4 0 S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 2 - 2 Fa l l 2 0 1 6 Were there statistically significant relationships between spirituality and ideology? In Round 2, there was a positive and statistically significant correlation of nearly 26% between communitarianism and the spirituality index (p < .05), while, in Round 1, there was a significantly inverse correlation (also nearly 26%) between liberalism and the spirituality index (p < .05). What accounts for the apparent link between liberalism and low spiritual involvement? Is it simply the case that awareness of the stark contrast between one’s views on hot-button issues like abortion or same-sex marriage and those expressed in official Church statements discourage the average liberal from becoming actively involved in the life of the Church? Or, more controversially, does spiritual involvement foster objective knowledge on worldly (including political) matters, such that Orthodoxy and political liberalism are intrinsically incompatible? For reasons previously discussed, I have misgivings about drawing the latter conclusion. One must also be careful about generalizing from the results of an online survey (Gideon 2012, 73). My particular sample appeared to be exceptionally well-educated. Whereas 47% of Americans had some college education, according to the latest round of the World Values Survey [12], the comparable figure in my survey was nearly twice as high (93%). It is likely that this skewed the political attitudes of my respondents towards the right end of the political spectrum, since more highly educated people tend be wealthier (United States Department of Labor 2014), and the wealthy in turn tend to favor conservative economic policies (Page, Bartels and Seawright 2013) [13]. 4.3 Askesis and Attitudes Towards Sociopolitical Threats In Round 1 of my investigation, prayer and spiritual reading were discovered to be significantly associated with one’s friendliness towards the sociopolitical group he or she identifies as the most threatening (see Tables 5 and 6). A unit increase in spiritual reading increased friendliness by .67 points, holding age and sex constant [14]. The comparable figure for prayer was .58 points. Table 5. The Impact of Spiritual Reading on Friendliness towards Sociopolitical Threats (Multiple Linear Regression Model) Friendliness Spiritual Reading .665** (.314) Age *-.045 (.018) Sex -.1.020** (.556) *p < .10; **p <.05; ***p < .01 Table 6. The Impact of Prayer on Friendliness towards Sociopolitical Threats (Multiple Linear Regression Model) Friendliness Prayer .579** (.190) Age *-.043 (.018) Sex -.896** (.556) *p < .10; **p <.05; ***p < .01
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