Gods Economy: Religious Freedom and SocioEconomic Wellbeing

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Gods Economy Religious Freedom and
Socio-Economic Wellbeing

• Brian J. Grim, Ph.D.
• bgrim_at_pewforum.org
• Senior Research Fellow
• Religion World Affairs
• July 9, 2007
• Hudson Institute, Center for Religious Freedom

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Do you believe in God?

• A total of more than 90,000 people in eighty-four
  countries answered this question when surveyed in
  1982 and 2002
  
• World Values Surveys occurred between 1981-84,
  and 2000-2002

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Do you believe in God?
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Do you believe in God?
5
Do you believe in God?
5-point gap indicates increased importance of
religious freedom
?
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Is it very important to live in a country where
there is religious freedom ... ... for
you? ... for other religions?

• These two questions were asked to more than 7,400
  people surveyed in 2006 in eleven countries (Pew
  Forum)

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Is religious freedom very important?
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Is religious freedom very important?
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Is religious freedom very important?
14-point gap indicates social restriction of
religious freedom
?
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Measuring the dimensions of restricted Religious
Freedom

• Social regulation of religion index (SRI)
• Government regulation of religion index (GRI)
• Government favoritism of religion index (GFI)
• Overall restriction of religious freedom (RF)

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Social Regulation of Religion

• 1) Social restrictions placed on the practice,
  profession, or selection of religion by other
  religious groups, associations, or the culture at
  large.

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Social Regulation Index (SRI)

• Negative attitudes to other religions
• Negative attitudes toward conversions
• Negative attitudes toward proselytizing
• Existing religions shut out new religions
• Social movements oppose certain religions

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Government Regulation

• 2) Government restrictions placed on the
  practice, profession, or selection of religion by
  the official laws, policies, or administrative
  actions of the state.

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Government Regulation Index (GRI)

• Missionary work is prohibited
• Proselytizing or conversion is restricted
• Interference with an individuals right to
  worship
  
• No legal protection for religious freedom
• Government does not generally respect religious
  freedom
  
• Government policy does not contribute to
  religious freedom

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Government Favoritism

• 3) Government favoritism, or positive
  sanctions, to one or more religious groups,
  increasing freedom for some at the expense of
  freedom for all.

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Government Favoritism Index (GFI)

• state or established religion
• imbalanced government funding or subsidy of
  religion
  
• funding of religious
• - education
• - buildings
• - clergy
• - media
• - work (charities, practices, missions)

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Overall Restrictions

• 4) Overall constraints on the free practice,
  profession or selection of religion.

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Restricted Religious Freedom (RF)

• The RF takes into account a broad and
  multidimensional set of issues, including

• number of restrictions on religious freedom,
• gravity of those restrictions, and
• severity of penalties for transgressing them.

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Significant Correlations (1.00 1-to-1
association not significant)
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Correlation with conflict
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Beside correlation with other restricted freedoms
conflict, what other relationships exist?
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Correlations with gender issues
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Correlation with economic issues
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Correlation with health issues
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The strongest conflict correlation

• Religious persecution is the physical abuse or
  physical displacement due to ones religious
  practices, profession, or affiliation.
  
• See Grim Finke (this August, 2007) American
  Sociological Review

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Beyond a correlation?

• Correlation ? Causation
• Hypothesis tested Religious persecution results
  from and reinforces social and government
  regulation of religion

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Results, controlling for alternatives (Grim
Finke 2007)
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Socio-economic mechanisms related to religious
freedom

• Freedoms are a bundled commodity (A. Sen)
• Religious freedom can remove sources of
  grievances that lead to conflict
  
• Religious freedom can increases socio-economic
  options for men and women by energizing civil
  society and increasing sources of social capital
  
• Religious freedom can allow religious groups to
  address social health needs of the poor

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Conclusion

• The data indicate that the issue of restricted
  religious freedom is more than just a western or
  American pet peeve
  
• that is, the empirical evidence suggests that a
  regulated and restrictive religious economy
  does not benefit all of Gods growing number of
  children.

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Related Papers Articles

• Grim, B.J. and R. Wike. September, 2007. Does
  the U.S. State Department Understand World Public
  Opinion on Religion? To be presented at the
  annual meeting of the World Association of Public
  Opinion Research, Berlin, Germany.
• Grim, B.J. and R. Finke. August, 2007. "Religious
  Persecution in Cross-National Context Clashing
  Civilizations or Regulated Economies?" American
  Sociological Review 72633-648.
• . 2006. International Religion Indexes
  Government Regulation, Government Favoritism, and
  Social Regulation of Religion. Interdisciplinary
  Journal of Research on Religion 2 (Article 1).
• . 2005. Documenting Religion Worldwide
  Decreasing the Data Deficit. IASSIST Quarterly
  291116.
  
• Grim, B.J. 2004a. "Cul-de-Sac Scales The
  interplay between religious restriction and
  favoritism." The Sociological Methodologist
  12-4.
• . 2004b. The Cities of God Versus the
  Countries of Earth The Regulation of Religious
  Freedom (RRF). Presented at the annual meeting
  of the Association for Study of Religion,
  Economics, and Culture, October 22, Kansas City,
  KS.