Socio-Religious Spatial Behavior

SOCIO-RELIGIOUS SPATIAL BEHAVIOR Philip L. Hinshaw and Frederick P. Stutz* More Americans are members of churches than of any other type of voluntary organization. (J) According to an established textbook in cultural geography, "all religions in the course of their development have created a . . . manifest cultus that is spatially and temporally perceptible in the form . . . [that] can be studied geographically." (2) Sopher suggests that whereas geography may not be able to deal directly with the personal religious experience, it can study organized religious systems and culturally molded and institutionalized religious behavior. (3) The geography of religion is a relatively neglected subject in the United States. The most extensive reviews of the literature in United States and foreign journals are contained in the works of Zelinsky and Licate. (4) Most research has been in the form of unpublished M.A. theses and Ph.D. dissertations utilizing historical and distributional approaches to delimit city-level service areas. The emphasis of this study, however, is on the spatial travel behavior of individuals going to church, or upon the chosen linkage between home and church. Goals of this paper are to determine the degree to which the principle of least effort is demonstrated for the travel to worship and to identify a behavioral model for churchgoers. Studies of discretionary travel have centered on the recreational trip, and only touched on the trip for social interaction. (5) None treats travel for religious and related social experiences. THE STUDY AREA AND POPULATION. The data for the study were collected from 1972 membership directories of 14 Churches of Christ in the San Diego area (Table 1). This information was used to map the distribution of members' residences around each church * Dr. Stutz is professor of geography at San Diego State University and Mr. Hinshaw is with the Comprehensive Planning Organization, San Diego. This paper was accepted for publication in February, 1976. 36 Southeastern Geographer i1 ? C 1 Y 1 { (J C E ? N CHURCHGOER TRAVEL PATTfcHNS BY HOUSEHOLDS SAN DIEGO CHURCH OF CHRIST CONÜKtüAI IONS OUSt HOl. D 2 HOUSEtIOLDS 3 HOUSEHOLDS HOUSEHOLDS b HOUSEHOLDS CO NG R EGATIO MS NO.PERCENT OF HOUSEHOLDS ..... WITHIN 2 Mi. WITHIN 4M EL CAJON BLVO PALOMAR DATA COMPILED FROM 1972 DIRECTORIES Figure 1. Churchgoer travel patterns for two San Diego Church of Christ congregations, 1972. (Figure 1). Additionally, questionnaires were administered in 1974 seeking information concerning distance, neighborhood, and friendship factors influencing the choice of a particular congregation to attend. This survey information supplemented data from the membership directories. The 14 congregations included in this study reported an average attendance of 3,190 persons at Sunday morning services in 1974. Vol. XVI, No. 1 37 TABLE 1 TRAVEL DISTANCE AND DISPERSAL OF MEMBERS, 1972 Congregation Dist. From CBD (1) Households Travel Distance No. Rank Avg. Rank (2) (3)(4) (5) No. of Households Within 2 Mi. Rank 4 Mi. Rank (6) (7) (8) (9) National Ave.2.50 Oceanview3.50 Raven St.3.75 El Cajon Blvd.4.00 Linda Vista4.50 Pacific Beach5.00 LSt. (4th Ave.)7.25 Clairemont7.75 Allied Gardens7.75 Lemon Grove8.25 Imperial Beach9.00 Palomar9.75 La Mesa10.25 Santee13.50 25 13 61 10 56 12 251 64 118 139 80 76 127 65 215 1 9 5 3 6 7 4 59 11 20 14 5.67 1.52 2.74 2.01 1.75 2.60 2.56 1.62 3.09 3.01 1.87 2.01 3.36 2.33 14 1 10 5.5 3 9 8 2 12 11 4 5.5 13 7 36« 66% 68% 69% 48% 54% 75% 45% 47% 60% 14 6 4.5 9.5 3 9.5 8 2 12 13 4.5 1 11 7 72% 90% 91% 77% 76% 11 3 2 14 5 7 1 12 9 6 4 67% 13 75% 10 Source: Compiled by authors from membership directories. Women outnumbered men by a three to two ratio and 75 percent of the respondents were married. Slightly more than one-third of the study group were preachers, elders, deacons, or teachers in the congregations . The average age was 40.4 years, and the...