Showing papers on "Religious organization published in 2006"

The importance of faith: Tax morale and religiosity

Abstract: The intention of this paper is to analyze religiosity as a factor that potentially affects tax morale. For this purpose, a multivariate analysis has been done with data from the World Values Survey 1995–1997, covering more than 30 countries at the individual level. Several variables, such as church attendance, religious education, active membership in a church or a religious organization, perceived religiosity, religious guidance and trust in the church have been analyzed. The results suggest that religiosity raises tax morale.

Communicating Nature: How We Create and Understand Environmental Messages

Abstract: A broader and more comprehensive understanding of how we communicate with each other about the natural world and our relationship to it is essential to solving environmental problems. How do individuals develop beliefs and ideologies about the environment? How do we express those beliefs through communication? How are we influenced by the messages of pop culture and social institutions? And how does all this communication become part of the larger social fabric of what we know as "the environment"? "Communicating Nature" explores and explains the multiple levels of everyday communication that come together to form our perceptions of the natural world. Author, Julia B. Corbett considers all levels of communication, from the individual level, to environmental messages transmitted by popular culture, to communication generated by social institutions, including political and regulatory agencies, business and corporations, media outlets, and educational and religious organizations. The book offers a fresh and engaging introductory look at a topic of broad interest, and is an important work for students of the environment, activists, and professionals interested in understanding the cultural context of human-nature interactions.

The Contribution to Adolescent Well-Being Made by Nonfamily Adults: An Examination of Developmental Assets as Contexts and Processes.

Abstract: The contribution of nonfamily adults to young people's well-being was explored using both a cross-sectional national sample of 614 12- to 17-yearolds and a longitudinal sample of 370 students followed from 6th–8th grades through 10th–12th grades. Both variable- and person-centered analyses were employed. Young people's involvement in volunteering, youth programs, and religious organizations was hypothesized to increase the frequency as well as the quality of their relationships with nonfamily adults. Greater community involvement was related to (a) greater and qualitatively different kinds of engagement with nonfamily adults; (b) higher levels of positive developmental processes of support, empowerment, and boundary setting; (c) lower levels of risk behaviors; and (d) higher levels of thriving. The results suggest the utility of positive youth development theory, research, and applications for predicting and enhancing young people's concurrent and longer-term well-being. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Shaping the shareholder activism agenda: institutional investors and global social issues

Abstract: We examine the issues and actors that have shaped the agenda of shareholder activism on global social issues over the last 35 years. Our analysis of 2158 US shareholders’ proposals on the topics of international human rights and labor standards reveals that a clear agenda has developed, dominated by religious organizations that have sponsored or co-sponsored 1312 of these proposals. Public pension funds entered the field of global social issue activism after religious organizations had already established the legitimacy of the agenda. We suggest that a social movement perspective on shareholder activism best explains these findings. Religious groups framed the ideas that constitute the global social issues shareholder agenda and mobilized support by reaching out to other types of investors. Public pension funds played a secondary, albeit important, role in agenda creation by championing several of the campaigns initiated by religious innovators.

The crisis of secularism in India

Abstract: While secularism has been integral to India’s democracy for more than fifty years, its uses and limits are now being debated anew. Signs of a crisis in the relations between state, society, and religion include the violence directed against Muslims in Gujarat in 2002 and the precarious situation of India’s minority religious groups more generally; the existence of personal laws that vary by religious community; the affiliation of political parties with fundamentalist religious organizations; and the rallying of a significant proportion of the diasporic Hindu community behind a resurgent nationalist Hinduism. There is a broad consensus that a crisis of secularism exists, but whether the state can resolve conflicts and ease tensions or is itself part of the problem is a matter of vigorous political and intellectual debate. In this timely, nuanced collection, twenty leading Indian cultural theorists assess the contradictory ideals, policies, and practices of secularism in India. Scholars of history, anthropology, religion, politics, law, philosophy, and media studies take on a broad range of concerns. Some consider the history of secularism in India; others explore theoretical issues such as the relationship between secularism and democracy or the shortcomings of the categories “majority” and “minority.” Contributors examine how the debates about secularism play out in schools, the media, and the popular cinema. And they address two of the most politically charged sites of crisis: personal law and the right to practice and encourage religious conversion. Together the essays inject insightful analysis into the fraught controversy about the shortcomings and uncertain future of secularism in the world today. Contributors. Flavia Agnes, Upendra Baxi, Shyam Benegal, Akeel Bilgrami, Partha Chatterjee, V. Geetha, Sunil Khilnani, Nivedita Menon, Ashis Nandy, Anuradha Dingwaney Needham, Gyanendra Pandey, Gyan Prakash, Arvind Rajagopal, Paula Richman, Sumit Sarkar, Dwaipayan Sen, Rajeswari Sunder Rajan, Shabnum Tejani, Romila Thapar, Ravi S. Vasudevan, Gauri Viswanathan

Civic Engagement Among Low‐Income and Low‐Wealth Families: In Their Words

Abstract: Using in-depth interviews, we explored civic engagement that included volunteering through religious organizations, neighboring, involvement in children's activities, and contributing. The sample consisted of 84 low-income, low-wealth families. Findings indicate that although people of limited resources may be engaged, they face substantial challenges to active engagement. Data are suggestive of a modified life cycle theory, a resource or "stakeholding" theory, and institutional theories regarding challenges to engagement. In the context of the study's limitations, implications are discussed for measurement, research, and interventions. Key Words: assets, civic engagement, community, low-income families, neighboring, volunteering. In a democracy, citizenship comes with rights and responsibilities. Active citizenship means being involved in one's community, taking care of the less privileged, voting, and serving as a juror when called (Janoski, 1998; Kymlicka & Norman, 1994). Civic engagement is a hallmark of democracy, the space of freedom where citizens exercise rights, voice, and conscience. In fact, most studies have found that those who have more income, who have advanced education, and who own a home are more likely to be politically engaged (Verba, Schlozman, & Brady, 1995) and socially engaged via volunteering, associational participation, and group membership (Independent Sector, 1999; Perkins, Brown, & Taylor, 1996; Rohe & Stegman, 1994). According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census (2002), the characteristics of voters reflect "the attributes of people with the biggest stakes in society: older individuals, homeowners, married couples, and people with more school, higher incomes, and good jobs" (p. 3). However, this does not mean that those with low incomes and low wealth are not civically engaged or that they do not contribute to their communities and the polity. These data are based on operational ideas of the phenomenon being studied, reflecting static conceptions that may or may not reflect the civic behaviors in which the poor are engaged. Regardless of the form, there are consequences for individuals, families, communities, and representative democracy when citizens are not engaged. Civic engagement across the various forms is considered a means for developing skills and capacity, increasing tolerance among peoples, building community, supporting collective action on common goals, and girding democratic governance through representation of interests (Schlozman, Verba, & Brady, 1999; Wilson & Musick, 1999). When parents are not civically engaged, this may have a direct impact on their families and their children's future civic activities (Andolina, Jenkins, Zukin, & Keeter, 2003). For these reasons, it is important to understand possible challenges to civic engagement among poor families and how engagement can be promoted. When given the chance to describe their engagement, in their own words, what do family members report? If they are not engaged, what reasons do adults in low-income families give? This study uses qualitative data to explore possible tentative answers to these questions. Data are from in-depth interviews with 84 low-income families in a Midwestern city, conducted as part of a large social experiment testing the efficacy of Individual Development Accounts (IDAs). IDAs are matched savings accounts in which low-income, low-wealth families can save for first home purchase, postsecondary education and job training, or small business capitalization. The idea behind IDAs is that the poor cannot spend their way out of poverty, but with savings and investment, they may be able to secure productive assets that help them achieve a stake in society and increase their economic security, household stability, and perhaps even their civic engagement (Sherraden, 1991). In this article, we define civic engagement and discuss primary theories that may explain civic engagement. …

Religious Service Attendance Among Immigrants Evidence From the New Immigrant Survey-Pilot

Abstract: A growing body of research by scholars of religion and immigration analyzes the religious organizations started by post-1965 immigrants to the United States. Little research, however, focuses on patterns in religious service attendance. The authors use pilot data from the New Immigrant Survey, a nationally representative sample of new legal immigrants to the United States, to systematically consider, for the first time, how demographic, familial, employment, household language, and migration factors influence regular religious service attendance for new immigrants from different religious traditions. Findings lend some support to the theory that immigrants who are less integrated into American society are more likely than others to regularly attend religious services. These preliminary conclusions generate broader hypotheses and potential theories about ways in which the norms of different religious traditions, the availability of religious centers, and the extent of immigrants’ ties to their ethnic communities influence their regular religious service attendance.

Accounting and religion: a historical perspective:

Abstract: Research on the relationship between accounting and religion or religious institutions is remarkably sparse. The lack of academic interest in studying accounting in religious institutions is rather perplexing, given the prominence of such institutions in most historical and contemporary societies, both spiritually and economically. In this introductory article, we first address research with a historical focus and then move on to study research on accounting and contemporary religious institutions. Our review of the literature indicates that research in this area remains at an embryonic state and that studies included in this special issue may contribute to the literature on the sacred–profane divide as well as on forms of accounting and accountability. We conclude by identifying a number of research areas that may attract the attention of scholars in the fields of accounting and accounting history.

One Proxy at a Time: Pursuing Social Change through Shareholder Proposals

Abstract: Traditional economic wisdom holds that a corporation’s sole goal should be to maximize shareholder wealth. But some investors believe that firms should also act as agents for social change. Activist investors use their shareholder rights to place socially responsible resolutions on corporate proxy statements to be voted on by all shareholders. ; This article examines the controversy behind corporate social responsibility (CSR) and identifies and categorizes activist investors, their objectives, and the firms they target. Using data from the Investor Responsibility Research Center (IRRC) on 2,829 CSR shareholder proposals from 1992 to 2002, the author finds that religious organizations and individuals made the largest number of proposals, but in 2000 proposals by socially responsible mutual funds began to outnumber those by individuals. The three most common proposal topics were international conduct, environmental issues, and antidiscrimination. ; Of the 566 different corporations targeted, seventy-three were targeted ten times or more. Larger, economically powerful firms—especially those that value consumer goodwill and have the “name” to aid in social change—were most often targeted. ; Because a withdrawn resolution usually signals an action by the corporation—dialogue, agreement to resolution, or some other compromise—the author argues that withdrawn proposals can be used as measure of activism’s success. The IRRC data and her own extensive research on the outcome of withdrawn proposals support this argument.

Ascription, Choice, and the Construction of Religious Identities in the Contemporary United States

Abstract: Within the past 15 years, sociological studies of religion have emphasized the chosen, achieved nature of religious identities and have deemphasized ascription or tribalism as the basis of Americans' construction of religious selves. The accounts many people develop in narrating their religious life experiences, however, often combine notions of ascription and achievement in ways scholars have not clearly conceptualized. This article develops an approach to religious identity that shows how, rather than being treated as a dichotomy, the concepts of ascription and achievement are integrated in nuanced ways in the narratives of religious identity told by first-generation immigrant Thai Buddhists and third-generation Jews, two groups with strong inherited religious identities. The comparison between Jews and Buddhists shows how members of both groups blend the concepts of ascription and achievement in similar and different ways, particularly around practice, regardless of their participation in religious organizations.

In the wake of disaster : religious responses to terrorism & catastrophe

Abstract: In a timely book with a persuasive and powerful message, Dr. Harold G. Koenig addresses government policy leaders, urging that religious organisations be more fully integrated into the formal disaster response system and providing recommendations on how this can effectively be done. Koenig also urges faith communities and organisations to learn more about the role they can play in responding to disasters and terrorism. This book provides information on the psychological, social and spiritual responses to trauma. It addresses how the emergency response system works, and the role that religious communities can play in disaster response and recovery in terms of providing emotional and spiritual care for victims. It advocates integrating mental health into emergency response systems directed at those affected by hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, and terrorism. Increasing the resiliency of our communities in the face of disaster is crucial. Religious communities have tremendous potential to contribute to this. Here are guidelines on how to do that more effectively, alongside data on how to facilitate the integration of these contributions with the formal disaster-response system.

Multiculturalism and “American” Religion: The Case of Hindu Indian Americans

Abstract: How non-Christian religious groups should be politically recognized within Western multicultural societies has proved to be a pressing contemporary issue. This article examines some ways in which American policies regarding religion and multiculturalism have shaped Hindu Indian American organizations, forms of public expression and activism. Specifically, I look at three examples of the impact of such policies on Hindu Indian Americans representing strategic arenas in the socio-political recognition of ethnic groups, and also crucial moments in the institutionalization of an American Hinduism. I also show how the activism of Hindu Americans is reshaping the contours of religion, society and politics in the United States.

Where's the Faith in Faith-based Organizations? Measures and Correlates of Religiosity in Faith-based Social Service Coalitions

Abstract: Organizational religiosity is analyzed with data from a national survey of faith-based social service coalitions (N = 656). Twenty-one items related to religious practices within these organizations result in three distinct factors: service religiosity, staff religiosity and organizational religiosity scales. Self-defined faith-based coalitions vary widely on all three. OLS analysis regressing 12 coalition attributes on the three scales demonstrates that the religiosity measures often relate to the predictor variables in different ways, although in two cases there is consistency. Government funding is inversely related to all three religiosity measures, and evangelism as a coalition goal is positively related to all three.

Faith and Secularisation in Religious Colleges and Universities

Abstract: Universities today are increasingly complicated places serving multiple constituencies that have conflicting agendas. Indeed, the very nature, existence and rationale of the modern ‘market‐model’ s...

Community contexts for mentoring

Abstract: Mentoring programs attempt to foster a relationship that is too often missing from the lives of disadvantaged children and youth. However, in view of both the power and the limitations of mentoring programs, it is important to understand how mentoring occurs naturally. Assuming an ecological perspective, we examine mentoring in four contexts: classrooms, youth development organizations, work and service-learning, and faith- based organizations. Although none has been studied in sufficient depth, and no research has been found on natural mentoring in faith-based organizations, available evidence indicates that such mentoring adds to young people's intellectual, psychological and emotional, social, and, to a lesser extent, physical assets. This review poses many questions for future research, including fundamental ones about the prevalence of mentoring in these contexts, the circumstances in which it arises, and its risks and benefits. Nonetheless, the evidence is sufficient to encourage practitioners to promote mentoring relationships of youth and adults in all of these contexts. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Development, transnational religion, and the power of ideas in the High Provinces of Cusco, Peru

Abstract: I examine the enmeshment of transnationally networked religious organizations in predominantly Quechua communities in the southern Andes of Peru. I aim specifically to understand the multiple ways in which transnational religious organizations contribute to the construction of development epistemologies, or the socioeconomics of development truths. Peru has been undergoing a religious transformation similar to the rest of Latin America, with Evangelical and other non-Catholic faiths now well established in the rural highlands. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in the Provincias Altas of Cusco, Peru, I examine the histories and organizational expressions of development truths promoted by the Iglesia Surandina (the Catholic Church of the Southern Andes), and the Iglesia Evangelica Peruana (the Peruvian Evangelical Church). The ways that these epistemologies become negotiated and translated in two rural districts reinforces the importance of historical context in the formation of development epistemologies, but...

Building down and dreaming up

Abstract: Scholars and journalists have heralded the spread of direct sellers like Avon and Amway in the developing world as providing a training ground for capitalist entrepreneurs. By examining ethnographic evidence from Omnilife, a Mexican producer of nutritional supplements, I argue that person-to-person marketing is not a rationalist response to neoliberal economic reforms but, rather, a spiritual one. Quasi-religious organizations like Omnilife promise workers a renewed self-image that restores the balance between individual interests and obligations to others that has been disrupted by neoliberal economic reforms. In pursuing this total transformation, workers accept mechanisms of control that mask the company's overriding profit motive.

How Religious Organizations Influence Chinese Conversion to Evangelical Protestantism in the United States

Abstract: This article explores how religious organizations have influenced Chinese immigrants' conversion to evangelical Protestantism. Using data collected through ethnographic fieldwork in a major metropolitan area in the Midwest from 1998 to 2003, I describe the extensive resources devoted to evangelism by religious institutions and argue that they must play an important role in converting Chinese immigrants to evangelical Protestantism.

Strategic ethnicity: The construction of multi-racial/multi-ethnic religious community

Abstract: This article highlights through one case the ways in which religious organizations provide an exploratory space for maintaining, reclaiming, and altering aspects of racial and ethnic identity within a racially and ethnically integrated community. Utilizing data from in-depth interviews and participant observation in Southern California, I suggest that within the organizational culture of the congregation, church leaders and individual members recursively construct an integrated identity through 1) the public framing and articulation of goals, 2) their religious organizational structure and resources, and, 3) the lived experiences of members. I argue that a perceived reciprocal legitimacy emerges in this process through which religious claims affirm integration goals while, at the same time, observable integration within the congregation strengthens the acceptance of religious doctrine. I offer strategic ethnicity as a useful way of thinking about the transformation of racial experience and ethnic...

Exploring the Roots of Public Participation in the Controversy Over Embryonic Stem Cell Research and Cloning

Abstract: In this study, analyzing nationally represented survey data collected in 2003, we consider the roots of issue-specific citizen participation in the controversy over embryonic stem cell research and therapeutic cloning. Building on past research, we pay particular theoretical attention to the role of issue engagements, the impact of church-based recruitment, and the influence of news media attentiveness. Given the increasing emphasis in science policy circles on creating new forms of public engagement, we also measure citizen willingness to attend and participate in a proposed local deliberative forum on the stem cell debate. Results indicate that traditional forms of citizen activism in the controversy over embryonic stem cell research and cloning is rooted almost exclusively in direct requests for participation through religious organizations rather than socio-economic differences among respondents, though issue engagement (measured as opinion intensity) and news attentiveness also play an important role. In terms of deliberative forums, traditional resource factors are significant, as the citizens who indicate they are most likely to participate in such a hypothetical local town meeting are generally highly educated, white, and younger. Above and beyond these resource factors, however, citizens willing to participate are also likely to have received requests to get involved in the debate at church, hold more intense feelings about the issue, and are paying closer attention to news coverage. In the future, in order to ensure the normative goals of diverse and/or representative participation, if actual deliberative forums are employed, these findings suggest that organizers will need to focus heavily on purposive sampling and turn out efforts.

Transnational Actors in International Environmental Politics

Abstract: Over the last decade, there has been considerable growth in academic research on actors ‘beyond the state’ as part of a broader ‘rescaling’ of global environmental politics whereby non-state actors and institutions operating at multiple levels of social and political organization are seen to shape the politics and governance of global environmental issues (Andonova and Mitchell, 2010; Biermann and Pattberg, 2008; Bulkeley, 2005; Newell et al., 2012). Non-state actors include grassroots organizations, scientific associations, special interest groups (national and international), universities, businesses, trade associations, environmentalists, individuals, the media, churches and religious organizations, independence movements, sub-national governments, political parties, government bureaucrats, foundations, think tanks, social entrepreneurs, and consumer groups. While realists dismiss claims about the significance of these actors in world politics, scholars of international environmental politics (IEP) have long recognized their importance, particularly in processes of global governance, and have shaped discussions in the wider discipline of international relations. This largely reflects the fact that non-state actors have had a stronger presence in the environmental issue area than in many other areas of concern to international relations scholars, such as security, trade, and health.

Racial Differences in Congregation-based Political Activism

Abstract: This study employs a resource mobilization model to explain racial differences in congregation-based political activism. The fewer resources (i.e., members, income, clergy leadership, civic ties) that black congregations possess relative to white congregations largely accounts for racial differences in congregation-based lobbying and protest politics – forms of political activism that exact relatively high resource costs upon political activists. That is, black congregations become more heavily involved than white congregations in lobbying and protest politics when they have a resource capacity similar to that of white congregations. Despite their relatively few resources, black congregations are, on average, more likely than are white congregations to involve themselves in voter registration efforts. This finding has much to do with the heightened social-political expectations of African American congregants concomitant with the relatively low resource cost of voter registration programs.

Shaking Up the Status Quo: Challenging Intolerance of the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Community at a Private Roman Catholic University.

Abstract: Prejudice and discrimination against lesbian, gay and bisexual students, faculty, and staff on college campuses is an important issue that demands attention. Intolerance for the lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) community is often intensified by a lack of knowledge and understanding between heterosexuals and the LGB community, a problem that could be solved by successful programming that includes both communities. Research indicates that there are some programs at public universities that seem to be effective in supporting the LGB community, but very few programs exist on religiously affiliated college campuses that address this concern. This qualitative study examines the steps taken by one Roman Catholic university to address this issue. Twenty participants of the "Rainbow Educator" program were asked a series of open-ended questions designed to explore their experiences in the program and to elicit information about any transformative effects the program had on them or the campus community. Three major themes emerged from the data: first, participants reported an increased awareness of social identity (their own and others), second, participants demonstrated an improved confidence to serve as allies to the LGB community, and finally participants described the overall positive impact the program had on the campus community. Problem Scrawled in the men's room of the Law School library was the following: "A fag with AIDS killed my friend." A freshman received death threats on her answering machine; caller said he knew where she lived on campus and would kill her for being a "filthy dyke." A student returned to his dorm room to discover "God Hates Fags" written in indelible marker on his door. Inside the room was trashed, with clothes, shoes, books, and papers torn and strewn all over the floor. When a freshman "came out" (announced his same-sex orientation), his roommate was so upset that the gay student had to move to a single room on campus. He was harassed to the point that campus security accompanied him to class, the dining hall, and his dorm (as reported to Public Safety and the Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual student group on campus). Although they occurred on one campus in southern California, the incidents described above, are not unique to this private catholic university. The scarcity of research in this area, however, makes it difficult to know just how unique this situation is in general, and it is even more difficult to ascertain the level of intolerance at religiously affiliated universities (RAI's). As Levine and Love (2000) note, the limited research available on RAI's suggests that factors such as: the invisibility of the issue of sexual orientation, the lack of a visible community of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people, the ways that institutions traditionally approach issues of sexuality, an institutional culture of avoidance, and finally, the negative messages coming from the sponsoring religious organization, may all contribute to intolerance toward the LGB community. In addition, prejudice and discrimination against LGB students, faculty, and staff is often intensified by a lack of knowledge and understanding between heterosexuals and the LGB community. While there are some programs at public universities that seem to be effective in supporting LGB students, research suggests few programs even exist on religiously affiliated college campuses that address this need (Evans & D'Augelli, 1996; Levine & Love, 2000; Lipkin, 1999; Love, 1998). One possible explanation for the small number of programs at private and public institutions designed to improve relations between the heterosexual and LGB communities may be that student affairs practitioners report lower levels of skill in working with the LGB community as compared to their skill in working with other diverse populations (Croteau & Talbot, 2000). While troubling, it appears (according to Croteau & Talbot) that self-reports from student affairs practitioners indicate that their limited skill is at least greater than that of graduate faculty and students. …

Correlates of fat intake behaviors in participants in the eating for a healthy life study.

Abstract: Objective This study identified socioeconomic correlates of total dietary fat intake in the Eating for a Healthy Life Study, a community-based dietary intervention study involving religious organizations. Subjects/design To create our sampling frame for the Eating for a Healthy Life Study, a pool of religious organizations was identified from a list of religious faith organizations provided by the Church Council of Greater Seattle. Individual members were randomly selected from recruited religious organizations to complete a telephone-administered, baseline, cross-sectional survey. There were 2,507 respondents who were eligible, consenting participants. Dietary behavior was assessed using a modified version of the Fat- and Fiber-Related Diet Behavior Questionnaire. Socioeconomic status was assessed using individual demographic variables. Main Outcome Measures Fat-related behaviors indicated by fat summary score and stage of change. Statistical Analyses A multivariable linear regression model was used to examine the association of individual demographic variables with the Fat- and Fiber-Related Diet Behavior Questionnaire-derived measure of dietary fat intake. The same individual variables were used in a multivariable logistic regression model of dietary stage of change. Results Age, race, sex, education, and self-assessed health status were found to be statistically significant correlates of fat intake. Variables associated with stage of dietary fat change included sex, education, and religious organization cohesion. Conclusions Demographic variance is an important factor in understanding dietary fat intake.

Accounting at the boundaries of the sacred: the regulation of the Spanish brotherhoods in the eighteenth century

Abstract: Recently, accounting research on religious organizations has concentrated on the sacred/profane dichotomy. We analyse how dissimilar perceptions of the sacred led to different roles of accounting i...

Living Our Mission: A Study of University Mission Building

Abstract: At the same time that organizational communication and management scholars are focusing attention on trends of spirituality in the workplace, faith-based organizations are taking up the question of how they might maintain a distinct spiritual identity. For these institutions, communicating mission becomes the defining feature of institutional identity. Explicitly religious organizations provide a venue for understanding the implications of incorporating spirituality in organizational discourse. This empirical study explores a mission-building conference and examines the ways in which communicating a spiritual mission simultaneously enriches and constrains both the individual members and the organizations as a whole.

Faith Commitment of Born-Again Students at Secular and Evangelical Colleges

Abstract: This study explored the stability and change in religious beliefs of Evangelical college students who identified themselves as born-again Christians. It sought to ascertain the differences between those that attended Christian colleges belonging to the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU) with seven other types of colleges. Respondents to the longitudinal surveys were classified into four groups for analysis based upon their responses to the survey question, “do you consider yourself a born-again Christian?” Overall, findings indicate that students attending CCCU institutions appeared to strengthen and/or maintain their Evangelical religious commitment more so than students at the other seven types of institutions.

Learning and Cultural Experiences of Arab Muslim Graduate Students in a Canadian University

Abstract: The purpose of the present study is to explore the experiences of Arab Muslim graduate students in the University of Alberta (U of A) regarding cultural differences and adjustment, language difficulties, supervision, differences of study system, and funding. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with five Arab Muslim graduate students from Egypt, Libya, Oman, Iraq and Kuwait. The findings of the study reveal that although students experience some difficulties adjusting to Canadian society, adjustment is made easier through their interaction with local Muslim communities and organizations such as mosques. In addition, respondents indicate the multicultural nature of Canadian society is an asset that helps them o-n and off-campus. Moreover, the presence of Arab Muslim students at the U of A may help in correcting the image of Islam as a religion, distorted in the west, through interaction both academically and socially with other students. The study recommends greater cooperation between the university and Muslim cultural and religious organizations within Canadian society.

The importance of faith: Tax morale and religiosity

Abstract: The intention of this paper is to analyze religiosity as a factor that potentially affects tax morale. For this purpose, a multivariate analysis has been done with data from the World Values Survey 1995–1997, covering more than 30 countries at the individual level. Several variables, such as church attendance, religious education, active membership in a church or a religious organization, perceived religiosity, religious guidance and trust in the church have been analyzed. The results suggest that religiosity raises tax morale.