Abstract
This research examines religious affiliation and church attendance among African-Americans in three different regions of the United States to evaluate the thesis that the Black church represents a semi-involuntary institution shaped by historical dynamics of segregation in the rural South. We extend the analyses of others who have found the rural South to have distinctive church participation patterns by examining two nationally representative data sets (the 1972–1996 General Social Surveys and the 1984 National Alcohol Study). We explore both level and type of church attendance of African-Americans, and how patterns differ by region. Further, we refine prior analyses by (1) differentiating between members of historically “White” and “conservative” churches from those in the black “mainline,” (2) examining racial segregation, and (3) focusing on the “type” of church attendance (rather than just overall level). Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and logistic regression models support the thesis that the rural South exhibits some distinctive patterns that make the “semi-involuntary institution” notion a useful concept, although patterns not predicted by the thesis are also found. The semi-involuntary thesis is also used to illuminate some church attendance patterns observed outside the rural South.
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Hunt, M.O., Hunt, L.L. Regional Religions?: Extending the “Semi-involuntary” Thesis of African-American Religious Participation. Sociological Forum 15, 569–594 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007515431141
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007515431141