Image of God and Community Volunteering among Religious Adherents in the United States

Abstract

Individual theological beliefs provide important motivations for religious people to volunteer in their communities. Compassion and loving one's neighbor are both ideas that can motivate individuals to volunteer their time and talents. Religious believers who have conservative theological beliefs may see volunteering for their communities as a minor factor in their religious calling. Recent research on the role of social embeddedness within religious communities, however, has questioned the importance of theology as a motivation to volunteer (Putnam and Campbell, in American Grace. Simon and Schuster, New York, 2010 ; Lewis et al., in Soc Sci Res 42: 331–346, 2013 ). In this paper we test the effects of a religious adherent's image of God's disposition toward the world on their pattern of community volunteering. Using data from the 2005 Baylor Religion Survey and multinomial logit models, we find that having an image of God as judgmental lowers the odds that religious adherents report having volunteered for the community independent of their place of worship. Adherents who are most willing to engage the external community independent of a place of worship are those with less judgmental images of God. We also find that embeddedness is associated with volunteering for and with the place of worship in the community. Implications for theory, research and social capital formation are discussed.

God Versus Party: Competing Effects on Attitudes Concerning Criminal Punishment, National Security, and Military Service

“…Indeed, what one believes about God has been shown to predict a wide range of social and moral attitudes, including gender equality (Whitehead ), the value of volunteering (Mencken and Fitz ), political tolerance (Froese, Bader, and Smith ), trust of others (Hinze, Mencken, and Tolbert ; Mencken, Bader, and Embry ), social conservatism (Froese and Bader ), environmentalism (Greeley ), distributive justice (Froese and Bader ), xenophobia (Rowatt et al. ), and, notably, punitive attitudes (Applegate et al.…”

Institutional Confidence in the United States: Attitudes of Secular Americans

“…Findings from previous research on religion and social and political trust and confidence are mixed. Some scholars maintain that religious participation can, in certain cases, increase social trust (Mencken & Fitz, 2013;Welch et al, 2004). Mencken and Fitz (2013) state that religious participation can build trust in the community, which encourages volunteering and helping others.…”

“…Some scholars maintain that religious participation can, in certain cases, increase social trust (Mencken & Fitz, 2013;Welch et al, 2004). Mencken and Fitz (2013) state that religious participation can build trust in the community, which encourages volunteering and helping others. Welch et al (2004) show mixed results regarding the relationship between religious affiliation and trust, but found that Pentecostals who are frequent participants have higher levels of trust.…”

“…This approach is beneficial given that previous research has found that while secular Americans share some key characteristics, they are far from a homogeneous group (Baker & Smith, 2009;Zuckerman, 2014 We added a total of ten control variables to our regression models. Church attendance was included as previous studies have suggested that there is a relationship between religious participation and social trust (Berggren & Bjørnskov, 2011;Mencken & Fitz, 2013;Putnam & Campbell, 2010;Welch et al, 2004). Since nonreligious individuals may have a more skeptical outlook than those who are religious (Devos et al, 2002;Zuckerman, 2012), we controlled for general trust.…”

“…Given the link between secularity and skepticism (Devos et al, 2002;Zuckerman, 2012a) and religious participation and social trust (Berggren & Bjørnskov, 2011;Mencken & Fitz, 2013;Putnam & Campbell, 2010;Welch et al, 2004), two factors that are particularly important to discuss are the effects of general trust and church attendance. When these two factors are introduced as control variables, the negative relationship between secularity and confidence weakens, a finding that holds true for both atheists and nonreligious individuals.…”