Religious Practice as Social Exchange: An Explanation of the Empirical Findings

The Continuing Relevance of Family Income for Religious Participation: U.S. White Catholic Church Attendance in the Late 20th Century

“…Norms of church attendance are likely to be weaker for low-income Catholics than for middle-and high-income Catholics as a result of the strong and positive effect of income on social integration (House, Umberson and Landis 1988), particularly in the U.S. Catholic community (Liu 1960). In general, then, we might expect that low-income Catholics have the least to lose by ignoring norms governing regular church participation (Lee 1992).…”

Religious Marketing is Different

“…A number of researchers have studied church affiliation using social exchange theory (Lee, 1992). While the application of exchange theory to church affiliation has not gone without criticism (Garrett, 1990), it represents a large and growing literature and has generally received widespread acceptance (Robertson, 1992).…”