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Chapter 7 Black Congregations in the City of Brotherly Love Religion in the Black Community Although in Philadelphia there are many important and interesting groups worth attention, we elected to focus on African Americans, Latinos , and women. They are the largest and most interesting groups about whom we could shed new light. We elected not to focus on Muslims as there were too few Masjids within the city limits to generalize. We also elected not to focus on Asian Americans. Although there is a growing body of literature on this community and its religious characteristics (cf. Yang 1999) we felt that our sample is too small to offer any new or definite conclusions. The African American community is claimed to be the most religious ethnic group in America.1 Research supports the importance of religious involvement in the lives of African Americans, who are more likely to pray privately, practice religious rituals, attend religious services, and believe that the Bible is the literal word of God (Jacobson, Heaton, and Dennis 1990; Johnson, Matre, and Armbrecht 1991; Taylor, Chatters, and Levin 2003). Taylor and Chatters (1991) found in their analysis of the National Survey of Black Americans (NSBA) that 93 percent of black respondents reported praying several times a month or more, while 74 percent reported reading religious material. These statistics are significantly higher than those of any other ethnic group in America and, as will be shown in the next chapter, set the African American community apart from the Latino community. Findings from the 1979–80 NSBA showed that black adults predominantly described themselves as Christians. Of the 89 percent of respondents (n ⳱ 2,096) who called themselves religiously affiliated, 98.6 percent identified themselves as Christian (Jackson and Gurin 1993). Furthermore, based on the NSBA it was assessed that African Americans turn to prayer frequently when confronting serious personal problems, and that they perceive these religious coping strategies to be satisfying and helpful (Neighbors et al. 1983). 124 Chapter 7 Farnsley (2003: 37) found in Indianapolis that ‘‘When asked whether religious beliefs are important in making financial decisions in secular life, 84 percent of African Americans said they were, compared to 52 percent of whites. When asked whether religious beliefs are important in political decision making, 77 percent of African Americans said they were, compared to 65 percent of whites.’’ Surveys show that more than two-thirds (68.2 percent) of adults in the United States belong to a religious congregation (Barna Research Group 2000; Gallup 2001). African Americans are even more likely to belong to a congregation. In 1997, the black church (Protestant and Catholic) claimed 25 million members in 63,000 congregations (Pinn 2003). African Americans report significantly more congregation membership and attendance than either whites or Hispanics (Markstrom 1999; Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey 2001). According to Baer and Singer (1992), the black church is more than a place of worship. It is a multifunctional institution that has developed many communal institutions for African Americans, such as schools, credit unions, banks, insurance companies, and low-income housing projects, some of which are discussed below. The first African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church, Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, established by Richard Allen in 1794, was an offshoot of the Free African Society, a mutual aid society founded in 1787 in Philadelphia that helped free black people and organized some antislavery campaigns . The two aspects of mutual aid and spiritual enhancement still go hand in hand in most black churches in the United States. Equally important, black churches and mosques are hubs of political training and political participation. Lincoln and Mamiya (1990), in a survey of black clergy, found that 92 percent advocated church involvement in social and political issues. According to Caldwell, Greene, and Billingsley (1992), the social and political involvement of clergy in black churches is both significant and expected. E. Lincoln Frazier (1964) called the black church a nation within a nation. His contention was that black churches are agents of political, civic, economic, and social involvement and representation in a racially very hostile United States. Mays and Nicholson (1933) noted that the black church was the only institution wholly owned and operated by African Americans, the local institution most available and willing to provide support services to people in need. The church is a refuge where a black person can be a leader and be protected and served by people he or she can trust (Freedman 1993). Similarly...

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