before a presidential election involving a highly-visible Latter Day Saints’ candidate? Jeremy Lott, author and editor of RealClearReligion.org (among other sites), joins us in-person at the Match Coffee & Wine Bar in Duvall, WA to recount his interesting investigatory trip to a Mormon ward back in September of 2012. Being a “stranger in a Mormon land” (the title of an article he penned for The American Specator), he is able to observe things that the typical insider might otherwise miss.

Despite appearing unannounced, and carrying a reporter’s notebook, Jeremy was greeted warmly by the local worshippers. The first thing he noted, though, was the lack of religious imagery in the main worship area although the hallways were decorated with murals of Jesus. He categorizes the people he meets as “earnest amateurs” — i.e., people who are not specifically trained in seminaries but who serve in unpaid and part-time leadership positions, and who have a deeper knowledge of their own faith than the typical Protestant or Catholic in the pews. We cover the nature of the sermon, which that week focussed on spending more time with family and less time with Facebook, and also included a presentation of how to react to media presentations of Mormonism. This latter topic was understandable given the intense scrutiny their faith was receiving due to Mitt Romney’s presence in the presidential campaign. Jeremy also noted that the service was less liturgical than other Christian services, yet they had a typical amount of singing.

Following the first service, which lasted about an hour, Jeremy then continues his investigative journey by attending one of several Sunday School classes held at the congregation. He chose what best could be called the “Mormonism for Beginners” class that was populated by fifteen other participants. Jeremy makes an interesting observation based upon his experience in this class; Mormonism is a fascinating mix of the Catholic critique of Protestantism and the Protestant critique of Catholicism. He also discusses the encounter he had with the instructor after class relating to the Nicene Creed. When prompted to reflect upon this whole journalistic foray into a different religion, Jeremy’s big take-away from this excursion was rather interesting; he noted that he better understood what it was like to be a Jew in a Christian environment. You will have to listen for his reason for this observation about halfway through the interview.

At the halfway mark, we turn to another story that has been making headlines in the news and that Jeremy has been following closely — the new papacy of Francis I. Jeremy starts out by defending Tony’s use of Francis the First. Whereas your adorable host took a beat down on Facebook for using the Roman numeral after Francis’s name — with people claiming the first pope to use a new name never uses the numerical moniker — Jeremy notes that this all changed with John Paul I. So, some of you are historically correct, but things be a changin’ at the Vatican. And this is where we pick up our discussion with Jeremy providing an overview of the new pontiff’s first six months. He comments on his leadership style, his public image, and how he has dealt with a few recent scandals that have come to light. This includes an interesting observation relating to cats in the papal apartments and the washing of women’s feet. We also hear Jeremy’s reflections from his Catholic community on how the new pope is perceived.

The final portion of our interview covers a few other things happening in the religious world, including an increasing focus on mental health issues in the Southern Baptist community and the rise of religious “nones.” But what Tony really wants to know is what the world’s ugliest church is. RealClearReligion.org recently featured two articles on religious structures that … well … just might prove to be a bit brutally ugly (see links below). Despite the audio format of our podcast, we bring you vivid descriptions of these holy horrors and provide you with the opportunity to view them yourself at RealClearReligion and RoR’s Facebook Fan Page. Listeners are encouraged to post your favorites (or “least favorites”) when it comes to spiritual architectural disasters. Recorded: July 26, 2013.

RELATED LINKS

RealClearReligion — a great place for all your religious news! (You can also link to RealClearScience and RealClearBooks here too.)

“Stranger in a Mormon Land,” by Jeremy Lott in The American Spectator.

Ugly Churches and Even More Ugly Churches on RealClearReligion.org. Submit your pictures on RoR’s Facebook Fan Page.

William F. Buckley (Christian Encouter Series), by Jeremy A. Lott.

In Defense of Hypocrisy: Picking Sides in the War on Virtue, by Jeremy A. Lott.

The Warm Bucket Brigade: The Story of the American Vice Presidency, by Jeremy A. Lott.

I’ll Never Forget It: Memoirs of a Political Accident from East Baltimore, by Marvin Mandel, Jeremy Lott, and Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr.

Match Coffee & Wine Bar in Duvall, WA.

RELATED PODCASTS

Jeremy Lott on the Media’s Pope-O-Rama.

Jeremy Lott on Real Clear Religion.

Jeremy Lott on Episcopalians, Ex-Athiests, Health Care, and German Circumcision.

Jeremy Lott on America’s Shifting Religious Election Coalition.

Michael McBride on the Economics of Religious Leadership.

Michael McBride on Religious Free-Riding and the Mormon Church.

James Felak on Picking Pontiffs and Pope Francis I.

Thom S. Rainer on Bapist Conventions and Church Health.

Mike McBride on the Economics of Religious Leadership

tonygill — Sun, 28 Jul 2013 08:00:24 +0000

Why is religious leadership important? What function does religious leadership play? And what is with all those public rituals? We explore these questions with Prof. Mike McBride — associate professor of economics at UC-Irvine — who recently turned his scholarly attention to understanding the economic logic of authority and leadership. Be forewarned, though, this is not your typical “Ten Habits of Effective Leadership” type discussion. Instead, Prof. McBride trains the analytical tools of game theory and microeconomics to show how leadership is essential in coordinating social behavior.

We begin our discussion with a brief summary of what “economics” really is. While most folks think it is all about “money” or “international trade,” Mike points out that economics is really the study of choice under scarcity or, alternatively, the study of how humans make trade-offs. Given that we all face scarcity — be it in resources or time — the application of economics to the study of religion is perfectly natural. Clergy members, as well as the laity, have to make decisions about how to use their time to further a variety of goals. With that said, Mike points out that few (if any) economists of religion have paid attention to the important role leadership plays in guiding the resource decisions of an organization.

Our discussion of leadership begins with a basic definition of authority, which is the socially-recognized right to direct/coordinate action. Leadership is the personification of that authority. We then examine a critical function of leadership, which is to coordinate the actions and expectations of followers (congregants) so as to achieve some goal. We discuss the economic concept of a “coordination game” and Mike presents it in a manner that everybody (or at least Tony) can understand, which is to compare the functions of a religious leader to a coach on a football team. Without an agreed-upon focal point for decision-making — i.e., a leader, coach, pastor — chaos would reign regarding what actions should be undertaken. We also discuss another type of game — the prisoners’ dilemma — wherein individuals know what needs to be done but have an individual incentive not to participate. We all know that the sanctuary needs to be cleaned after services, but if everybody leaves that chore to somebody else, then the sanctuary never gets cleaned. Once again, leaders are central in crafting shared expectations about who needs to do what in order to get that room cleaned!

Prof. McBride then touches upon three different mechanisms by which leaders help coordinate group activity — promoting other-regarding behavior; screeing out free-riders; and creating shared expectations via repeated behavioral patterns. The first function includes selecting and propagating a set of norms and values that allow individuals to know what behavior is expeted of them relative to the group. The second function, one that has been studied extenstively by economists of religion, revolves around the selection of certain “sacrifices” or “stigmas” that weed out “free-riders” from the group. We talk about how proscriptions on certain behaviors (drinking) or prescriptions for wearing certain clothes (e.g., Amish dress) reduces the likelihood of individuals joining the religious group merely for the benefits of membership while avoiding any cost (e.g., tithing, volunteering). Finally, we look at the importance of repeated interactions with other people, a process that helps turn a “prisoners’ dilemma” game into an easier-solved coordination game. Here leaders are important fulcrums for facilitating these interactions.

Prof. McBride’s analysis leads to three interesting implications that are discussed in relation to various religious denominations including Catholics, the Amish and Latter Day Saints (Mormons). First, we discover the underlying importance of ritualistic behavior, particularly when it comes to selecting leadership. Rituals represent more than just rote memorization or action, but rather provide a public venue for individuals to reassure one another that they know who is in charge. Second, Mike divorces the notion that leadership is always linked to hierarchy. While titular heads of hierarchical organization (e.g., the pope) are important, authoritative leadership frequently emerges among the grassroots of an organization. Mike offers up the Mormon church as an example of an entity that does have a hierarchical structure of leadership at the top of the organization, but that also provides numerous ways for leadership to emerge at the local (congregational) level. Finally, we talk about how the deterioration of national religious leadership may be promoting secularization in society. While previous economists of religion have argued that religious competition begets a vibrant spiritual life within a society, Mike also argues that it leads to pluralism which may have the effect of eroding the coordinating power of religious leadership. We close with some of Mike’s thoughts on how his findings help us understand the issue of leadership writ large. Recorded: July 22, 2013.

RELATED LINKS

Prof. McBride’s website at UC-Irvine.

The Religious Marketplace, a blog by Mike McBride.

Rational Ritual: Culture, Coordination, and Common Knowledge, by Michael Chwe (as mentioned in the podcast.)

RELATED PODCASTS

Michael McBride on Religious Free-Riding and the Mormon Church.

Larry Witham on the Economics of Religion.

Eli Berman on Religious Terrorism.

Larry Osborne on Church Finances & Growth.

Rodney Stark on How Religion Benefits Everyone, Including Atheists

tonygill — Sun, 05 May 2013 08:00:21 +0000

Welcome new visitors. Join (and like) us at our Facebook Fan Page for regular updates, and be sure to tune in next week when we talk about Jesus & Gin!

Religious folks would agree that religion is pretty good for them. But is a more religious society good for the entire society as a whole, including non-believers? We take a look at the “positive spillover effects” that spiritual belief and church attendance has on the population as a whole with Prof. Rodney Stark, frequent guest and co-director of Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion. (Disclaimer: Baylor’s ISR is the sponsor of our podcast.) Our conversation begins with a discussion about how religious America really is. Recent students appear to indicate increasing non-participation, particularly among the young, and the newly-defined category of “nones” has become a regular talking point in the popular media. Prof. Stark puts these studies into perspective noting some methodological issues with these studies, but also notes that the “nones” — when examined more closely — actually behave rather religiously, including engaging in regular prayer. Rod mentions that the problem may not be so much as a loss of faith amongst the population, but rather a current weakness among churches to provide an adequate set of services. We then talk about a variety of benefits that a religious, and churched, population brings to society as a whole, including atheists. Our first stop on this journey deals with crime and its flipside, “pro-social behavior.” Despite having an image of a society out of control, Rod points out that “secular” (or “unchurched”) Europe has much higher crime rates in almost all categories except murder. We then discuss how and why religion may help to ameliorate crime by promoting pro-social behaviors, a seemingly obvious notion that has often been overlooked by criminologists. Religion not only decreases crime, but it promotes pro-social behavior such as helping people on the side of the road and donating blood, which moves us into a discussion about voluntarism. Contrary to the oft-cultivated notion that religious folks only provide charity or donate time to their own religious organizations, Rod points out that religious individuals are more engaged in secular organizations than secular folks. This moves our conversation into the realm of civic (political) involvement, and again the data show that religiously-active individuals shine in this area as well, and this includes not only evangelical Protestants, but Catholics, Jews, and members of other faith traditions. Tony then notes that being a “community volunteer” is not the only way to benefit a community, but rather being successful in one’s own chosen profession and not becoming a burden on society is also a way of benefitting the society at large. Rod talks about how religious individuals are, on average, more successful in business than secular individuals and are less likely to become a burden on society. This move us then to the issue of education and how homeschooling, promoted largely by religious individuals, has transformed the educational system to the point where many institutions of higher learning are taking note. Again, this provides a great many “positive externalities” for the local and national community. We then tackle intellectual life by playing off Mark Noll’s famous book about the lack of an “evangelical mind,” and Rod shows — to the contrary of Noll’s assertion — that religious individuals contribute greatly to intellectual life and high culture in the U.S. We finish off the interview with a discussion of health-related issues, including both physical and mental health. Both Tony and Rod share their various outrages at some of the very odd studies that have looked at the interconnection between religion and health. And just to spice things up on RoR, we get into a bit of a discussion about s-e-x, as well as how that relates to a bigger issue facing the Western world — fertility. Recorded: April 30, 2013.

America’s Blessings: How Religion Benefits Everyone, Including Atheists, by Rodney Stark.

The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World’s Largest Religion, by Rodney Stark.

America’s Blessings: How Religion Benefits Everyone… Including Atheists, by Rodney Stark (available November 2012).

Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion.

RELATED PODCASTS

Rodney Stark on the Triumph of Christianity, Part I.

Rodney Stark on the Triumph of Christianity, Part II.

Rodney Stark on the Triumph of Christianity, Part III.

Rodney Stark on The Crusades.

Byron Johnson on More God, Less Crime.

Byron Johnson on Religion and Delinquency.

Daniel Hungerman on Religious Charity & Crowding Out.

Jeff Levin on Religion & Health.

Chris Bader on Ghosts, UFOs, and the Paranormal.

Paul Froese on America’s Four Gods.