Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010 by Charles Murray

Author:Charles Murray [Murray, Charles]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: General, Social Science, Sociology, Social Classes
ISBN: 030745343X
Publisher: Crown Forum
Published: 2012-01-30T00:00:00+00:00

Apart from augmenting social capital in general, churches serve specifically as a resource for sustaining a democratic citizenry. Various studies have found that active involvement in church serves as a kind of training center for important civic skills.3 All of these relationships hold true even after controlling for demographic and socioeconomic variables.

Beyond these benefits for the civic culture, claims began surfacing in the 1970s and 1980s that religious faith is empirically associated with good things such as better physical health, mental health, and longevity. Many of the early claims were advanced by religiously committed people, and were regarded suspiciously. But over the last few decades, social scientists who have no personal interest in vindicating religion have been building a rigorous literature on these issues, and it turns out that most of the claims are true.4 People who attend church regularly and report that religion is an important part of their lives have longer life expectancies,5 less disability in old age,6 and more stable marriages.7 A review of the literature as of 2001 concluded there is strong evidence for the relationship of religiosity to happiness and satisfaction with life, self-esteem, less depression, and less substance abuse.8 The list goes on, including many positive outcomes for children raised by religious parents.9

All of these effects of religion make it important to inquire, as we do in this chapter, about the trajectory of American religiosity from 1960 to 2010.

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