Darin Mather on Evangelicals and Racial Attitudes

tonygill — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 08:00:14 +0000

Are white evangelical Christians becoming more tolerant of other races over time? Darin Mather — a PhD candidate in Sociology at the University of Minnesota — discusses his recent research on the topic, published in the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion. Mather finds that younger evangelicals — those born after 1957, the official “end” of the Baby Boom — demonstrate much more tolerant attitudes and greater racial solidarity with minority groups such as African Americans and Hispanics. We discuss some of the reasons why the younger cohort is more tolerant, including greater contact with individuals of different races and ethnicities, as well as exposure to the ideas of toleration that permated the post-Civil Rights Movement. We have a fascinating discussion relating to relativism and examine whether toleration for other cultures necessarily means a change in (perhaps watering down of) one’s theological mindset. Younger evangelicals appear to accept cultural diversity so long as it is accompanies by an agreement on the basical laws of society. We also delve into the area of public policy, noting that younger evangelicals tend to be less supportive of affirmative action and economic assistance to historically disadvantaged communities. Mather offers several speculative ideas on why this might be the case, including the connection of evangelicalism to the South and the Republican Party. We finish with a brief discussion of Darin’s current dissertation research examining the differences between religious and secular education in Guatemala and the impact that has on equality of opportunity for young women. Recorded: March 7, 2011.

Dan Hungerman on Religious Charity and Crowding Out

tonygill — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 08:00:23 +0000

Dan Hungerman — assistant professor of economics at Notre Dame and Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research — joins Tony to discuss his pathbreaking research on how government and other secular entities compete with religious organizations. The first half of the podcast is devoted to Prof. Hungerman’s research on how government welfare spending and taxation “crowds out” religiously-provided services and charitable giving. Dan shows how FDR’s New Deal during the Great Depression led to a significant decline in church-based welfare, which can be attributed directly to a “crowding out” effect. We turn our attention to the 1996 Welfare Reform Act, which represented a rollback of several social service programs. Dan discusses his research showing that the Presbyterian Church responded by increasing its provision of welfare to communities facing a reduction in federal aid. The effect of government welfare and taxation on individual charitable contributions becomes the focus of our discussion and we examine how the racial diversity of a community can affect “warm glow” giving. The podcast concludes with an examination of how the elimination of “blue laws” allowed shopping malls and other secular activities to compete for people’s attention on Sunday mornings and how this reduced church attendance and tithing. Dan offers his thoughts about the relationship between the National Football League and religion in this concluding segment. Recorded: August 30, 2010.

Research On Religion » racial diversity

Darin Mather on Evangelicals and Racial Attitudes

Dan Hungerman on Religious Charity and Crowding Out