Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America-Wow! eBook

Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America

Author: Michael O. Emerson , Christian Smith

Publisher: ‎ Oxford University Press

Edition: N/A

Publication Date: 2000-07-20

Language: English

Paperback: 224 pages

ISBN-10: 0195131401

ISBN-13: 9780195131406

Book Description
In recent years, the leaders of the American evangelical movement have brought their characteristic passion to the problem of race, notably in the Promise Keepers movement and in reconciliation theology. But the authors of this provocative new study reveal that despite their good intentions, evangelicals may actually be preserving America’s racial chasm.
In Divided by Faith, Michael O. Emerson and Christian Smith probe the grassroots of white evangelical America, through a nationwide telephone survey of 2,000 people, along with 200 face-to-face interviews. The results of their research are surprising. Most white evangelicals, they learned, see no systematic discrimination against blacks; indeed, they deny the existence of any ongoing racial problem in the United States. Many of their subjects blamed the continuing talk of racial conflict on the media, unscrupulous black leaders, and the inability of African Americans to forget the past. What lies behind this perception? Evangelicals, Emerson and Smith write, are not so much actively racist as committed to a theological view of the world that makes it difficult for them to see systematic injustice. The evangelical emphasis on individualism, free will, and personal relationships makes invisible the pervasive injustice that perpetuates inequality between the races. Most racial problems, they told the authors, can be solved by the repentance and conversion of the sinful individuals at fault.
Combining a substantial body of evidence with sophisticated analysis and interpretation, Emerson and Smith throw sharp light on the oldest American dilemma. Despite the best intentions of evangelical leaders and some positive trends, the authors conclude that real racial reconciliation remains far over the horizon.

Amazon.com Review

Divided by Faith by Michael O. Emerson and Christian Smith has an ingenious, troubling argument. “[E]vangelicals desire to end racial division and inequality, and attempt to think and act accordingly. But, in the process, they likely do more to perpetuate the racial divide than they do to tear it down.” Emerson and Smith, who conducted 2,000 telephone surveys and 200 face-to-face interviews in preparing this book, argue that evangelicals have a theological world view that makes it difficult for them to perceive systematic injustices in society. In particular, evangelical emphasis of individualism and free will seem to predispose them to believe that most racial problems can be solved if individuals will only repent of their sins. Therefore, many well-meaning strategies for healing racial divisions (such as cross-cultural friendships) carry within them the seeds of their own defeat. Divided by Faith also includes a brilliant, concise history of evangelical thought about race from colonial times to the civil rights movement. Clearly written and impeccably researched, this book ranks among the most compassionate and critical studies of contemporary evangelicalism. –Michael Joseph Gross

From Publishers Weekly

Evangelicals, argue sociologists Emerson and Smith, have gotten serious about racial reconciliation. This, they suggest, is a break from traditionAin the 19th century, many white evangelicals supported slavery but then upheld Jim Crow laws through the postwar years. Over the last half century, however, evangelicals have increasingly found racism unpalatable, a transformation culminating, symbolically at least, in the Southern Baptist Convention’s 1995 proclamation that it repented for its role in slavery. Today, the Promise Keepers call for reconciliation, while evangelical theologians and publications explore what reconciliation means. But white evangelicals, though well-meaning, often unwittingly contribute to racism, say the authors. Smith and Emerson explain this seeming contradiction by drawing on Smith’s earlier work, in which he argued that evangelicals have a piecemeal approach to social justice: they are inclined to fix immediate problems, such as feeding homeless people at a soup kitchen, rather than address systemic crises such as the unequal distribution of wealth. Smith and Emerson recycle the same argument, tweaked ever so slightly, here. The tools evangelicals use to combat racismAsocializing more with members of another race, or integrating churches and racially segregated neighborhoodsAare well-intentioned but ultimately not adequate to the task of eradicating deeply entrenched racist patterns. This is a valuable critique of evangelical approaches to social change, although those familiar with Smith’s previous work will learn little. (June)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This study will be of interest to those who would like to understand the evangelical Christian mind with regard to race in America. In particular, Emerson (sociology, Rice Univ.) and Smith (sociology, Univ. of North Carolina) explain how white evangelicals respond to the race problem and how their cultural perspective and racially isolated lifestyle results in a greater disparity between the races. They show that white evangelicals tend to minimize the structural inequalities in healthcare, police treatment, educational opportunities, housing, job opportunities, and financial resources and instead perceive racism as primarily a problem of individual relationships. At the same time, white evangelicals are becoming more isolated from other parts of our society because they are so involved in their own subculture and do not understand why they should address the broader social problems. While the authors would like white evangelicals to support structural and institutional solutions to racism, they realize that cultural perspectives change slowly. For academic sociological and religious collections.DGeorge Westerlund, Palmyra, VA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

“This path-breaking book is the best study in print on the racial attitudes of white evangelical Protestants. The book’s unusual strength comes from its ability to combine a reliable summary of historical circumstances with careful attention to what evangelicals actually say and sensitive use of responsible sociological theory. The arguments of the book are made even more forceful by the willingness of Emerson and Smith to take the evangelicals’ own theology seriously, especially where that theology calls into question standard patterns of evangelical racial practice.”–Mark A. Noll, Professor of History, Wheaton College

This is an important book. With thoughtful conceptual distinctions and careful analysis of data from a variety of empirical sources, Emerson and Smith provide an interesting account of how white evangelicals perpetuate the very racial divisions they publicly oppose. Divided by Faith breaks new ground in the study of religion and American race relations. –William Julius Wilson, Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor, Harvard University

Book Description

A revealing study of the racial attitudes of white evangelical Americans.

About the Author

Michael O. Emerson is Associate Professor of Sociology at Rice University, the author of numerous articles on race relations and religion, and the co-editor of The Social Aspects of Religion in the US and Beyond. He lives in Houston, Texas. Christian Smith is Professor of Sociology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and is the author of American Evangelicalism and Christian America? What Evangelicals Really Want. He lives in Durham, North Carolina.

Amazon Page

获取PDF电子书代发服务10元立即求助

1111

未经允许不得转载：Wow! eBook » Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America

Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America