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AR 26:23 - The profoundly WEIRD impact of the "Western Church"
In this issue:
CULTURE - the WEIRD, transformative influence of Western Christianity on the world
MORMONISM - "LDS observers admit frankly, membership figures conceal serious problems with the retention of new members"
Apologia Report 26:23 (1,528)
June 8, 2021
CULTURE
The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous, by Joseph Henrich [1] -- notes potential challenges to Western culture from the "woke" Left. Robert Henderson's City Journal review (Apr 2 '21) begins with this description: "A new book explores the religious origins of the West's divergent political, technological, and cultural development. ...
"The 'WEIRD' from his title is an acronym meaning 'Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic,' as well as a convenient reminder that people from such societies are psychologically different from most of the world, and from most humans throughout history.
Henrich (Chair, Dept. of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard [and a weird throne from which to preach the likes of this volume]) "argues that the Western Church (his term for the branch of Christianity that rose to power in medieval Europe) enacted a peculiar set of taboos and proscriptions regarding marriage and family that dissolved Europe's kin-based institutions. These rules produced a more individualistic society, which in turn spurred the creation of impersonal markets, fostered trust between unrelated strangers, and propelled the development of voluntary institutions, universally applicable laws, and innovation. ...
"WEIRD people are more likely to adhere to rules even in the absence of external sanctions. Until 2002, United Nations diplomats from other countries didn't have to pay parking tickets in New York City. While diplomats from the UK, Sweden, Canada, and several other WEIRD countries received no parking tickets, those from Bulgaria, Egypt, Chad, and others accumulated more than 100 tickets per delegation member. When diplomatic immunity ended, parking violations declined, but the gap persisted. ...
"Does your friend have a right to expect you to lie for him, or do you think he has no right to expect this? People from Canada, Switzerland, and the U.S. generally tell researchers that your friend has no right to expect you to lie. But most non-WEIRD citizens, from places like South Korea, Nepal, and Venezuela, say they would willingly lie to help their friend. ...
"Henrich reports responses from across the globe to the question, 'Generally speaking, would you say that most people can be trusted, or that you need to be very careful in dealing with people?' In WEIRD countries, levels of trust were consistently above 50 percent, but below 10 percent in Brazil, Trinidad, and Tobago. ...
"Across ten diverse societies, Americans placed the most value on intentions, while individuals from Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and Namibia focused more on outcomes.
"Of course, one might argue that all of these differences stem from formal institutions like courts, police, and governments. But, Henrich asks, how does one get there in the first place? ...
"Societies that believe in moralizing gods who punish wrongdoers tend to have WEIRDer psychologies. ...
"The book presents data from 1965 to 1995 showing that, for every 20 percent increase in those who believe in hell and heaven, a country's economy will grow an extra 10 percent in the ensuing decade and its murder rate will go down. (Intriguingly, murder rates rise alongside increases in the number of people who believe only in heaven.)"
In reference to what Henrich terms the 'Marriage and Family Program" (MFP), "This program dissolved people's connections to their extended family, banned cousin marriage, and gradually made the nuclear family and voluntary associations the center of social life. ...
"When relational bonds are weaker and people have to find ways to get along with strangers, success arises from independence, less deference to authority, more guilt, and more concern with cultivating personal attributes and achievement. ...
"Henrich argues that the MFP's strong monogamous marriage norms constrained the darker aspects of male psychology and gave WEIRD societies an edge. Polygynous societies create large numbers of young, unmarried men with few prospects and no stake in the future. ...
"Such unmarried men, especially when young, threaten social stability. The book cites a famous study revealing that getting married reduces a man's odds of committing a crime. ... In short, monogamous marriage cultivated stability in WEIRD societies.
"Higher rates of impersonal trust, individualism, and voluntary association helped give rise to markets, because people were more willing to trade and deal with strangers. Markets themselves, Henrich argues, promote those same WEIRD traits in a kind of feedback loop. ...
"Psychologists have long assumed that the 'Big Five' personality profile (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism) was universal, and that every person could be mapped along these personality configurations. ..."
However, "Freed from kinship bonds, medieval Europeans ... became centered more on individuals as opposed to one's social position or family lineage. Individual-centered legal developments gave rise to 'rights,' which, Henrich observes, are a historically unusual concept.... Universally applicable laws, independent of family, lineage, or relational ties, arose from the individualistic psychology of WEIRD societies. ...
"Henrich also suggests that the impersonal forces of WEIRD societies spurred technological innovation, because individuals were more willing to share their ideas with unrelated people and were eager to broadcast their ideas because of the prestige they would accrue as individuals.
"Interestingly, Henrich suggests that the nuclear family has encouraged innovation, too." <www.bit.ly/3xZ254z>
Writing in the Wall Street Journal (Oct 2 '20), Christopher Levenick notes that "To be sure, Mr. Henrich would insist that his thesis says nothing about the truth or falsity of Catholic doctrine. He also sees nothing inherently better or worse about Weird-ness, suggesting instead that global psychological diversity should be celebrated." He adds that Henrich "isn’t particularly interested in why the Catholic marital doctrine emerged. The church was 'lucky,' he writes, and 'bumbled' into it." <www.on.wsj.com/3crncDz> (paywall awaits)
For a distinctively Christian take on the book and its implications, see Andrew Wilson's review at The Gospel Coalition (Oct 7, '20) <www.bit.ly/3crCTKP>.
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MORMONISM
"Global Mormonism and its growing pains: Most LDS members are not from the United States. The church's leadership and practices are another story" by Philip Jenkins (Christian Century, Apr 7 '21) -- "The LDS Church officially counts some 16.6 million believers worldwide, of whom just 6.7 million, or 40 percent, live in the United States. Another 6.9 million live elsewhere in the Americas, and growth is marked in both Africa and Asia." (This means that - after nearly two centuries of missionary efforts - about 85% of the church's membership still resides in the western hemisphere.)
"One perpetual source of debate is inculturation, where Mormons stand apart from most denominations in their insistence that congregations worldwide follow norms and worship styles derived from the United States - the same musical instruments, the same hymns, the same attitudes toward bodily movement during worship. Mormons are extremely sensitive to any hint of syncretism and reject anything that might be seen as borrowed from older pagan ways. That is a particular issue in Africa, where the lack of inculturation has limited potential LDS growth....
"The issue of centralization is also problematic as the LDS Church globalizes but the highest levels of its leadership, based in Salt Lake City, remain White, male, and American (and commonly elderly). This is far more true than in other bodies, even notably conservative ones such as the Roman Catholic Church. ...
"LDS observers admit frankly, membership figures conceal serious problems with the retention of new members. Many drop out of active commitment within a few months or a year, less over theological quibbles than over the church's distinctive cultural demands - often over the prohibition of coffee, tea, and alcohol. That issue affects the church worldwide, but it is much more acute in Global South contexts.... Throughout Latin America, official membership counts differ widely from the number of active and practicing believers, and ex-Mormons are a sizable social category.
"Obviously, the church has many positives to report, and in some ways, Mormons actually benefit from their differences from mainstream churches. For decades, their missionaries have built effectively on the idea that the Book of Mormon represented a distinctive revelation to the New World, and visual materials show the resurrected Christ preaching to audiences in appropriate settings, using Mesoamerican pyramids as a backdrop. That has a special impact in modern-day Central and South America. In practical terms, the church benefits from the often-astonishing qualities of its social ministries and the support offered to members in distress.
"Mormonism is also associated with a rich body of stories and customs that easily lend themselves to local adaptation, and we often read about various Global South congregations trying to evolve their own particular forms of religious life." <www.bit.ly/3bdASBc>
An April 15, 2021 report by David Noyce in the Salt Lake Tribune ("COVID led to slowest church growth in 160 years") <www.bit.ly/350C8UY> quotes respected LDS trend-watcher Matt Martinich that "The last time the church reported an annual membership growth rate that was slower than 2020 was in 1857," and "This is the lowest number of convert baptisms reported by the church since 1975." The number of "children of record" also plummeted, which Noyce attributes to "a falling birthrate."
Mormon proselytizers may be down, but they're not out: Also writing for the Tribune, Bob Mims and Peggy Fletcher Stack report (May 29 '21) that "As [the] pandemic eases, LDS missionaries and Jehovah's Witnesses soon will be back - knocking on your door." Expect them to show up much more frequently in other places: "Apostle Dieter F. Uchtdorf told Latter-day Saint missionaries during a February global digital devotional that there will be no going back 'to the old ways.'…Indeed, well before COVID-19 struck, [the LDS Church] and its 54,000 missionaries worldwide had already been cutting back on door-to-door, cold-call proselytizing. Instead of 'tracting' - as they called it - missionaries embraced social media, blogs, emails, text messages and the church's website to learn of nonmembers' interest. Referrals from those sources then could lead to in-home visits and teaching." Indeed, the article closes with a description of "three Latter-day Saint missionaries in the Salt Lake City area [who] have spent their time seeking converts almost exclusively online with referrals from members" for the past year. One predicts that - at least in Utah - missionaries won't be "knocking doors from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m ever again."
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SOURCES: Monographs
1 - The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous, by Joseph Henrich (FS&G, 2020, hardcover, 704 pages) <www.bit.ly/3bkAwJ5>
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