Religious members selectively adopt beliefs, keeping distinction within belonging

Evidence

Although religion does provide a complete worldview and prescribed behaviors for members, members will not always ascribe every religious belief or prescribed behavior nor will they all be important or central to the self. American Catholics, for example, tend to be more liberal on average regarding birth control, divorce, and other issues than the main Roman Catholic Church. So, while American Catholics benefit from belonging to the world’s Catholic community and evaluate the self based on assimilation to the group and shared qualities, they also benefit from the distinction between themselves and the main church. — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 917

Categorization

• XREF: American Catholics’ selective belief adoption complicates assumptions of uniform religious ingroup identification — connects to the prejudice-psychology thread on heterogeneous rather than monolithic group membership.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 917