In the beginning of this thesis, the dangers of ‘. . . inferring so much from so little’[1] were raised regarding sociological studies of religion. Others have similar questions about creating a catchall theory to cover all religious communities in the West. Lynch states, ‘Over the past thirty years we have entered a new phase of progressive religion in the West which has led more recently to the development of new religious identities, groups and networks.’[2] Voas points out one argument for studying religion in Europe as, ‘The whole continent is so diverse that no single description of the religious situation is adequate and hence its evolution defies any simple explanation.’[3] Yet, others like Roof speculate that ‘What is happening with religion may not be all that different from what’s occurring with other social institutions and may actually be a pretty good mirror of the larger culture in the 1990s.’[4]
As mentioned above, there are a myriad of factors that influence the religious flow of any one religious community, both in America, the West, and the world. Wuthnow comments, ‘In logistic regression models that controlled for age, education, parents’ education, region, gender, race, ethnicity, religious tradition, and religious service attendance, the effect of spiritual shopping (versus Christian inclusivism) was statistically significant.’[5]
It would be easy to assume that McMinnville’s shift to Sacro-Egoism is also simultaneously occurring all over the United States. However, such a specific conclusion is hasty without more such studies in other cities, both in Oregon, the Pacific Northwest, and all over America. Every city, state, and region has a different history, cultural priority, and demographic make-up. The culture of McMinnville, Oregon may differ somewhat from that of Eugene, Oregon, some ninety-three miles away. It may be still embracing Sacro-Clericalism or Sacro-Communalism. Thus, there is no absolute certainty that the majority of Oregonians or Americans will immediately give up their former Sacro-states to immediately embrace Sacro-Egoism despite their expression of radical individualism. However, the aforementioned American sociological studies of religion do suggest some connection to Sacro-Egoism.
Currently, American society media focuses on the youth culture, but the vast majority of Americans are over thirty-five (and growing).[6] One could assume that as mature, enculturated, adults, most Americans will possibly still subjugate their personal authority for sometime to the old church institute that they grew up in as a child; yet, the diminishing church membership numbers indicate that some religious and/or social change is occurring in Western society. As Heelas et al. note, ‘young people’s detachment from the congregational domain has not only continued since the sixties but has intensified, with their religious commitment declining steadily over time.’[7] Information on aspects such as age, gender, economic class, political affiliation, and education was also collected in the McMinnville Project congregational surveys. The data is considered in turn below.
Sacro-Egoism and Age
The question of age and religiosity, however, is still a study in progress in the modern world of sociology. Putnam remarks, ‘So before we can tell whether the ubiquitous age-related difference in civic engagement are truly generational, and thus producing social change, we need to determine whether these differences are attributable to the normal life cycle.’[8] Heelas and Woodhead state, ‘The average age of a churchgoer is now higher than the average age in the population, and the number of young people, under age 19, attending church has halved in the last 20 years to 25 per cent of all churchgoers.’[9] There seems to be a correlation between age and religious affiliation.
In the McMinnville Project Congregational survey, the majority of respondents (70%), aged sixteen to seventy-five and older, chose ‘God’ as their highest authority. More specifically, in the study, the largest age group (11.3%) claiming ‘God’ as their highest authority included participants aged twenty to twenty-four. The next largest age group claiming ‘God’ as their highest authority (7.8%) included participants aged sixty to sixty to sixty-four. Thus, both the young and the older generations appear to cling to the notion of God as an authority figure.
Similarly, 13.4% of the Congregational survey participants indicated they considered their own reason, judgment, feelings, or intuition as the highest authority in their lives. The largest age group claiming this aspect of authority again was from the younger and older generations. 7% were aged sixteen to twenty-nine and 5% were ages sixty to seventy-five or older. Furthermore, those who indicated the Church or Scripture as their highest authority accounted only for 11.4% of the congregational survey and the majority were ages thirty to fifty-nine.
Based on the McMinnville Project Congregational survey, age has some correlation with Sacro-Egoism. Both the younger and older generations demonstrated Sacro-Egoism the most, with the middle-aged demonstrating Sacro-Clericalist attributes more than other age groups. However, as the younger generations mature and establish themselves into the church scene in the future, their expectations and demands will increase—potentially in Sacro-Egoistical ways. Flory and Miller remark on the modern youth’s approach to religion,
Although some remnant of the more stable past remains for the [youth] individual, these forms of spirituality are primarily to be understood as involving an individual search, or quest, for spiritual growth, fulfillment, and understanding, with the religious community acting, to the extent that it has an active role, as a sort of non-essential aid, or context, to this journey.[10]
The future direction of Religion is somewhat open to speculation; however, Lytch states, ‘Faith communities need to help youth to articulate their faith in reference to life issues, using the vocabulary, story and theology of their tradition’[11] in order for churches to connect with young people’s modern sense of individualism. Florence comments, ‘Congregations and denominations may disagree about theology and polity, but nearly everyone agrees that youth are important and that future-minded churches should try to develop ministries with and for young people.’[12]
Sacro-Egoism and Gender
An important area of inquiry concerns gender and Sacro-Egoism. Furseth and Repstad comment, ‘It appears reasonable to argue that the rational choice perspective describes the world of men better than the world of women. Several studies conclude that women tend to be more focused on responsibility and care for others than men.’[13] Heelas and Woodhead state,
Given that both women and men are equally subjectivized in the general autonomous/moral individualism sense, we have to explain why women are more likely than men to be attracted to the holistic milieu and subjective wellbeing culture.[14]
Grenz adds, ‘The last quarter of the twentieth century has brought increased awareness of the status, role, and contribution of women within the history of Christianity.’[15]
There may be some evidence of this in the McMinnville Project data.
In the McMinnville Project Congregational surveys, the same number of men and women both had equally low rating on the church as a source of authority (2%). Men had a slightly higher view of the scripture than women (5% versus 2%), but both genders held scripture as a low source of authority (8% of total participants). More women (43%) than men (29%) claimed God as their highest authority, but more men (5%) than women (2%) claimed their reason or judgment was their highest authority. More women participated in the survey than men so that could skew the results somewhat.
Even though there are hints of gender-correlation to Sacro-Egoism and possibly the other Sacro-states in McMinnville, Oregon, without more investigation, the connection between belief patterns and gender is uncertain, at best. Bruce does remark, however, that ‘When Western laws insist that women and men must enjoy equal rights, they are denying to communities that wish to maintain traditional gender divisions of labour the right to sustain their notion of what God requires.’[16] This seems to indicate that gender-issues might be connected with Sacro-Communalism as well as Sacro-Egoism.
Sacro-Egoism and Economic Class
The correlation of economic status and adherence to traditional religion has been an item of sociological investigation for sometime in the West. Summarizing Weber’s view on economic class and religiosity, Furseth and Repstad state,
Economically and politically advantaged groups assign to religion the primary function of legitimizing their own life-pattern and situation in the world. Underprivileged groups are more inclined toward religious ideas that promise future compensation for present unhappiness.[17] Putnam claims that ‘Income, social status, and education are used together to predict various forms of civic engagement.’[18]
The McMinnville Project provided some opportunity to test this potential relationship. In the McMinnville Project Congregational surveys, economic class had some relevance to Sacro-Egoism expression. Most survey participants (42%) with a household income of $0 to $49,000 (£25,000) indicated that ‘God’ was the highest authority in their lives. Household income had no remarkable correlation with any other of the authority choices, although only two people (one making $20,000-$29,000 and one making $100,000 or above) selected the church as their highest authority.
Thus, the data presented no conclusive evidence to support the notion that poor people or rich people were more likely to become Sacro-Egoistical or Sacro-Clerical. Sacro-Egoism traits were apparently across the board, economically.
Sacro-Egoism and Political Affiliation
In the United States, one of the most fundamental civil rights is the freedom to choose which political party one belongs to; it is a gift imparted by the original revolutionary founders to ensure individual liberties. This notion is not inconsequential to the notion of Sacro-Egoism. Wuthnow states, ‘The future of public religion in the United States is likely to see a continuation of the conflict between liberals and conservatives, even if particular issues come and go, because both traditions are in a state of internal ferment and uncertainty.’[19]
The McMinnville Project tested the relationship between Sacro-Egoism and political association. Based on the McMinnville Project data, the only real difference between Republican and Democratic affiliation and Sacro-Egoism is that more Republicans (3%) claim scripture as the highest authority in their lives as Democrats (1%) and more Republicans (20%) than Democrats (15%) claimed God as their highest authority. Besides those aspects, the differences were negligible.
Thus, according to the McMinnville Project Congregational survey data, there is no clear or direct connection between the Sacro-states and political beliefs. If Sacro-Egoism is prevalent in McMinnville, it makes no difference whether a person is a Democrat, Republican, involved in other political groups or none at all.
Sacro-Egoism and Education
Beyond the state-enforced schooling that Americans receive in high school, the opportunity for any future education truly depends upon the discretion of the individual (and economics). Therefore, it is reasonable to look for connections between education and Sacro-Egoism. Heelas and Woodhead noted in The Spiritual Revolution, ‘The higher the level of educational attainment the greater the likelihood of a shift of emphasis from seeking value by way of achievement in the material world to seeking value by way of what subjective-life has to offer.’[20] This appears evident in the McMinnville Project as well.
Attending a college or university had a huge correlation with claiming God as the highest authority in survey participants’ lives. 56.8% of Congregational survey respondents who were currently attending college claimed God as their highest authority. The next highest correlation to education concerned Scripture--5% of survey participants with college experience claimed scripture as their highest authority. The only high correlation for participants with no education was ‘Your own reason or judgment.’ Only 4% of survey participants who are not in college claimed reason/judgment as their highest authority.
Thus, Sacro-Egoism also has some relation to educational achievement. It seems (as with the Kendal Project)[21]that those with higher educational achievement were more likely to grant spirituality personal value and influence. Few college-educated people gave the Bible much authority in their lives, at least as translated through the church institute. These two aspects alone fit well into the criteria for Sacro-Egoism.
[1] Laurence Iannaccone and Sean Everton, ‘Never on Sunny Days: Lessons From Weekly Attendance Counts,’ Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 43, no. 2 (June 2004): 191.
[2] Gordon Lynch, The New Spirituality: An Introduction to Progressive Belief in the Twenty-First Century(London: I.B. Tauris, 2007), 20.
[3] David Voas, ‘The Rise and Fall of Fuzzy Fidelity In Europe’ in European Sociology Review (Under Review): 1; article emailed to author, 28/05/2007.
[4] Wade Clark Roof, ‘God is in the Details: Reflections on Religion’s Public Presence in the United States in the Mid-1990’s,’ Sociology of Religion 57, no. 2 (1996): 155.
[5] Robert Wuthnow, America and the Challenges of Religious Diversity (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University, 2005), 342.
[6] ‘Dramatic Changes in U.S. Aging Highlighted in New Census, NIH Report: Impact of Baby Boomers Anticipated,’ U.S. Census Bureau News; available from http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/aging_population/006544.html [accessed 10/09/2007].
[7] Heelas et al., The Spiritual Revolution, 119.
[8] Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 2000), 248.
[9] Heelas et al., The Spiritual Revolution, 140.
[10] Flory and Miller, ‘The Embodied Spirituality of Post-Boomer Generations,’ 214.
[11] Carol E. Lytch, ‘What Teens Believe: A Survey on Youth and Religion,’ Christian Century 122, no. 18 (September 2005): 21.
[12] Anna Carter Florence, ‘A Prodigal Preaching Story and Bored-to-Death Youth,’ Theology Today 64 (2007): 233.
[13] Furseth and Repstad, An Introduction to the Sociology of Religion, 119.
[14] Heelas et al., The Spiritual Revolution, 98.
[15] Amy Oden, ‘Introduction,’ In Her Words: Women’s Writings in the History of Christian Thought, Amy Oden, ed. (Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 1994), 11.
[16] Bruce, God is Dead, 149.
[17] Furseth and Repstad, An Introduction to the Sociology of Religion, 125.
[18] Putnam, Bowling Alone, 186.
[19] Wuthnow, Christianity in the 21st Century, 150.
[20] Heelas et al., The Spiritual Revolution, 93-94.
[21] Heelas et al., The Spiritual Revolution, 93-94.