Religious Diversity in a “Christian Nation”: The Effects of Theological Exclusivity and Interreligious Contact on the Acceptance of Religious Diversity
“…Studies of the general population typically find trends consistent with the argument that encounters with religious diversity lead people to be more open to it (e.g., Merino 2010; Wuthnow 2007). And studies of racial diversity on college campuses indicate that having friends of another race, and participating in activities that expose oneself to racial diversity, has positive net effects on racial tolerance (Pascarella and Terenzini 2005).…”
Section: Past Research On Religion and Higher Educationmentioning
Going to college has long been assumed to liberalize students’ religious beliefs. Using longitudinal data from the National Survey of Youth and Religion, we compare change in the content of religious beliefs of those who do and do not attend college. We find that, in general, college students are no more likely to develop liberal religious beliefs than nonstudents. In some cases, collegians actually appear more likely to retain their initial beliefs. Change in religious beliefs appears instead to be more strongly associated with network effects. These findings indicate that college’s effect on students’ religious beliefs is both weak and fragmented, and suggest that the multiplicity of social worlds on college campuses may help to sustain religious beliefs as well as religious practice and commitment.
“…Studies of the general population typically find trends consistent with the argument that encounters with religious diversity lead people to be more open to it (e.g., Merino 2010; Wuthnow 2007). And studies of racial diversity on college campuses indicate that having friends of another race, and participating in activities that expose oneself to racial diversity, has positive net effects on racial tolerance (Pascarella and Terenzini 2005).…”
Section: Past Research On Religion and Higher Educationmentioning
Going to college has long been assumed to liberalize students’ religious beliefs. Using longitudinal data from the National Survey of Youth and Religion, we compare change in the content of religious beliefs of those who do and do not attend college. We find that, in general, college students are no more likely to develop liberal religious beliefs than nonstudents. In some cases, collegians actually appear more likely to retain their initial beliefs. Change in religious beliefs appears instead to be more strongly associated with network effects. These findings indicate that college’s effect on students’ religious beliefs is both weak and fragmented, and suggest that the multiplicity of social worlds on college campuses may help to sustain religious beliefs as well as religious practice and commitment.
“…The proportion of Americans claiming a non‐Christian faith appears to have grown about three‐to fourfold since 1970 (Smith 2002). Thus, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and other non‐Christians represent a small but significant and growing segment of the religious landscape (Merino 2010). In addition, many new immigrants are not religious and the proportion of nonreligious people in the United States in general is also growing, a segment of the population that some of our SSSR members are doing cutting edge research to understand.…”
Section: The Challenge and Possibilites Of Diversitymentioning
confidence: 99%
“…This will allow us the opportunity to examine how race and religion overlap in and shape experiences of discrimination. Understanding intergroup relations across religious traditions is also important because, as Merino (2010) argues: Surprisingly little research has examined attitudes toward non‐Christians. Given the notable growth of non‐Christian Americans in recent decades, more research in this area is critical.…”
Section: The Challenge and Possibilites Of Diversitymentioning
Here I argue that we need to diversify the social scientific study of religion and chart a plan for how we are already and will continue to do so. At the time of the 70th anniversary of our association, I reflect on where—as an association—we have come from and where we are going. Our origin story points to an expansive vision for what would become the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (SSSR), but unfortunately our past has also been marked by an overrepresentation of white male leadership. It was only in 1982 that the society elected its first woman president, Mary Augusta Neal, and only in 2015 that it elected its first person of color, Fenggang Yang. Here, I discuss our hope for a more diverse future: attending to diversity in studies of religion, diversity in the groups of people who are encouraged to study religion, and efforts to translate religion research well to diverse groups of listeners. I share with you pieces of the new SSSR strategic plan, spearheaded in 2018 by Korie Edwards, the first black and woman of color President of the SSSR: particularly the pieces that are most attentive to diversity. I also highlight insights from my own scholarly story about diversity that I have learned through my work with the Religion and Public Life Program at Rice University.
“…These assumptions about the religious needs of individuals in a pluralistic society are rooted in the conflict paradigm. The conflict paradigm is skeptical about both the reality of intergroup interaction (Merino, 2010;Wessel, 2009) and potential attitudinal changes in tolerance as a result of intergroup interactions (Dixon et al, 2005;Quillian, 1995). The basic assumption of conflict theory is that individuals bases their attitudes towards religious others on the beliefs and opinions of the (religious) reference group the individual identifies with (Blumer, 1958).…”
Section: Cyber-balkanizationmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Although the theological debate on pluralism is characterized by this moral preference for pluralism and often lacks empirical evidence, research within the social sciences shows that people with exclusivist religious beliefs are less accepting of individuals from other religious groups and are indeed more prejudiced in comparison to inclusivists and pluralists (Brown and Brown, 2011;Jung, 2012;Merino, 2010;Trinitapoli, 2007). Compared with mainline Christians, evangelical Christians appear to be more negative toward the existence of other religious groups.…”
Section: The Context Of the Religious Group: Doctrinementioning
Increasingly, interreligious encounters occur through internet communication. The debate on the influence of internet communication on interreligious encounters is characterized by a contradiction between the theory of cyber-balkanization on the one hand and the theory of networked religion on the other. However, neither theory is contextualized and neither can therefore explain why an interreligious encounter results in either interreligious conflict or mutual understanding. In this article, a contextualized approach to the implications of internet communication for interreligious relationships is advocated. The authors show that contextualization on the level of the openness of the religious group is too one-dimensional. Therefore, a contextual reception model on the level of the situation is developed to explicate the possible attitudinal and behavioral positions within an online interreligious encounter. This model can be used to investigate the implications of internet communication for interreligious relationships.
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