Religious Diversity and Perspectives on Poverty in Houston Texas

• In Event: Interfaith Dialogue in Times of Conflict (Co-sponsored by Sociology of Religion Section)

Abstract

This paper analyzes how faith leaders in Houston, Texas, conceptualize and respond to poverty. Drawing on sixty-two in-depth interviews, it explores the tension between spiritual, mental health, and structural interpretations of economic hardship. We find that among individual explanations of poverty, the focus is on spiritual poverty as more important than material poverty, as poverty as the result of moral failure, or on mental health as a driving source of poverty and homelessness. Among structural explanations of poverty, there is a focus on societal moral failure; society takes advantage of the poor and is not providing support for mental health, addiction, and other systemic issues related to poverty. Religious leaders also seek to address poverty through direct support and through advocacy to change structures, but we do not find that these interventions are systematically related to explanations of poverty. Rather, attempts to address poverty outside of the bounds of one’s congregation is most prevalent among Christian, Muslim, and Jewish, and Unitarian leaders, while among immigrant Buddhist, Hindu, and Christian congregations, the focus is primarily on taking care of the poor in the congregation. Our findings suggest that religious leaders’ explanations of poverty differentially places moral responsibility on the individual versus social structures, and that differences in interventions are linked more to congregational resource constraints.

Authors

• Elaine Howard Ecklund, Rice University

• Bianca Mabute-Louie, Rice University

• Kerby Goff, Rice University