Abstract
This book, a comprehensive study of the field of faith-based community organizing (FBCO), concerns the potential of religious faith as an institutional and cultural platform for social movements pursuing racial equity and economic justice. The theoretical framework is organized around a tension between democratic ideals of universalism and multiculturalism. Synthesizing theory from Seyla Benhabib, Nancy Fraser, Jurgen Habermas, Iris Marion Young, and others, Wood and Fulton show that aspirations to a universal democratic ethic are usually interpreted through claims and traditions that emerge from specific racial and/or religious identities. This makes it a challenge to bring actors grounded in particular traditions to cooperate in pursuit of a shared universal ambition. Data from a national survey of FBCO coalitions and a thorough qualitative case study of the PICO national network support the central claim: that the most successful organizations in the FBCO field have developed a compelling moral framework that effectively situates the needs and priorities of particular communities within a universal democratic ethic. These organizations therefore have the potential to advance “ethical democracy” in ways that are both practically necessary, if racial equity is to be advanced more broadly in American public life, and intellectually informative, for scholars who wonder how religious faith can comprise a meaningful framework for grassroots democratic organizing, particularly organizing across social difference.
The first half of the book describes important findings from the survey. The data, collected in 2011, provide a much needed update and excellent overview of the field, even while many readers will encourage the authors to conduct another survey in short order, given apparent developments since then. At that time, the U.S. had 189 regional FBCO coalitions that connected congregations with one another, as well as with labor unions, schools, and other civic organizations. These coalitions have developed strong local and regional influence on issues including health care, banking, foreclosures, wages and benefits, and criminal justice. Reforms have been achieved by a leadership body that is increasingly representative of the communities it serves: the survey showed that the boards and paid organizing staff of FBCO coalitions were considerably more diverse than they had been a decade earlier, and also more diverse than the leadership of most other civic and political organizations. This means that FBCO coalitions can legitimately identify and advance the interests of many kinds of communities, situating multicultural experience within a universalist democratic framework. Racial diversity within FBCO coalitions is not only culturally important, but politically efficacious as well. The most successful coalitions put middle-class white congregations into meaningful interaction with majority-minority churches, and this success in connecting faith communities across social difference endows the discussion of lived injustice with political and cultural capital that is often missing in other movements for racial equity. The result is a field of organizations that construct a religious imperative for racial and economic justice, develop a cultural platform that encourages substantive diversity and multicultural leadership, and support these with the institutional strength necessary for movement building on a national scale.
The second half draws on interviews and ethnographic data to explain more specifically how FBCO coalitions use religious faith as a cultural basis for advancing racial equity. Wood and Fulton focus on how an intentional organizational commitment to racial justice on the part of many coalitions has opened new possibilities for religious communities to live out values of dignity and justice, with particular attention to assessing how coalitions can bring a universalist democratic narrative to emerge from the distinct and diverse interests of their multiple constituencies. A chapter-long discussion of how John Powell's work on inclusive democracy infused the PICO network's organizational priorities highlights the challenges involved with centralizing racial equity in a multicultural movement, but also offers an optimistic take on how, through strategic use of faith language, organizations can intentionally reorient their existing social justice projects to specifically address racial equity.
Together, the qualitative chapters document the strategic innovations by which PICO connects commitment to universalism with work in marginalized communities. Yet another kind of connection is central to FBCO work: the connection between private faith and public action. A hesitation to recognize and act upon this connection inhibits social justice organizing in many congregational environments, and more attention to this dynamic is needed in order to assess the FBCO field's potential for advancing racial equity on a national scale. A brief discussion of this difficulty appears in Chapter Five, but cultural sociologists and observers of congregational life alike may find themselves wishing for more analysis of how the organizational priorities of FBCO coalitions play out in local religious settings. Yet the field's growth shows that an increasing number of congregations have found the universalist ambitions and multicultural platforms that FBCO coalitions offer to be a compelling extension of their faith commitments. Wood and Fulton have done a major service to scholars, clergy, lay activists, and community organizing practitioners alike by revealing the workings of this process and the scale on which it is happening. The book will also be useful in courses related to race, religion, social movements, and democratic theory.