Racial Divides in US Churches

February 6, 2004

Source: The Houston Chronicle

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/religion/2391603

On February 6, 2004 The Houston Chronicle published an interview with Rice University sociologist Michael O. Emerson. Emerson, along with co-author Christian Smith, argues in his new book Divided by Faith that "white evangelicals -- despite many efforts to the contrary -- perpetuated racial divisions in the American pews. These folks were not necessarily racist, but they relied on an individualistic American brand of Christian theology that denied institutional injustice." Emerson, himself an evangelical preacher, argues that "Christian congregations should be authentically multiracial and encourage a movement with that as its goal."