from faithforward: religious participation and diversity

happened across this really interesting post over at faithforward: apparently, according to this USNews article, an economist found that religious participation in communities is highest where there is a high density of people sharing the same religious preference - ie, a community of prednominately Catholic members. In these communities, other good benefits seem to exist too - income levels, education, marriage/divorce rates, etc. But, these "positive effects of living around a lot of people who share your religion are offset if most of those people belong to the same ethnic group. In other words, Italian Catholics go to church more often and do better economically if they live in an area where there are not just Italians but other ethnic groups—Poles or Irish, say—that share the Catholic faith."

Hm. Like the body of Christ, maybe? Many parts, many gifts, one body?