Many religions have an ethos of community betterment that can spur their members to contribute to society in meaningful ways. Yet much of the literature on religion and politics tends to focus on how places of worship increase explicitly partisan activities like voting or donating to a political campaign. Does religion affect community engagement in the same ways that it does political participation? A unique research design executed in Little Rock, Arkansas, USA brings together religious data on individual beliefs and behaviors, clergy messaging, and congregation culture to examine religion’s effects on both political activity and community engagement. The results demonstrate that religion influences both types of behaviors, but not always in the same ways. For instance, it appears as though many congregations tend to develop cultures that encourage either community engagement or political activity, rather than both, with Black Protestant churches as an exception. Additionally, individuals that hold providential religious beliefs tend to have higher levels of community engagement but lower levels of political activity. These findings indicate that religion influences different types of participation differently.

中文翻译：

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宗教对政治活动和社区参与的不同影响

许多宗教都有改善社区的精神，可以激励其成员以有意义的方式为社会做出贡献。然而，许多关于宗教和政治的文献倾向于关注礼拜场所如何明显增加党派活动，例如投票或向政治运动捐款。宗教是否以与政治参与相同的方式影响社区参与？在美国阿肯色州小石城执行的一项独特研究设计汇集了有关个人信仰和行为、神职人员信息和会众文化的宗教数据，以研究宗教对政治活动和社区参与的影响。结果表明，宗教影响两种类型的行为，但并不总是以相同的方式。例如，似乎许多会众倾向于发展鼓励社区参与或政治活动的文化，而不是两者兼而有之，黑人新教教堂是一个例外。此外，持有天意宗教信仰的个人往往具有较高的社区参与度，但较低的政治活动水平。这些发现表明，宗教对不同类型的参与有不同的影响。