William R Kenan Jr Professor of Sociology @ Davidson College | Race, Religion, Power, Social Change | Past Roles: Editor Sociology of Religion Journal, President SSSR & ASR, Chair ASA Religion, AAR Religion & Social Science Unit | cv https://bit.ly/40mps8D .. more
William R Kenan Jr Professor of Sociology @ Davidson College | Race, Religion, Power, Social Change | Past Roles: Editor Sociology of Religion Journal, President SSSR & ASR, Chair ASA Religion, AAR Religion & Social Science Unit | cv https://bit.ly/40mps8D
Churches have become sites of political & ideological sorting, attendance increasingly correlating with conservative views and specific racial attitudes, esp among White Christians.
They must shift from symbolic to substantive efforts to dismantle racism, despite disagreement among members.
Insightful new remarks on our new biography
Posting @ 10:30a Eastern 👉 open.substack.com/pub/gerardom...
...then getting that silver briefcase with $.01
Reposted by Gerardo Martí
First of all, there are over 5,000 varieties of ladybugs.
However, the first type of these beetles to be called a 'ladybug' had 7 spots which were thought to symbolize the 7 sorrows she suffered.
Reposted by Gerardo Martí
No Prayer in Protests
doi.org/10.1177/0020...
“I read Martí’s book with trepidation.
For decades, our church had invested in anti-racist education, social action, and relationship building.
We had not investigated our worship practice.
What did we need to consider anew?”
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Schuller built a ministry defined by ambition, yet his success met an abrupt & decisive end with bankruptcy in 2010.
This striking paradox—spectacular success alongside institutional collapse—forces a critical examination of how religious innovation is defined, measured, and judged. 👇👇👇
Resistance to despotism is innately respectable…” —Fintan O’Toole
This new journal is an interdisciplinary, open-access (no article processing charges), peer-reviewed journal that will be published annually.
More info as description and subscription guidelines develop.
"Christians Right & Left: Stories of Religion and Politics in the South" gathering students, faculty, staff & community was a great success!
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Antiracism as Inclusivity: The Racial Justice Paradigm of White Progressive Churches
Gerardo Martí
2024 SSSR Presidential Address
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....
Reposted by Andrew L. Whitehead
Racial views of evangelicals supportive of Christian nationalism—about 40-50% of evangelicals—at odds with those skeptical of uniting God & country. Educational level strongly influences if evangelical views on racial inequality are shaped by Christian nationalism as well as reactions to Trump.
“Page Turner”
“Fascinating”
Panel of scholars at Society for the Scientific Study of Religion give praise for our new book in Minneapolis 👏👏👏
![<excerpt talking points>
2025 SSSR Assessing Success and Failure in Religious Innovation Gerardo Marti, PhD
Notes, and Narrative further below
Notes
The ministry of Robert H. Schuller presents a paradox of innovation, exhibiting both spectacular, decades-long success by its founder's metrics, and an ultimate, decisive failure when measured by institutional longevity and financial solvency [GC 7, 158]. From a social scientific perspective focusing on organizational dynamics, Schuller's success lay in his ability to innovate and expand, while his failure derived from the unsustainable strain inherent in his chosen methodology of relentless growth [GC 160, 175].
Schuller's Conception of Success: The Imperative of Growth
For Schuller himself, success was explicitly and primarily defined by growth-numerical, architectural, and financial-—which he believed was a moral and theological imperative for any thriving church [GC 5, 32; CMGP
• The Growth Mandate: Schuller famously asserted the core tenet of his ecclesial philosophy: "The church must either grow or perish" [CMGP 314, 612; GC 28]. He viewed continuous growth as the essential sign of vitality, stating: "Anything that lives, grows" [GC 32].
• Personal Metrics: Early in his ministry, Schuller established quantifiable metrics for assessing his pastoral effectiveness: "If the congregation grew, I was succeeding. If it didn't grow-or, God forbid, if it went down in numbers-then I was failing" [CMGP 407; GC 32, 112].
• Possibility Thinking: His confidence was rooted in his belief system, Possibility Thinking, which encouraged ambition over fear. He summarized his driving philosophy: "I'd rather attempt to do something great and fail than to attempt to do nothing and succeed" [GC 11; CMP 391].
Manifestations of Success: By these internal measures, Schuller achieved massive success over five decades. His innovations led to the creation of a powerful "multimodal ministry" [GC 28] that included:
Architectural Spectacle and S…](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:dcylixm2tw3za4reaeagfqcz/bafkreigwumodkob2wczmepzkseh5ueudba3jbvrbrr27xfsljifqvqxbzm@jpeg)
Sociology of Religion: A Quarterly Review
👉 academic.oup.com/socrel/artic...
Book Notes
Brief summary of The Church Must Grow or Perish by Mulder and Martí (Eerdmans)
Church attendance increasingly correlates with conservative political and racial attitudes.
The question emerges: How does this trend affect the challenge of racial justice?
👉 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
