Kevin den Dulk on Religion, Education, and Civic Engagement

tonygill — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 08:00:36 +0000

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With all the talk about declining levels of civic engagement in the United States, is there any evidence that religious education might play a role in promoting community involvement among youth and young adults? Prof. Kevin den Dulk, the Spoelhof Teacher-Scholar-in-Residence at Calvin College and the forthcoming director of the Henry Institute, discusses his latest research project that examines what factors are important in determining whether or not young adults become involved in their community. He finds, much to his suprise, that a private school education at a Protestant institution is much more likely to facilitate and sustain civic engagement in early adulthood years compared to other forms of education, including homeschooling, Catholic schools, private secular institutions, and public education. Speaking of education, our podcast begins with Kevin schooling Tony about the origins of Calivin College, which Tony discovers is not named after the 30th president of the United States. We then get down to business by examining the assertion that civic participation has declined in the U.S., with Tony taking a skeptical view of such claims and Kevin turning the tables and becoming the interviewer, leaving the host to be the one defending his claims. We discuss some of the potential biases in research that shows secular declines in some variable, be it civic participation or mainline church attendance. We also discuss some of the reasons why people become involved in their local community and note that it is often because they are passionately drawn (often out of anger) to solve some social problem they see happening. The conversation then veers towards Kevin’s research project with his fellow scholar Jonathan Hall. We chat about how this project came about and the nature of the data used. Kevin lays out the theoretical framework of the study showing how he and Jonathan tested the role of “opportunity structures” and “motivations” (both intrinsic and extrinsic). We then discuss the surprising finding that whereas young adults who attended Catholic schools were similar in nature to their public school counterparts when it came to civic engagement, students from Protestant private schools were much more likely to be civically engaged, even after adjusting for numerous other possible factors. Homeschoolers and individuals who attended private secular schools were much less likely to engage in civic participation. We then speculate as to why this was the case and open the door to a wide research agenda that could further explore this outcome. Kevin then finishes off with an optimistic view of civic engagement in the United States. Recorded: June 18, 2012.

Christopher Scheitle’s Religious Road Trip

tonygill — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 09:00:06 +0000

What do you get when you take a seasoned sociologist and a senior research associate, put them in a rented Dodge Charger for six weeks, and tell them to discover what America’s spiritual landscape is all about? You get a religious road trip with Christopher P. Scheitle and Roger Finke .. and you learn a whole lot about what it is like to be religious in the US! Chris Scheitle, a senior research associate in the Department of Sociology at Penn State University and adjunct assistant professor at the College of St. Benedict – St. John’s University in Minnessota, tells us how this unique research project came about. He reveals how he suggested this offbeat idea to Roger Finke over a few beers and that Roger came back with some research funding and his wife’s permission a few days later and off they went (after a bit of preparation). Their first stop took them to Memphis, TN to investigate the experience and influence of an African American church headed up by Robert Cole. Chris details how the black church experience has permeated the broader American culture and what this means for religion in America. It is then off to Houston, TX to pop into Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church, a megachurch that serves roughly 40,000 congregants on any given Sunday. We discuss the role of megachurches in America and how they represent the adaptability and creativity of the American religious spirit. We then stop at a local Houston Yerberia and a cowboy church just out of Amarillo to find out what these entities bring to the national experience. Travelling up to Colorado Springs, often called the “Vatican of evangelical Christianity,” we then find out about the role played by parachurch organizations such as Focus on the Family and Global Mapping International. And then it is off to San Francisco to peak into various Asian immigrant religious groups such as the Buddhist Churches of America and even a Hare Krishna group. We finish up the trip with an exploration of Muslims in Detroit and Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn. All along the way, Tony peppers Chris with questions about what it is like to drive around the country with a full professor and what kind of music Roger Finke likes to listen to. We end with Chris’s thoughts on what he learned from this trip and find out that although the American religious landscape is defined by its pluralism and diversity, in reality many religious folks of different faith traditions often share the same concerns with one another; Chris ends up impressed with the similarities that arise from our national diversity. Recorded: February 17, 2012.

Research On Religion » parachurches

Kevin den Dulk on Religion, Education, and Civic Engagement

Christopher Scheitle’s Religious Road Trip