Congregations and Polarization Project

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Congregations and Polarization Blog

Members of the CAP Research Team routinely publish blogs, articles, opinions, and editorials in major national and religious news outlets as well as through the project website. The views expressed in these pieces are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture.

Opinions, Editorials, and Ponderings

The bonds tying Catholics to their local parish have weakened. Catholics are now testing out other parishes and choosing based on many factors.

Sorting or Staying
Racial justice can be a divisive and emotionally charged issue in white evangelical communities today.

Navigating Critical Race Theory Debates
Congregants no longer choose a church solely based on location or denomination but also for those who stand at the pulpit or sit next to them in the pews.

Big Tents or Cultural Redoubts?
Two pastors enter into discussions about potentially difficult, potentially divisive topics with patience, open minds and hearts, and—not least of all—empathy.

Conviction Tempered by Mercy
Media stories often paint pastors as law-based and authoritarian, but most of them are focused on grace, character development, and relationship building—the things they call “discipleship.”

What Congregational Life Is Really Like
White evangelicals are certainly complicit in our history of systemic racism and nationalism, but transparent prejudice against them offers no way forward for any of us.
This pandemic could be a unique opportunity to listen to other voices, to learn how others view the world, to open ourselves to other possibilities.
Rationalism has real risks. Using reason to harness my feelings and intuitions, most therapists will tell you, is not a strategy for long-term happiness.

The Risks of Rationalism in a Believing World
At a time when the Facebooks and Googles of the world are a model for how to grow an organization, it's tempting to tell our churches and other faith groups that they need to 'scale.'

Why Churches Should Not Measure Their Growth Against the Economic Boom
Political operatives of both parties have known for decades that voting behavior is about emotion, intuition and tribal affiliation — just like religion.
We all need to admit we often try to assume or infer way, way too much from religious identification.
Behind the story of Christian decline and the rise of “nones” is a long-standing debate about what religion theorists call “secularization,” the broad process by which religion gradually loses its social influence.

Forget the Numbers. The Big Story Is That Religion Has Lost Social Influence..
I have not become a Buddhist. I am too attached to several of my desires, unwilling to let them go. But I see the structure of life bending me toward this wisdom and applying some form of this discipline to me.
I’m doing my best to help my millennial students see that religion is not just a placeholder for other interests; it is a powerful motivator and many religious people are willing to sacrifice, die, and even kill in its name.

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