The End of White Christian America, page 27
37. Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000).
38. Hymn #317, Glory to God—The Presbyterian Hymnal (Louisville: Presbyterian Publishing, 2013). Full lyrics are online here: http://www.hymnary.org/hymn/GG2013/317, accessed April 30, 2015.
39. Niebuhr wrote The Social Sources of Denominationalism in 1929 after finding his attempts to explain to his students the differences between Christian denominations by referring to doctrine alone an “artificial and fruitless” approach. Although church insiders often articulated and justified schisms in theological terms, Niebuhr concluded that secular social dynamics, not principled theological squabbles, were the real drivers of Christian factionalism. H. Richard Niebuhr, The Social Sources of Denominationalism (Gloucester, MA: Peter Smith, 1987 [1929]).
40. Ibid., 6.
41. Ibid., 239. Niebuhr relied here on the U.S. Religious Census of 1926, a tabulation of nationwide data on religious bodies conducted by the U.S. Census Department, and on the Negro Year Book, 1925–26, complied by sociologist Monroe Work at the Tuskegee Institute.
42. For a full transcript of King’s Western Michigan University speech and the Q&A following it, see http://www.wmich.edu/sites/default/files/attachments/MLK.pdf, accessed April 17, 2105. Although King is often credited with coining the idea of Sunday morning as the most segregated hour in American life, this insight was expressed a decade earlier by Helen Kenyon, a moderator of the Congregational Christian Churches and board member of the National Council of Churches. See “Worship Hour Found Time of Segregation,” New York Times, November 4, 1952, p. 26.
43. Joseph Barndt, Becoming an Anti-Racist Church: Journeying Toward Wholeness (Minneapolis, MN Fortress Press, 2011).
44. Stephen R. Haynes, The Last Segregated Hour: The Memphis Kneel-ins and the Campaign for Southern Church Desegregation (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012).
45. Charles Brown, “The Epic of Ashton Jones: Dixie-Born White Minister Leads One-Man Crusade for Interracial Brotherhood,” Ebony, October 1965, accessed June 9, 2015.
46. Mark Chaves and Shawna Anderson, “Changing American Congregations: Findings from the Third Wave of the National Congregations Study,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 53 (2014): 676–86.
47. C. C. Goen, Broken Churches, Broken Nation: Denominational Schisms and the Coming of the Civil War (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 1997).
48. Ibid. The Presbyterian case is more complicated, involving deep theological differences over what constitutes conversion and over the legitimacy of revival methods. While full reunification did not occur until the 1983 creation of the Presbyterian Church (USA), the northern and southern groups of each respective theological faction reunited shortly after the Civil War.
49. L. Tuffly Ellis, ed., Texas State Historical Association, The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 83 (July 1979–April 1980), http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101207/, accessed May 06, 2015, 34–35.
50. Barry Hankins and Thomas Kidd, “Southern Baptists Cleanse Past,” USA Today, June 24, 2012, http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/story/2012-06-24/religion-southern-baptist-luter-slavery/55796742/1, accessed June 9, 2015.
51. Thomas S. Kidd and Barry Hankins, Baptists in America: A History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), 224.
52. Ibid., 226–27.
53. Andrew Michael Manis, Southern Civil Religions in Conflict: Civil Rights and the Culture Wars (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2002), 96.
54. Hudgins was one of the most influential men in the state during the civil rights years. He served as chaplain of the Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol, director of the Jackson Chamber of Commerce, member of both the Masonic Order and the Chamber of Commerce, and president of the Jackson Rotary Club. See University of Virginia, Lived Theology Project, http://archives.livedtheology.org/node/2383, accessed May 30, 2015.
55. Kidd and Hankins, Baptists in America, 221.
56. John Lee Eighmy, Churches in Cultural Captivity: A History of the Social Attitudes of Southern Baptists (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1988).
57. Peter Applebome, “Jerry Falwell, Moral Majority Founder, Dies at 73,” New York Times, May 16, 2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/obituaries/16falwell.html?pagewanted=print&_r=0, accessed February 9, 2015.
58. Will Campbell, T. B. Maston, Clarence Jordan, and Foy Valentine were all voices for racial equality within the Southern Baptist world.
59. Matthew Avery Sutton, American Apocalypse: A History of Modern Evangelicalism (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2014), 334.
60. Curtis J. Evans, White Evangelical Protestant Responses to the Civil Rights Movement, Harvard Theological Review 102 (2009): 245–73; Mark G. Toulouse, God in Public: Four Ways American Christianity and Public Life Relate (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2006), 93.
61. Randall Balmer, Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America (New York: Basic Books, 2006), 15. As Balmer notes, Weyrich was also a Republican political operative whose activism went back as far as the 1964 Goldwater campaign. Weyrich’s account linked both the Green decision of 1973 and the IRS action against Bob Jones University in 1975 to Jimmy Carter, although they predated his presidency.
62. Southern Baptist Convention, “Resolution on Racial Reconciliation on the 150th Anniversary of the Southern Baptist Convention,” resolution adopted at annual meeting, Atlanta, June 1995, http://www.sbc.net/resolutions/899/resolution-on-racial-reconciliation-on-the-150th-anniversary-of-the-southern-baptist-convention, accessed May 7, 2015.
63. Karen Willoughby, “Historic: Fred Luter Elected SBC President,” Associated Baptist Press, June 19, 2012, http://www.bpnews.net/38081, accessed June 9, 2015.
64. Amy Sullivan, “Richard Land Goes Out on the Bottom,” The New Republic, August 7, 2012, http://www.newrepublic.com/article/105852/amy-sullivan-richard-land-goes-out-bottom, accessed May 10, 2015.
65. Travis Loller, “Southern Baptist Convention’s Leader Criticizes Trayvon Martin Support,” The Associated Press, in Kingsport Times-News, April 14, 2012, http://www.dallasnews.com/incoming/20120415-southern-baptist-leader-criticizes-trayvon-martin-supporters.ece, accessed May 10, 2015.
66. David Gibson, “Southern Baptists’ Richard Land Loses Show, Keeps Job,” Washington Post, June 3, 2012, http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/southern-baptists-richard-land-loses-show-keeps-job/2012/06/01/gJQARgQf7U_story.html, accessed May 10, 2015.
67. Adele Banks, “Richard Land to Retire: Southern Baptist Leader Will Step Down Following Ethics Probe,” Religion News Service, August 1, 2012, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/01/richard-land-retire-southern-baptist-leader-step-down-after-ethics-probe_n_1730636.html, accessed June 9, 2015.
68. SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, “ERLC’s Russell Moore Responds to Eric Garner Case,” press release, December 3, 2014, http://erlc.com/resource-library/press-releases/erlcs-russell-moore-responds-to-eric-garner-case, accessed May 10, 2015.
69. Staff Writer, “Southern Baptist Leaders Call for Integration Within Churches,” Christianity Today, January 27, 2015.
70. Lilly Workneh, “Two Florida Churches Merge with the Hope of Bridging the Racial Divide,” Huffington Post, November 30, 2014, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/30/church-merger-racial-divide_n_6204244.html, accessed June 9, 2015.
71. “Southern Baptists Meet During Challenging Times,” Associated Press, June 19, 2012, http://accesswdun.com/print/2012/6/249806, accessed May 10, 2015.
72. Heidi Hall, “Southern Baptist Race Summit Calls for Focus on Reconciliation,” Religion News Service, March 26, 2015, http://www.religionnews.com/2015/03/26/southern-baptist-race-summit-calls-focus-reconciliation/, accessed June 9, 2015.
73. Emma Green, “Southern Baptists and the Sin of Racism,” The Atlantic, April 7, 2015, http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/04/southern-baptists-wrestle-with-the-sin-of-racism/389808/, accessed June 9, 2015.
74. Hall, “Southern Baptist Summit Calls for Focus on Reconciliation,” accessed June 9, 2015.
75. Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” The Christian Century, June 12, 1963, http://www.christiancentury.org/sites/default/files/downloads/resources/mlk-letter.pdf, accessed May 10, 2015.
76. Robert Westbrook, “MLK’s Manifesto,” The Christian Century, April 8, 2013, http://www.christiancentury.org/article/2013-03/mlk-s-manifesto, accessed June 9, 20115.
77. Walter Rauschenbusch, Christianity and the Social Crisis (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1992 [1907]). Rauschenbusch’s words above are still cited prominently as the theological cornerstone of the National Council of Churches on its website today. See http://nationalcouncilofchurches.us/about/history.php, accessed May 10, 2015.
78. W. E. Orser, “Racial Attitudes in Wartime: The Protestant Churches During the Second World War,” Church History 41, no. 3 (September 1972): 337–53.
79. Stanley Pieza, “Rev. King Urges Boycott by Churches to Fight Bias,” Chicago’s American, January 16, 1963.
80. Gardiner H. Shattuck, Jr., Episcopalians and Race: Civil War to Civil Rights (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 2000), 67.
81. Ibid., 95–98.
82. Ibid., 136.
83. National Council of Churches, “In Wake of Zimmerman Acquittal, NCC Calls for Racial Justice,” press release, July 15, 2013, http://www.nationalcouncilofchurches.us/news/zimmermanjuly2013.php, accessed May 10, 2015.
84. National Council of Churches, “National Council of Churches Statement on the Grand Jury Action in Ferguson, Mo.,” press release, November 2014, http://www.nationalcouncilofchurches.us/news/2014-11fergusonnoindictment.php, accessed May 21, 2015.
85. National Council of Churches, “National Council of Churches Calls for Accountability,” press release December 2014, http://www.nationalcouncilofchurches.us/news/2014-12ericgarnerstatement.php, accessed May 21, 2015.
86. National Council of Churches, “NCC Calls for Justice, End to Violence in Baltimore,” press release, April 2015, http://nationalcouncilofchurches.us/news/2015-4_Baltimore.php, accessed May 21, 2015.
87. For a full historical timeline, see http://www.collegiatechurch.org/?q=content/historical-timeline, accessed May 1, 2015.
88. Middle’s current location in the East Village, completed in 1892, represents its third location.
89. Frank Bruni, “An Old-Time Religion Gets Some New Twists; Child Care, Unisex Prayers and More Attract Parishioners to Failing Church,” New York Times, November 8, 1996.
90. For Reverend Dragt’s first-person account of the transformation of the church, see Gordon R. Dragt, One Foot Planted in the Center, the Other Dangling Off the Edge: How Intentional Leadership Can Transform Your Church (Salt Lake City: American Book Publishing, 2009), 23.
91. Bruni, “An Old-Time Religion Gets Some New Twists.”
92. Albert Amateaux, “Pastor Is Breaking New Ground at Middle Collegiate,” The Villager 75, no. 17, September 14–20, 2005.
93. Jacqueline Lewis, “Cracked Wide Open Around Race,” Huffington Post, December 3, 2014, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/the-rev-jacqueline-j-lewis-phd/cracked-wide-open-around-race_b_6265242.html, accessed May 1, 2015.
94. “Standing with Ferguson: A Benefit for Youth Activists,” http://www.middlechurch.org/about/calendar/2014/11/19/standing-with-ferguson-benefit-for-youth-activists, accessed June 9, 2015.
95. Lewis, “Cracked Wide Open Around Race.”
96. Jacqueline Lewis, “The Longest Four Minutes of My Life,” http://www.middlechurch.org/about/blogs/jacquis-blog/the-longest-four-minutes-of-my-life, accessed May 1, 2015. See also Wesley Lowery, “ ‘Black Lives Matter’ Protesters Stage ‘Die-in’ in Capitol Hill Cafeteria,” Washington Post, January 21, 2015.
97. Jacqueline Lewis, “One Day, When the Glory Comes, It Will Be Ours,” Huffington Post, April 28, 2015, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/the-rev-jacqueline-j-lewis-phd/one-day-when-the-glory-comes-it-will-be-ours_b_7164160.html, accessed May 1, 2015.
98. Alverta Wright, Not Here by Chance: The Story of Oakhurst Baptist Church (Decatur, GA: Oakhurst Baptist Church, 1988), p. 87. One of the other churches that was created from this early collaboration was Oakhurst Presbyterian Church, a church with its own remarkable journey of moving from being a white southern church to an integrated multicultural church. See Nibs Stroupe and Caroline Leach, O Lord, Hold Our Hands: How a Church Thrives in a Multicultural World—The Story of Oakhurst Presbyterian Church (Louisville, Westminster John Knox Press, 2003).
99. Wright, Not Here by Chance, 194.
100. Ibid., 200.
101. Ibid., 213.
102. Ibid., 226.
103. Ibid., 226–227.
104. Walker L. Knight, Struggle for Integrity (Waco: Word, 1969).
105. Bob Allen, “Oakhurst Baptist Church Celebrates 100 Years,” Baptist News Global, September 20, 2013, http://baptistnews.com/ministry/congregations/item/8867-oakhurst-baptist-church-celebrates-100-years, accessed May 1, 2015.
106. Oakhurst has also launched a number of programs to address issues in its neighborhood and congregation. In the 1990s, Oakhurst established programs for people struggling with addiction. It also embarked on accessibility and engagement plans for those with mental and physical disabilities. In 2010, Oakhurst entered into a space-sharing arrangement with Georgia Chin Baptist Church, a church of approximately one hundred members, primarily recent immigrants from Myanmar. By 2015, the group had grown to nearly three hundred.
107. “He Included Me,” http://www.hymnary.org/media/fetch/146621, accessed May 1, 2015.
108. “Obituary: John Cross Jr., Pastor of Church Bombed in Civil Rights Clashes,” Boston Globe, November 18, 2007, http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/obituaries/articles/2007/11/18/john_cross_jr_pastor_of_church_bombed_in_civil_rights_clashes/, accessed May 1, 2015.
109. Michael O. Emerson with Rodney M. Woo, People of the Dream: Multiracial Congregations in the United States (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006).
110. Harvey, Dear White Christians, 250.
111. Ibid., 2–3.
112. Ibid., 5.
113. George Yancey and Judith Butler, “What’s Wrong with ‘All Lives Matter,’ ” New York Times, January 12, 2015, http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/01/12/whats-wrong-with-all-lives-matter/?_r=1, accessed August 17, 2015.
114. Harvey, Dear White Christians, 5.
115. Ibid., 72.
116. William Faulkner, Requiem for a Nun (New York: Vintage, 2012 [1951]).
117. Clifford Grammich et al., “U.S. Religion Census: Religious Congregations and Membership Study,” Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies (2010), http://www.rcms2010.org/, accessed May 21, 2015.
118. Kevin R. Kosar, “The U.S. Postal Service: Common Questions About Post Office Closures,” Congressional Research Service, June 13, 2012, https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41950.pdf, accessed May 21, 2015.
119. Emerson with Woo, People of the Dream, 43–44.
120. Emerson et al., 95.
121. Ibid., 162–63.
122. There is some evidence that congregational racial diversity alone may not be enough to shift attitudes of white congregants. Drawing on data from the 1998 and 2006 waves of the General Social Survey and the 2012 National Congregations Study, Samuel L. Perry and colleagues found that at least at the aggregate level and on one composite measure—affirming structural explanations for racial inequality—attendance at a multiracial congregation alone had no impact on white congregants’ attitudes. See Samuel Perry, Ryan J. Cobb, Kevin D. Dougherty, “United by Faith? Race/Ethnicity, Congregational Diversity, and Explanations of Racial Inequality,” Sociology of Religion 76:2 (January 2015): 177–198.
123. Elizabeth Bristow, “Russell Moore Responds to Eric Garner Case,” SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission blog, December 3, 2014, http://erlc.com/resource-library/press-releases/erlcs-russell-moore-responds-to-eric-garner-case, accessed May 22, 2015.
Chapter 6: A Eulogy for White Christian America
1. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, On Death and Dying: What the Dying Have to Teach Doctors, Nurses, Clergy, and Their Own Families (New York: Macmillan, 1969).
2. Ibid., 52–53.
3. Ibid., 64.
4. Elesha Coffman, The Christian Century and the Rise of the Protestant Mainline (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013).
5. Charles Clayton Morrison, quoted in “Religion: Protestant Prescription,” Time, July 8, 1946.
6. Ibid. Morrison’s full series was subsequently published in a book. See Charles Clayton Morrison, Can Protestantism Win America? (New York: Harper, 1948).
7. David Roozen noted that a combination of the suddenness of the losses and a lack of solid data created a decade-long lag before the trends that began in 1965 were unequivocally accepted: “Unlike the immediate awareness and response typically related to an earthquake, it was not until the mid-1970s that the mainline decline was widely accepted as a ‘new’ reality that demanded attention.” David A. Roozen, “Denominations Grow as Individuals Join Congregations,” in David A Roozen and C. Kirk Hadaway, Church and Denominational Growth (Nashville: Abingdon, 1993), 15.
8. The Institute on Religion and Democracy, “Our History,” https://theird.org/about/our-history/, accessed June 24, 2015.
9. “ ‘Mainline’ Reform Leaders Call for Dissolution of the National Council of Churches,” press release, Institute on Religion and Democracy, November 21, 1999, http://listserv.virtueonline.org/pipermail/virtueonline_listserv.virtueonline.org/1999-November/000874.html, accessed May 29, 2015.
10. The Institute on Religion and Democracy, “Our Team,” https://theird.org/about/our-team/, accessed June 24, 2015.
11. Mark Tooley, “Remarks to the IRD Board,” March 14, 2010, https://theird.org/about/our-history/mark-tooley-remarks-to-the-ird-board-march-14/, accessed May 28, 2015.
