Church Member Reactions to Religious Disaffiliation
Religious disaffiliation is a growing trend in the United States, with estimates of between 15% through 20% of Americans identifying that they have no religion and this rate is growing by roughly 1% each year. Nearly all research concerning religious disaffiliation has focused on the individuals who leave their faith, but little research has empirically explored how church members themselves react to the religious disaffiliation of individuals from their own religious community, as well as what factors potentially contribute to the formation of their attitudes and attributions towards religious disaffiliates. This study utilizes a Seventh-day Adventist sample’s reactions to a former Seventh-day Adventist pastor who disaffiliated and identified as an atheist. Before an understanding of the developmental mechanisms of these negative behaviors can take place, it is imperative to be able to identify and study the characteristics of the attitudes and attributions that drive these behaviors and the mechanisms that support them. Religious orientation has been studied extensively as a potential mechanism that shapes religious beliefs and drives religious behavior. The current study created a multi-item scale to identify negative attributions towards religious disaffiliates and explored its relationship to two empirically-established scales regarding religious orientation: Altemeyer and Hunsberger’s (2004) religious fundamentalism scale, and Batson and Schoenrade’s (1991b) religious quest scale. This study found a strong, positive association between negative attributions towards religious disaffiliates and religious fundamentalism, and a moderate negative association between negative attributions towards religious disaffiliates and a religious quest orientation. Although there is more work to be done, the current study proposes a scale for further research use and empirical validation.
Clinical Psychology, Psychology, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Psychology; Religious; Mental Health - Religious aspects; Church membership, Religious disaffiliation; Religious orientation; Batson and Schoenrade's religious quest scale; Altemeyer and Hunsberger's religious fundamentalism scale;
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