Religious Identities and Religious Institutions 221
The interactions of those who thereby recognize each other as coparticipants in a story
extends and elaborates that same story.
Religious clothing is one example of the ways in which religious narratives and prac-
tices cross institutional lines. Privatized religious identities may, of course, be at work
in any setting. Individuals for whom religious narratives play a central role may weave
religious accounts together with the experiences of everyday life. Recall Neitz’s study of
converts to charismatic Catholicism (Neitz 1987). As they experience the stresses and
strains of everyday work and family life, they “try on” the accounts provided by the
charismatic community. Those who finally identify with the prayer group are those for
whom everyday autobiographical narratives and public religious narratives begin to be
consonant. It is not just that they have learned to experience God’s presence in weekly
prayer meetings, but that they have learned to see God’s hand at work in the most
mundane of everyday events, whether or not other participants in those events see the
story in a religious light. While their conversion is obviously encouraged and shaped
by a religious organization, the stories it engenders cross institutional boundaries – at
least by way of the private experiences of participants.
But sometimes religious narratives and practices cross institutional boundaries in
much more publicly accessible ways. Both Mary Pattillo-McCoy (1998) and Richard
Wood (1999) have offered persuasive accounts of the ways in which religious idioms
can enable social movement activity. Prayer, hymn singing, and biblical storytelling
can exist alongside economic and political rhetoric in attempts to mobilize citizens for
action. In so doing, the activist identity that is constructed is infused with religious
meaning. The symbols and rituals of “civil religion” are less oriented toward change,
but they, too, offer a transcendent account of collective identity (Bellah 1967). Similarly,
businesses of all sorts may tell religious stories about their founding and purpose, en-
couraging religious identification among their workers and customers (Bromley 1998b).
Even when the organization itself does not claim any sort of religious narrative,
units within it may be dominated by coreligionists who establish an environment in
which they carry on a religious narrative about who they are and what they are do-
ing. At the church I call Southside Gospel Church, several members recounted their
successful efforts to get church friends hired at their workplaces (and/or to convert
coworkers), resulting in a “Christian” workplace in spite of the secular structures in
which it was lodged (Ammerman 1987). Woven throughout the activity of producing
and selling commercial products was a narrative of God’s activity in their lives, guiding
and reflecting on those transactions, sometimes breaking into their conversations with
outsiders, as well. A similar pattern is emerging in our recent research with social ser-
vice providers. While some aspects of their organizations and interactions are defined
by structures of governmental or economic necessity, other signals emerge, as well.
Their stories of individual “vocation” and organizational “mission” are full of religious
symbols, and their communities of solidarity and support are populated by religious
actors.^26
It is not, however, always possible to bring religious narratives into play. In many set-
tings, official or unofficial rules prohibit any but the most privatized engagement with
religious experiences or ideas. Individuals may bring their faith to work, for instance,
(^26) Ongoing analysis from the “Organizing Religious Work” project, Hartford Institute for Religion
Research, Nancy Ammerman, principal investigator.