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June 4, 2004 - Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels May 15, 2004 SOU professor contributes to new book In the recently released "Religion & Public Life in the Pacific Northwest: The None Zone," Southern Oregon University Associate Professor of Sociology Mark A. Shibley contributed a chapter on Northwest trends entitled "Secular but Spiritual in the Pacific Northwest." Shibley, a sociologist of religion by training, has been studying trends in religious life for 15 years. He grew up in Oregon and has long been fascinated by the beliefs of Northwest residents. Of particular interest is high number of people who don't ascribe to a specific institutional faith. "What's interesting about the Northwest is the fact that there are fewer people in organized religion than anywhere else," Shibley said. "It's a long-standing pattern, and we were able to update and document that (in the book)." On average, about 50 percent of people in other parts of the country belong to congregations of some sort, compared to 33 percent in the Northwest, according to Shibley, an Ashland resident. "In the Rogue Valley in particular, it's lower than anywhere else in the country," he said. "I think what's going on in this region is very much reflective of broad patterns in the Pacific Northwest." In this region, more people gravitate to alternative religious beliefs, focusing on natural spirituality or other types labeled under the umbrella "New Age," he explained. At the same time, there is strong growth in the evangelical movement locally, causing the formation of two centers of religious gravity. This division between the alternative spirituality and the more socially conservative evangelical belief system has implications up to the legislative level, expressing itself in the recent battles over assisted suicide and homosexual issues. "There's some very different visions about what it means to live in the northwest," he said. Shibley is reticent to speak too much on his own beliefs, but believes he reflects what's going on in the larger picture. "I'm a Northwesterner, so in a lot of ways, I reflect these trends," Shibley said. Shibley next plans a book focusing of nature spirituality. His previous book, "Resurgent Evangelicalism in the United States: Mapping Cultural Change Since 1970" (1996), won the Distinguished Book Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion in 1997. Shibley also co-authored a collection of case studies of community-based collaborative research on social problems entitled "Building Community: Social Science in Action" (1997). This book won the Paul Davidoff Award from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning. Recent journal publications include articles on the role of religious organizations in the environmental movement and the emergence of an environmental justice frame in the efforts to address childhood lead poisoning in the U.S. Since joining the SOU faculty in 1998, Shibley has involved his methodology students in collaborative research on a range of issues with public health groups in southern Oregon, and he is undertaking a long term study of the management practices and associated values of non-industrial private forestland owners in Oregon. DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams