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Sociology 127
Professor Krogh
February 6, 2018
Response Paper 1
Protestant Faith: Option 1
from Catholic beliefs and Protestant beliefs. Like many American’s, my present and past
relatives have practiced some sort of Christianity. Growing up with a mixture of religious
influences, you learn both about Catholicism and Protestantism: practices, beliefs, rituals.
However, I was brought up Protestant and attend a non-denominational Christian church. The
focus of this paper will be on the Protestant religion background and service through the
church. The two articles that I read and analyzed for this paper are: Protestant Christian
Volunteers in Community Social Service Programs: What Motivates, Challenges, and Sustains
Their Service, and Protestant Religion and Social Status: American Journal of Sociology. I also
talked to my cousin, and my grandmother about what religion means to them and how they do
In the first article I read, Protestant Christian Volunteers in Community Social Service
Programs: What Motivates, Challenges, and Sustains Their Service, it tells about the correlation
between religion and people who volunteer. The article’s main focus is what motivates people
to volunteer/doing community service, and to figure out how to get more people involved. The
authors, Diane Garland, Dennis Myers, and Terry Wolfer- researched from different areas of the
US with the view of social work. They interviewed people who were in long term volunteering
and congregational leaders- all specifically done within the Protestant churches. When
conducting interviews, they kept track of the demographics- which can go to the different ways
people volunteer and their motivations to do so. They found that many did service in poor
areas and many people did not only one type of service but many different things to help other
members of society. The research that was conducted stated that there were four different
to human needs, and other personal benefits. I thought this article help me understand why
people who volunteer are a part of a church whether it is Christianity or any religion. It brought
research to answer of why people feel compelled by religion (protestant) to serve others.
After reading the article discussed above I wanted to learn more about the diversity and
what influence Protestantism had in society. Therefore, I read, Protestant Religion and Social
Status. American Journal of Sociology. This article done in 1965 looked at the church
attendance versus social status and to see if there was a correlation. The research that was
talked about was the fact that non-church members had lower social status than church
members. In a simple equation, the author tries to show correlation with the protestant church
and social status: positively- social status is related to protestant denomination. This article
showed variables such as sex, marriage status, age, affiliation, and others. From reading this
article and the one mentioned above, there are many different correlations between faith and
who and why they are a part of something. Like Eboo Patel’s book it is on an individual level of
After leaning the information from the two academic articles, I then decided to ask two
people who have influenced my understanding of service and how it correlates to faith. First, I
talked to my older cousin, Taylor: she is twenty-six, has degree in counseling and speech
pathology. Then I talked to my grandmother, Diane: she is 67 and has a huge heart for every
soul. They both are a part of the protestant faith and church.
Taylor was the first one I spoke to and has been a role model to me and how I view
service with a faith understanding. She has taken mission trips to Philadelphia and Saint Louis-
she has discussed with me how much a calling from God, she felt the need to help the kids in
the areas she volunteered in. Taylor has also done children ministries at the church she attends
and says she feels like she does a service through that. After that I asked her why she thinks
people with a Christian faith background feel a need to help others and give up the time to do
so. Taylor told me that she feels that God calls to help others- Scripture tells us that Jesus was
sent here to help the oppressed and she feels that Christians want to live that out to bring the
world to more peace. Lastly, I asked her where she learned how service is important to
spirituality, she replied with that our grandma showed her that.
I then spoke to my grandma Diane, who is on the board at the church she attends. My
grandma donates much of her time to serve at the church and take care of others welling being.
She has helped at numerous free dinners that the church offers to the community. The dinners
are a different way of volunteering, she donates her time and helps cook others food- most of
the people she helps serve cannot afford meals on a weekly basis. My grandma knows the
importance of serving others and making sure that everyone remembers that everyone is
human and we must all come together to serve others. I then asked her how her faith
correlated to her service and she told me the same thing Taylor had told me. She said that God
showed her the right path and opportunities to help one another, also that Jesus helped the
Garland, D. R., Myers, D. R., & Wolfer, T. A. (2009). Protestant Christian Volunteers in
Community Social Service Programs: What Motivates, Challenges, and Sustains Their
Service. Administration in Social Work,33(1), 23-39. doi:10.1080/03643100802508627