Description: 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.
Review Quotes: "A fascinating account of the influence of white evangelicalism on black-white relations in the United States."--The Journal of Religion
"This book cogently summarizes the race-related history of evangelicalism and then, based on data from surveys of 2,000 white evangelicals and 200 follow-up interviews, explores various dimensions of contemporary evangelical attitudes and practices related to race.... All academic levels."--Choice"This is an important book. With thoughtful conceptual distinctions and careful analysis of data from a variety of empirical sources, Emerson and Smith provide an interesting account of how white evangelicals perpetuate the very racial divisions they publicly oppose. Divided by Faith breaks new ground in the study of religion and American race relations."--William Julius Wilson, Harvard University, author of The Truly Disadvantaged and The Bridge Over the Racial Divide"This book is a report card for the church leaders and, I hope, the larger society. The authors show how racial valuations are basically built into the structures of society, and so we are, in a sense, failing by design."--Robert Franklin, Christianity Today"Somewhat surprisingly, the racial dimensions of religious activity have been relatively under-studied by sociologists of religion, a gap that makes the insightful contribution of Michael Emerson and Christian Smith's book... all the more important."--Contemporary Sociology