Religion

We are committed to generating and synthesizing research on key civil rights and equal opportunity policies that have been neglected or overlooked.

The great movements for racial justice in American history had deep roots in American religion. Some of the most fundamental values of our religious traditions raise serious questions about some of the most basic structures of our society. Glaring inequalities and social polarization, apparent immediately to outsiders visiting the United States, are so taken for granted that they become virtually invisible and virtually unmentioned in public life. Viewing them in the light of our religious values makes them visible and raises many disturbing questions.

Churches exist, in good measure, to challenge people to think about things that are uncomfortable and difficult but that must be grasped if we are to have a good life and a good society. Racial injustice is one of those things. Our society has been flawed by it from its founding, and we are far from resolving the effects on our communities. After a generation of erosion of the promise of the civil rights revolution and deepening multiracial polarization, it is important to reactivate the dialogue between our faith and civil rights communities that helped change the country a third of a century ago.

Our current research interests related to religion and civil rights include:

• Religion and the Civil Rights tradition
• Spiritual resources for a 21st century Civil Rights agenda

Our most recent work related to religion and civil rights includes:

• Religion, Race, and Justice in a Changing America, published in 2000 by The Century Foundation. This book features theologians, activists and civil rights scholars reflecting on the implications of the fundamental beliefs of Americans for the current racial crisis.
• See also a chapter by one of our staff members. C. Tobias-Nahi, in Invisible Children in the Society and its Schools , published in 2003 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. This 2nd Ed. offers a series of reports on groups of children and young people whose complexity, strengths, and vulnerabilities are largely unseen or unheard in the society and its schools.