Protestant sect membership certificates once functioned as portable credit for strangers

Evidence

Weber describes the rigorous investigation of moral worth, probation, and balloting that preceded baptism and admission to a local congregation and argued that the resultant certificate of membership insured credit everywhere, even from out-of-town strangers and nonmembers of the sect. — Shapiro, Susan P., The Social Control of Impersonal Trust, 89

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s interest in how institutional externalization of trust works; parallels modern credentialing and the impersonal-trust machinery culture replaces. — connects to: Weber linked Protestant sect membership to socializing investment risk — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 226
• CANDY: A jolt of historical color: church membership used to be your creditworthiness everywhere, even among strangers.
• SHARE: Worth sending to anyone interested in the sociology of trust or early credit systems.

Related

• Weber linked Protestant sect membership to socializing investment risk (similarity 0.86)