“Church” in Black and White: The Organizational Lives of Young Adults
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Religious Belonging in Black and White Christian Churches
For whites, freedom has bolstered the value of American individualism: to be free to pursue one’s destiny without political or bureaucratic interference of restraint. But for African Americans, freedom has always been communal in nature. In Africa, the destiny of the individual was linked to that of the tribe or the community in an intensely interconnected security system.
3. Data and Method
4. The Dynamics of Congregational Organization
4.1. Ministering to a Different Generation: White Churches’ Organizational Practices
4.2. Keeping Them with Us: Black Churches’ Organizational Practices
5. Black and White Young Adult Discourse
5.1. White Students’ Organizational Biographies—Client Orientation
“going to church no more would make you a good Christian than going into a garage would make you a car.”(white female focus group member)
“I actually asked my mom why I have to go to church if I believe…She said she thought that going to church made everybody come together…You know, like, I was like, whatever.”(white female focus group member)
“I don’t ever remember questioning the existence of God, but I started to question the institution.”(white male focus group member)
Clearly, these students remain concerned with religion—after all, they attended our focus groups or agreed to do (uncompensated) interviews about religion—but there is a certain amount of “anti-institutionalism”, or at least a suspicion of organizational authority, in their words. There is a clear subtext of assuming individual autonomy about spiritual and religious issues, a reserving for themselves the options of making their own decisions about truth, just as they are beginning to make decisions about their own lives separately from their parents.“Well, I don’t really believe in organized religion at all”(white male interview)
This woman offers a construction that resonates with Bellah et al.’s [48] famous “Sheilaism”, wherein an individually tailored spiritual system is her focus. Others voice a concern with the translation from beliefs into ethical conduct and a keen eye for the potential for alleged hypocrisy between beliefs and behavior. That “religion” is often social, but “spirituality” can be individualized leads them to portray the church as an institution as irrelevant to them or sometimes as an actual hindrance to spiritual development. One can see that here:“I still call myself Baptist but I don’t agree with everything in the established religion. I kind of just got my own little thing, you know.”(white woman focus group member)
“You don’t have to go to church to be religious…I tend to like the word spiritual better than religion because to me the word religious has a lot of dogma attached to it.”(individual interview, white woman)
“I asked [my friend] where she was going and she said the training...I said what...are you training for? And she said to go to church...I was like, to do that is so stupid! If you talk about religion as being accepting of all kinds of different people then they shouldn’t make them train to be good enough to come and worship God.”(individual interview, white woman)
Five years of involvement is not insignificant in the life of a college student. However, her organizational commitment was determined by her perception of her own spiritual requirements. Namely, as she saw her spiritual needs change, she changed her organizational involvement.“it’s not about going to church, it’s about personal relationship…it’s not forced. … [my friend] asked me, ‘do you want to go to a church that teaches you what I’m teaching you?’…I went with him to the church…it was really cool…it was really good for me at first. … [but] there were problems with the people there. They were too judgmental. If you did things a little different, they wouldn’t like it. … So, it became too judgmental for me and I stopped going to that church after about five years. … let me tell you what I did after I left…I worked on my own personal relationship with God. I did it with my friends. We had our own church. … we all would get together and have our own church.”(individual interview, white woman)
Or a young white woman explained: “I saw that when I needed it I went there, then I found out that I didn’t need it anymore…I felt that I could have a place in the universe without it.” Yet, another white young man said:“I think it was good that I went when I did because I think if I hadn’t of gone then I may have picked a different path in life. I think it was a good choice. Even though I didn’t stick with it, and I don’t necessarily believe it, it still taught me some good things. I got better friends. But not now, not in the present, it doesn’t really help. Actually I think that every major theme of being Baptist, I think I’m the opposite now.”
One can see that this young man values spirituality, and even maintains an involvement with others. But the emphasis is on his personalized growth, not a community, and he places himself as the clear judge of what is best for accomplishing that growth.“I’m only concerned with my own spiritual growth, not with my religious…interaction. Well, I mean,…I have my friends who are Christian and I try to keep up with them, and, go to Bible study, and make sure we’re all growing, but, see what I mean? I’m…only in it right now to make sure I’m spiritually sort of on track, you know what I mean.”(individual interview white man)
“Looking back on it, I haven’t been [religious]. I am now. I have found myself in the church. There was a time when I started dropping out. I stopped going to church as much. I still went because my mom was the secretary. I lost that connection with my church. I don’t know how spiritual I had ever been. Now I just see things in a different light. Coming down here [college], I’ve found a different church. And as much as I’ve found God, I’ve found myself. I’ve realized I wasn’t really close to God. I went to church because I was expected to.”
5.2. Black Students’ Organizational Biographies—Called to Belong
“I wish I was involved a little bit more, like in a community. Like back at home.”(individual interview black woman)
Others used the language of “home” less, but were explicit about aspects of what we might call “community”:“I am still in the process of looking for a church home…I really do not desire to forsake the fellowship of believers…it’s really very hard for me not to be in fellowship.”(black woman focus group member)
“My spiritual growth…needs…some feeding. It’s not just about me getting fed, obviously. It’s also about what I give back by coming to worship the Lord as well.”(black women focus group)
In addition, there was clear recognition that it was not easy to balance the searching, and the choice, with the rewards of the sense of connection:“I got down here and started enjoying the Voices of Inspiration Choir [in which she participates]. So really for me, it was like church was basically just on Sunday. That was it. As far as Bible study, we would go every now and then. But now that I’ve come down here [to college] I go more often. It’s more close knit.”
“I’m glad I go to church now, like she [another focus group participant] said she doesn’t go to church now. That can be good because you can drag yourself crazy looking for the right church, but I like going to church.”(black women focus group)
“Getting involved in church down here has kept me out of trouble. I have gotten involved in church activities. It keeps me focused on God and on my studies and on my grades…I am just thankful that I stayed in church when I came to college.”(individual interview black woman)
5.3. Religious Involvement and the Language of Family
“I will regulate my [future] kids…I learned a lot of my morals at church, a lot of what’s right. I learned what the Church thinks is right anyway…It was good for me, and was…a positive thing in my life. So I would want my kids to experience that as well. And if they didn’t want to I wouldn’t make them.”(individual interview white man)
“I’ll make my kids go, but not every Sunday.”(individual interview white man)
“I am happy that they made me go when I was little, but I am not so sure that I am happy that they made me do it once I entered high school…I think once your reach a certain age, you are to the point when you can decide for yourself.”(white man focus group)
“[W]hen I have children, I want us to go to church together. I won’t tell them they have to go to a Pentecostal church or a Baptist church or Catholic. They can choose where they want to worship the Lord.”(individual interview black woman)
“I’m going to feed them [giving children religious instruction] until they’re fat and they can’t take no more. I’m going to guide them until they feel they can make the right decisions. I’m not going to try to be a new-age parent—‘oh, I’m not going to do this to my kids because it’s a different age.’ I will guide my kids to the light.”(black woman focus group)
“The people in my church I have known them ever since I was a little girl. We all grew up together…it’s not just like just religion, it’s my friends and my family are there. We are like a community within a community. We are all there. We are all there to support each other.”(black woman focus group)
6. Conclusions
Acknowledgements
Author Contributions
Conflicts of Interest
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Williams, R.H.; Irby, C.A.; Warner, R.S. “Church” in Black and White: The Organizational Lives of Young Adults. Religions 2016, 7, 90. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel7070090
Williams RH, Irby CA, Warner RS. “Church” in Black and White: The Organizational Lives of Young Adults. Religions. 2016; 7(7):90. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel7070090
Chicago/Turabian StyleWilliams, Rhys H., Courtney Ann Irby, and R. Stephen Warner. 2016. "“Church” in Black and White: The Organizational Lives of Young Adults" Religions 7, no. 7: 90. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel7070090