174 Penny Edgell
they do not equate the ideal family with any particular family form. They are the most
likely to be affirming of single-parent families and of gay and lesbian unions.
However, the progressivism of mainline Protestant congregations is largely a matter
of official rhetoric, and not of informal rhetoric and practice. These congregations are
the least likely to have changed the time or timing of their programs to meet the needs
of dual-earner couples or those facing alternate-weekend custody arrangements. They
are the least likely to minister to single parents, either through programs for these
groups or through the kind of one-on-one visitation to bring such members into other
congregational programming that Catholic and evangelical pastors report doing on a
routine basis. Focus groups suggest that, by and large, the organization of ministry in
these congregations exhibits a kind of nostalgia for the male-breadwinner family of the
past, and many mainline pastors still lament the loss of volunteer labor that occurred
in the 1970s when large numbers of their female members “went to work” in the paid
labor force.
Catholic congregations incorporate elements from both ends of the ideological spec-
trum in their rhetoric about the ideal family. While being genuinely open to those in
single-parent families, blended families, and gay and lesbian unions, Catholic parishes
also embrace more traditional gender roles than do mainline Protestants. And Catholic
pastors are the most likely, in these four communities, to develop a well-thought-out
critique of the dual-earner lifestyle, especially for middle-class members, and to argue
that mothers who do not need the money should stay home with their young children.
Catholic parishes also adopt some of the flexibility and pragmatism in organizing
ministry that evangelical congregations show, especially in changing the time and tim-
ing of their family programs. Focus groups and fieldwork suggest that this is because
the proliferation of organized activities for children, along with alternate-weekend cus-
tody arrangements, have had the most severe impact on Catholic religious education,
especially the tradition of having ten to twelve weeks of sacrament preparation classes
on successive weekends.
These differences between religious tradition are persistent and continue to hold in
multivariate models that control for other factors.^8 Large congregations in which more
than 50 percent of the members are in nuclear families with children have more of all
kinds of “traditional” family programming – programs for women, children, and teens,
parenting programs, and “family nights.” But controlling for size and membership
composition, so do conservative Protestants. The likelihood a congregation will have
programs for divorced persons or single parents increases as the size and budget increase.
It also increases if more than 50 percent of the members are within nuclear families
with children. But controlling for these factors, there is still a statistically significant
relationship between being conservative Protestant and having these programs.
A congregation that is large (250+members), has a female pastor, and a better-
educated pastor is more likely to have a daycare center and is also more likely to have
other forms of innovative family programs. But in models controlling for these factors,
religious tradition is still significant, with mainline Protestant and Catholic churches
(^8) Discussion based on multivariate models using both single items as outcomes (daycare) and
also scales that combine items (e.g., the total number of “innovative” programs a congregation
reports). See Becker (forthcoming), Chapter 6, for details. Models are available on request.