Sexual Identity and Religious Socialization

Author(s): Mairi Levitt

Source: The British Journal of Sociology, Vol. 46, No. 3 (Sep., 1995), pp. 529-536
Published by: Wiley on behalf of The London School of Economics and Political Science
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Mairi Levitt

Sexual identity and religious socialization

ABSTRACT

This paper looks at religious socialization in specific families and

their local schools and churches, in order to examine the roots of
gender differentiation in beliefs, attitudes and practice. Christian
beliefs and practices were not usually seen by the mothers as
relevant to their everyday life, even if they were churchgoers, but
were seen as desirable for young children. It was precisely the
divorce of Christianity from everyday life that made it a 'natural'
part of childhood and naturally outgrown. Church schools provid-
ing the aspects of Christianity mothers want for their children are
popular, but more specific Christian teaching can lead to fears that
children are being 'indoctrinated'. Girls had more positive attitudes
towards religion and higher levels of belief than boys, just as their
mothers were more interested in religion than their fathers and
more likely to attend a church. The mothers' central values of
individualism, autonomy and freedom, mitigate against commit-
ment to any Christian denomination and lead them to abhor any
attempt to influence their own or their childrens' religiosity above
the 'normal' level. As Christianity is puerilized so it becomes the
particular province of women who still take the main responsibility
for the care of the young children at home, nursery and infant
school and Sunday school.

SEXUAL IDENTITY AND RELIGIOUS SOCIALIZATION

This paper is based on empirical research carried out in a small

Cornish town, here called 'Penvollard', which attempted to examine
the religious socialization of a group of children in the context of their
families, schools and community (Levitt 1994). Penvollard had two
schools forjunior age children, one Church of England aided and one
county school. These schools together with a nearby village aided
school were included in the study. None of their pupils came from

BJS Volumc no. 46 Issuc no. 3 Scpcmber l 995 ISSN 0007-1315 g) London School of Economics l 995

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530 Mairi Levitt

religious backgrounds other than Christian, as far as the staff were

aware. The longitudinal study followed thirty eight children, about
half the total age group in each school, and their families from the
child's last year of primary school (aged 10-11) to the end of com-
pulsory schooling (age 16-17). Changes in the children's religiosity
could be monitored and comparisons made with the mother's re-
ligious life history. l the focus was on the mother and child because at
the first interview all the children had lived with their natural
mothers who had been their prime carer, but some had little or no
contact with their fathers. This paper examines the patterns of re-
ligious practice, belief and attitudes by generation and gender, the
puerilization of Christianity and the impact these processes may have
on the next generation.2

THE FEMINIZATION OF THE MAINSTREAM DENOMINATIONS

Women who have traditionally been responsible for the 'back stage'
work in the churches; cleaning,providing refreshments, washing the
choir robes and linen, are moving 'front of house'. Women encroach
on the altar in Anglican and Catholic churches as servers and on the
power structure as church wardens, lay readers, deacons and, since
March 1994 in England, as Anglican priests. The pews are female
dominated as the decline in the proportion of attenders who are
male affects all the main Christian churches. The proportion
dropped by 6 per cent in ten years in the Anglican church and male
churchgoers are already at a lower level in Scotland and Wales than
in England. (Brierley 1991a:85, 79). Up to twice the number of
females are confirmed into the Church of England as males in each
of the English dioceses (Church of England Yearbook 1993). Only
the Independent churches have the same proportion of men as there
are in the population as a whole (49 per cent) (Brierley 1991a: 79,
85).
Concern in all the main Christian denominations over the decline
in attendance has tended to obscure the particular decline in male
attendance (Brierley 1991a). On other indicators men also display
lower levels of religiosity than women; they have lower levels of
belief, less positive attitudes to religion and fewer report having had a
religious experience (Davis et al. 1990: 218,223; Harrison 1983).
The example of those churches which have ordained women for
decades does not indicate that women will rapidly have the position
in the power structures proportional to their numbers in the pews
nor is it suggested that all women support these changes. The pur-
pose of this paper is to examine themes relevant to sexuality and
religious identity in material gathered while researching the religious

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Sexual identity and religious socialization 531

socialization of a group of children from Christian or nominally Chris-

tian backgrounds.

THE PUERILIZATION OF RELIGION

Religion was seen by mothers in Penvollard as appropriate for young

children and, by implication, less appropriate for older children. Such
a puerilization of religion was noted by John Hull who described the
age of eight as 'the high water mark of religiosity' (Hull 1985: 8) and
Francis who found attitudes to Christianity became 'progressively less
favourable' from age eight until the end of compulsory schooling in
Local Authority schools, including voluntary aided schools (Francis
1989: 8; 1992). In Penvollard, church activities were aimed at young
children and were relatively successful in attracting them and their
mothers, as prime carers. However the policy of 'getting them young'
was followed by a high drop-out rate. Boys tended to cease attending
as soon as their mothers stopped taking them and girls when they grew
out of the provision for Sunday school/junior church by the age of
fourteen. Girls were more willing to attend a children's church group
but none went to a normal service without an adult. There was there-
fore no natural progression from Sunday school to Sunday service.
The mothers in the study tended to reject the practice of religion for
themselves while supporting some religious education in schools.
John Hull suggests

As adults and parents we socialise our children into that for which
we have a fond nostalgia but can no longer take seriously ourselves'.
(Hull 1985: 8)

Most of the mothers did not make connections between Christianity

and their everyday lives. The suitability of Christianity for young chil-
dren lay precisely in its divorce from the everyday. Its special rituals
were seen as a right for children which were part of the magic of child-
hood and were left behind as children prepare for the adult world in
secondary schools. The rituals of Christianity were not built into fam-
ily life. The popular Christian festivals are child-centred; Christmas,
Harvest and Mothering Sunday and, as the children in the study made
clear, are aimed at the pre-teens and their mothers. Since religion does
not appear to provide meaning in the mothers' lives, apart from the
four mothers for whom religion was 'very important', the attachment
to religion in schools may be a manifestation of the child-centred
world rather than a commitment to religion itself.3 Nash and Berger
writing about the high level of churchgoing among young families in
suburban America, saw parents as joining for the sake of their chil-
dren; 'the Church is conceived as a necessary adjunct to the family (in
this case an ethical agency) in the task of socialising children' (Nash

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 532 Mairi Levitt

and Berger 1972: 112-113). Sending one's child to a church school, or

indeed any school since religious education and worship are
compulsory, may fulfil the same purpose for parents in Britain where
churchgoing rates are much lower.
If religion is desirable for young children it is per se the province of
women as mothers/carers rather than men.

CHURCHGOING HAS BECOME OPTIONAL AND APPEALS MORE TO

GI RLS

Attendance at a church is generally seen as an optional, voluntary

activity. Among pre-school children, whose parents presumably make
the decision about the attendance and normally accompany them,
there is little gender differentiation (87 per cent girls: 86 per cent boys
had attended a church at some time before the age of five). However,
mothers felt strongly that children should attend if they wanted to and
thus the appeal of the activity to the individual child is of crucial
importance in determining their attendance, rather than parental
wishes. By the age of 12-13, 47 per cent of girls attended most weeks
compared with 5 percentoftheboys (Levitt 1994: 1 59). Mostofthegirls
still attending at 12-13 were going to a Sunday school with a friend, a
sister or alone. All the boys had left these groups by the age of 12-13 and
so any boys that went, whether regularly or occasionally, attended a
normal service accompanied by an adult. The girls in the sample were
more likely than boys to participate in any organized activities, other
than male dominated sports.
Why are church groups less appealing to boys? Relevant factors
might include the girl friendly ethos with a predominance of female
teachers in Sunday schools; the type of activities offered such as drama,
singing, art and craft, the alternative activities available on a Sunday
morning especially sport and parental role models and attitudes, since
fathers display less religiosity than mothers. The caring role was
assumed by the girls, who took younger siblings to church and helped
with younger children in the group, rather than the boys. Finally, the
girls had more favourable attitudes towards Christianity and the
church than the boys, rather than a greater knowledge of Christianity
(Levitt 1994: 167-88; appendix B). Other studies have also found girls
to have more positive attitudes than boys (Francis 1989).

A 'NORMAL' LEVEL OF RELIGIOSITY

The children in Penvollard still encountered Christian practice and

beliefs regardless of parental practice. Mothers accepted and even
encouraged some degree of involvement so long as it fell within their
concept of a 'normal' level. Religion was not to interfere with more
important aspects of education or social activities nor with their own

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Sexual identity antl religzous socialization 533

central values of individual autonomy and freedom of belief. The

mothers accepted religious education in schools as part of education
but were critical when, in one Church school their child attended, it
was thought to have taken too much time and to be indoctrinating
children. An evangelical approach was not considered 'normal' and
mothers were strongly opposed to any attempt to influence their own
children's views through mission. Only a Jehovah's Witness mother
and a 'born again' Christian approved of local missionary work, but
their religiosity fell outside the definition of 'normal'.
Most Church of England schools are not distinctively denominatio-
nal, nor do they usually insist on teachers being practising Anglicans
or even practising Christians. Advertisements in the Church Times
for staff for Church of England aided schools show that it is rare to
require a practising Anglican/Christian as a classroom teacher.
Advertisements for headteachers may state that a 'communicant
member of the Church of England' is 'essential' or it may simply be
stated that 'it is desirable that the applicants are in sympathy with the
aims of a Church of England School'. What these schools do provide is
a veneer of religious practice with which non-practising parents can
feel comfortable; in the form of regular assemblies with children
participating, Christian-based religious education centred on the
festivals, visits from the local Vicar, some child-centred services in
church and a 'caring' attitude involving some contract with the local
community. All these appeal to the nominally Christian majority who
hold some general religious beliefs, attend a special service
occasionally and see themselves as Christian in a moral sense. Mothers
did not expect church schools to encourage their children to be more
religious than the 'norm' for young children, that is somewhat higher
than the 'norm' for adults (Brierley 1991b: 52-3).

RELIGION AND MORALITY

The trait most often associated with Christians by the mothers was
'hypocrisy', a similar finding to earlier studies, but they were reluctant
to say they were 'not religious' apparently because they were aware of
the connection made between religion and morality (Hoggart 1957,
Ahern and Davie 1987). To say you are not religious might imply you
were immoral. Their stress on individual autonomy included
scepticism towards the view that 'right' and 'wrong' could be taught in
a straightforward way. Modern mothers expect children to question
received knowledge as they have done themselves and make up their
own minds. Typical comments were

They have to learn for themselves what is right and wrong for them.

It depends what you think is right and wrong, what you believe in
. . . It's personal.

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 534 Mairxv Levitt

Such views mitigate against the valuing of tradition and received

truths.
The mothers contrasted the public practice of religion unfavourably
with the practice of 'Christian values', by which they meant caring for
and helping other people. The implication was that those who were
'holyJoes' and 'regular at Church' concentrated on that public aspect of
religion to the exclusion of the more important moral and social
aspects, as the following quotations illustrate
You can go to church three times on Sunday but not be a terribly good
Christian. Christianity is about the Ten Commandments and a code
of life.

People go to church to be seen. You might be in church on Sunday

and . . . beat the children.

If you ask 'Are you a Christian?', if it means showing in that way

[church going], then no. If it means loving one another and showing
it in everyday life, then yes.

However, their children were not yet associating church-going with

hypocrisy. Those who went to a church group had chosen it as a leisure
option and those who no longer went regarded it as an activity they had
dropped out of, as they had out of other activities from time to time.

CHURCH ATTENDANCE AND FAMILY ROLE

The lower attendance and less positive attitudes of males are not
unique to the present generation of children. Mothers referred to
husbands who were atheist or non-believers but none of them de-
scribed themselves in those terms. Out of 38 families, none of the
fathers attended a church more regularly than the mothers, or sons
more regularly than their sisters. The greater level of attendance
among the mothers was linked to their changing roles through their
life cycle. When they were independent adults attendance was at its
lowest point but when they had young children their attendance rose,
falling again as their children grew up. Despite this rise in the atten-
dance of mothers with children, both the boys and girls had less per-
sonal experience of Christianity than their mothers, thought less
about it and had lower levels of belief. Whether or not the children
would call on the resources of a church when they were adult would
depend on what the church was offering to themselves and their chil-
dren. Religious rituals were not built into family life, religion was not
part of popular culture and elements of practice tended to be left be-
hind with primary school. None of the fathers undertook child care on
a day to day basis, but, if more equality in child care becomes the norm
Christian practice might well decline further among young children.

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Sexual identitw and religzous socialization 535

The mothers who had been 'made to go' to a Sunday school had
determined to let their children choose for themselves. Only the
children of the four mothers for whom religion was 'very important'
had experienced any pressure to attend.3 The willingness of the other
mothers for their children to have religious education and worship,
and attend a Sunday school if they wanted to, did not stem from a
desire that they should absorb the beliefs and values of Christianity
but rather that certain aspects of Christianity were part of childhood
and children had a right to experience them. Like the respondents in
Osmond's study, most mothers felt that they had lived their lives
according to Christian morality (Osmond 1993: 84). However, rather
than reflecting strongly held principles is seemed to indicate a feeling
that what a normal sort of person feels to be right will be in accordance
with Christian morality. The headmaster of the village Church school
included in the empirical study made the connection explicit when he
explained what sort of teachers he sought to appoint

Most teachers have Christian or humane attitudes . . . I look for

Christian attitudes, a reasonable person. (Levitt 1994: 149)

CONCLUSION

Despite the higher levels of religiosity among mothers and daughters,

religion/Christianity was not seen as relevant to their everyday lives
(except for the four mothers already mentioned). Sociology of
religion has always had the problem of assessing the significance of
levels of attendance or stated belief in changing social conditions. The
mothers' central values were individualism, autonomy and freedom.
Asked what they hoped for their children's future the most common
response was that they should 'do what they want to do'. The impetus
to some involvement in Christianity was a desire to give their young
children the religious experiences that were part of a normal
childhood and, in some cases, a response to particular crisis in their
lives. Most of the women and their daughters, at some points in their
lives, came under Toon's category of 'non-religious members of a
religious group', while regarding regular, committed churchgoers
with suspicion (Toon 1981: 8). Rather than suggesting the male sex is
inherently less religious it seems to be their ('traditional') role in the
family that encourages a view of Christianity as the province of women
and young children now that it is no longer normal or socially
desirable to practise.

(Date accepted: October 1994) Mairi Levitt

Centre for Professional Ethics
University of Central Lancashire

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536
NOTES
1. Mothers and children were inter-
viewed separately in their own homes
when the children were in the last year of
junior school (year 6, age 10-11), in year
8 at secondary school (age 12-13) and
then interviewed by telephone after
GCSEs to collect information on desti-
nations at 16+, future career plans and
any changes in religious practice in the
family. Questions on attitudes to religion
(practice, belief, school RE etc.) were
repeated at the first two interviews with
mothers and given to children at the
second interview for comparison. Open
ended questions were used for gathering
a religious life history, feelings about
religion and stories about events in family
member's lives which they felt had a
bearing on their beliefs and values. (see
Levitt 1994: chapter 6).
2. None of the families came from a
religious background other than Chris-
tian. Questions about religion were fre-
quently interpreted as being about Chris-
. .
tlanlty.
3. Four mothers stood out from the
rest of the sample. Religion was 'very
important' to them throughout the study,
regardless of changes in family life and
their children's religiosity. These women
were a Jehovah's Witness, a 'born again'
Christian, an Anglican and a woman
brought up as a Catholic who was active in
various Christian churches. They were
the only mothers who disagreed with the
statement 'religion is something which
children have to make up their own
minds about' because they felt children
had to be guided to make a decision for
themselves later on. Only the Witness and
Anglican women had partners who
shared their commitment and it was their
children, a boy and a girl, who were the
only ones still attending regularly at age
1S17 (Levitt 1994: chap.9).
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Mairxv Levitt
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