14AR19-27

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Apologia Report 19:27 (1,210)

August 19, 2014

Subject: How do movements avoid the dilution of their teachings?

In this issue:

ATHEISM - "how atheist tension with evangelicals is played out in the political realm"

CHURCH GROWTH - doctrinal compromise and member retention

GANDHI, MAHATMA - was he strongly influenced by Theosophy?

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ATHEISM

There Is No God: Atheism in America, by David A. Williamson and George Yancey [1] -- Joel Thiessen (Ambrose University College) explains in this review that the authors' sociological overview has a threefold aim: 1) To survey the history of atheism; 2) To report on what has influenced and sustained contemporary atheists in the USA; and 3) "To account for atheist beliefs and activity relative to conservative Christianity, and to document how atheist tension with evangelicals is played out in the political realm."

The authors - both professors of sociology at the University of North Texas - base their work on their own "survey data with nearly 1,500 self-identified atheists connected to organizations that oppose the Christian Right. ... Most do not come from religious homes, yet those who do converted to atheism mainly from reading literature by prominent atheists (such as Richard Dawkins) as opposed to personal friends who influenced their conversion experience.

"The atheist worldview portrayed in this book is grounded more on a critique of the flaws in religion than the positive aspects of atheism. ...

"Williamson and Yancey conclude by noting that 'religion is not typically seen by atheists as an enemy; at its very best it is seen as merely a waste of time and a drag on social progress.... The individuals whose messages contemporary atheism is attempting to negate are Christian fundamentalists and traditionalists who are evangelizing, proselytizing, judging, and, of utmost importance, attempting to influence social policy and law. Interestingly, they build on the contact hypothesis [which says that more contact and and interaction with others who are different from you will alter your attitude toward them] to note that atheists who live in strongly religious regions are less fearful of religion taking over society compared to atheists who reside in less religious areas of America."

Thiessen complains that, due to the authors' sampling strategy ("a notable limitation") the results reflect "a narrow view of a select group of atheists." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 53:2 - 2014, pp453-455.

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CHURCH GROWTH

"Good Clubs and Community Support: Explaining the Growth of Strict Religions" by Anna Grzymala-Busse (Professor of European and Eurasian Studies, University of Michigan) -- begins: "How do some religions grow over time without significantly diluting their strict doctrinal commitments? Religious denominations face the problem of expanding their ranks without moderating their doctrine, changing their identity, or losing the existing faithful. Yet some have resolved this dilemma with considerable success. This article suggests that they do so by serving as 'good clubs': offering networks of community support that not only increase growth from within but also increase the costs of exit over time, encouraging reproduction, retention, *and* resoluteness. Such community support allows these groups to grow while retaining their doctrinal commitments."

Referring to member retention, the author writes: "The watering down of theological and ideological commitments ... alienates the existing support base, eroding their loyalty, and eventually undermining the organization's coherence and numbers. ... The shrinking numbers and emptying pews of the mainstream Christian denominations ... suggests that there may be high costs for liberalizing religious tenets: any expansion due to dilution may be short-lived and self-undermining.

"Yet several established religions have defied this dynamic, and largely escaped the dilemma of expansion at the cost of dilution. ... These successful denominations include the Amish, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), Jehovah's Witnesses, Orthodox Jews, and to a lesser extent, pre-Vatican II Catholics. These are strict denominations, espousing principles and demanding behavior that put them at tension with the rest of society. ... [T]hese strict denominations have grown at higher rate than their mainstream counterparts and, in contrast to other conservative denominations ... have *retained* their members. ...

"For every growing denomination like the Jehovah's Witnesses, whose 5 percent growth rates are attributed to conversion, there are those expanding religions like the Mormons, where the 3-5 percent annual growth rate masks local variation that ranges from 17 percent in Latin America to 0.5 percent in Austria or in Utah. ... Fifty percent of Mormon converts in the United States and 75 percent of foreign converts fail to attend church after a year. In fact, the higher these growth rates, the lower the subsequent retention of converts. Even more of a concern for other proselytizing religions, these statistics are a *positive* outlier: Mormon converts have relatively high retention rates. ...

"In short, even though strict religions have the greatest growth rates, aspects of strictness such as proselytizing and conversion, theology, and regulation do not explain this growth." The author then launches into her theory that serving as "good clubs" and offering community support are the real reasons for their growth.

In her conclusion, the author finds: "High growth rates are no longer incidental, secondary to conversion efforts, nor are they simply the result of theological priorities. Instead, high fertility becomes central to religious expansion and relies on community support. ...

"In many cases, fertility is a more durable source of growth than conversion. In the end, it not only takes a village to raise a child, but it also takes many children to sustain a religion." Journal of Church and State, 56:2 - 2014, pp269-299.

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GANDHI, MAHATMA

As is often the case with famous personalities, the many people who still consider Gandhi a spiritual inspiration have little idea of his actual worldview. Consider this abstract for an article titled "Experiments with Theosophical Truth: Gandhi, Esotericism, and Global Religious History" by Michael Bergunder (University of Heidelberg): "There is strong textual evidence to suggest that M.K. Gandhi's notion of Hinduism, his specific view of Christianity, and his general belief that all religions refer to the same truth were shaped by esotericism, namely the Theosophical Society and the Esoteric Christian Union. The article presents the respective sources, discusses their plausibility, and puts these findings into perspective. This perspective is provided by a global history approach, which holds that the religious concepts in play since the nineteenth century were already products of global 'entangled histories.' Furthermore, it is argued that the impact of esotericism on global religious history, from the nineteenth century to early twentieth, needs to be investigated with more academic rigor." Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 82:2 - 2014, pp398-426.

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SOURCES: Monographs

1 - There Is No God: Atheism in America, by David A. Williamson and George Yancey (Rowman & Littlefield, 2013, hardcover, 150 pages) <www.ow.ly/AoN60>

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