Religious Social Movements in the Public Sphere 319
economic class, and locality (sometimes neighborhood). They are, as a rule, fiercely
localorganizations in both resources and orientation. So tapping into congregations
can provide access to large numbers of similar, and connected, people.
These organizational resources have helped start a number of social movements, the
Civil Rights Movement and the Christian Right are only the most prominent. Both used
congregations as the focal point for early movement activity, before more autonomous
social movement organizations developed. Churches also play important roles in sup-
porting Pax Christi, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, a number of anti-abortion groups
such as Operation Rescue, various environmental causes, and the Witness for Peace
groups that have protested U.S. policy in Central America for the past two decades. In
addition, congregations are often important players in local controversies – homeless
shelters, sex education in local schools, gambling initiatives, and the like (see Demerath
and Williams 1992).
Several scholars (e.g., Hart 2001; McRoberts, Chapter 28, this volume; Pena, ̃
Chapter 27, this volume; Wood 2002; Chapter 26, this volume), have been studying
what is known as “faith-based organizing.” Groups such as the Industrial Areas Founda-
tion (IAF) or the Pacific Institute for Community Organization (PICO) are coalitions of
organizations, many of which are congregations. They pool their resources, expertise,
and personnel and engage in activism (usually concerning local issues of economic or
social justice) that deliberately uses their status as religious groups to mobilize participa-
tion and to try and persuade established officials. Faith-based organizing is a significant,
and if the scholarship is any indication, also a growing phenomenon. It is somewhat
different organizationally, however, from the type of role that congregations played in
the Civil Rights Movement or the United Farm Workers’ efforts, where the congrega-
tions helped give birth to movement activities, but then gave way to autonomous and
specific social movement organizations (SMOs).
For this reason, Smith’s (1996b) study of the Central American Peace movement
refers to religious organizations as “movement midwives.” In some cases, such as those
churches that declared themselves “sanctuaries,” congregations organized as such to
oppose government policy. But while congregations often play crucial roles in recruit-
ing, advertising, and helping to get a collective action effort started, for the most part
they do not become SMOs themselves. This is true at least in part because congrega-
tions are multipurpose organizations that serve a variety of social and spiritual needs
for their members. Any congregation that turns itself into an advocacy SMO risks losing
those other aspects of its existence and alienating substantial parts of its membership
(not to mention the possibility that political activity could place the congregation’s tax
exemption at risk).
The tension between spiritual nurture and social activism is particularly acute in
religious groups that employ a “congregational” polity – that is, where there is no de-
nominational structure or bishop to wield religious authority above the congregation.
In such settings, clerical leaders usually depend completely on the congregation for
their salaries. Any political activity that splits the church could cost the pastor her or
his livelihood (along with violating the professional pride in keeping one’s church grow-
ing and prosperous). Thus, while many anti-abortion groups draw their members from
conservative Protestant congregations, and sometimes use church facilities for meet-
ings, the clergy themselves are rarely leaders of such groups. They tend to tolerate rather
than lead or encourage such efforts (see Demerath and Williams 1992). Interviews with