God and government in the ghetto : the politics of church-state collaboration in Black America / Michael Leo Owens.

Format:

• Book

Author/Creator:

• Owens, Michael Leo.

Series:

• Morality and society
• Morality and society series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

• African American churches.
• Church and state--United States.
• Church and state.
• Faith-based human services.
• United States.
• Faith-based human services--United States.
• Community development, Urban--United States.
• Community development, Urban.

Physical Description:

xii, 310 pages : illustrations, map ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2007.

Summary:

In recent years, as government agencies have encouraged faith-based organizations to help ensure social welfare, many black churches have received grants to provide services to their neighborhoods' poorest residents. This collaboration, activist churches explain, a way of enacting their faith and helping their neighborhoods. But as Michael Leo Owens demonstrates, this alliance also serves as a means for black clergy to reaffirm their political leadership and reposition moral authority in black civil society. Drawing on both survey data and fieldwork in New York City, Owens reveals that African American churches can use these newly forged connections with public agencies to influence policy and government responsiveness in a way that reaches beyond traditional electoral or protest politics. The churches and neighborhoods, Owens argues, can see a real benefit from that influence-but it may come at the expense of less involvement at the grassroots. Anyone with a stake in the changing strategies employed by churches as they fight for social justice will find God and Government in the Ghetto compelling reading.

Contents:

• The extent and support of African American churches' collaboration with government
• The volition to collaborate with government
• Public policy and Black neighborhood decline
• Faith in action for neighborhood redemption
• Partnering with Caesar
• Acquiring resources for neighborhood resurrection
• Complementing collaboration.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [259]-292) and index.

ISBN:

• 9780226642062
• 0226642062
• 9780226642079
• 0226642070

OCLC:

77829965

Online:

Publisher description