Race, Religion, and Politics
How Gentrification Can Contribute to Racial Reconciliation: A Case Study
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Annie Blazer
This paper presents a case study of one religious group that actively promotes racial reconciliation in a neighborhood undergoing rapid gentrification. East End Fellowship is a non-denominational, evangelical group that emerged from several home churches in 2007 with an explicit mission to focus locally in their gentrifying neighborhood of Church Hill in Richmond, Virginia. While most churches in the U.S. remain racially segregated and tend to have older congregations, East End Fellowship is evenly black and white and skews younger with the average age of membership at 27. I am conducting a larger study on the churches of Church Hill exploring themes of racism, economic inequality, and neighborhood change. For this paper, I will focus on East End Fellowship to highlight the role of social and new media in their self-presentation and, in particular, how they pursue racial reconciliation through these media tools. I will argue that media works in this context for self-fashioning a radically local agenda that takes seriously past and present racism while promoting a vision of achievable racial reconciliation through Christianity. This deserves our attention because it stands in stark contrast to most congregations in the U.S. that either do not prioritize racial integration or have not been able to racially integrate. I hope to use this conference paper to engage in a larger conversation about the role of religious communities in the pursuit of social justice and racial reconciliation.
The Multi-racial Experiment in Two South African Churches
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Eugene Baron
South Africa is still a much racially-divided society. Religions have to be one of the stakeholders in efforts of unity and reconciliation. However, it some cases the religions also struggle internally to provide lasting remedies. The paper will analyze the reasons for the failure of "multi-racial" projects in two, former mono-racial, South African churches. The author analyses two recent incidents where a schism occurred in two congregations, as a result of the introduction of a "multi-racial" project. The author will present the findings of the interviews held with members as well as church leaders to explore the reasons behind the failure of a project in the interest of society and reconciliation.
