Religious involvement and commitment to the church's social policy: a study of Episcopalian attitudes

Dimensions of religiousness are employed to study the association between Episcopalian involvement in the organizational life of the church and commitment to the Episcopal Church's social policy. A sample of 207 communicants were selected from the Houston, Texas metropolitian area. Measures are developed to study ritualistic involvement (participation in the organizational life of the Church) and consequential commitment (agreement or disagreement with the Church's social policy). Results show that a previously established indirect relation between involvement and commitment is specified by the intervening variables of sex, age, and social class. Females are more commited than males. Age is directly related to ritualistic involvement. Social status operates differentially between males and females. It is directly related to female commitment, but indirectly related to male commitment. Ritualist! involvement is not related to female commitment. Ritualistic involvement is indirectly related to male commitment.