A person must be understood and taken as a whole

A recent article TODAY article caught my eye and I have posted it below. Quoting research from NUS, it said that those who seek deep value in their religion and identify with statements like, "My whole approach to life is based on my religion", were more likely to engage in volunteer work. Surprisingly, only 6% volunteer with religious organization while most others volunteered with schools, charitable and non-profit groups.

This reminds me of PM Lee’s observation that religiousity is growing amongst Singaporeans and although religion is positive for individual and Singapore society, it could backfire if practiced aggressively. But no one bothered to ask him for the definition of an “aggressive” religion besides insensitive proselytizing. Can someone receive a good religion wholeheartedly including its beliefs and values but throw away the activism that comes along with it? To a true practitioner, religion forms his fundamental world view (including secular) and instead of nick-picking and trying to filter out the parts that are unpalatable, why not try to understand and harness this positive energy. Or maybe someone should start a checklist and tick those actions that would render religion a negative force?

Today Online

A flipside to the religious coin

05:55 AM Aug 29, 2009

by Neo Chai Chin

WARNINGS have been sounded over growing religiosity and the problems this could mean for the common, secular space in multiracial Singapore - but consider, also, a positive flipside to the trend.

New research by the National University of Singapore (NUS) shows that those who seek deep value in their religion, are more likely to volunteer their time to help their fellow man, regardless of his faith.

The finding, which emerged from a survey of 3,143 NUS undergraduates in May, was announced at Friday's launch of the Centre for Social Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy (CSEP) at the NUS Business School.

Simply professing to a religion does not increase one's likelihood of volunteering, however. The survey found that those who participate in religious activities for extrinsic praise or rewards were not more inclined to volunteer - these were respondents who agreed to statements like, "I pray mainly to gain relief and protection".

In contrast, those who agreed with statements like "My whole approach to life is based on my religion" and "It is important to me to spend time in private thought and prayer", were more inclined to do volunteer work.

But their volunteering efforts do not appear to be church, temple or mosque-centric. Survey respondents who were active volunteers said they most often channelled their volunteering through their schools or charitable and non-profit groups.

Only about 6 per cent said a religious organisation.

And their volunteer work was most likely to support the education, social service, grassroots and youth sectors. Only 6 per cent said the religious sector.

Co-researcher and CSEP director Associate Professor Albert Teo said the encouraging findings "mitigate some concerns recently raised by politicians".

While some people may perceive the religious as "inward-looking", the results show they are "actually out to make a difference, and are helping people regardless of their religious affiliation".

The CSEP began work about a year ago, with the mission to advance research and education in philanthropy and social entrepreneurship.

It is currently working on case studies of local and foreign social enterprises, and developing a system to measure social value created by them.

Its preliminary research on local grant-making bodies revealed that 85 per cent of them contribute to educational causes, and 80 per cent to social welfare causes.

Just 17 per cent of them support arts, cultural and sports, while 13 per cent donate to causes outside of Singapore. But a shift towards these "non-essential" areas might take place in the next few years as the country matures, said Prof Teo.