Choosing to be different

People of the Dream: Multiracial Congregations in the United States. By Michael O. Emerson with Rodney M. Woo. Princeton University Press, 264., 824.95

IN THEIR 2001 book Divided By Faith, Michael Emerson and Christian Smith developed a theory to explain why churches are racially exclusive enclaves despite Christians' high ideals about being inclusive: Americans choose where and with whom to worship; race is one of the most important grounds on which they choose; so the more choice they have, the more their religious institutions will be segregated.

Emerson has tested that theory and found that it works. Churches are more segregated than schools, workplaces or neighborhoods. The least segregated sector of American society is also the least governed by choice: it's the army. Because white Protestants are the largest religious community in the U.S., they (being one of them, I should say "we") have the greatest choice as to where to go. Ninety-five percent of our churches are effectively monoracial: 80 percent or more of their members are of the same race.

Though religious groups of smaller numbers in the U.S., including Muslims and Catholics, have fewer alternatives and cannot to the same degree indulge what sociologists call homophily, or the desire to flock with birds of a feather, their congregations also manifest ethnoracial particularism. The overall result is that only 7 percent of U.S. congregations can fairly be called multiracial.

Yet because there are over 300,000 local religious assemblies in the U.S., the multiracial fraction translates to thousands of congregations. People of the Dream (whose title alludes to Martin Luther King Jr.'s notable 1963 speech) reports on a lengthy collaborative research effort to map those congregations, learn how they swim against the current and discover why they matter.

The research involved a survey of the attitudes and behavior of 2,500 representative Americans; two derivative surveys of their churches, including Mark Chaves's National Congregations Survey; and on-site study of 22 multiracial congregations chosen from the larger surveys, including Wilcrest Baptist Church, an exemplary multiracial congregation in Houston with which Emerson was involved for five years. Wilcrest's pastor, Rodney Woo, is credited as a contributing author. (Full disclosure: in the book's acknowledgments, Emerson thanks me for recommending to him Karen Chai Kim, another of his collaborators.)

Emerson's story is complex. He clearly intends to convince his professional colleagues with his meticulous attention to statistical and methodological details, but he just as clearly wants to educate and inspire fellow churchpeople. Congregations become multiracial, he explains, either because they see it as their mission and follow through on that vision or because they calculate that becoming multiracial is their best hope for survival. Wilcrest, an originally white congregation situated in a changing neighborhood on the edge of the city, combines both types.

In 1991, Wilcrest members voted down their pastor's suggestion that they sell their building and move closer to their own kind of people. That vote and what many members consider the guiding of the Holy Spirit led them to fire the pastor whose vision they rejected and to hire another, Woo, who could lead them along the uncertain path they seemed to have chosen.

Since 1991 some members have left in sadness or anger, but many new members have been added, staff have come and gone, and a great deal of effort has been expended. Now Wilcrest, still pastored by Woo, firmly embraces its multiracial identity. It is in the 99th percentile for American religious racial diversity; the congregation is 42 percent white, 30 percent Hispanic, 20 percent black, 5 percent Asian and 3 percent "other."

From Wilcrest and the 21 other cases, we learn how crucial are decisions about music styles and hiring. Each racial group must feel that it is represented, and dominant groups must be willing to forgo privilege and others' deference to their dearly held but ethnocentric standards. Everyone must be open to changing in unanticipated ways and listening for unexpected misunderstandings. For example, Anglos tend to see being on time for meetings as a sign of respect, whereas some Hispanics regard it as arrogance, as if people who arrive on time believe that nothing can happen until they arrive. Conflict is inevitable.

It's actually easier to start a multiracial church than to become one. But the results are worth it. Mixed churches actually mix people. White people become more open-minded. Nonwhites tend to move up the educational and occupational ladder, and they don't have to sacrifice their cultural identity to do so. People who feel out of place in more conventional churches are likely to feel accepted. As Christians might expect ("Those who find their life will lose it"), these results should not be the goal of change. Rather, multiracialism is a necessary means to the higher end of doing God's will.