“A Place Where You Belong”: Black Americans in Racially Diverse versus Politically Divided Church Congregations

• In Event: Racial and Ethnic Minorities Section Roundtables Session
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table Two: Religious Social-Political Racism and Xenophobia

Abstract

We recently completed the largest-ever sociological interview study and survey of Black American Latter-day Saint (LDS or Mormon) religious members (Wood and Rugh 2025): 114 interviews; over 137,000 lines of transcribed text. We find a striking pattern where racial diversity in local, geographic-based church congregations (wards) is substantially associated with greater belonging net of other factors. Over 82 percent of Black LDS members in the most diverse tercile of wards agree they feel they belong in their ward, compared to just 47 percent in lowest tercile (no diversity) of wards. Unlike the array of belonging items that correspond strongly with racial diversity, we find widespread disagreement across racial contexts with the statement, “People at church share the same values.” This diminished sense of shared values is not significantly related to ward racial diversity or local zip code demographics but instead driven by political segregation and division operationalized by local precinct Trump vote share. Our mixed methods qualitative analysis illustrates in their own words the ways that Black members negotiate contexts that range from racially affirming to politically divisive in a historically white faith where membership diversity is rising steadily but unevenly across the United States. Sociologists have established that diversity is not what threatens multiracial societies like the United States; rather, segregation and inequality are what tend to undermine trust, social integration, and shared values (Abascal and Baldassarri 2015; Baldassarri and Abascal 2020; Rothwell 2012; Sampson 2012). Examining belonging from the point of view of Black members of a predominantly white faith confirms this consensus and our timely findings make a unique contribution.

Authors

• Jacob S. Rugh, Brigham Young University-Provo

• Michael Lee Wood, Brigham Young University-Provo

• Alexys Comish Anderson, Brigham Young University-Provo