Walking the Tightrope: How White United Methodist Clergy Approach Race and Racial Justice

Religious congregations in the United States have long been sites for political organization and mobilization. Following the summer of 2020, clergy have been increasingly reckoning with how to navigate racial justice activism. This study used data from in-depth interviews conducted with White United Methodist clergy in North Carolina to examine whether and how clergy were addressing racism and pursuing racial justice in their ministry. Most clergy in our sample reported feeling simultaneously compelled to center racial justice work in their ministry and constrained in their ability to do so. Pastors often took a shepherding approach within their congregations, characterized by slow, gradual nudging of congregants toward racial awareness. Many clergy also took an extra-congregational approach, marked by personal introspection and/or mobilization outside the congregational context. More generally, we found that disconnects between pastors’ personal commitments to the work of racial justice and their congregations’ reluctance to engage in this work generated tension and frustration for some pastors. This paper contributes to ongoing discussion concerning racial justice mobilization in the United States following the summer of 2020 and offers new insights on when and how congregations serve as sites of political discussion and action.

Duke Scholars

Author Anna Holleman