Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Familial Ties, Location of Occupation, and Congregational Exit in Geographically-Based Congregations: A Case Study of the Amish

  • Original Research
  • Published:
Review of Religious Research

Abstract

Background

While many studies have examined the relationship between social ties and joining social movements and religious groups, few studies have investigated the relationship between social ties and the likelihood of exiting such groups. Additionally, research has not considered how geography affects the membership dynamics of geographically-based congregations, specifically whether factors associated with residential mobility may also affect congregational exit in geographically-based congregations.

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine how familial ties and place of employment affect congregational exit in geographically-based congregations. Drawing on social network and residential mobility research, this study hypothesizes that having parents and/or adult children in the same congregation and having minor children decreases the likelihood of congregational exit and working farther away from the congregation increases it.

Methods

This study draws on longitudinal archival data from one Amish congregation in the Holmes County Ohio Settlement. It tests the hypotheses using logistic regression models.

Results

The results show that having one’s parents/adult children in the congregation and working close to the congregation are associated with a reduced likelihood of congregational exit. Having minor children in one’s household is not associated with congregational exit.

Conclusions and Implications

This is one of the first studies to consider how geographical requirements for congregational membership has implications for congregational exit. Given the results, congregations may be able to increase member retention by creating multigenerational ministries that support extended families and by advertising in local places of employment. As occupations increasingly shift to being primarily outside the home, Amish congregations in particular may experience more member turnover and membership instability.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Gallagher (2020: 2) notes this as a “methodological challenge”, since “denominations, to the extent that they keep records at all, generally aggregate membership at the level of net change, rather than track the movement of individuals”.

  2. By historically, we mean prior to 1983 when the Code of Canon Law extended the definition of parish beyond that of territory (Maines and McCallion 2004: 93).

  3. The exception to this would be if there were two Orthodox synagogues in close proximity to each other.

  4. Tests of statistical significance are used for random samples in order to determine if the results for a sample can be generalized to the population from which the sample was derived at a certain level of confidence. Because a census includes every member of a population, it is not a sample and does not require tests of statistical significance. Instead, this congregation represents a case-study that we use to test our hypotheses.

  5. We also estimated an interaction term between age and number of minor children to determine if being an older parent was associated with exit. The interaction term was not associated with the likelihood of exit (results not shown but available upon request).

  6. Factors that seem like they would be due to purely secular reasons may be closely connected to religious ones. For example, the positive association between work location and exit is likely at least in part due to longer commute times. For the Amish, a longer commute is not just a secular consideration; commute times are longer because of their religious restrictions on travel. Traveling by horse and buggy increases commute times on its own. Additionally, it may not be possible to take a horse and buggy to one’s work location. This leaves them to either pay a driver or ride a bike down potentially dangerous roads regardless of the weather. Moreover, for the Amish, moving to live closer to family likely also means joining the same congregation as them and thus, what may seem like a purely secular reason (i.e., family ties) may also be intertwined with a religious reason.

References

  • Abel, Michael K. 2005. Retention Strategies and Religious Success: A Regional Comparison of American Jews. Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion 1.

  • Bahr, Howard M., and Stan L. Albrecht. 1989. Strangers Once More: Patterns of Disaffiliation from Mormonism. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 28(2): 180–200.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bainbridge, William Sims. 1997. The Sociology of Religious Movements. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bibby, Reginald W. 1999. On Boundaries, Gates, and Circulating Saints: A Longitudinal Look at Loyalty and Loss. Review of Religious Research 41(2): 149–164.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boeri, Miriam Williams. 2002. Women after the Utopia: The Gendered Lives of Former Cult Members. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 31(3): 323–360.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brinkerhoff, Merlin B., and Marlene M. Mackie. 1993. Casting off the Bonds of Organized Religion: A Religious-Careers Approach to the Study of Apostasy. Review of Religious Research 34(3): 235–258.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bromley, David G. 1998. Linking Social Structure and the Exit Process in Religious Organizations: Defectors, Whistle-Blowers, and Apostates. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 37(1): 145–160.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bromley, David G. 1998. The Social Construction of Contested Exit Roles: Defectors, Whistleblowers, and Apostates. In The Politics of Religious Apostasy: The Role of Apostates in the Transformation of Religious Movements, ed. D.G. Bromley, 19–48. Connecticut: Paeger Publisher.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bruce, Deborah. 2010. Travel to Church. Beyond the Ordinary. Retrieved August 24, 2020, https://presbyterian.typepad.com/beyondordinary/2010/06/travel-to-church.html.

  • Colyer, Corey, Cory Anderson, Rachel Stein, Joseph F. Donnermeyer, and Samson Wasao. 2017. Reviving the Demographic Study of the Amish. Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies 5(1): 96–119.

    Google Scholar 

  • Corcoran, Katie E. 2019. Religious Capital Specificity: Predicting Member Retention. Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion 15.

  • Davidman, Lynn. 2015. Becoming Un-Orthodox: Stories of Ex-Hasidic Jews. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davidman, Lynn, and Arthur L. Greil. 2007. Characters in Search of a Script: The Exit Narratives of Formerly Ultra-Orthodox Jews. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 46(2): 201–216.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dawkins, Casey J. 2006. Are Social Networks the Ties that Bind Families to Neighborhoods? Housing Studies 21(6): 867–881.

    Google Scholar 

  • Diamond, Etan. 2000. And I Will Dwell in Their Midst: Orthodox Jews in Suburbia. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dieleman, Frans M. 2001. Modelling Residential Mobility; a Review of Recent Trends in Research. Journal of Housing and the Built Environment 16: 249–265.

    Google Scholar 

  • Donnermeyer, Joseph F. 2015. Doubling Time and Population Increase of the Amish. Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies 3(1): 94–109.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dougherty, Kevin D., and Mark T. Mulder. 2020. Worshipping Local? Congregation Proximity, Attendance, and Neighborhood Commitment. Review of Religious Research 62(1): 27–44.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ebaugh, Helen Rose Fuchs. 1988a. Becoming an Ex: The Process of Role Exit. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ebaugh, Helen Rose Fuchs. 1988b. Leaving Catholic Convents: Toward a Theory of Disengagement. In Falling from the Faith: Causes and Consequences of Religious Apostasy. Vol. 2020, ed. D.G. Bromley, 1–33. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ericksen, Eugene P., Julia A. Ericksen, and John A. Hostetler. 1980. The Cultivation of the Soil as a Moral Directive: Population Growth, Family Ties, and the Maintenance of Community among the Old Order Amish. Rural Sociology 45(1): 49.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ericksen, Julia, and Gary Klein. 1981. Women’s Roles and Family Production among the Old Order Amish. Rural Sociology 46(2): 282.

    Google Scholar 

  • Faulkner, Caroline. 2018. Gendered Motivations for Religious Exit among the Former Amish. Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion 14: 3–27.

    Google Scholar 

  • Faulkner, Caroline L. 2017. Identity Change among Ethno-Religious Border Crossers: The Case of the Former Amish. Review of Religious Research 59(4): 447–470.

    Google Scholar 

  • Faulkner, Caroline L., and Rachel Christen Dinger. 2014. Research Note: Understanding Defection among the Former Amish. Mennonite Quarterly Review 88(1): 107–127.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fazzino, Lori L. 2014. Leaving the Church behind: Applying a Deconversion Perspective to Evangelical Exit Narratives. Journal of Contemporary Religion 29(2): 249–266.

    Google Scholar 

  • Finke, Roger, and Laurence R. Iannaccone. 1993. Supply-Side Explanations for Religious Change. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 527: 27–39.

    Google Scholar 

  • Finke, Roger, and Rodney Stark. 2005. The Churching of America, 1776–2005: Winners and Losers in Our Religious Economy, 2nd ed. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fischer, Peter A., and Gunnar Malmberg. 2001. Settled People Don’t Move: On Life Course and (Im-)Mobility in Sweden. International Journal of Population Geography 7(5): 357–371.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gallagher, Sally K. 2020. Continuity and Community: An Analysis of Membership Turnover, Growth and Decline in Three Congregations. Review of Religious Research.

  • Glenn, Norval D. 1982. Interreligious Marriage in the United States: Patterns and Recent Trends. Journal of Marriage and the Family 44(3): 555–566.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gould, Roger V. 2003. Why Do Networks Matter? Rationalist and Structuralist Interpretations. In Social Movements and Networks: Relational Approaches to Collective Action, ed. M. Diani and D. McAdam, 233–257. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greeley, Andrew M. 1988. Musical Chairs: Patterns of Denominational Change. Sociology and Social Research 72: 75–86.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greksa, Lawrence P., and Jill E. Korbin. 2002. Key Decisions in the Lives of the Old Order Amish: Joining the Church and Migrating to Another Settlement. Mennonite Quarterly Review 76(4): 373–399.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hadaway, C. Kirk., and Penny Long Marler. 1993. All in the Family: Religious Mobility in America. Review of Religious Research 35(2): 97–116.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hinderaker, Amorette, and Amy O’Connor. 2015. The Long Road out: Exit Stories from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Communication Studies 66(5): 509–527.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hostetler, John A. 1993. Amish Society, 4th ed. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hurst, Charles E., and David L. McConnell. 2010. An Amish Paradox: Diversity and Change in the World’s Largest Amish Community. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Iannaccone, Laurence R. 1988. A Formal Model of Church and Sect. American Journal of Sociology 94(Supplement): S241–S268.

    Google Scholar 

  • Iannaccone, Laurence R. 1990. Religious Practice: A Human Capital Approach. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 29(3): 297–314.

    Google Scholar 

  • Iannaccone, Laurence R. 1994. Why Strict Churches are Strong. American Journal of Sociology 99(5): 1180–1211.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jacobs, Janet. 1984. The Economy of Love in Religious Commitment: The Deconversion of Women from Nontraditional Religious Movements. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 23(2): 155–171.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jacobs, Janet. 1987. Deconversion from Religious Movements: An Analysis of Charismatic Bonding and Spiritual Commitment. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 26(3): 294–308.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, Daniel Carson. 1998. Apostates Who Never Were: The Social Construction of Absque Facto Apostate Narratives. In The Politics of Religious Apostasy: The Role of Apostates in the Transformation of Religious Movements, ed. D.G. Bromley, 115–138. Connecticut: Paeger Publisher.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kitts, James. 2000. Mobilizing in Black Boxes: Social Networks and Participation in Social Movement Organizations. Mobilization: An International Quarterly 5(2): 241–257.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kitts, James A. 1999. Not in Our Backyard: Solidarity, Social Networks, and the Ecology of Environmental Mobilization. Sociological Inquiry 69(4): 551–574.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kosmin, Barry Alexander, and Ariela Keysar. 2006. Religion in a Free Market: Religious and Non-Religious Americans: Who, What, Why, Where. Ithaca, NY: Paramount Market Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kraybill, Donald B. 2001. The Riddle of Amish Culture. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kraybill, Donald B., Karen M. Johnson-Weiner, and Steven M. Nolt. 2013. The Amish. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kreps, George M., Joseph F. Donnermeyer, and Marty W. Kreps. 1994. The Changing Occupational Structure of Amish Males. Rural Sociology 59(4): 708–719.

    Google Scholar 

  • Long, Larry H. 1972. The Influence of Mumber and Ages of Children on Residential Mobility. Demography 9(3): 371–382.

    Google Scholar 

  • Long, Scot E., and Richard Moore. 2014. Amish Church District Fissioning and Watershed Boundaries among Holmes County, Ohio, Amish. Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies 2(2): 186–202.

    Google Scholar 

  • Loveland, Matthew T. 2003. Religious Switching: Preference Development, Maintenance, and Change. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 42(1): 147–157.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lowery, Sean, and Allen G. Noble. 2000. The Changing Occupational Structure of the Amish of the Holmes County, Ohio, Settlement. The Great Lakes Geographer 7(1): 26–37.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maines, David R., and Michael J. McCallion. 2004. Research Note: Evidence of and Speculations on Catholic de Facto Congregationalism. Review of Religious Research 46(1): 92–101.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mauss, Armand L. 1998. Apostasy and the Management of Spoiled Identity. In The Politics of Religious Apostasy: The Role of Apostates in the Transformation of Religious Movements, ed. D.G. Bromley, 51–74. Westport, CT: Paeger Publisher.

    Google Scholar 

  • McAdam, Doug. 1986. Recruitment to High-Risk Activism: The Case of Freedom Summer. American Journal of Sociology 92(1): 64–90.

    Google Scholar 

  • McAdam, Doug. 2003. Beyond Structural Analysis: Toward a More Dynamic Understanding of Social Movements. In Social Movements and Networks: Relational Approaches to Collective Action, ed. M. Diani and D. McAdam, 281–298. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McBride, Michael. 2007. Club Mormon: Free-Riders, Monitoring, and Exclusion in the LDS Church. Rationality and Society 19(4): 395–424.

    Google Scholar 

  • McConnell, David L., and Charles E. Hurst. 2006. No ‘Rip Van Winkles’ Here: Amish Education Since Wisconsin v. Yoder. Anthropology & Education Quarterly 37(3): 236–254.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mead, Loren B. 1991. The Once and Future Church: Reinventing the Congregation for a New Mission Frontier. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meyers, Thomas J. 1991. Population Growth and Its Consequences in the Elkhart–LaGrange Old Order Amish Settlement. Mennonite Quarterly Review 65(3): 308–321.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meyers, Thomas J. 1994a. Lunch Pails and Factories. In The Amish Struggle with Modernity, ed. D.B. Kraybill and M.A. Olshan, 165–181. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meyers, Thomas J. 1994b. The Old Order Amish: To Remain in the Faith or to Leave. Mennonite Quarterly Review 68(3): 378–395.

    Google Scholar 

  • Michielin, Francesca, and Clara H. Mulder. 2008. Family Events and the Residential Mobility of Couples. Environment and Planning A 40(11): 2770–2790.

    Google Scholar 

  • Montgomery, James D. 1996. Dynamics of the Religious Economy: Exit, Voice and Denominational Secularization. Rationality and Society 8(1): 81–110.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mueller, Samuel A. 1971. Dimensions of Interdenominational Mobility in the United States. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 10(2): 76–84.

    Google Scholar 

  • Musick, Marc, and John Wilson. 1995. Religious Switching for Marriage Reasons. Sociology of Religion 56(3): 257–270.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nolt, Steven M. 2016. The Amish: A Concise Introduction. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Packard, Josh, and Todd W. Ferguson. 2019. Being Done: Why People Leave the Church, but Not Their Faith. Sociological Perspectives 62(4): 499–517.

    Google Scholar 

  • Passey, Florence. 2003. Social Networks Matter. But How? In Social Movements and Networks: Relational Approaches to Collective Action, ed. M. Diani and D. McAdam, 21–48. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roof, Wade Clark. 1989. Multiple Religious Switching: A Research Note. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 28: 530–535.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scheitle, Christopher P., and Kevin D. Dougherty. 2010. Race, Diversity, and Membership Duration in Religious Congregations. Sociological Inquiry 80(3): 405–423.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schwadel, Philip. 2010. Period and Cohort Effects on Religious Nonaffiliation and Religious Disaffiliation: A Research Note. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 49(2): 311–319.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schwadel, Philip. 2012. Social Class and Finding a Congregation: How Attendees are Introduced to Their Congregations. Review of Religious Research 54(4): 543–554.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sherkat, Darren E. 1991. Leaving the Faith: Testing Theories of Religious Switching Using Survival Models. Social Science Research 20(2): 171–187.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sherkat, Darren E. 1997. Embedding Religious Choices. In Rational Choice Theory and Religion: Summary and Assessment, ed. L.A. Young, 65–87. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sherkat, Darren E. 2014. Changing Faith: The Dynamics and Consequences of Americans’ Shifting Religious Identities. New York: NYU Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sherkat, Darren E., and John Wilson. 1995. Preferences, Constraints, and Choices in Religious Markets: An Examination of Religious Switching and Apostasy. Social Forces 73(3): 993–1026.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, Christian, and David Sikkink. 2003. Social Predictors of Retention in and Switching from the Religious Faith of Family of Origin: Another Look Using Religious Tradition Self-Identification. Review of Religious Research 45(2): 188–206.

    Google Scholar 

  • Snow, David A., and Richard Machalek. 1984. The Sociology of Conversion. Annual Review of Sociology 10(1): 167–190.

    Google Scholar 

  • Snow, David A., and Cynthia L. Phillips. 1980. The Lofland-Stark Conversion Model: A Critical Reassessment. Social Problems 27(4): 430–447.

    Google Scholar 

  • Snow, David A., Louis A. Zurcher, and Sheldon Ekland-Olson. 1980. Social Networks and Social Movements: A Microstructural Approach to Differential Recruitment. American Sociological Review 45(5): 787–801.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spring, Amy, Elizabeth Ackert, Kyle Crowder, and Scott J. South. 2017. Influence of Proximity to Kin on Residential Mobility and Destination Choice: Examining Local Movers in Metropolitan Areas. Demography 54(4): 1277–1304.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stark, Rodney, and Roger Finke. 2000. Acts of Faith: Explaining the Human Side of Religion. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stark, Rodney, and Charles Y. Glock. 1968. American Piety: The Nature of Religious Commitment, vol. 1. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stein, Rachel E., Katie E. Corcoran, Brittany M. Kowalski, and Corey J. Colyer. 2020. Congregational Cohesion, Retention, and the Consequences of Size Reduction: A Longitudinal Network Analysis of an Old Order Amish Church. Sociology of Religion 81(2): 206–229.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stevick, Richard A. 2014. Growing up Amish: The Rumspringa Years, 2nd ed. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Suh, Daniel, and Raymond Russell. 2015. Non-Affiliation, Non-Denominationalism, Religious Switching, and Denominational Switching: Longitudinal Analysis of the Effects on Religiosity. Review of Religious Research 57(1): 25–41.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Ommeren, Jos. 2018. Commuting and Relocation of Jobs and Residences. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vargas, Nicholas. 2011. Retrospective Accounts of Religious Disaffiliation in the United States: Stressors, Skepticism, and Political Factors. Sociology of Religion 73(2): 200–223.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wright, Stuart A. 1984. Post-Involvement Attitudes of Voluntary Defectors from Controversial New Religious Movements. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 23(2): 172–182.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wright, Stuart A. 1986. Dyadic Intimacy and Social Control in Three Cult Movements. Sociology of Religion 47(2): 137–150.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wright, Stuart A. 1991. Reconceptualizing Cult Coercion and Withdrawal: A Comparative Analysis of Divorce and Apostasy. Social Forces 70(1): 125–145.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wright, Stuart A., and Elizabeth S. Piper. 1986. Youth Leaving or Remaining in Deviant Religious Groups. Journal of Marriage and the Family 48: 15–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wuthnow, Robert. 1988. The Restructuring of American Religion: Society and Faith since World War II. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, West Virginia University, PO Box 6326, Morgantown, WV, 26506-6326, USA

    Katie E. Corcoran, Rachel E. Stein, Corey J. Colyer & Brittany M. Kowalski

Authors
  1. Katie E. Corcoran
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Rachel E. Stein
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Corey J. Colyer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Brittany M. Kowalski
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Katie E. Corcoran.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Corcoran, K.E., Stein, R.E., Colyer, C.J. et al. Familial Ties, Location of Occupation, and Congregational Exit in Geographically-Based Congregations: A Case Study of the Amish. Rev Relig Res 63, 245–268 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13644-020-00438-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13644-020-00438-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation