The Joy of Economics:  Making Sense out of Life
 Robert J. Stonebraker, Winthrop University
 

Sacrifice and Stigma

             The greatest vicissitude of things among men is the vicissitude of sects.

                                                                                                .....Sir Francis Bacon

            My Lutheran congregation just voted to call an Assistant Pastor.  The meeting was mercifully short and the vote predictably lopsided.  A known curmudgeon citing financial concerns voiced the lone dissent.  Could our budget handle this extra expense?  Were weekly offerings adequate?  Treasurer Thorsen took the floor and assured us not to worry.  Parishioners would rise to the challenge and plans for a new stewardship campaign, including an Every Member Visit, already were underway.

Begging for bucks

            Every Member Visit.  Even typing the phrase curls my toes and sparks involuntary facial tics.  As a young adult I agreed to join my congregation's campaign.  The goals were simple: visit every household in the congregation, deliver offering envelopes for the coming year, and secure a financial pledge.  After a brief training session, I was assigned four households.  A cinch.  Armed with pledge cards, boxes of envelopes and copies of budget plans, I marched into battle on the appointed Sunday. 

            To ease into the fray, I began with an easy mark.  I chose an elderly parishioner who lived down the block and with whom I often shared pleasantries on evening walks around the neighborhood.  Big mistake.  My sheaf of pledge cards might as well have been a semi-automatic weapon.  I could not get past the front door.  Her normal smiles hardened into open hostility and I unceremoniously was routed from her porch.  No admittance.  No pledge. It was months before she again returned my evening greetings.

            Couple number two was wary, but let me through the door.  They invited me to sit down and listened politely before refusing to make a pledge.  "We don't do that," was their response, followed, as I stood to leave, by a "the church wastes too much money" zinger.  The husband began muttering something that about "long-winded sermons," but I continued toward the door dodging deftly lest other barbs be hurled in my general direction.

            My third visit went more smoothly.  The family chose not to answer the door.  I left the offering envelopes inside the storm door with an "I'm sorry I missed you" note.  Were they out?  Or were they lurking in the den waiting for me to leave?  I will never know.  But the family cars all were in the garage.

            The day did end on a more positive note.  The Lacey's, my last family, welcomed me warmly, offered me freshly baked goodies, engaged in an animated discussion of congregational mission, and made a generous financial pledge. If only the other families had welcomed me so enthusiastically.  If only our other parishioners were as committed as the Lacey's.  If only.

Large congregations

            My congregation is a moderately large one.  We have over 1,000 members but are lucky to find 300 at worship on a particular Sunday.  Ushers scramble to set up extra chairs for overflow crowds each Christmas Eve and Easter.  But on other Sundays attendance dips and choir anthems bounce off rows of empty pews.

            Being large does bring benefits.  Multiple staff members support a diversified menu of programs and interest groups that smaller congregations can only imagine.  And there are cost advantages as well.  Attendance at liturgies, Sunday school classes, youth groups, and Bible studies rarely approaches physical capacity.  Stuffing in extra participants almost always lowers the cost per person.  Even when capacity is strained, constructing larger facilities often generates economies of scale.  A building large enough to handle 1,000 parishioners is not likely to be twice as expensive as one built to accommodate 500.¹

            But bigness can be a bane as well as a blessing.  Religious groups are often beset by free riders, members who happily consume services but who run for cover when Every Member Visit volunteers knock at the front door.  Large congregations are especially vulnerable.  The larger the group, the easier it is to hide.  Shirking one's proportionate responsibilities is tough in a group of two, but easy in a group of 2,000.  For those interested in marginal commitment only, large churches are the place to be.

            Free riders create at least two distinct problems for a religious congregation.  First, free riders can be expensive; they raise costs for the more committed members.  Free riders might duck when the offering plates pass by, but they seldom are shy about demanding services, and often complain the loudest when such services are slow in coming.  Clerics of every stripe can identify dysfunctional families that rarely attend services or contribute funds, yet place disproportionate demands on their time and energy.

            In addition, free riders demoralize other members of the congregation. If all members were as committed as the fore-mentioned Lacey's, Every-Member-Visits would be a breeze. It is the marginally committed free riders who cause me to equate such stewardship drives with root canals. 

            And there's more.  Worship services are not discrete spectator events.  They are chapters in a congregation's continuing and collective journey of faith.  Free-riding members who deign to drop in sporadically impede that journey.  Occasional participants do not appreciate where the congregation has been or where it is going.  Like derelict students who have skipped two weeks of class, they sit in the back row with dazed expressions of confusion.  They do not sing with enthusiasm because the melodies and responses are unfamiliar.  They do not pray with conviction because their own commitment is marginal.  They do not seek out and greet new visitors because they cannot identify which people are visitors.  Committed believers add excitement to worship.  Free riders suck it right back out.

Sacrifice and stigma

            What can a church do?  How can it create a congregation of committed and enthusiastic members?  To an economist, the answer is obvious.  Change the relative price. When the price of Pepsi rises, its less-committed adherents switch to Coke.  When the price of tickets to Disney World rises, the less-committed stay home and watch television.  So it is with religion.  Want to weed out less-committed members?  Raise the price.

            What?  Prices?  Religion?  Churches do not charge prices.  Or do they?  Congregations may not herd members through check-out aisles at the exits, but they do charge prices.  The prices charged are not in the usual monetary terms.  According to Laurence Iannaccone, they are charged in terms of sacrifice and stigma.²

            Do you remember the Hare Krishnas?  Shaved heads and saffron robes?  Handing flowers to strangers along busy sidewalks and airport entries?  No twice-a-year back-pewers there.  Or how about the Jehovah Witnesses?  Door-to-door evangelism and no blood transfusions.  Ugh.  Only the most committed adherents would pay such a price.  Orthodox Jews with side curls and yarmulkes?  Amish with no cars or electricity?  Not easy to free-ride there either.  Rest assured, members of these religious groups pay a very real price.  When congregations impose prices like these, the uncommitted jump for safety.  Free-riders vanish quickly.

            Sacrifice and stigma serve a second function as well.  Not only do they keep free-riders out, they keep committed members in.  Pepsi is a substitute for Coke.  If Pepsi executives somehow could drive up the price of Coke, they could more easily lock in current customers.  Pepsi buyers will not stray if Coke becomes more expensive.  Similarly, secular activities are a substitute for the sacred.  If a congregation can raise the price its members pay to participate in secular activities, they can more easily lock these members into sacred activities instead. 

            Stigma and sacrifice fill the bill.  In the words of Iannaccone:

            Distinctive diet, dress, grooming and social customs constrain and often stigmatize members, making participation in alternative activities more costly.  Potential members are forced to choose: participate fully or not at all.³

            Presbyterians can easily interact with the secular world and people of other faiths.  The Amish cannot.  Presbyterians can easily free ride.  The Amish cannot.  With free riders out of the game, strict churches enjoy more loyal participation and higher financial contributions per member.⁴

            Iannaccone's sacrifice and stigma thesis also explains an intriguing paradox of church growth.  Conventional wisdom would predict that making membership easy would increase a group's rate of growth.  However, those faiths which demand the most sacrifice and stigma are among the fastest growing.  For example, Mormons have enjoyed exponential growth, yet place heavy demands upon members. Anyone for a ten percent tithe and a two-year mission?  Similarly, Pentacostalism has grown very rapidly despite, or because of, the high commitments of time, energy and money expected of its members.

            On the other hand, mainstream Protestant denominations place minimal demands upon members.  No weird apparel.  No bizarre customs.  No onerous financial requirements.  However, these are precisely the denominations which have been losing members and market share in recent decades.  Membership is cheap, but so is free-riding.  Have marginal members sapped the strength and fervor from such churches?

Different strokes for different folks

            Sacrifice and stigma are not foolproof strategies for enhancing church growth.  Not all potential members will be persuaded, and not all current members will stay.  After all, sacrificing secular alternatives is costly, at least for those with attractive secular alternatives. 

            The types of alternatives available are critical.  Who is more likely to toss a secular career in the can and join a commune in the woods: the middle-aged corporate leader with a six-figure salary and four children approaching college, or the unemployed teenager next door with no family to support?  Costs and benefits still matter, and the cost of a religious commune life to the corporate leader dwarfs that paid by her teen-aged neighbor.

            The data agree.⁵  The strictest and most demanding religious groups do tend to attract those with the least attractive secular options:  the less educated, the less well-to-do, the young, women and minorities.  And these groups also experience cyclical swings.  When the economy drops into a recession and unemployment rates rise, membership in strict religious groups also tends to rise.  When the economy recovers and job opportunities improve, memberships in these same groups fall. 

            What is the result?  To discourage free-riders who might otherwise poison your groups' evangelical ardor, sacrifice and stigma make sense.  But, if you want to attract the rich and famous, forget about a demanding theology and behavioral norms.  Sacrifice and stigma are too costly for most to bear.  Most will opt out for other, less demanding faiths. 

_________________________________________

Notes:

Part of this reading was published in Robert J. Stonebraker, "Should Members be Required to Participate in Ministry," Episcopal Life, February 2003.

1.         As the number of members in a congregation rises, the cost per member tends to fall.  See Robert J. Stonebraker, "Optimal Church Size: The Bigger the Better?" Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, volume 32, number 3 (September 1993), pp. 231-241.

2.         Laurence R. Iannaccone, "Sacrifice and Stigma: Reducing Free-riding in Cults, Communes, and Other Collectives," Journal of Political Economy, volume 100, number 2 (April 1992), pp. 271-291. 

3.         Ibid., page 276.

4.         See Olson, Daniel V. A. and Perl, Paul, "Free and Cheap Riding in Strict Conservative Churches," Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, June 2005, volume 44, number 2, pp. 123-142.

5.         See Iannaccone, op. cit., pp. 283-289, for a review of the statistical evidence.

_______________________________

Testing Yourself

To test your understanding of the major concepts in this reading, try answering the following:

1.         Explain the problem of free-riding in religious congregations.

2.         Explain how sacrifice and stigma can counteract free-riding.

3.         Describe the types of people most likely to join strict religious groups and explain.

Return to Contents