Individualism in a Religious Community

Roger Fritts

March 24, 1996

Cedar Lane Unitarian Church

Bethesda, Maryland

Dr. Robert Putnam, a Harvard professor of political science recently announced that "the fate of the republic hangs on the fact that Americans are no longer engaging in league bowling." "Bowling Alone: An interview with Robert Putnam about America's collapsing civic life," American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, September 1995. When the remarks were reported to President of the United States, Mr. Clinton arranged for Dr. Putnam to visit the White House and explain the details to the President. The President was so concerned that he later included Dr. Putnam's ideas in his State of the Union address.

Actually this is not a new idea. After visiting the United States in the 1830s, Alexis de Tocqueville concluded that Americans' many community associations were key to our ability to make democracy work. In community associations like churches, debates over social issues such as slavery took place. De Tocqueville wrote in his book Democracy in America:

Americans of all ages, all stations in life, and all types of disposition are forever forming associations. There are not only commercial and industrial associations in which all take part, but others of a thousand different types--religious, moral, serious, futile, very general and very limited, immensely large and very minute. . . . Hospitals, prisons and schools take shape in that way . . . In every case, at the head of any new undertaking, where in France you would find the government or in England some territorial magnate, in the United States you are sure to find an association.Alexis De Tocqueville, Democracy in America, ed. J.P. Mayer, trans. George Lawrence (Garden City, N.Y. Anchor Books, 1969, Page 513.

Now there is reason for concern. In the summer of 1994 Robert Putnam presented a paper entitled "Bowling Alone: Democracy in America at the End of the Twentieth Century."Robert D. Putnam, "Bowling Alone: America's Declining Social Capital," Journal of Democracy, January 1995, 65-78. This Harvard professor of political science argues that United States civilization is in danger because Americans have stopped joining groups. For example:

Union membership has been falling, from 33% of the work force in 1953 to 16% of the work force in 1992.Participation in parent-teacher associations has dropped from more than twelve million in 1964 to approximately seven million today.Membership in the national Federation of Women's Clubs is down 59% since 1964.

Membership in the League of Woman Voters is down 42% since 1969.The number of volunteers in the Boy Scouts is down by 26% since 1970.The number of Red Cross volunteers is down by 61% since 1970.Membership in Lions clubs is down by 12% since 1983.Membership in Elks clubs is down by 19% since 1979.Membership in the Shrines is down 27% since 1979.Membership in the Jaycees is down 44% since 1979.Membership in the Masons is down 39% since 1959.

And what about churches? Religious groups make up the most common type of voluntary association in America. The United States has more houses of worship per capita than any other nation on Earth. Yet the decrease in interest in voluntary groups has also affected organized religion. Although there have been ups and downs in attendance, the general pattern is down. Weekly church attendance has dropped from 48% of the population in the late 1950s to roughly 41% of the population in the early 1970s, to 37% of the population in 1996.

Robert Putnam writes:

The most whimsical yet discomforting bit of evidence of social disengagement in contemporary America that I have discovered is this: more Americans are bowling today than ever before, but bowling in organized leagues has plummeted in the last decade. . . . Between 1980 and 1993 the total number of bowlers in America increased by 10%, while league bowling decreased by 40%.Robert D. Putnam, "Bowling Alone: America's Declining Social Capital," Journal of Democracy, January 1995, page 70.

This leads to Dr. Putnam's conclusion, made partly but not entirely humorously, that "the fate of the republic hangs on the fact that Americans are no longer engaging in league bowling."

Why are voluntary organizations so important? When we participate in a bowling league, or in a church or another local association, we interact with the same people week after week. We learn and practice what de Tocqueville called "habits of the heart." In church and in other voluntary groups we learn the personal virtues and skills that are the prerequisites for democratic government. We learn how to participate in meetings. We learn the rules of parliamentary process. We learn to take responsibility for our views.

This is what is different about league bowling versus bowling alone. This is what is different from walking in the woods Sunday morning versus attending church. Bowling leagues and churches provide places in which people can talk about the issues of our time, whether that is slavery in 1850 or assault guns in 1996. We provide settings quite different from, say, a radio talk show, where Bob from Bethesda calls in and shares his prejudices with a nationwide audience. The rest of us do not know Bob. We do not know how to interpret what he says. If Bob were in our church, we would understand him better. We would interact with him regularly. We would hold him accountable for his views.

How important is this? Dr. Putnam has studied regional government in Italy. He found that in areas of Italy where there are many voluntary organizations, local governments were much more effective in serving people. Roads were repaired in a timely manner. Sewers were fixed. Health care checks were processed and mailed quickly. But in areas of Italy where there was no tradition of voluntary organizations, local government was highly ineffective. People did not have the skills needed to be able to work together. Dr. Putnam worries that a decline in associations may spell trouble for democracy in America.

Of course, some organizations have grown in the past few years. The American Association of Retired Persons has gone from 400,000 to 33 million members, becoming, after the Catholic Church, the largest private organization in the world. The conservative Christian Coalition with about 350,000 homes on its mailing list is another example of a voluntary association that has experienced rapid growth.

However, these groups are different from churches or bowling leagues. For the vast majority of their members, the only act of membership consists in writing a check for dues and reading a newsletter. For most members there is little social interaction with other members.

The last few years have also seen a growth in self-help groups. In a national study nearly 5% of adult Americans say that they participate regularly in a "self-help" group such as Alcoholics Anonymous. These groups do teach social interaction and rules for group behavior. Kurt Vonnagut once wrote that the three greatest inventions of America are the Bill of Rights, Robert's Rules of Order, and the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous.

However, a meeting run by the rules of a twelve-step program is different than a meeting run by Robert's Rules of Order. Self-help groups are often very valuable in helping people, but they do not teach all the skills necessary to maintain a democracy.

What has caused this decrease in participation in volunteer associations? There are at least three possible explanations.

One is the increase in the number of working women. As both wife and husband went to work there was less time to participate in church or community activities. Yet there is a problem with this explanation. Studies show that the longer hours people work, the more likely they are to participate in community activities. This confirms the theory that when we want to get something done we should ask a busy person, but it raises doubt that busyness or women in the work force are explanations for the drop in participation in associations.

A second possible explanation is the mobility of our society. Some observers think that job transfers reduced our ability to put down roots, to join community groups and to develop relationships. Yet there is a fundamental difficulty with this hypothesis. The best evidence shows that residential stability and home ownership in America have risen modestly since 1965. Mobility slightly has decreased, making it difficult to blame mobility for the drop in membership in community groups.

Robert Putnam believes the cause of the decline is the technological transformation of leisure. Studies show that the growth in time spent watching television dwarfed all other changes in the way Americans passed their days and nights. The percentage of households with sets grew from 10% in 1950 to 80% by 1958. For every level of education Putnam found a negative correlation between the number of hours an individual watches television and the number of groups the individual joins.

For example among the well educated, those who watch an hour or less television a day join an average of 2.7 volunteer associations. Those who watch two hours a day join an average of 2.5 volunteer associations. Those who watch three to four hours, join an average of 2.3 groups. And those who watch five or more hours a day join an average of 1.9 groups."TV Tattered Nation's Social . . ." Washington Post, Sept. 3, 1995.

Persons born before World War II, who did not experience television in their childhood or adolescence, are more involved in civic groups today. Those born after the Second World War, whose childhoods and adolescence were marked by rapidly growing rates of television watching, are less involved in civic groups. The generation that came of age after World War II was a great civic generation. Since then, participation in community groups has declined. At the same time distrust of others has risen dramatically. Television, Putnam argues, increases pessimism about life by encouraging people to think that things are worse than they are. He cites studies showing that each hour of increased television viewing is associated with less social trust. People are more suspicious. People are more hostile and rude. Television has radically "privatized" or "individualized" our use of leisure time.

Of course, the value of the individual has always been central to Unitarians. Unitarian minister Ralph Waldo Emerson resigned as minister of his Boston church and retired to Concord where he wrote essays on self-reliance and expressed a disdain for civic associations. Today in this church we affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person. We tend to be good at encouraging self-reliance, self-sufficiency, and self-control.

If this were all we needed to live full lives we could depart the church, worship nature and watch public television. Many people are doing this. The technological transformation of leisure encourages us to practice such hyper individualism. The generations born after 1940 appear increasingly good at self-reliance and less good at working with others in community.

However, I am here because I believe to be fully human I need to interact with other human beings. The glorification of the individual is not my only goal. It is one goal, but not my only goal.

I am also concerned about the physical and spiritual health of this community. I am also concerned about the health and the rights of people who are outside our church. I am also are concerned about the health of the planet itself.

If Robert Putnam is right, the distrust and cynicism we see around us today, is a result of technological trends. These trends have privatized many people's time and decreased their involvement with groups of people. It is a serious problem. The distrust people have today made it possible for large parts of the federal government to be shut down last November and December. This distrust, with its radical individualism, may be a long-term threat to the success of our democracy.

If de Tocqueville is right, we need hundreds of thousands of small community groups, civic groups, bowling leagues and churches spread across this land to sustain our democratic system. Just as our foremothers and forefathers used the Unitarian church as a place to debate slavery in 1850, today we need churches as places where we can discuss the issues of our time. We come together here in this place not because we all agree on everything, but because we believe we need to be with other people in community. In this community we sometimes grow and change, we sometimes compromise, we sometimes win, and we sometimes learn to accept losing. We learn the skills necessary to function in a democracy.

I was visiting a friend in Kentucky a few years ago. He is responsible for running several homeless shelters in Louisville. In the middle of a meal at his home he received a phone call from a state senator. The senator was clearly angry about some policy involving a shelter. The phone conversation went on for some time. I watched my friend patiently and calmly explain the reasons for the policy, and diplomatically hold his ground with the senator. When the conversation was over, I complimented my friend on how well he had done. He said, "You know, all the skills I have for dealing with issues like this I learned from chairing the Board of Trustees of the Unitarian church."

Here at Cedar Lane, several days each week I walk though the church building. I see the spaces teeming with activity. Quilting, dancing, singing, discussions, meetings in room after room, day after day, night after night. And I think to myself: In groups like this our freedom, our democracy continues to be reborn, generation after generation. And feel honored to be a part of this vital community.

Note: Although critical of some technological trends, I must admit that most of the research for this sermon was done using the Internet. The Montgomery County Public Library does not have copies of Dr. Putnam's work. For copies of his articles I used "Lycos" to search for "Bowling Alone." From this I was able to download copies of both the original article and a later interview of Dr. Putnam.

Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church
9601 Cedar Lane, Bethesda, Maryland 20814-4099
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