Challenge at the Intersection of Race and Kink: Racial Discrimination, Fetishization, and Inclusivity Within the BDSM (Bondage-Discipline, Dominance-Submission, and Sadism-Masochism) Community.

The bondage-discipline, dominance-submission, and sadism-masochism (BDSM) community has achieved diversity with respect to gender identity and sexual orientation yet does so to a lesser extent with respect to race and ethnicity. A total of 398 BDSM practitioners recruited in 2018 and 2019 from BDSM conferences located within the Southern, Midwestern, and Western regions of the U.S., as well as online, completed surveys asking about racial and ethnic discrimination, fetishization, and inclusivity. People of color were 16 times more likely than non-people of color to feel discriminated against at BDSM events and 17 times more likely to feel fetishized. Qualitative results included troubling stories of overt racism and offensive racial slurs, and examples of microaggressions, feelings of isolation, and feelings of being dismissed. The results suggest that organizations can increase inclusivity by understanding the unique costs faced by people of color with an awareness that these costs might be invisible to non-people of color, diversifying positions of authority and leadership, and teaching well-meaning members what types of behaviors could create a hostile environment.

The bible and attitudes toward voluntary euthanasia.

Are beliefs about and behaviors toward the Bible associated with voluntary euthanasia attitudes? Using General Social Survey data and multivariate logistic regression, I find that individuals' views of the authorship and epistemological status of the Bible; the importance of the Bible in making decisions; and the frequency in which individuals read the Bible are associated with negative voluntary euthanasia attitudes, even when controlling for other religiosity and sociodemographic predictors. I find that the importance of the Bible in making decisions accounts for the effect of frequency of reading the Bible and viewing the Bible as the inspired word of God.

Belief in Life After Death and Attitudes Toward Voluntary Euthanasia.

Research has documented associations among religious affiliation, religious practice, and attitudes toward voluntary euthanasia, yet very few studies have investigated how particular religious beliefs influence these attitudes. I use data from the General Social Survey (GSS; N = 19,967) to evaluate the association between the belief in life after death and attitudes toward voluntary euthanasia. I find that those who believe in life after death are significantly less likely than those who do not believe in life after death or those who doubt the existence of life after death to have positive attitudes toward voluntary euthanasia. These associations hold even after controlling for religious affiliation, religious attendance, views of the Bible, and sociodemographic factors. The findings indicate that to understand individuals' views about voluntary euthanasia, one must pay attention to individuals' particular religious beliefs.

Beliefs in and About God and Attitudes Toward Voluntary Euthanasia.

I use data from the General Social Survey to evaluate several hypotheses regarding how beliefs in and about God predict attitudes toward voluntary euthanasia. I find that certainty in the belief in God significantly predicts negative attitudes toward voluntary euthanasia. I also find that belief in a caring God and in a God that is the primary source of moral rules significantly predicts negative attitudes toward voluntary euthanasia. I also find that respondents' beliefs about the how close they are to God and how close they want to be with God predict negative attitudes toward voluntary euthanasia. These associations hold even after controlling for religious affiliation, religious attendance, views of the Bible, and sociodemographic factors. The findings indicate that to understand individuals' attitudes about voluntary euthanasia, one must pay attention to their beliefs in and about God.

Belief in miracles and attitudes towards voluntary euthanasia.

Results of logistic regression analysis of data from the General Social Survey (N = 1,799) find that those who have a strong belief in miracles are more likely to say that a person with an incurable illness should not be allowed to accept medical treatments that painlessly hasten death than those who have a less strong belief in miracles or do not believe in miracles, net of respondents' religious affiliations, frequency of religious attendance, views of the Bible, and other sociodemographic controls. Results highlight the need to consider specific religious beliefs when predicting individuals' attitudes towards voluntary euthanasia.

Heaven, hell, and attitudes toward physician-assisted suicide.

Using data from the 2007 Baylor Religion Survey, I evaluate whether beliefs in heaven and hell are associated with attitudes toward physician-assisted suicide. I find that those who believe in heaven and those who believe in hell tend to have negative attitudes toward physician-assisted suicide, even when controlling for other religiosity and sociodemographic variables. I also find that the belief in hell mediates the effect of the belief in heaven on attitudes toward physician-assisted suicide, suggesting that the fear of hell, more so than the reward of heaven, may lead people to have negative attitudes toward physician-assisted suicide.

Resisting religious coercive control.

Religious coercive control refers to the use of religious beliefs and doctrine as means to coercively control intimate partners. Scholars have shown that some abusive partners use the Christian doctrine of submission as a means of religious coercive control. I explore how victims who experience the doctrine of submission qua religious coercive control actively resist it. I argue that victims' successful resistance of the doctrine is contingent on their religious capital-that is, the knowledge and mastery that people have of a particular religious culture-and interpretive confidence-that is, people's subjective confidence in their interpretations of religious culture-related to the doctrine.

Do afterlife beliefs affect psychological adjustment to late-life spousal loss?

OBJECTIVES: We explore whether beliefs about the existence and nature of an afterlife affect 5 psychological symptoms (anxiety, anger, depression, intrusive thoughts, and yearning) among recently bereaved older spouses. METHOD: We conduct multivariate regression analyses using data from the Changing Lives of Older Couples (CLOC), a prospective study of spousal loss. The CLOC obtained data from bereaved persons prior to loss and both 6 and 18 months postloss. All analyses are adjusted for health, sociodemographic characteristics, and preloss marital quality. RESULTS: Bleak or uncertain views about the afterlife are associated with multiple aspects of distress postloss. Uncertainty about the existence of an afterlife is associated with elevated intrusive thoughts, a symptom similar to posttraumatic distress. Widowed persons who do not expect to be reunited with loved ones in the afterlife report significantly more depressive symptoms, anger, and intrusive thoughts at both 6 and 18 months postloss. DISCUSSION: Beliefs in an afterlife may be maladaptive for coping with late-life spousal loss, particularly if one is uncertain about its existence or holds a pessimistic view of what the afterlife entails. Our findings are broadly consistent with recent work suggesting that "continuing bonds" with the decedent may not be adaptive for older bereaved spouses.