Friends in church make a difference

Here's something significant picked up on Martin Marty's Context
Scholars say their studies found that religious American are three to four times more likely to be involved in their kcommunity than are nonreligious Americans. They are more apt to work on community projects, belong to voluntary associations, attend public meetings, vote in local elections attend political rallies and dontate time and money to causes.
However the increase in civic engagement has nothing to do with ideas of divine judgment or with trying to secure a place in heaven. Rather it's the relationships people make in their churches, that draw them into comm unity activism.
The theory is: if someone from your "moral community" asks you to volunteer for a casue, its really hard to say no. Being asked to do something by a member of your congregation is different from being asked to do something by a member of bowling league. The effect is so strong, that peoploe whoattend religious services regularly but don't have any friends there look more like secularists than fellow believers when it comes to civic participation. It's not faith that accounts for this, its faith communities.