View the Table of Contents.
Read the Chapter One.

"Breaks new ground by offering us a much better understanding of the operation of both religious congregations and race relations in the U.S. The research is impressive, the analysis smart, and the insights and implications important. This is a unique and significant book."
--Christian Smith, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

"Draws on six case studies to propose a nuanced theory of the dynamics associated with the success or failure of multicultural congregations. This book honestly confronts the issues related to taking part in or pastoring an integrated congregation."
--Donald E. Miller, Executive Director, Center for Religion and Civic Culture, University of Southern California

Religious institutions are among the most segregated organizations in American society. This segregation has long been a troubling issue among scholars and religious leaders alike.

Despite attempts to address this racial divide, integrated churches are very difficult to maintain over time. Why is this so? How can organizations incorporate separate racial, ethnic, and cultural groups? Should they? And what are the costs and rewards for people and groups in such organizations?

Following up on Michael O. Emerson and Christian Smith's award-winning "Divided by Faith," Against All Odds breaks new ground by exploring the beliefs, practices, and structures which allow integrated religious organizations to survive and thrive despite their difficulties. Based on six in-depth ethnographies of churches and other Christian organizations, this engaging work draws on numerous interviews, so that readers can hear first-hand the joys andfrustrations which arise from actually experiencing racial integration. The book gives an inside, visceral sense of what it is like to be part of a multiracial religious organization as well as a theoretical understanding of these experiences.

It's time to move past talk. It's no longer news to most of us that our society has a deep-seated racism problem. Christians of all ethnic and economic backgrounds are tired of seeing the ugly legacy of racism play out before their eyes and feeling ill-equipped to respond. They watch as friends and family members leave the visible church over this issue, or fall prey to a gospel of White nationalism that is an affront to the cross of Christ. Racism presents itself as an undefeatable foe-a sustained scourge on the reputation of the church. In Faithful Antiracism, Christina Barland Edmondson and Chad Brennan take confidence from the truth that Christ has overcome the world, including racism, and offer clear analysis and interventions to challenge and resist its pernicious power. Drawing on brand-new research from the landmark Race, Religion, and Justice Project led by Michael Emerson and others, this book represents the most comprehensive study on Christians and race since Emerson's own book Divided by Faith (2001). It invites readers to put this data to immediate practical use, applying it to their own specific context. Compelled by our grievous social moment and by the timeless truth of Scripture, Faithful Antiracism will equip readers to move past talk and enter the fight against racism in both practical and hopeful ways.

Explores the complex role that Black religious leaders play-or don't play-in twenty-first-century racial justice efforts Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. along with many of his Black religious contemporaries courageously mobilized for freedom, ushering in the civil rights movement of the mid-twentieth century. Their efforts laid the groundwork for some of the greatest legislative changes in American history. Today, however, there is relatively limited mass mobilization led by Black religious leaders against systemic racism and racial inequality. Why don't we see more Black religious leadership in today's civil rights movements, such as Black Lives Matter? Drawing on fifty-four in-depth interviews with Black religious leaders and civic leaders in Ohio, Korie Litte Edwards and Michelle Oyakawa uncover several reasons, including a move away from engagement with independent Black-led civic groups toward white-controlled faith-based organizations, religious leaders' nostalgia for and personal links to the legacy of the civil rights movement, the challenges of organizing around race-based oppression in an allegedly post-racial world, and the hierarchical structure of the Black religious leadership network, which may impede ministers' work towards collective activism. Black clergy continue to care deeply about social justice and racial oppression. This book offers important insights into how they approach these issues today, illuminating the social processes that impact when, how, and why they participate in civic action in twenty-first-century America. It reveals the structure and limitations of the Black religious-leader community and its capacity for broad-based mobilization in the post-civil rights era.

View the Table of Contents.
Read the Chapter One.

"Breaks new ground by offering us a much better understanding of the operation of both religious congregations and race relations in the U.S. The research is impressive, the analysis smart, and the insights and implications important. This is a unique and significant book."
--Christian Smith, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

"Draws on six case studies to propose a nuanced theory of the dynamics associated with the success or failure of multicultural congregations. This book honestly confronts the issues related to taking part in or pastoring an integrated congregation."
--Donald E. Miller, Executive Director, Center for Religion and Civic Culture, University of Southern California

Religious institutions are among the most segregated organizations in American society. This segregation has long been a troubling issue among scholars and religious leaders alike.

Despite attempts to address this racial divide, integrated churches are very difficult to maintain over time. Why is this so? How can organizations incorporate separate racial, ethnic, and cultural groups? Should they? And what are the costs and rewards for people and groups in such organizations?

Following up on Michael O. Emerson and Christian Smith's award-winning "Divided by Faith," Against All Odds breaks new ground by exploring the beliefs, practices, and structures which allow integrated religious organizations to survive and thrive despite their difficulties. Based on six in-depth ethnographies of churches and other Christian organizations, this engaging work draws on numerous interviews, so that readers can hear first-hand the joys andfrustrations which arise from actually experiencing racial integration. The book gives an inside, visceral sense of what it is like to be part of a multiracial religious organization as well as a theoretical understanding of these experiences.

It is communion Sunday at a mixed-race church. A black pastor and white head elder stand before the sanctuary as lay leaders pass out the host. An African-American woman sings a gospel song as a woman of Asian descent plays the piano. Then a black woman in the congregation throws her hands up and yells, over and over, "Thank you Lawd!" A few other African-Americans in the pews say "Amen," while white parishioners sit stone-faced. The befuddled white head elder reads aloud from the Bible, his soft voice drowned out by the shouts of praise. Even in this proudly interracial church, America's racial divide is a constant presence. In The Elusive Dream, Korie L. Edwards presents the surprising results of an in-depth study of interracial churches: they help perpetuate the very racial inequality they aim to abolish. To arrive at this conclusion, she combines a nuanced analysis of national survey data with an in-depth examination of one particular church. She shows that mixed-race churches adhere strongly to white norms. African Americans in multiracial settings adapt their behavior to make white congregants comfortable. Behavior that white worshipers perceive as out of bounds is felt by blacks as too limiting. Yet to make interracial churches work, blacks must adjust their behavior to accommodate the predilections of whites. They conform to white expectations in church just as they do elsewhere. Thorough, incisive, and surprising, The Elusive Dream raises provocative questions about the ongoing problem of race in the national culture.

Explores the complex role that Black religious leaders play-or don't play-in twenty-first-century racial justice efforts Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. along with many of his Black religious contemporaries courageously mobilized for freedom, ushering in the civil rights movement of the mid-twentieth century. Their efforts laid the groundwork for some of the greatest legislative changes in American history. Today, however, there is relatively limited mass mobilization led by Black religious leaders against systemic racism and racial inequality. Why don't we see more Black religious leadership in today's civil rights movements, such as Black Lives Matter? Drawing on fifty-four in-depth interviews with Black religious leaders and civic leaders in Ohio, Korie Litte Edwards and Michelle Oyakawa uncover several reasons, including a move away from engagement with independent Black-led civic groups toward white-controlled faith-based organizations, religious leaders' nostalgia for and personal links to the legacy of the civil rights movement, the challenges of organizing around race-based oppression in an allegedly post-racial world, and the hierarchical structure of the Black religious leadership network, which may impede ministers' work towards collective activism. Black clergy continue to care deeply about social justice and racial oppression. This book offers important insights into how they approach these issues today, illuminating the social processes that impact when, how, and why they participate in civic action in twenty-first-century America. It reveals the structure and limitations of the Black religious-leader community and its capacity for broad-based mobilization in the post-civil rights era.