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Artificial intelligence large language models (LLMs) have been shown to replicate social and cultural biases that exist in their training data, particularly with regard to race and gender. The authors examine if LLMs hold implicit assumptions with regard to religious identities. The authors prompted multiple LLMs to generate a total of 175 religious sermons, specifying different combinations of race and religious tradition of the clergyperson. The synthetically generated sermons were fed into a readability analyzer and given several commonly used readability scores. The authors analyzed this dataset of readability scores using bivariate and multivariate analyses. LLMs generated sermon texts that varied in readability. Evangelical Protestant pastors had easier to read artificial intelligence–generated sermons, whereas Jewish rabbis and Muslim imams had more difficult to read synthetic texts. There were no significant differences in readability across ethnoracial groups; however, all prompts specifying a race/ethnicity generated more difficult to read synthetic text than those with no ethnoracial group specified. As LLMs continue to expand in accessibility and capability, it is important to continue to monitor the ways they may sustain social biases across a variety of identities and group memberships.

Institutionally organized religious life in the United State is undergoing a dramatic transformation. While individual beliefs and practices remain relatively stable, institutional affiliation and participation has declined dramatically. In this article, we explore the religious \"Dones\"—those who have disaffiliated with their religious congregations but, unlike the Nones, continue to associate with a religious tradition. Drawing on a unique dataset of 100 in-depth interviews with self-identified Christians, we explain the \"push\" and \"pull\" factors that lead a person to intentionally leave their congregations. We find that a bureaucratic structure and a narrow focus on certain moral proscriptions can drive people away, while the prospect of forming more meaningful relationships and the opportunities to actively participate in social justice issues draw people out. From these factors, we show that an \"iron cage of congregations\" exists that is ill-suited to respond to a world where religious life is increasingly permeable as people enact their spirituality outside traditional religious organizations. We conclude by questioning whether the spiritual lives of the Dones are ultimately sustainable without institutional support.

The purpose of this study is to examine how organizational resources affect the gender gap within lay (volunteer) leadership in religious congregations. Using institutional theory as a framework, this study situates congregations within a larger field of organizations competing for legitimacy. Congregations with higher levels of resources—such as wealthier members, better‐educated members, or larger memberships—are more likely to be connected to the core of the field and therefore more likely to have gender egalitarian practices in order to signal their legitimacy. Therefore, I hypothesize that women in resource‐rich congregations will have greater access to volunteer leadership positions than women in congregations that are resource deficient. I analyze 70,942 individuals in 344 religious congregations from the 2001 U.S. Congregational Life Survey using multilevel modeling. I show that religious congregations with more members, better‐educated attenders, and wealthier attenders have smaller gender gaps in volunteer leadership positions. Congregational resources can mitigate the gender gap in lay leadership, and women within resource‐rich organizations have greater access to positions of authority.

Alarge body of research documents the difficulty congregations have in creating and sustaining racially diverse memberships. However, little scholarship explores the overlapping consequences of racial change in congregations and neighborhoods over time. Since the number of all-white neighborhoods has fallen sharply in recent decades, we ask in this study: what are the consequences of racial change in congregations and neighborhoods on congregational attendance? We employ longitudinal data from over 20,000 United Methodist congregations between 1990 and 2010 paired with census tract data for the same time period. We use growth curve models to test three hypotheses derived from Organizational Ecology Theory. While Methodist churches have decreasing attendance, we find that racial diversity inside a church is associated with higher average attendance by year and across years. Outside a church, percent white in the neighborhood positively predicts attendance, at least in the short term. Both white and nonwhite Methodist churches have higher attendance when located in white neighborhoods; white churches in nonwhite neighborhoods fare the worst. Our conclusion discusses these patterns and highlights the complexities of accommodating racial differences in congregations amidst ongoing demographic changes outside their doors.

Beginning with Kelley’s and Iannaccone’s foundational studies, scholars have examined how strictness impacts congregational outcomes. This paper seeks to further develop the strict church thesis by examining Iannaccone’s concept of “optimal level of strictness”, an idea that there are limits to strictness. Using Stark and Finke’s theoretical framework of religious niches and data from the 2005 Baylor Religion Survey and the 2000 Faith Communities Today survey, I find that only prohibitions that are in line with a congregation’s religious niche have an impact on growth. To be beneficial, prohibitions must match the pool of potential members’ preferences.

A region's natural environment has profound social effects for an area. Previous work has connected the environment to tourism, migration rates, community attachment, and economic outcomes. In this article, we explore how nature may impact the religious structuring of a region. Specifically, we investigate if beautiful landscapes and good weather—what scholars call \"natural amenities\"—could be spiritual resources used by the population to connect with the sacred. We hypothesize that the environment, as a spiritual resource, would compete with more traditional religious organizations. Thus, we expect that regions with higher levels of natural amenities would experience lower rates of religious adherence. To test our hypothesis, we use spatial econometric modeling techniques to analyze data from the Religious Congregations and Membership Study, United States Department of Agriculture, the U.S. County Business Patterns, and the Census. Results show that counties with higher levels of natural amenities have lower rates of adherence to traditional religious organizations.

Seminaries, as both educational and religious organizations, have the goal of training religious leaders. In this article, I analyze the factors associated with the breakdown of this process, i.e. when a seminarian does not want to be in a religious career. I offer four reasons for this breakdown: institutional type, financial strain, community acceptance, and gender. Drawing on recent survey data of 3015 American and Canadian seminarians graduating with the Master of Divinity degree from 136 seminaries from the Association of Theological Schools, I interpret results from multilevel logistic regressions testing five hypotheses. I find that Master of Divinity graduates who attend a university-affiliated seminary are less likely to want to be in a religious career, while those who feel more accepted within the seminary community are more likely. Educational debt has no effect. Most importantly, gender has profound effects on the choice to enter a religious career.

The relationship between entrepreneurship and religion is complex ( Dana 2010 ), and religion can help or hamper the entrepreneurial process, depending on the context and culture ( Dana 2009 ; Dodd and Gotsis 2007 ). This article examines religious orthodoxy and its connection to one aspect of the entrepreneurial process-risk-taking within existing organizations. Using multinomial logistic regression to analyze data from the 2010 Baylor Religion Survey, the researchers find that religious orthodoxy is negatively associated with entrepreneurial risk-taking, even after controlling for traditional variables associated with entrepreneurism. It supports the idea that beliefs-and not just adherence or behaviors-are important to understanding the connection between entrepreneurial processes and religion.

Ever since Max Weber distinguished differences in “social esteem” between categories of people, status has been a fundamental concept in the sociological analysis of inequality. Gender is a status system that creates a hierarchy between men and women, and men have historically held higher status. The goal of this dissertation is to explore how gendered status hierarchies affect religious congregations. As organizations guided by normative beliefs, congregations have the power to create and maintain status differences between men and women through their structure, culture, and rituals. Through three quantitative analyses using multilevel modeling with the United States Congregational Life Survey, I explore how gendered status hierarchies affect different levels of religious congregations: the head clergy, volunteer lay leadership, and subjective ritual experiences. In Chapter Two, I use role congruity theory to illustrate how gender impacts congregants’ perceptions of their clergy, especially in light of their leadership style. Congregants view female clergy similarly than male clergy, except for when they breach gender norms and lead with a more masculine style. Chapter Three addresses the relationship between the gender gap in congregational lay leadership and the organization’s resources by using the micro-level expectation states theory at the meso-level. Women are more likely to be volunteer leaders when they are in resource-rich congregations. Chapter Four extends interaction ritual chain theory to show that gender has a powerful influence on ritual outcomes. I demonstrate that men have lower levels of emotional expression in worship services and that the surrounding gender ratio within the ritual has the power to impact males’ subjective ritual experiences. The findings within this dissertation ultimately show gender’s power as a status system within religious congregations. These are deeply gendered organizations, and their leadership, structure, and rituals continue to be affected by status hierarchies between women and men. Yet, gender’s power within religious congregations is not absolute. Dynamics within congregations, such as the clergy’s leadership style or the organization’s resources, can mitigate the gender system.