Ecuminical (and Financial) Incentives

From Slate:

Working with David Yermack of New York University, the two preachers' sons set out to test the Corinthian hypothesis by investigating the economic incentives affecting the United Methodist clergy of Oklahoma, where Hartzell's stepfather had spent his career. In "Is Higher Calling Enough?" a study forthcoming in the Journal of Labor Economics, the researchers show that Oklahoma's ministers are driven not just by spiritual motivations but also by high-powered financial incentives. Working with more than 40 years of church records covering more than 2,000 clergy, the authors find that ministers received about a 3 percent share of revenues generated from boosting membership, comparable to the pay-for-profit sensitivity of Fortune 500 CEOs. They also uncover some unfortunate side-effects of financial incentives for ministers who, motivated by material concerns, may have been encouraged to poach congregants from one another's flocks rather than to bring new believers into the fold.

The Private Provision of Public Goods: The Bones of Santa Claus

From Time:

In 1087, the Italian town of Bari hired men — some accounts call them pirates while others refer to them as "privileged mariners" — to steal St. Nicholas from Myra, a town in present-day Turkey. The theft of Santa's bones is still celebrated in Bari with an annual parade and fireworks.

According to this website, this project was launched as a joint venture organized by private merchants and a Bari church. It also says that the church double crossed the pirates and never paid them. They overcame the free-rider problem nonetheless.

Another day, another politically motivated voodoo death ritual...

Think I can't top Justin's gonorrhea/beer prices post? Well, here goes:

Thompson said he's still trying to make sense of a Cobb police report that alleges District 4 Commissioner Annette Kesting met with a high priestess of voodoo in South Carolina and paid the priestess to perform a "death ritual" on him.

Yes, an incumbent Commissioner in Georgia met with a high priestess in South Carolina to put a death ritual on her opponent.

My thoughts:

- There weren't any voodoo priestesses in Georgia that could do the job? Maybe the one in South Carolina was superior. Here's to division of labor!

- Dana, care to comment on the legal aspect of this? According to a South Carolina sheriff's office, "payment for a death ritual is illegal and would be considered a 'solicitation of hire for murder.'" I'm taking it that Georgia's law officials don't see it the same way. I can't say this is a crime yet at this point any more than wishing someone trips on stage during a debate. Now, if something were to actually happen to her opponent, would this change? Should it change?

- Great line that speaks exactly to the probability of this death ritual request actually occurring:

"Who would make this up?" [Thompson] said. "What's the point?"

The priestess-- named Georgia, by the way-- vouches for the story as well. The incumbent says she lost her purse "a while back" and that explains the checks. When's the last time you lost your wallet/purse and didn't get around to canceling checks and credit cards for a few weeks? The checks did bounce, but then money orders backed up the original owed funds. Bizarre.

- Who filed the report? It seems that the opponent was taken aback by the police report; maybe a supporter of his?

Spiritual Desert or Creative Destruction

CNN reports on the Pope's concern that materialism is replacing spirituality. There is some support for his claim, consider Gruber and Hungerman's "Church vs. the Mall" paper in which they find the removal of blue laws (like bans on early hours of operation on Sundays for Malls) have had an adverse effect on religious participation. However, Larry Iannoccone's research has suggested overall religious participation and fervor has increased over time, though it has been through competition that has picked away at the traditional religious powers like the Catholic Church.

Regardless of whether or not growing wealth (which they use interchangeably with "materialism") is good for religions in general, I do believe that we are witnessing a creative destruction in spirituality, particularly in the wealthiest countries like the United States. People worried about day-to-day survival probably spend less time hammering out the specifics of the nature of the spiritual world. Consider the rise of Scientology or Eckhart Tolle's new best seller, which represent new ways of thinking about these "higher plane" issues. Part of the tone of the environmental movement seems to have a spiritual flavor to it.

I think this is what the Catholic Church and other traditional religious movements are actually concerned with, in part because it is bad for their individual movements and in part because they tend to view spiritual movements outside their own halls devoid of any truth.

Pope Doesn't Wear Prada

But Jesus does wear Versace.

Story here. Anybody who knows a Jesuit Priest could find it probable that the pope wears prada or other high end fashion lines. The real question is, can you declare "accumulation of wealth" and poverty a societal sin and then wear this stuff?

Yet more interesting stuff from one of the richest organizations on the planet that regards poverty as a path to spiritual enlightenment. I wish they had Q&A sessions at church, it would make the weekly visit a lot more fun.