Conservative Protestants and Wealth: How Religion Perpetuates Asset Poverty

Abstract

The association between cultural orientation and material outcomes is fundamental to sociology research. This article contributes to the understanding of this relationship by exploring how religious affiliation affects wealth ownership for conservative Protestants (CPs). The results demonstrate that religion affects wealth indirectly through educational attainment, fertility, and female labor force participation. The results also provide evidence of a direct effect of religion on wealth. Low rates of asset accumulation and unique economic values combine to reduce CP wealth beyond the effects of demographics. The findings improve understanding of the relationship between religious beliefs and inequality.Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine. (Prov. 3:9-10) It would not be at all strange, therefore, if from these [Biblical] teachings and facts men should have concluded that the pursuit of wealth was unchristian and wealth itself an evil rather than a good. (Mathews 1896, p. 774) The relationship between cultural orientation and material well-being is central to research in sociology, and concern about this relationship has fueled decades of intense debate regarding the material consequences of religious values (Darnell and Sherkat 1997;Featherman

In-home firearm access among US adolescents and the role of religious subculture: Results from a nationally representative study

“…This finding complicates research on the effects of religion on adolescent health and safety risk factors, which generally finds protective effects of religious involvement and conservative religious groups Hill et al 2009;Dew et al 2008;Manglos 2013;Adamczyk and Felson 2012;Adamczyk and Palmer 2008;Wallace and Forman 1998;Harker 2001;Borowsky, Ireland, and Resnick 2001;Regnerus 2003). This study also adds to a growing body of research showing the importance of religious subcultures for life chances and the unfavorable influence of conservative Protestantism and conservative religious beliefs for a number of outcomes, extending this literature to the arena of an important health and safety risk factor (Cline and Ferraro 2006;Darnell and Sherkat 1997;Fitzgerald and Glass 2008;Glass and Jacobs 2005;Keister 2008;Massengill 2008;Sherkat and Darnell 1999;Emerson and Smith 2000;Ellison, Burr, and Mccall 2003;Sherkat 2010Sherkat , 2012Stroope, Franzen, and Uecker 2015;Uecker 2014;Lehrer 1999). 16 Catholic and Mainline Protestant interactions with religious attendance were marginally significant (p<.10).…”

“…First, similar to other research on religious subcultural effects (Stroope 2011b;Darnell and Sherkat 1997;Sherkat 2011;Keister 2008;Emerson, Smith, and Sikkink 1999), future firearm research should measure and model the mechanisms through which conservative Protestantism impacts in-home gun access. As outlined in this study, future research should consider the role of attitudes, information, and social networks for producing beliefs and behaviors regarding firearm access.…”

Religion and Inequality: The Role of Status Attainment and Social Balance Processes

“…However, although contemporary research is empirically rich, it has paid relatively little attention to the causal processes linking religion and material outcomes. Modern data provide powerful evidence that religion affects education for adults (Chiswick 1988;Darnell and Sherkat 1997;Lehrer 1999bLehrer , 2004 and adolescents (Muller and Ellison 2001;Sherkat and Darnell 1999), gender roles in the home (Ellison and Bartkowski 2002;Read 2004) and in the labor market (Lehrer 1999a(Lehrer , 2000Sherkat and Darnell 1999), fertility and family formation (Glass and Jacobs 2005;Lehrer 1996bLehrer , 1996cMcQuillan 2004), wages (Keister 2010;Smith and Faris 2005;Steen 1996;Wilder and Walters 1998), work and occupational outcomes (Smith and Faris 2005), and saving behavior and wealth (Crowe 2008;Keister 2003Keister , 2007Keister , 2008. Researchers have understandably taken advantage of modern data and methods to provide careful empirical support for key relationships that eluded prior generations of scholars.…”

“…Affiliation is the religious denomination or tradition with which an individual is associated. In the United States, persuasive evidence shows that members of religious groups behave similarly in consequential ways (Burstein 2007;Glass and Jacobs 2005;Keister 2008;Lehrer 2009;Smith and Faris 2005). A long history of research shows that affiliation with mainline Protestant, conservative Protestant, black Protestant, Roman Catholic, Jewish, or other religious groups affects wellbeing (Herberg 1983).…”

Withstand or succumb : Christian universities and the implications of Obergefell v. Hodges

“…The church-affiliated college's relationship to the United Methodist Church is about heritage rather than commitment to the religious beliefs of the denomination, which has virtually no influence over the internal governance of the university. By contrast, the Nazarene university has close ties to the denomination, which is part of a larger group of religious traditions considered conservative Protestants (Keiser, 2008). Within the Church of the Nazarene, any sexual relationship outside of a heterosexual marriage is considered immoral, including homosexuality, pre-marital sex, and adultery (Church of the Nazarene, 2013).…”