Sociology Now, Census Update

When it comes to religious observance, 84

percent of U.S. Blacks say religion is very

important in everyday life, while only 68 per-

cent of Hispanics and 39 percent of Whites

feel the same way. Sixty-two percent of Blacks

and 50 percent of Hispanics believe the Bible

is the literal word of God, while only 31 per-

cent of Whites do. Eighty percent of Whites

believe that miracles still occur today as they

did in ancient times; fewer Hispanics (75 per-

cent) hold the same belief. Religiosity also

varies by other sociological factors, including

education and income; across all racial and

ethnic groups, greater education and higher

household incomes both correlate with more

secular beliefs (Pew Forum on Religion and

Public Life, 2007) (Table 15.5).

Most churches in the United States are

populated by Whites or Blacks; rarely do

they worship together. As Dr. Martin Luther

King Jr. once put it, “The most segregated

hour of Christian America is 11 o’clock on Sunday morning.” Just as the White church

has been, for centuries, an important social institution, so too has the Black church

evolved as one of the central institutions of the African American community.

Actually, to speak of a singular “Black church” in America is a bit misleading;

the “Black church” is really the vast array of Black churches, usually Protestant, that

have developed over the course of U.S. history. The massive importation of African

slaves in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was coupled with efforts to crush

their traditional African-based religions (which were seen as a threat to their enslaved

status) and to convert them to Christianity. Often slaves were required to attend

church with their White masters but relegated to the balconies of the church.

Gradually, however, slaves began to appropriate parts of the service, especially

identifying with the Biblical stories of the Jews, who were slaves in Egypt, and their

eventual liberation in the book of Exodus. After the Civil War, they established their

504 CHAPTER 15RELIGION AND SCIENCE

100

80

60

40

20

0

PERCENT

Protestant Catholic Secular Other Faiths/

Other Christians

Black White Hispanic

FIGURE 15.3 Denominational Distribution by
Race/Ethnicity, 2007

TABLE 15.5

Religious Tradition among Hispanics by Education and Household Income†

AMONG HISPANICS...

ALL HISPANICS CATHOLIC EVANGELICAL

MAINLINE OTHER

PROTESTANT CHRISTIAN SECULAR

Education

Less than high school degree 39% 42% 34% 30% 37% 33%

High school degree 47 44 54 56 52 49

Four-year college degree 10 9 10 12 9 17

Household Income

Less than $30,000 43 46 39 29 45 41

$30,000–$49,999 19 18 24 21 26 21

$50,000 or more 17 14 21 24 11 25

†21% of respondents did not provide information on their household income.

Source:Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, 2007.

Source:“Changing Faiths: Latinos and the Transformation of American Religion,” Pew Forum on
Religion & Public Life and Pew Hispanic Center, 2007. Reprinted by permission.