Research On Religion » racial discrimination

James Hudnut-Beumler on Religion in the Now South

tonygill — Sun, 27 May 2018 08:00:19 +0000

When you think if Christianity in the U.S. South, images of Southern Baptist congregations, conservative politics, and even snake-handling may come to mind. But Prof. James Hudnut-Beumler, the Anne Potter Wilson Distinguished Professor of American Religious History at Vanderbilt University, reveals that the spiritual tapestry is much more nuanced than might appear on initial glance. Prof. Hudnut-Beumler joins us to talk about his new book Strangers and Friends at the Welcome Table and reveals how several historical traditions have persisted in the region while significant transformations are also taking place.

We commence with a discussion of a definition of “the South,” which can be viewed geographically (starting just below Northern Virginia, running down to the top portion of Florida, and extending westward to Arkansas and encompassing the southern portions of Indiana and Illinois) and spiritually (those areas with a majority Southern Baptist population). Jim explains how this decade-long process took him on a “r0ad trip” around the region to experience the lives and institutions of those living in what he calls the “Now South,” a region with deep roots to its “Old Time Religion” past, but which is also changing in surprising ways. Looking at the historical roots first, we discuss how religion, food, and hospitality are intimately linked via kinship networks and a concern over scarcity being a daily lived experience. Food and visitation are viewed as an expression of love for folks who are ill, imprisoned, or otherwise facing difficult times. Jim also notes that food and hospitality also becomes a basis for various types of social activism as such community involvement is often viewed as a measure of piety. Sometimes such activism can take on hard-nosed policies towards drug addicts who are allowed assistance only if they quickly accept Jesus, or in more open terms that seek to get mentally ill individuals the help they need. We also chat about how Pentecostalism, technically a very small fraction of Southern Christians, has influenced the Christianity of the region, often leading to “Bapticostal” congregations that call their ministers bishops and have multiple offerings. Religion also manifests itself along racial lines in the South, as one might expect, and Jim talks about religiously-infused racial histories can wound but also offer up possibilities for forgiveness. He raises the horrific shooting at the Charleston Emmanuel AME Church in 2015 as an example of these racial divides and how the power of forgiveness is used not necessarily to “forgive and forget,” but to heal tragedies so it doesn’t wound the victims continuously.

The conversation then moves in the direction of the “Now South” and the new trends that have been reshaping the spiritual landscape over the past several decades. We look at how megachurches are setting new standards of worship not only for congregants in the suburbs, but in smaller rural and urban churches as well. Jim points out how the growth of homeschooling has responded to the integration of private religious schools (often called “segregation academies”). The growth of Catholicism with the influx of immigrants from Mexico and Central America has also diversified the religious tapestry of the region. And finally, we discuss the surprising increase in the number of congregations that have taken a welcoming position to the LGBT communities and how it has roiled the waters. Jim explains that while it is easy to preach hate, the culture is changing via kinship ties and the “power of one” wherein one individual can help to change the views of those around them. While still a very small minority of churches, the presence of LGBT-friendly congregations indicate progressive steps forward.

We finish off by asking Prof. Hudnut-Beumler what he would tell a younger version of Jim if he had the chance to travel back in time. The elder Jim provides some interesting words of advice for his younger self recognizing that things you never thought would have made an impression early on often come back to you as new opportunities for exploration and learning. Recorded: May 25, 2018.

Bradley Wright on Religion, Race, and Discrimination

tonygill — Sun, 30 Aug 2015 08:00:05 +0000

When it comes to welcoming a stranger to a new church, are mainline churches, evangelicals, or Catholics more likely to discriminate based upon racial-sounding names? Prof. Bradley Wright — an associate professor of sociology at the University of Connecticut — reveals the findings from his field experiment designed to answer this question. The answers may surprise, and Brad provides some insight into why mainlines churches may differ from evangelicals when it comes to welcoming individuals who are different from them.

The first half of our interview is devoted to a methodological and ethical discussion of Prof. Wright’s innovative study. While this may sound a bit dry to some, understanding how academic studies that are reported in the news are conducted is very important, and both Brad and Tony spice up things with a bit of humorous banter. Brad lists the colleagues who helped in the study, their various roles, where the idea for the project came from (hint: his first book that we link to below), and how the study was set up. To uncover the possible prevalence of racial discrimination across different religious denominations, Brad and his team sent emails out to several thousand churches across the U.S. mentioning that the they were a person moving to the area and looking for a new congregation. The emails were randomly tagged with “racial sounding” names. Prof. Wright discusses how they came up with these names, and how the sample of congregations was generated. We also get into the ethics behind such a study. Brad describes the “internal review board” process and how the identities of participants were protected.

We then review how Brad and his team decided to measure and code responses from churches, determining whether they were “warm and welcoming” or “terse.” We also talk about the all-important category of non-responses, which contain as much information as responses. Tony questions Brad as to whether some responses represent “racial discrimination” or whether the church staff avoided answering a response because they believed they didn’t have the language capacity to minister to certain individuals (particularly true with Asian and Latino congregants). Brad has some interesting comments on this topic.

The second half of the interview looks at some of the theoretical expectations behind the study. Brad introduces Tony to the term “homophily,” which is a sociological concept wherein individuals tend to clump together with others who are like them. While Christianity espouses an openness to all humans, Christians are individual people who do sort out according to demographic and cultural characteristics. That people like to attend churches close to them, and that neighborhoods are clustered according to similar demographics pretty much determines that congregations will be hemophilic as well. But what if somebody of a different race seeks to move into one of these neighborhoods? Who will be more welcoming? The standard hypothesis is that mainline Christians who prefer a “social gospel” theology of racial inclusiveness and justice will be the ones with more open arms to those from different races or ethnicities. Evangelicals, it is assumed, will tend to be more exclusive, fitting in with the general stereotype of them in the media.

Brad finally reveals his findings and, much to his surprise, it turns out that evangelicals are more welcoming to those of different races than are mainline congregations! He also reviews the difference in response rates and response quality to different races, with Asian respondents being the least likely to be welcomed. Brad suggests that this surprising result is due to evangelicals’ emphasis on personal salvation and that this makes them more likely to engage with people one-on-one. This is contrasted with mainline theology that looks more towards groups, and larger systems of social justice. Tony probes Brad’s data a bit more, getting Brad to reveal that there are geographic differences in responses as well, something that he is saving for a future publication. We finish off with some updates on SoulPulse, a “big data” project that seeks to measure how people interact with their faith on a day-to-day and hour-to-hour basis. Listeners can participate in this study by clicking the link below. Recorded: August 21. 2015.