Inhabiting the White Church: Divinized Diversity and Antiracist Projects in Progressive Religious Organizations

ABSTRACT Drawing on 3 years of qualitative fieldwork at a United Methodist church and a Catholic parish in Minneapolis‐St. Paul, I analyze how White, liberal congregations translated race‐conscious ideals into organizational practice in the wake of the 2020 police murder of George Floyd. These “antiracist projects” included education, reparations initiatives, and efforts to reform congregational culture to address shifting understandings of race. I introduce the concept of “divinized diversity”—a racial frame that draws on religious cultural tools to heighten awareness of systemic racism—to show how race‐conscious commitments paradoxically motivate individualist and expressive forms of action that reinforce rather than dismantle racial hierarchies. By sacralizing individualistic approaches to racial justice, divinized diversity naturalizes the status quo even as it mobilizes sincere commitments to change. These findings contribute to research on racialized organizations, progressive religion, and the limits of diversity ideology in majority‐White institutional settings.