Activism in an Urban Religious District 419
“sanctuaries” (Roozen et al. 1988), within which individuals diligently pursue their own
salvation while enjoying a modicum of respect and social status (Paris 1982; Williams
1974). That conclusion would not be invalid. It would, nevertheless, be grossly out
of sync with what the churches themselves believe they are doing with worship and
fellowship.
Priestliness, like theological conservatism, may turn people’s thoughts toward an
otherworld, but not simply or solely for the purpose of personal transcendence. Some
of the churches use ritual interaction inside church walls to equip members to function
in, and perhaps transform, social worldsbeyondthe church. Like parents who attempt
to make a mark on the world by raising well-adjusted children, these churches try
to change the world by injecting socially and spiritually well-adjusted individuals
into it.
This strategy was particularly evident in the eight churches of southern migrants.
The clergy in these churches do not condemn all direct attempts at social transfor-
mation. Social transformation is considered necessary to meet widespread needs and
right large-scale injustices. Nor do these clergy eschewindividualactivism in the sec-
ular world: Most encourage congregants to vote, at least. Yet they believe that unjust
systems are the bitter fruits of a societal spiritual crisis: A crisis that must be resolved
through spiritual means, one prodigal soul at a time. Churches, therefore, should avoid
prophetic varieties of struggle, such as political mobilization, protest, and large-scale
social service provision, lest they forget the privileged role of the church: to be an incu-
bator of saved souls and sound psyches, ready tofacethe world. Churches are thought
to catalyze social change by creating communities that instill in individuals the virtues
of equanimity, confidence, and determination. Once empowered with these qualities,
individuals are not only able to handle the trials and indignities of life in the northern
city, but are better able to resist and challenge oppressive systems.
In these churches it was not unusual for preachers to make pronouncements such as
this: “The same God in Jesus is in you...‘I gave man power over all the earth. Nothing
shall hurt you. I gave you the power to speak to beast, the sun and moon.’” This affir-
mation, delivered by Pastor Pride (of the Remembrance church), is not otherworldly –
it aims, in fact, to connect the believer with divine forces that might enable him or her
to functioninthe world with a sense of power and agency. This is an implied meaning
of Pride’s church motto: “Where everybody is somebody...”
At Pastor Pride’s church and other charismatic migrant religious communities^2 in
Four Corners, affirmations of power are internalized, experienced firsthand, during
periods of “ritual antistructure” (Turner 1977; Ammerman 1997a). According to the
anthropologist Victor Turner, certain aspects of ritual are designed to thrust participants
into a liminal state “betwixt and between” conventional roles and statuses in the social
structure. Once roles and statuses are dissolved, a “communitas” emerges, characterized
by shared feelings “of lowliness and sacredness, of homogeneity and comradeship”
(1977: 96). Turner recognized the socially subversive potential of communitas when he
wrote:
My view is briefly that from the perspectival viewpoint of those concerned with
the maintenance of “structure,” all sustained manifestations of communitas must(^2) Seven of the eight migrant churches are charismatic. The remaining one, a Church of Christ,
eschews glossalalia and other charismatic signs.