160
SOCIOLOGICAL
ANALYSIS
were collected from a random sample ofthe church-member population of fourWest Coast counties centered on SanFrancisco. All Protestant and Catholiccongregations in the four counties wereincluded in the sampling frame. Con-gregations were selected randomly, eachhaving the number of chances for selec-tion equal to its total member~hip.~fterdrawing congregations, random samplesof members were drawn from the churchrolls. Each respondent selected was senta lengthy mail questionnaire-approxi-mately 500 items were included-and73% of the Protestants and
54%
of theRoman Catholics returned completeddocuments.Telephone interviews were conductedwith random samples of both Protestantand Roman Catholic non-respondents toassess what biases may have operated inthe return rate. These findings indicatethat the data were remarkably repre-sentative
of
the population sampled.With the data finally gathered, 2,326Protestants and
545
Roman Catholicshad returned questionnaire^.^Before turning to the data one othermatter ought to be mentioned: the prac-tice of treating Protestants as a singlereligious group. While Protestant-Catho-lic comparisons are standard in the sociol-
ogy
of religion, our data indicate theyare usually unwarranted. On a wholehost of beliefs and actions much greaterdifferences were found
among
the Prot-estant denominations than between Prot-
overall study as well as of the study of religion.
he
sponsor is in no way responsible for theviews expressed in this paper.Twenty-one Roman Catholic parishes and
97
Protestant congregations were included inthe sample. The four-county area makes up theArchdiocese of San Francisco.Full details on sampling and data collec-tion methods will be reported in a forthcomingbook on religion and anti-Semitism by Charles
Y.
Glock and the author, scheduled for pub-lication in the Fall of
1965.
estants
in
general and Roman Cath~lics.~Indeed, these findings suggested thatabout all the many Protestant bodiesshared in common was their resistanceto Catholicism. Since the present reportin fact deals with Protestant attitudestowards Catholicism, it turns out to bepossible to ignore comparisons withinProtestantism. On all the items whichfollow, there was little difference in out-look among the various Protestant bodies.One more
caceat:
I
shall report on thereciprocal images of Protestants andCatholics in an entirely descriptive way,that is, to contrast the proportions ofProtestants and Catholics who acceptvarious assertions about one another, but
I
shall make no statements about whyparticular patterns exist. That is too corn-plex a task for
a
short paper. Hopefullyit will be dealt with in one of fie booksto come out of the project.In discussing the reciprocal images ofAmerican Protestants and Catholics, itmight be well to start at the beginning,
SO
to speak: Inat are the current viewsof the Reformation? As can be seen inTable
I,
Protestants and Catholics stilltend to put rather different interpreta-tions on this event. Looking at the firstquestion, Protestants are about twice aslikely as Catholics to feel that "at thetime when Luther broke with the RomanCatholic Church it was sinful and cor-rupt." Given historic traditions, however,one might have expected more than 65%of the Protestants to have agreed, andgiven the angry tone of the item. itseems rather startling that 36% of theRoman Catholics were nevertheless will-ing to admit the truth of such a state-
ment'
The second question gives somefurther insight into what may be a trendtowards accommodation on the Reforma-
4
See: Rodney Stark and Charles
Y.
Glock,"The 'New Denominationalism,'"
Reoiew
of
Religious
Research,
currently in press.
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