their analysis of mainline American denominations find that the members of
stricter conservative denominations are less educated and have lower incomes
while the members of less religious liberal denominations are more educated
and have higher incomes. Baptist churches, which are higher tension, have
incomes lower than the national average (Wuthnow 1988:84). We expect to
have similar findings, that the lower the income, the more religious people
will be, while the higher the income, the less religious.
In this article, we shall be examining some of these ideas about the asso-
ciation between trauma and religion. Trauma may have underlying economic
causes but they are not necessarily the only ones. Some trauma may be purely
psychological although it may have underlying social causes. We speculate
that the more severe the trauma, the higher the religiosity as measured by
variables such as belief in god, belief in the afterlife, belief in hell, etc. However,
at the same time, since religion is a response to suffering and may help to
alleviate it, we may find that those who are more religious report less trauma.
Religion, Rational Choice, and Well Being
Rodney Stark and Roger Finke reject the premises of the critical theory of
religion made by Marx, Weber, and Freud. First, they argue against Marx’s
quotation that “religion is the opium of the people” (Stark and Finke 2000:30).
However, they have a very flat reading of this text, which as we have dis-
cussed, is more nuanced and multidimensional. Second, they cite data that
indicate the higher the income, the higher the level of church attendance
(Stark and Finke 2000:30). When contrasting rich and poor, church attendance
may not always be an indicator of religiosity. The poor may be deterred from
church attendance due to the hidden costs of church attendance. But, they
may have also given up hope.
Stark and Finke (2000:30) arguing against Freud that religion is a “psy-
chopathology” and basing themselves on Chris Ellison, report that religios-
ity has positive effects on mental health: “Religious belief and practice greatly
improve self-esteem, life satisfaction, the ability to withstand major social
stressors, and even physical health” (Stark and Finke 2000:46). We do not dis-
pute that religion may have a beneficial impact on mental health. What we
would question is the conditions that give rise to the stressors with which
religion helps people to cope. Much of the survey data may not accurately
measure the stressors (trauma) that give rise to the need to turn to religion
as coping mechanism.
Operationalizing the Critical Theory of Religion • 345