Strength of Religious Affiliation
In American Evangelicalism, Christian Smith answers the question of what it means to have a "strong" religious faith. Smith claims that strength is conceptualized and measured on the self-definition, values, and purpose of the group in question. He categorizes religious strength into six distinct dimensions, which are adherence to beliefs, salience of faith, robustness of faith, group participation, commitment to mission, and retention and recruitment of members. He states that any American Christian faith tradition is strong when its members "(1) faithfully adhere to essential Christian religious beliefs; (2) consider their faith a highly salient aspect of their lives; (3) reflect great confidence and assurance in their religious beliefs; (4) participate regularly in a variety of church activities and programs; (5) are committed in both belief and action to accomplishing the mission of the church; and (6) sustain high rates of membership retention by maintaining members' association with the tradition over long periods of time (Smith, 21)." Through his national survey and hundreds of personal interviews with distinct religious groups (Evangelicals, Fundamentalists, Mainline, Liberal, and Other) he is able to display the resul
This could be the result of two factors. And comparing data with a significant amount of differentiation in cases between two regions may result in inconclusive data. This gives each percentage of each column a ±2. and reside in rural and small town areas of the South and Midwest, rather than in large urban centers (Smith, 69). 3% higher percentage of evangelicals with a strong affiliation than that of the Midwest. In my second table I took my cross tabulations of my first table [Row: reliten; Column: religid] from the GSS and controlled for "degree" among each religious group and noticed if this variable had any effects that change the pattern of association in one's religious strength of affiliation. However, for the fundamentalists group this does not mean that the higher educational level would result in lower religious affiliation. For my research, I choose to control for one's educational level and location and test if both play on the six dimensions of religious faith. Then the question that arises is that "If modernization secularizes and America is among the most modern societies in the world, how is it possible that Evangelicalism (or any successful religious group) survives and even thrives in contemporary America (Smith, 69). Although this observation does not offer conclusive evidence towards strength of religious affiliation, the idea should not be overlooked. 2 on "Salience and Robustness of Faith Commitments," the evangelicals "stand out as the most religiously vibrant tradition, not simply in its fidelity to orthodox theological beliefs, but also by virtue of the tremendous importance of the religious faith of ordinary evangelicals in their own lives (Smith, 26). The data recorded shows that there are significant higher percentages in religious affiliation with lower levels of education. These groups hold similar percentages in both strong and not very strong strength of affiliation. Successful religious groups thrive because their demographic and social location shield them from the "religiously corrosive forces of modernity (Smith, 69).
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