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  • The Elusive Dream: The Power of Race in Interracial Churches
  • Kevin D. Dougherty
The Elusive Dream: The Power of Race in Interracial Churches By Korie L. Edwards Oxford University Press. 2008. 227 pages. $29.95 cloth.

What does it take to sustain a church where blacks and whites worship together? According to Korie Edwards in The Elusive Dream: The Power of Race in Interracial Churches, it takes a congregational culture familiar to whites. Her thesis is that “interracial churches work to the extent that they are, first, comfortable places for whites to attend.”

Edwards roots her explanation in racial theory and the concept of white hegemony, the dominance associated with whiteness as a racial category in the United States. It is a dominance rooted in social institutions and cultural practices, yet largely invisible to those benefiting from it. She defends her thesis using national survey data from congregations and a case study of one interracial church in the Midwest. Chapters explore worship, civic engagement, leadership, members’ racial identity, reasons members join and the reproduction of white hegemony. A short conclusion with a call to action ends the book.

The multi-method approach aptly extends previous ethnographic studies on the topic. It provides Edwards’ analysis both breadth and depth. The statistical analysis reveals that America’s interracial churches – those populated predominantly by blacks and whites – resemble white churches more than black churches in worship style, social and civic activities, and the race of clergy. Yet, it is the case study where analysis is most compelling. Edwards takes us inside a congregation she calls Crosstown Community Church. Crosstown is an 80+ year old congregation that went from all white to two-thirds black over the past two decades. The racial transition inside Crosstown was precipitated by a near complete racial turnover from white to black outside its doors.

The analysis of Crosstown often reads like a good story. There is the sanctioning of Lydia, black woman prone to loud expressions of praise during worship services, and a fascinating account of the contentious hiring process for two pastoral positions. Edwards weaves narrative and analysis superbly to illuminate racial overtones and power inequalities involved in church deliberations over worship and leadership. Racial differences do not disappear inside Crosstown. Even though white members are a numeric minority and the senior pastor is black, white hegemony persists through a collective process of reinforcement by both whites and blacks who concede their own cultural preferences in order to accommodate whites. Her conclusion admonishes churches (and other nonreligious communities) “not to accept the convenient counterfeit of mere racial integration but to strive toward becoming communities that celebrate racial justice and equality.” [End Page 1494]

The framing of “integration” is one difficulty for me with the book. Edwards uses the term to refer to racial diversity without regard to shared power or interaction. She acknowledges in a footnote that others define integration differently. I believe her analysis would have benefited from the distinctions of DeYoung et al. (2003) among assimilated, pluralist and integrated multiracial congregations. These distinctions capture variation in interaction, power and the salience of racial differences within racially mixed congregations. In integrated congregations, racial groups no longer see themselves as different. Edwards’ findings raise doubts that congregations like Crosstown can achieve this ideal. Advocating for equality amidst salient racial differences suggests that the best we can hope for are pluralist multiracial congregations.

This leads to a second difficulty I have with the book. Edwards expects white hegemony to exist in any mixed-race congregation where whites are present. It does in Crosstown where only 30 percent of members are white. However, for six decades Crosstown was exclusively a white church. After a congregational culture is formed, it is not easily transformed. Were an African Methodist Episcopal church to become 30 percent white in membership, would it cease to resemble an AME church? Not likely, although it is an open empirical question. White hegemony may be a feature most pronounced in white congregations transitioning to be multiracial. Furthermore, I question Edwards’ contention that her findings apply beyond the black/white dichotomy. The black experience in the United States is unique. Edwards, who is black, cites this...

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