The sociology of contemporary religious behavior is vital to understanding a whole range of other social and political issues. The current deep division in contemporary American political and social life tracks the deep ideological divide between white conservative Christians and others (both white and nonwhite) so closely that it is almost impossible to intellectually suggest there is no relationship between the two. Contemporary sociology has assumed that American institutions (if not individuals) have become so secular that they are shielded from religious practices, in favor of organizing logics that are scientific, technical, and organizational in nature. What most sociologists missed were the roots of contemporary backlash against technocratic regimes in the white suburbs and small towns of America where conservative religious affiliations became aligned with a profoundly nativist, anti-intellectual populism.

Research has not investigated how much of the previously documented positive association between high school religious service attendance and college grades is mediated by campus religious group participation. Nor do we know whether campus religious group involvement is an important mediator for black and Hispanic students who experience grade-lowering stereotype threat at historically white institutions. Path analyses conducted on a racially diverse sample of students at 28 elite institutions indicate that religious group involvement in college mediates the positive relationship between high school service attendance and college grades for Hispanic and to some extent black students. For Asian and white students, high school service attendance is positively associated with grades net of religious group involvement on campus. Asians frequently attending high school services on average earn a grade-point average of 0.12 points above Asians who never attended, net of controls.

Religious beliefs often persist among unaffiliated young adults, and certain beliefs about God have been shown to support subjective well-being. Yet we know much less about the persistence or psychological impact of religious experiences, specifically miracles from God. I conceive of such experiences as faith pinnacle moments which express and reinvigorate the individual's reciprocal bond with God, frequently occur in response to certain types of stress, and support well-being by solidifying one's sense of that bond. My results show that net of institutional religiosity, young adults who experience stress from traumas are more likely to report miracles. This suggests that these reports often refer to healings or similar interventions. Stress from family breakups, however, is negatively correlated with miracles, presumably since these disruptions damage the bond with God due to the established connection between parental relationships and perceived relationship with God. Finally, miracles are positively correlated with life satisfaction and partially protect against the negative effects of stress on life satisfaction.

This study examines a neglected topic in research on religion and psychological well-being: the effects of negative interaction in church on depression. After outlining a series of theoretical arguments linking negative interaction with health and well-being, relevant hypotheses are tested using longitudinal data from two surveys of the 1997-99 Presbyterian Panel, a nationwide panel of members and elders (lay leaders) in congregations of the Presbyterian Church (USA). Findings confirm that negative interaction appears to foster or exacerbate depression over the study period. In addition, specific dimensions of social negativity have distinctive effects; the impact of criticisms on depression surface only in cross-sectional models, while the effects of excessive demands emerge only in the longitudinal models. No subgroup variations in these effects are detected. Implications of these findings are discussed with regard to (a) research on religion and health and (b) congregational life, and a number of promising directions for future research are elaborated.

Despite the increasing numbers of Americans who die in nursing homes (NHs) and residential care/assisted living (RC/AL) facilities, and the importance of religious and spiritual needs as one approaches death, little is known about how these needs are met for dying individuals in long-term care (LTC) institutional settings. This study compared receipt of religious and spiritual help in four types of LTC settings: NHs, smaller (<16 beds) RC/AL facilities, traditional RC/AL facilities, and new-model RC/AL facilities. Data were also available for religious affiliation of the facilities, size, and provision of religious and hospice services. Controlling for such factors, the importance of religion/spirituality to the decedent was the strongest predictor of the decedent's receipt of spiritual help. In addition, new-model RC/AL facilities were significantly more likely to provide help for religious and spiritual needs of decedent residents than other RC/AL types, but did not differ significantly from NHs.

Despite the international controversies surrounding religious restrictions and freedoms, the topic has only recently received substantial research attention. Drawing on this new body of research, and multiple research projects in progress, this address explores both the origins and consequences of religious restrictions in the global arena. To understand the motives for restrictions, I propose hypotheses in three areas: the relationship or lack of relationship between institutional religion and the state, the willingness and capacity of the state to ensure freedoms, and the larger social and cultural pressures restricting freedoms, including social and political movements targeting minority religions. Turning to the consequences of religious restrictions, I explore how and why restrictions alter the religious economy (i.e., formation, supply and operation of religions) and are associated with higher levels of religious persecution, religious violence and intrastate conflict in general. Finally, I review additional areas where research is needed.

This study examines the extent to which the racial composition of a congregation moderates explanations for Black/White inequality among White, Black, and Hispanic congregants. Using nationally representative data from General Social Surveys and National Congregations Studies, we find that religiously affiliated Blacks and Hispanics tend to hold different racial attitudes than religiously affiliated Whites, but these differences largely disappear inside multiracial congregations. Importantly, we find that attending a multiracial congregation is unassociated with Whites' explanations for racial inequality, and Blacks who attend multiracial congregations are actually less likely to affirm structural explanations for Black/White inequality than Blacks in nonmultiracial congregations or Whites in multiracial congregations. We find little evidence that multiracial congregations promote progressive racial views among attendees of any race or ethnicity. Rather, our findings suggest that multiracial congregations (1) leave dominant White racial frames unchallenged, potentially influencing minority attendees to embrace such frames and/or (2) attract racial minorities who are more likely to embrace those frames in the first place.

In dialogue with mainly western literature on determinants of religious mobility and the evidence on the transformative role of mass education in developing settings, we examine the relationship of educational attainment with religious reaffiliation and disaffiliation in the context of rural and small-town sub-Saharan Africa. Adapting western scholarship to the realities of that context, where most people do not complete primary school, we conceptualize both basic education and religious belonging as parts and expressions of profound societal transformations in the sub-continent. We use data from a survey of women aged 18-50 conducted in a predominantly Christian area in Mozambique to test this relationship from both the lifetime and dynamic perspectives. We find a strong positive association between educational level and the probability of church switching, with modest variations by denominational destination of and main reasons for reaffiliation. Disaffiliation is negatively related to schooling level. These findings are situated within a broader discourse on religion, development, and social change in the sub-Sahara.

In this brief note written during a global pandemic, we consider some of the important ways this historical moment is altering the religious landscape, aiming our investigative lens at how religious institutions, congregations, and individuals are affected by the social changes produced by COVID-19. This unprecedented time prompts scholars of religion to reflect on how to strategically approach the study of religion in the time of "social distancing," as well as moving forward. Particularly important considerations include developing heuristic, innovative approaches for revealing ongoing changes to religion, as well as how religion continues to structure social life across a wide range of contexts, from the most intimate and personal to the most public and global. Although our note can only be indicative rather than exhaustive, we do suggest that the initial groundwork for reconsiderations might productively focus on several key analytical themes, including: Epidemiology, Ideology, Religious Practice, Religious Organizations and Institutions, as well as Epistemology and Methodology. In offering these considerations as a starting point, we remain aware (and hopeful) that inventive and unanticipated approaches will also emerge.

In this article, we examine whether mother's and father's self-reported religiousness relates differently to the timing of their children's marriages. Conceptualizing religion as one source of cultural schema about marriage that is likely to conflict with other schemas for living, and theorizing that women are more likely to experience structured ambivalence over religious schema and their enactment than men, we predict father's religiousness will be associated with children's marriage in accordance with religious dogma, whereas the experience of structured ambivalence yields a more complex relationship between mother's religiousness and their children's marriage. Using longitudinal data from the Chitwan Valley Family Study in Nepal, a primarily Hindu and Buddhist setting, we find contrasting associations between son's marriage timing and mothers' and fathers' religiousness. This provides empirical support for theoretical frameworks that emphasize the gendered nature of religious identity and suggests the influence of religion on other aspects of life is gendered.

The family and denominational factors influencing intergenerational religious transmission have been examined in a substantial body of work. Despite research identifying religious ideology as a salient aspect of American religion, however, its role in religious transmission remains unexplored. In this study, I use the National Study of Youth and Religion to test whether children's worship attendance and centrality of faith in young adulthood differ based on whether their parents identify as religiously liberal, moderate, conservative, or none of these. I further test whether the strength of the relationship between parent and child religiosity differs between ideological groups. The primary finding is that religious transmission is stronger among children of religious conservatives than for any other group, while the other groups do not differ significantly from one another. These differences in transmission are largely explained by religious conservative parenting approaches, congregational involvement, and most importantly, more intensive religious socialization.

This investigation used long-term longitudinal survey data from baby boomer women to identify whether strengthening gender role egalitarianism in early adulthood predicted declines in religious service attendance and religious intensity in later life. The aging of this cohort coincided with dramatic societal shifts in gender values and religiosity. The data were derived from 350 women participating in the Longitudinal Study of Generations, a study originally fielded in 1971 of families living in Southern California. Respondents were initially assessed in their late teens and early 20s and followed up to their early-to-mid 60s. Using growth curve modeling, we linked the change in egalitarian gender attitudes from 1971 to 1988 to a change in religiosity from 1994 to 2016. Women who became more egalitarian in their gender attitudes experienced sharper declines in religious intensity, but not in religious attendance in the period studied. Controlling for life-course transitions did not alter these results. The findings are discussed in terms of the connection between two asynchronous social changes occurring over the lives of women in a uniquely positioned birth cohort.