Tobin Grant, associate professor of political science at Southern Illinois University, recently wrote an article for Christianity Today about the unique nature of American religiosity. In that piece, he noted that the United States continues to be quite religious while most other developed countries have become increasingly secular. Upon deeper review, ongoing American religiosity is not an aberration but a logical outcome resulting from our unusually high level of economic inequality. The link between greater economic inequality and greater religiosity is not limited to countries, since it can also be observed within the United States:
States with high inequality, (e.g., states in the Mississippi Delta region) are also some of the most religious. States with more economic equality (e.g., states in New England and the Mountain West) are some of the least religious.
So What?
Why would places with higher economic inequality be more religious? Grant proposes that it is the rich in these societies who are most involved in religion. He writes:
By some measures, the wealthy grow more religious and the poor become less religious where there is higher inequality. And with wealthy investors, religion is able to grow among the poor, preaching a message that helps keep the wealthy and the poor in their place.
While the conclusion that in a nation configured as ours is presently leads the wealthy to become more religious is supported by solid research, it isn’t what most people assume. In order to counter the prevalent assumption, I have written a number of posts about this topic. For example, University of Virginia sociologist W. Bradford Wilcox’s recent research suggesting lower educational attainment is correlated with lower rates of participation in religious services (read my post on that research here).
- Are you surprised to learn that we are more religious than other developed countries, but appropriately religious in comparison to countries with more extreme levels of economic inequality?
- Do you agree with Grant’s argument for why nations (and states within our own country) with high levels of economic inequality are more religious than those with lower levels of inequality? Why or why not? What other (or additional) explanations would you propose?