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Why leave the church of your upbringing? Why remain in it despite deep differences? This is an empirical study of a hundred young adults who had intensive Catholic education. Fifty were still in the church; fifty had left. One finding: the Church that the "Ins" were in was not the Church that the "Outs" were out of. Despite a common exposure, Ins and Outs had vastly different perceptions of Catholicism. Here is an article that summarizes the findings.
"As a one-man job, this study is impressive. The book contains more news about the effect of Catholic education than anything written to date. The author writes with a personal flair."
-- M. Brewster Smith, Former President of
the American Psychological Association
"The first broad-scale study of apostasy in any major religious group. . . .
The shock of self-recognition awaits all."
-- Nathaniel J. Pallone, New York University,
Author of Catholics/USA
"The first systematic and careful study of the phenomenon of religious apostasy
from the psychological
viewpoint. I recommend it."
-- Andrew M. Greeley, Priest, Sociologist, and Novelist
Part I: Prelude
1. Why the Border
2. One Hundred Young Adults: Who They Were and Where They Started
3. The Period of Change
Part II: The Results of Change
4. What They Believe
5. What They Value
6. The Two Churches
Part III: The Search for Why
7. Male versus Female
8. Parents
9. An Explanation
Part IV: Extensions
10. The Future of These One Hundred
11. The Institution as Permeable: Past, Present, and Future
Appendix I: A Note on Statistical Testing
Appendix II: The Questionnaire
From Chapter 9
An Explanation
Data presented in previous chapters has been assembled here into an explanation of the a-rational starting point that shapes In and Outs perceptions of the Catholic Church and leads them to retain membership or give it up. The major determinant of that starting point appears to be the depth of the original internalization of the desire to be a Catholic, deriving from particular parent-child relationships; but the cultural expectations and the psychological characteristics associated with one's sex, and the influence of one's primary group appear to affect it as well. Leaving the Church, then, or remaining in it can hardly be called the result of an intellectual decision based on the careful weighing of evidence. Though detail rational explanations often accompany leaving or staying in, to understand a person's membership status one must comprehend that preintellectual starting point giving rise to it.
If the importance of preintellectual starting points has been established in the belief complexes of young adult Catholics, might they not also be important in other belief complexes or world views? Why intellectually sophisticated people in one case accept the philosophical thrust of a Rousseau and in another of a Camus or Nietzsche, why some should be politically radical and others conservative, each with an elaborate rationale for his position, why two people of equal intelligence with similar information at hand should disagree on a proposed course of action: all these anomalies might be understood by getting at the starting points that shape individuals' conceptions of "what it's all about." A large component of these a-rational starting points, the present data indicate, are residues from the parents' treatment of the child the child's adoption of attitudes appropriate to this sex, and the child's later interaction with various primary groups.
This study began with the observation that the border between In and Out Catholics was obscure and, for that reason, worth studying. As we near the study's end, we find the border no longer so ambiguous. Empirically, a number of things distinguish Ins and Outs: religious practice, belief, perceptions of the Church and its ability to fulfill values, and parental characteristics. But we may not conclude that these empirical criteria are normative ones as well: although Ins believe and practice what the perceive to be the essentials of Catholicism, they still feel that their membership status is not contingent upon doing so. The borderline remains blurred in the sense that there is no universally accepted definition of what it takes to be Catholic. Thus it is still possible to find self-defined Catholics less overtly Catholic than others who have left the Church.
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