Religiosity and Social Groups: Ethnicity, Age and Religiosity

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Religiosity and Social Groups: Ethnicity and Religiosity
- Muslims, Hindus and black Christians are more likely that white Christians to deem religion important.
- Cultural Defence
- Cultural Transition
  - Religion can also ease the transition into a new culture by providing support and a sense of community. Herberg agrees, using this to explain the high levels of religious participation amongst immigrants.
  - Pryce studied the African Caribbean community in Bristol which shows both cultural defence and transition. He argues that Pentecostalism is a highly adaptive ‘religion of the oppressed,’ providing migrants with the ‘protestant ethic’ which helps them succeed by encouraging self-reliance.
Religion offers support in an uncertain environment. Bird notes that religion is a basis for community, a means of preserving one’s culture and a way to cope with opposition in a racist society.
- Cultural Defence
Religiosity and Social Groups: Age and Religiosity
- Under 15’s are most likely to attend church as well as those aged 45-64. The increasing trend stops after 65 because of higher death rates.
- Voas and Crockett: -The ageing effect: people get more religious with age. As we approach death it is ‘natural’ to become concerned with spiritual matters.
- -The generational effect: as society becomes more secular, each new generation is less religious than the one before, which is why fewer young adults attend church compared to older people.

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