Blacks and Whites in Christian America: How Racial Discrimination Shapes Religious Convictions

Jason Shelton and Michael Emerson's Blacks and Whites in Christian America: How Racial Discrimination Shapes Religious Convictions is an in-depth examination of the role of racial group membership in the religious lives of Black and White Protestants. To explore these differences, Shelton and Emerson draw on data from two nationally representative surveys, as well as in-depth interviews with Black and White Protestants. In this volume, Shelton and Emerson demonstrate how race matters in the formation of Protestants' beliefs about morality, impoverishment, race relations, and other religious and social issues. Conceptually, this book rests on two theoretical frameworks that inform Shelton and Emerson's understanding of racial differences in the religious sensibilities of Protestants in America. One theoretical approach highlights the role of race, racism, and discrimination in shaping the broader contexts of the Black religious experience. Theories of religious culture have also been used to inform our understanding of American Protestantism. A second theoretical approach, cultural theory, suggests that the socially constructed beliefs, symbols, and rituals that individuals draw on to assess important situations and formulate solutions to individual-level problems derive from a larger racial structure. Over time, residue from racial structures becomes engrained in the beliefs, symbols, and practices of the consumers of this culture. Taken together, the structuring of Protestantism in the United States is a complex and ongoing interaction between racial structures, racial experiences, and religious doctrine.