Reconceptualizing religious change: ethno-apostasy and change in religion among American Jews

Sociology of Religion, Winter, 2006 by Benjamin T. Phillips, Shaul Kelner

In short, the prediction that cross-cutting social ties will reduce disincentives for religious switching out of an ethnic community offers no clear guidance regarding the way in which such ties also increase incentives for switching, or which types of crosscutting relationships will be most associated with switching. These are historically contingent, bound up in the changing power relationships between minority communities and other sectors of society, and also with the nature of the instrumental and noninstrumental social relationships that unite people across communities. We are reliant, therefore, upon historical and cultural knowledge to guide us in translating the imprecise notion of cross-cutting social ties into specific hypotheses.

HYPOTHESES

In a situation where state pressure to change religious affiliations is minimal, and where religious affiliation is generally seen as a consumer preference, religious decisions are more likely to be localized within the context of an autonomous religious marketplace. Our decision to explain Jewish religious change as a function of religious factors or religion related social factors rather than political and economic ones reflects our understanding of the particular historical and cultural moment in which the United States and American Jews find themselves.

As we have argued, the historical circumstances that encouraged status-motivated Jewish religious switching and ethno-apostasy in the past do not characterize contemporary America, where Jews have achieved relatively high socioeconomic status and no longer face significant social barriers. In light of this, we offer the first two hypotheses:

H1: Socio-economic status will not be associated with the adoption by American Jewish adults of a non-Jewish religion.

H2: Socio-economic status will not be associated with ethno-apostasy among American Jewish adults.

Formal and informal socialization of one's children in the ethno-religious community is an investment in their religious and ethnic human capital. Individuals who receive higher levels of Jewish socialization are more likely to have developed Jewish religious preferences. Additionally, ethno-religious human capital has value only within its particular tradition, so investment in this form of socialization may represent sunk costs that inhibit religious change. Therefore we offer the following hypotheses:

H3: Childhood socialization into the American Jewish ethno-religious community will be negatively associated with the adoption by American Jewish adults of a non-Jewish religion.

H4: Childhood socialization into the American Jewish ethno-religious community will be negatively associated with ethno-apostasy among American Jewish adults.

The extent to which a person has cross-cutting social ties in the form of social contacts with non-Jews will be reflected in the probability of religious switching and ethno-apostasy later in life. Accordingly, we hypothesize that:

H5: Ethno-religiously heterogeneous friendship networks will be positively associated with the adoption by American Jewish adults of a non-Jewish religion.