RELIGION AND VOLUNTEERISM:A NOTE Andrew Greeley (In the context of the meeting at ZA this note stands as a plea that questions about volunteering be continued in studies of religion and pluralism). |
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| .This is note is a preliminary sketch on the relationship between religion and volunteer work in three countries - Britain, West Germany and the United States. | ||
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analysis will attempt to turn the currently popular "economic model" of religion
(Iannacone, Stark, Finke, Warner etc) on its head by treating religion not merely as
"consumption" capital (a model which has its usefulness) but as
"production" capital. To do this I will have to show that religion relates
positively and strongly to volunteer service. The volunteer rates in the three countries are 21% in Britain, 31% in West Germany, and 50% in the United States. The American rate is the same as that reported in Hodgkinson (1992). Americans spent approximately two hours a week in their volunteer efforts or about a hundred hours a year. |
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. If one estimates that the contribution of hourly time is worth ten
dollars, Americans contribute a thousand dollars a year by their volunteer service. If one
then estimates that there are a hundred million volunteers in American, then their
contribution to the American economy is approximately ten billion dollars a year. Figures 1 and 2 show that volunteer service correlates with both prayer and church attendance in all three countries. It does not however correlate significantly with denomination (Figure 3), save in Britain where Catholics are significantly more likely to volunteer than are Protestants (including Anglicans). Finally, in all three countries membership in a church-related organization correlates strongly with volunteer work (Figure 4). Do the higher levels of these kinds of religious activity in the United States account partially for the differences between the United States on the one hand and Britain and Germany on the other hand? The simple dummy variable correlations with volunteering are -.17 for Germany and -.23 for Britain. If church attendance is taken into account, the respective betas are -.11 for Germany and -.15 for Britain. When, in addition to church attendance, membership in a church-related organization is entered into the regression equations, the betas become -.03 (n.s.) for Germany and -.10 for Britain. Thus the differences between Germany and the United States in volunteering can be accounted for by these two religious variables. Obviously much more analysis needs to be undertaken, including a consideration of the various levels of government social service provided in the respective countries. AG
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