The All Mighty Dollar Bill

            We have already established a connection between America’s prayer frequency and the well being of society. Through the Baylor Religion Survey we have also determined that prayer is being used as a coping mechanism. For today’s post we will continue analyzing Joseph O. Baker’s sample survey on American society to look deeper into this coping mechanism theory, as we focus on individuals financial status. If you haven’t read my first post on the topic, navigate through the blog until you have found the post titled “Prayer and Society”.

            Money isn’t the key to happiness; this maybe the saying of the middle class but the data begs to differ. Baker states with his findings, “A downward trend in mean for the frequency of prayer as income and education levels increase” (175). This gives us an incredible amount of information on the power of the dollar bill and its influences on the well-being of the ones who use it. If we have determined that prayer is used as a coping mechanism and that people of all income levels pray regularly and those with less income tend to pray more frequently, then we have discover the key to a societies happiness.

            The conclusion to the Baylor Religion Survey generated a statistical individual who would pray the most. Female, African-American parents are seen as the most frequently praying people in the United States. If we were to break down how each of these attributes is seen sociologically this conclusion would make complete sense. The institutions of society have suppressed women through out time, especially in American culture. Although efforts have been made to balance these inequalities through the women’s rights movement. Women still have less job opportunities and averagely played less. Our next attribute is the race of our prayer. Through out American history African-Americans have oppressed in the job market until recent years. Even after attempts of the equal rights movement the dominant race is white in the job market. Lastly our prayer is a parent. This is something that any race, gender or social class can relate to. Children play a heavy toll on families financially. Children aren’t expected to start generating significant income until the age 19 or after higher education. This means parents are supporting their children financially for an extended amount of time. After viewing the date from this survey one could predict that the frequency of prayer would increase as more children are introduced to a family.

            The point to this analysis is that the well-being of a society will affect the participation of religious rituals. In modern society income is a major factor in determination the level of happiness. So we can say that an individual’s income will determine their participation in religious rituals of prayer. If people can’t generate enough income to live a happy and fulfilling life they will turn to God in hopes of a supernatural force to meet their needs.