Religion and Class: From Harvard to the Quick Stop

Last updated on: April 3, 2012 at 10:36 am By Bradley Wright

by John Schmalzbauer, Missouri State University Conservatives have long extolled the virtues of the American working class. In an oft-repeated statement, William F. Buckley said he would rather “entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University.” The author of God and Man at Yale, Buckley saw higher education as a threat to religious faith. Forced to choose between Harvard Yard and South Boston,... Read more

Religious Prejudice in Sociology Gets Slammed

Last updated on: March 28, 2012 at 7:58 am By Bradley Wright

In academia, in general, and sociology, in particular, we constantly hear derogatory, prejudicial statements about religion. While it’s easy to just accept this religious prejudice as a given, Christian Smith has written a compelling challenge to it. For his whole essay, click here (page 14). Here are the first several paragraphs: “The time has come for American sociology to stop being so ignorant and dogmatic about religion. As someone who knows something about the real history, cultures, and organizations of... Read more

Religion in the News: What Does it All Mean?

Last updated on: April 3, 2012 at 10:40 am By Bradley Wright

by Richard Flory Several news stories about religion in the U.S. have caught my attention over the last couple of weeks, and they each highlight a different lens on what the future may hold for these and other groups, and how the public perceives religion as an enduring (or not) institution in society. First, and this has been a long time coming, the Crystal Cathedral has finally met its demise. After bankruptcy, the sale of the landmark sanctuary to the... Read more

What Paintball Taught Me about the Market in Relationships

Last updated on: April 5, 2012 at 7:24 am By Mark Regnerus

My 12-year-old son and I play paintball about once every three or four months. (If it was up to him, it’d be every other weekend.) For a morning, we are mimicking soldiers—although without much strategy other than a “You go that way, and I’ll go this way”—attempting to win battles and avoid getting shot. Paintball is a unique social event—apart from the mild fear of being smacked in the head or neck by balls of tinted mineral oil sailing along... Read more

The Social Construction of Christian Leaders as Hypocrites

Last updated on: April 3, 2012 at 10:39 am By Bradley Wright

Several years, ABC’s newshow, 20/20, ran a story about a Southern California pastor, K.C. Price, and it showed a film clip of Price saying: “I live in a 25-room mansion, I have my own $6-million yacht, I have my own private jet and I have my own helicopter and I have seven luxury automobiles.” Sounds terrible, doesn’t it. Yet another instance of Christian leaders gone bad! Why, Diane Sawyer even expressed shock that a preacher would have this kind of wealth.... Read more

Are Religious Organizations Like Firms?

Last updated on: September 22, 2012 at 11:33 am By Margarita A. Mooney

Can ideas from economics, such as that monopolies are lazy and that competition leads to better products, be applied to understand religion? Every year I teach my students–both those in my class on economic sociology and those in my class on sociology of religion–about the economistic or the rational choice perspective on religion. Most people think individual religious behaviors and religious organizations are driven by emotions, theology, and/or tradition. But rational choice theories of religion are modeled are assumptions about... Read more

Gendered Assumptions and Weak Ties

Last updated on: April 5, 2012 at 7:28 am By Bradley Wright

by Amy Reynolds This past Saturday, Barbara Mikulski from Maryland became the longest-serving female congressperson in the history of the United States, having been elected to the Senate in 1986. She is currently one of 17 female senators (an all-time high for the United States). Jennifer Lawless and Richard Fox suggest in Men Rule (a report released by American University) that the United States ranks 91st when it comes to the representation of women in national office. One of the... Read more

Reds and Blues on Cohabitation and Marriage

Last updated on: April 5, 2012 at 7:29 am By Mark Regnerus

(Last on a theme from Premarital Sex in America…) Blues are pragmatic about sex and marriage. Reds are idealistic about them. Sociologist Maria Kefalas gets at this by talking about marriage “planners” and marriage “naturalists,” although I don’t think those terms map nicely onto blue and red because while the number of marriage “naturalists” out there are shrinking by the day, there are still plenty of reds. Since blues are so pragmatic about relationships, cohabiting is fine. End of story.... Read more