Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America

Through a nationwide telephone survey of 2,000 people and an additional 200 face-to-face interviews, Michael O. Emerson and Christian Smith probed the grassroots of white evangelical America. They found that despite recent efforts by the movement's leaders to address the problem of racial discrimination, evangelicals themselves seem to be preserving America's racial chasm. In fact, most white evangelicals see no systematic discrimination against blacks. But the authors contend that it is not active racism that prevents evangelicals from recognizing ongoing problems in American society. Instead, it is the evangelical movement's emphasis on individualism, free will, and personal relationships that makes invisible the pervasive injustice that perpetuates racial inequality. Most racial problems, the subjects told the authors, can be solved by the repentance and conversion of the sinful individuals at fault.
Combining a substantial body of evidence with sophisticated analysis and interpretation, the authors throw sharp light on the oldest American dilemma. In the end, they conclude that despite the best intentions of evangelical leaders and some positive trends, real racial reconciliation remains far over the horizon.

• The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism
• White Awake: An Honest Look at What It Means to Be White
• Roadmap to Reconciliation: Moving Communities into Unity, Wholeness and Justice
• Bridging the Diversity Gap: Leading Toward God's Multi-Ethnic Kingdom
• Hispanic Christian Thought at the Dawn of the 21st Century: Apuntes in Honor of Justo L. González
• The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity
• The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity
• Cultural Intelligence: Improving Your CQ to Engage Our Multicultural World (Youth, Family, and Culture)
• Prophetic Lament: A Call for Justice in Troubled Times
• Woke Church: An Urgent Call for Christians in America to Confront Racism and Injustice