Social Justice and Faith Maturity: Exploring Whether Religious Beliefs Impact Civic Engagement.

Abstract

Today, many emerging adults (i.e. late adolescent, young adults) typically enrolled in college or university engage in community service. In fact, many schools offer service learning courses where students acquire knowledge on a specific topic while performing community service linked to concepts and theories from class. Community service has increased over the past two decades, and nearly three-quarters of undergraduate students in the United States reported participating in public service of some kind (Flanagan, Levine & Settersten, 2009). Service learning has an overall positive effect on personal development, and students involved in service learning indicated a greater understanding of social problems as well as a greater acceptance of different cultures and races (Austin & Sax, 1998). What is not known, however, is the impact of one's religious faith belief system on community service and engagement among college students. Faith maturity describes the degree to which a person exemplifies and embraces the priorities, commitments, and perspectives which characterize a faith that is vibrant, well-developed, and life-transforming (Benson, Donahue & Ericson, 1993). A person's faith maturity is defined by behavioral indicators of faith as opposed to 'right belief' or adherence to particular doctrines (Salsman & Carlson, 2005). Such indicators include the beliefs, values, attitudes, and behaviors associated with one's faith, and they occur along a continuum with multiple dimensions. A mature and developed faith is multi-dimensional, and was positively associated with increased frequency of social-justice behaviors and an endorsement of racial equality (Keonigs & Ferrari, 2013). Benson et al (1993) noted that faith maturity was divided into two types: vertical and horizontal. Vertical faith maturity referred to the extent to which a person spent time honoring, maintaining, and building a relationship between oneself and a transcendent reality, while horizontal faith maturity referred to the degree to which a person manifested their faith in the world through service to others, pro-social values and acts of justice and mercy. Vertical faith maturity was positively correlated with feeling connected to a higher power, increased attendance at religious services and increased frequency of prayer (Piedmont & Nelson, 2001), while horizontal faith maturity was correlated with altruistic behavior (Ji, Pendergraft & Perry, 2006), agreeableness, openness, acts of service and helping others (Piedmont & Nelson, 2001). It is important to note that faith maturity is not correlated with either orthodox or liberal doctrines or religion, as some studies noted that while intrinsic or orthodox religion was noted to align with positive views on helping others, it showed an inverse correlation to the actual practice of altruistic and pro-social behaviors (Ji et al., 2006). Faith maturity is strongly associated with increased acts of social justice and service to humanity. Most definitions of social justice include a value or belief in the idea that all people should have equitable access to resources, basic human rights should be protected, and disadvantaged groups should be empowered (Torres-Harding, Siers & Olson, 2012). Social justice involves fair treatment for those who have been marginalized in society due to characteristics such as their immigration, racial, ethnic, age, socioeconomic, religious heritage, physical ability or sexual orientation status group (Constantine, Hage, Kindaichi & Bryant, 2007). Social justice in practice would therefore include active attempts to right these wrongs by changing oppressive systems and structures of society to promote wellness, resist oppression and foster liberation in others (Prilleltensky, 2008). A key component to acting on social justice ideals is first fostering positive social justice attitudes and beliefs. Research indicates that student engagement in social activism begins with the acceptance of social justice ideals, and one of the sources of motivation to support diversity and the ideals of social justice is one's moral and spiritual values (Goodman, 2000). …