Algernon Austin presents an excellent, concise, and wonderfully read scholarly examination of the complicated landscape of race, class and popular perception. Besides the prison industrial complex, black strides in education, poverty rates, crime and other indices contradict claims that blacks are “moving backward.”--Jeffrey O. G. Ogbar, Director, Institute for African American Studies, University of Connecticut and author of Black Power: Radical Politics and African American Identity (The Johns Hopkins University Press), 2004 and Hip-Hop Revolution: The Culture and Politics of Rap (University Press of Kansas), 2007.
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Blacks are among America’s most devout Christians. But not all black Christians share the same views on social and political issues. At the intersection of religion and politics one sees some of the ideological diversity in black America. On some issues black Christians are nearly evenly divided, on others a majority of black Christians agree. Also, often black Christians appear to agree more with white evangelical Protestants than white mainline Protestants.
The following discussion is based on the 2006 U.S. Religion Survey by the Pew Research Center. The results of this survey were published in two parts. (Part I, Part II)
Few Americans identify as belonging to the religious right or religious left, but blacks are more likely to identify as belonging to one or the other than whites. Blacks are more than twice as likely as whites to consider themselves as belonging to the religious left. Blacks are also nearly twice as likely as whites to claim membership in the religious right.
Adapted from Many Americans Uneasy with Mix of Religion and Politics, Pew Research Center, 2006, p. 10.Most Americans believe that the will of the people should determine U.S. laws. Blacks are almost evenly divided with half saying that the Bible should determine U.S. laws and 48 percent saying the people’s will. On this issue black Protestants look more like white evangelicals than white mainline Protestants.
Black clergy appear to be more politically-engaged than white clergy—mainline and evangelical. Black clergy speak out more on Iraq, homosexuality, the environment, evolution, the death penalty and immigration than white clergy. Unfortunately, these quantitative findings do not tell us much about what clergy are actually saying about these topics.
Fifty-nine percent of black Protestants are opposed to abortion; 36 percent of them think it should be allowed. This split is similar to the split among white evangelicals. Black Protestants also look similar to white evangelicals on the issue of gay marriage. Seventy-four percent of black Protestants oppose gay marriage. Seventy-eight percent of white feel the same.
Adapted from Pragmatic Americans Liberal and Conservative on Social Issues, Pew Research Center, 2006, p. 4, 8.If the America continues to wrestle with issues at the intersection of religion and politics, there could be a realignment of the black political landscape. Many blacks’ religious beliefs appear to align with that of white evangelicals. A sizeable minority of blacks though may support positions more generally accepted by white mainline Protestants.
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--Algernon Austin, Ph.D.
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