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Prophets in the Wilderness: An Ecology of Ministerial Organization Participation in Public Affairs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 November 2009

Paul A. Djupe  and
Franklyn C. Niles
Paul A. Djupe*
Affiliation:
Denison University
Franklyn C. Niles*
Affiliation:
John Brown University
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Paul A. Djupe, Department of Political Science, Denison University, Granville, OH 43023. E-mail: djupe@denison.edu
Franklyn C. Niles, Department of Political Science, John Brown University, Siloam Spring, AR 72761. E-mail: fniles@jbu.edu
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Abstract

Studies of interest groups typically sample from organizations or lobbyists registered with a government – those already engaged in political action. Because of this design choice, the questions asked of organizational systems are constrained. We take a different tack, pursuing investigation of one organizational form, ministerial organizations (MOs), in a wide variety of systems to ask about whether and how they engage in public affairs across ecologies. Specifically, we ask: What pressures affect whether MOs engage a public versus private purpose? How do MOs forage in public affairs, with what size and diversity of coalition? The data result from a hyper-network survey of MO contacts, identified by a national sample of United Methodist Church clergy. We find, contrary to assertions in previous work that religious interest groups respond to ecological pressures in a similar manner as other interest groups.

Type
Articles
Information
Politics and Religion , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , April 2010 , pp. 150 - 178
Copyright
Copyright © Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association 2009

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