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religion in the United States 431

Characteristics of Members
About 65 percent of Americans belong to a church, synagogue, or mosque. What are Watch on MySocLab
the characteristics of people who hold formal membership in a religion? Video: Thinking Like a Sociologist:
Social Class. Religion in the United States is stratified by social class. As you can Religious Diversity in America
see from Figure 13.6 below, some religious groups are “top-heavy,” and others are
“bottom-heavy.” The most top-heavy are Jews and Episcopalians; the most bottom-
heavy are Assembly of God, Southern Baptists, and Jehovah’s Witnesses. This figure
provides further confirmation that churchlike groups tend to appeal to people who have
more “worldly” success, while the more sectlike groups attract people who have less
“worldly” success.
From this figure, you can see how status consistency (a concept we reviewed in Explore on MySocLab
Chapter 8, pages 227–228) applies to religious groups. If a group ranks high (or low) Activity: Religious Diversity in
on education, it is also likely to rank high (or low) on income and occupational prestige. America
Jews, for example, rank the highest on education, income, and occupational prestige,
while Jehovah’s Witnesses rank the lowest on these three measures of social class. As
you can see, the Mormons are status inconsistent. They rank second in income, fourth
in education, and tie for sixth in occupational prestige. Even more status inconsistent is
the Assembly of God. Their members tie for third in occupational prestige but rank only
eighth in income and ninth in education. This inconsistency is so jarring that there could
be a problem with the sample.
Race–Ethnicity. Many religions are associated with race–ethnicity: Islam with Arabs,
Judaism with Jews, Hinduism with Indians, and Confucianism with Chinese. In the
United States, all major religious groups draw from the nation’s many racial–ethnic
groups. Like social class, however, race–ethnicity tends to cluster. People of Irish descent
are likely to be Roman Catholics; those with Greek ancestors are likely to belong to the
Greek Orthodox Church. African Americans are likely to be Protestants—more specifi-
cally, Baptists—or to belong to fundamentalist sects.

Figure 13.6 Social Class and Religious Affiliation

Education: Percent with
Family Income 1 College Degrees Occupational Prestige 2
Thousands Percentage
$0 $20 $40 $60 $80 0% 20% 40% 60% 0 20 40 60
Jewish $77,000 60% 52
Mormon $65,000 28% 44
Episcopal $64,000 46% 49
Presbyterian USA $59,000 40% 48
Lutheran
(Missouri Synod) $56,000 24% 43
Roman Catholic $53,000 22% 44
United Methodist $50,000 27% 46
Assembly of God $44,000 10% 48
Southern Baptist $43,000 16% 43
Jehovah’s Witness $40,000 7% 41

1 The family incomes reported here must be taken as approximate. The original totals were from 1996. I increased them by 48 percent, the inflation rate re-
ported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics for 1996 to 2013.
2 Higher numbers mean that more of the group’s members work at occupations that have higher prestige, generally those that require more education and of-
fer higher pay. For more information on occupational prestige, see Table 8.2 on page 227.
Source: By the author. Based on Smith and Faris 2005.