Organizing Race

Abstract

Faith-based community organizing is receiving an increasing amount of attention from scholars of religious ethics. This essay is motivated by the worry that accounts of such organizing depend on a problematic embrace of multiculturalism, an embrace characteristic of our neoliberal era. Like the powers that they purport to challenge, organizing efforts often embrace difference (racial, gender, and religious) only when it is carefully managed. This is being challenged by theological accounts of organizing that take the religious dimension of such efforts seriously, as well as by feminist critiques of community organizing. This essay probes how race might be taken just as seriously by religious ethicists who study community organizing. Drawing on the civil rights movement's legacy of faith-based community mobilization as well as traditions of Black theological reflection, this essay challenges the easy embrace of multi-racial coalitions in faith-based organizing.

The Ethics and Politics of Religious Ethics, 1973–2023

“…Religious ethics has value, one could say, given the need to show members of religious communities what their loyalties imply for the moral life across a range of personal, political, and professional contexts (Gustafson 1997, 19). In a related vein, religious ethicists can draw on religious‐ethical teachings to tackle grave moral problems in personal life, social relations, and global affairs (see O'Connor 1979; Grelle 1998; Stalnaker 2006; Lloyd 2014; Twiss 2005b; and Ilesanmi 2019). Given that religion makes a practical difference in the lives of many individuals, moreover, studying ethics without attention to relevant religious beliefs, traditions, and practices would leave us with a considerably truncated picture of morality (for example, Yearley 1993; Johnson 1997; and Schweiker 2005).…”

Religion and progressive politics in the United States

“…Overall, scholars have expressed enthusiasm about FBCOs' capacity to “revitalize” democracy (Warren, ); to be the “future of progressive politics in America” (Osterman, ; see also Hart, ); to cultivate a distinctive model of grassroots democracy (Stout, ) and active citizenship (Braunstein, ); and to promote racial and economic justice (R. L. Wood & Fulton, ). Interest in FBCOs also continues to grow among scholars of religion and theology, who see in FBCOs a sophisticated example of religious ethics in action (e.g., Bretherton, ; Lloyd, ; Snarr, ). FBCOs are gaining visibility beyond the academy, too—for example, among leaders within the anti‐Trump resistance movement, who see in FBCOs a successful model for holding elites accountable (Whitman, ).…”