The White Jesus Phenomenon: Belief Differences between Urban and Rural Black American Communities

• In Event: Sociology of Religion Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 3. Religious Symbolism

Abstract

Previous research project found that the White Jesus Phenomenon is still prevalent and significant in the lives of Black Christian Americans (House-Niamke 2022). This initial study also found that the Phenomenon was less significant to Black American Christian women than their Black male counterparts. The White Jesus Phenomenon is defined as the intentionally false portrayal of Jesus Christ as European/white. Further, other research found that religious and racial socialization is key to determining how significant and/or meaningful the White Jesus Phenomenon is in the lives of Black Americans (House-Niamke 2025).
This current study seeks to dig further into the rationale for acceptance or resistance to white religious iconography, exploring and examining the significance of geography (e.g. rural v. urban, north v. south) to the beliefs in and the significance of the White Jesus Phenomenon in Black Americans using a survey of approximately 300 Black Americans. My hypothesis for this project is that geography will not be statistically significant for various reasons – 1) more than half (56%) of African Americans currently live in the South with the largest numerical concentration of African Americans being in the state of Texas (4.3 million) (Pew Research Center 2023), making it difficult to compare unequal numbers of northern and southern Black Americans; 2) religious socialization literature points to parents and immediate family as the main intergenerational transmitters of religious values and attitudes, implying that their children’s values may not have shifted enough to change their belief system as adults (Smith and Adamczyk 2021); and 3) the history of the multiple “Great Migrations” from south to north, and from less-industrialized areas to more industrialized area complicates the matters of social beliefs when considering that their roots are from similar regions and lived experiences (Sennett 1997). Further, once we consider the impact of the Civil Rights Movement and Black Power Eras, the issue of social beliefs are even more complex.

Author

• Stephanie M. House-Niamke, Prairie View A&M University