![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
This article about the strength of strict churches seemed on target to me, and jibed with my experiences in The Church of Christ.
Here's an excerpt:
"...the devout person pays the high social price because it buys a better religious product. The rules discourage free riders, the people who undermine group efforts by taking more than they give back. The strict church is one in which members with weak commitments have been weeded out. Raising fees for membership doesn't work nearly as well as raising the opportunity cost of joining, because fees drive away the poor, who have the least to lose when they volunteer their time, and who also have the most incentive to pray. Fees also encourage the rich to substitute money for piety.
What does the pious person get in return for all of his or her time and effort? A church full of passionate members; a community of people deeply involved in one another's lives and more willing than most to come to one another's aid; a peer group of knowledgeable souls who speak the same language (or languages), are moved by the same texts, and cherish the same dreams."
*note the Church of Christ link details the beliefs of the church I grew up in, with one exception. The link is evidently to a Church of Christ Non-instrumental. My church thought using organs and pianos in the church service was OK. The rest of the theology and beliefs are about the same, though.
Here's an excerpt:
"...the devout person pays the high social price because it buys a better religious product. The rules discourage free riders, the people who undermine group efforts by taking more than they give back. The strict church is one in which members with weak commitments have been weeded out. Raising fees for membership doesn't work nearly as well as raising the opportunity cost of joining, because fees drive away the poor, who have the least to lose when they volunteer their time, and who also have the most incentive to pray. Fees also encourage the rich to substitute money for piety.
What does the pious person get in return for all of his or her time and effort? A church full of passionate members; a community of people deeply involved in one another's lives and more willing than most to come to one another's aid; a peer group of knowledgeable souls who speak the same language (or languages), are moved by the same texts, and cherish the same dreams."
*note the Church of Christ link details the beliefs of the church I grew up in, with one exception. The link is evidently to a Church of Christ Non-instrumental. My church thought using organs and pianos in the church service was OK. The rest of the theology and beliefs are about the same, though.
