Shades of white flight : evangelical congregations and urban departure / Mark T. Mulder.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mulder, Mark T., 1973- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Evangelicalism--United States--History--20th century.

Evangelicalism.

Race--Religious aspects--Christianity.

Race.

Identification (Religion).

Racism--United States--History--20th century.

Racism.

African Americans--Illinois--Chicago--History--20th century--Case studies.

African Americans.

White people--Illinois--Chicago--Migrations--History--20th century--Case studies.

White people.

United States--Race relations--History--20th century.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (198 p.)

Place of Publication:

New Brunswick, New Jersey : Rutgers University Press, 2015.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Since World War II, historians have analyzed a phenomenon of "white flight" plaguing the urban areas of the northern United States. One of the most interesting cases of "white flight" occurred in the Chicago neighborhoods of Englewood and Roseland, where seven entire church congregations from one denomination, the Christian Reformed Church, left the city in the 1960's and 1970's and relocated their churches to nearby suburbs. In Shades of White Flight, sociologist Mark T. Mulder investigates the migration of these Chicago church members, revealing how these churches not only failed to inhibit white flight, but actually facilitated the congregations' departure. Using a wealth of both archival and interview data, Mulder sheds light on the forces that shaped these midwestern neighborhoods and shows that, surprisingly, evangelical religion fostered both segregation as well as the decline of urban stability. Indeed, the Roseland and Englewood stories show how religion-often used to foster community and social connectedness-can sometimes help to disintegrate neighborhoods. Mulder describes how the Dutch CRC formed an insular social circle that focused on the local church and Christian school-instead of the local park or square or market-as the center point of the community. Rather than embrace the larger community, the CRC subculture sheltered themselves and their families within these two places. Thus it became relatively easy-when black families moved into the neighborhood-to sell the church and school and relocate in the suburbs. This is especially true because, in these congregations, authority rested at the local church level and in fact they owned the buildings themselves. Revealing how a dominant form of evangelical church polity-congregationalism-functioned within the larger phenomenon of white flight, Shades of White Flight lends new insights into the role of religion and how it can affect social change, not always for the better.

Contents:

Front matter

CONTENTS

List of Maps

Preface and Acknowledgments

1. Introduction: The Irony of Religion and Racial Segregation

Part I: The Evolution of an Evangelical Denomination

2. Mobility and Insularity

3. Shuttered in Chicago

4. A Case Study of the Closed Community: The Disrupted Integration of Timothy Christian School

Part II: City and Neighborhood Change

5. Chicago: A Brief History of African American In-Migration and White Reaction

6. The Black Belt Reaches Englewood and Roseland

Part III: Congregations Respond to Neighborhood Change

7. The Insignificance of Place

8. The Significance of Polity

9. Second Roseland (CRC) Leaves the City

10. The Contrast between Sister Denominations

11. Conclusion: The Continuing Resonance of Religion in Race and Urban Patterns

Notes

Bibliography

Index

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-8135-6484-0

OCLC:

905349655