Faith in Action? Exploring the Relationship between Public and Private Religiosity, Race, and Social Justice among Christian College Students

Abstract

Awareness of social justice issues and their perceived importance varies significantly across many demographic variables including racial and religious identities. Less is known, however, about how the centrality of one’s own religiosity is associated with social justice attitudes and actions. This study explored the relationship between dimensions of religiosity and social justice importance and actions for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and non-Hispanic White students. Christian college students ( N = 168) completed measures of public and private religiosity, the perceived connection between faith and social justice, as well as personal attitudes and actions pertaining to issues of social justice. The results demonstrated positive associations between religiosity and the extent to which faith was believed to inform social justice attitudes for BIPOC and White students. Despite the perception that religiosity informed one’s social justice attitudes and actions, religiosity was only positively associated with actual social justice engagement for BIPOC students. Furthermore, multiple regression analyses demonstrated that public religiosity was the best predictor of beliefs that one’s religion motivated activities related to social justice work, but private religiosity was the strongest predictor of actual social justice engagement. These findings underscore a prominent disconnect in the extent to which religiosity is believed to be, and is actually, associated with social justice attitudes and actions.

When dehumanization does (and does not) matter: Exploring the relationship between social justice motivations, avoidant behaviors, and intentions to help individuals experiencing homelessness

“…Put simply, SJ intentions explained more variance in intentions to help than SJ actions. This finding demonstrates a potential disconnect between intentions and actions (Tausen & Funabashi, 2023) and underscores instances when dehumanization matters for predicting intentions to help. A second notable difference in our studies is that they represent two unique samples (college students and Prolific Workers).…”

“…Two questions probed SJ attitudes and actions (see Tausen & Funabashi, 2023). Responses were assessed using a 100‐point analog scale with appropriate anchors.…”

“…Those interested in the full list of items can find them in the supporting information. Additional measures beyond the scope of the current manuscript probed public and private religiosity, connections to SJ and faith, and attitudes toward institutional support (see Tausen & Funabashi, 2023).…”

“…Those who are motivated to respond without prejudice in interracial interactions, for example, display less prejudice than those without such motivation (Butz & Plant, 2009). This pattern tends to be particularly evident when individuals' motivations and related beliefs are predominately internal (Bamberg & Verkuyten, 2022; Plant & Devine, 1998; Tausen & Funabashi, 2023). While such motivations tend to be narrowly defined (e.g., “I attempt to act in non‐prejudiced ways toward Black people because it is personally important to me”), assessing broader motivations related to the personal importance of equity across groups may provide more generalizable insights into the relationship between dehumanization and willingness to help those who are oppressed (Halabi et al, 2008; Ho et al, 2015).…”

Integrating Psychological and Theological Perspectives on Multiculturalism, Social Justice, and Peace

“…In Faith in Action? Exploring the Relationship between Public and Private Religiosity, Race, and Social Justice Among Christian College Students , Tausen and Funabashi (2024) explored the impact of racial and religious identities on perceived importance of social justice. Contrasting the attitudes and actions of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and non-Hispanic White students at a Christian college, researchers found a positive relationship between religiosity and whether one believed their faith informs their attitudes toward social justice for both BIPOC and White students.…”