Social Networks and Civic Participation and Efficacy in Two Evangelical Protestant Churches

Abstract

This research note examines the proposition that participation in church—particularly the social interaction that accompanies church participation—is an important source of social capital that promotes civic activity and efficacy. Employing survey data from over 600 attendees of two evangelical Protestant churches, we tested hypotheses linking churchgoers’ social networks to their levels of civic efficacy and participation. Three key findings emerged. First, the number of friends in church was positively associated with churchgoers’ civic efficacy, religious civic activity, and secular civic activity, while the number of friends outside of church was unrelated to these outcomes. Second, the association between in-church networks and secular civic activity was partially mediated by civic efficacy. Third, church attendance moderated the association between in-church friends and secular civic activities such that high attending churchgoers with few in-church friends were far less likely to participate in secular civic activities. Taken together, these findings illustrate the importance of in-church social networks for Evangelical Protestants’ civic participation and feelings of civic efficacy, in contrast to out of church social networks which had little overall impact on these factors.

Bonding or Bridging? Volunteering Among the Members of Six Thriving Evangelical Congregations in the Netherlands

“…Thus, the more socially embedded these Evangelicals are in their congregation, the more they are involved in religious volunteering and the less they are involved in secular volunteering. This finding is opposite to the finding of Schwadel et al (2016), we already referred to in the Introduction, who showed for two American evangelical congregations that more extensive in-church social networks positively affect both the congregants' religious and secular civic activities. However, as a minority group Dutch evangelicals are far more urged to uphold a countercultural identity than their American co-religionists are, which probably strengthens their orientation towards their own in-group at the cost of their orientation towards society at large.…”

“…Furthermore, these small group activities also strengthen friendship bonds within the congregation, which may limit the propensity of evangelicals to engage in secular and non-church activities (Iannaccone 1994;Schwadel 2005). Although there is some evidence that extensive in-church social networks may also promote secular civic activities among evangelicals in the USA (Schwadel et al 2016), with regard to the Netherlands we assume that evangelicals who are socially integrated in their congregation will be especially inclined to engage in religious volunteering. Consequently, our next hypothesis reads: Evangelicals will be more involved in religious volunteering than mainline Christians and non-church members, because they have friends who attend the same congregation and/or because they consider their fellow church group members as friends (hypothesis 3a).…”

“…Similarly, Musick and Wilson (2008: 28) mention that recently evangelicals have become more civically involved and explain this by referring to the fact that evangelicals are more inclined to see faith-based community service as a means of evangelization. Likewise, Schwadel et al (2016) showed, that evangelicals with relatively large in-church networks are also more involved in secular civic activities and even more so than evangelicals with relatively small in-church networks. These observations could be the effect of what Coleman (1988) calls, the closure of social networks.…”

How Do Women Politicians Display Their Online Faith in Social Media? Case study: The Mayor of Bucharest, Gabriela Firea

“…From the analyzed data, it is obvious that the posts on her Facebook page, which focus on family-related religious topics, are among the most appreciated. As well as researchers argued that religious networks can facilitate volunteerism and civic engagement (McClure, 2015;Merino, 2013;Schwadel et al, 2015), this study revealed that the religious messages published by the Mayor of Bucharest on her Facebook page made her fans to commit and to interact positively concerning religious ideas and values that she promotes. This leads also to a certain civic engagement.…”

A Social Network Analysis of Friendship and Spiritual Support in a Religious Congregation

“…A robust literature demonstrates that relationships within a congregation are related to a host of outcomes. For example, research generally shows that reporting more friends or more close friends in one's congregation is associated with (a) greater religious attendance (Stroope, 2012); (b) greater personal well-being (Lim & Putnam, 2010), belonging (Mammana-Lupo, Todd, & Houston, 2014), and social support (Ellison & George, 1994); (c) more volunteering (Becker & Dhingra, 2001); (d) greater civic and political engagement (Lewis, MacGregor, & Putnam, 2013;Putnam & Campbell, 2010;Schwadel, Cheadle, Malone, & Stout, 2016); and (e) greater social justice engagement (Houston & Todd, 2013;Todd & Allen, 2011). Viewed from social settings theory, these results are in line with the idea that participation in the setting is connected to relationships and that relationships are linked to setting outcomes such as promoting well-being.…”