Inequality within Congregations and Congregations’ Response to Inequality: Studies of Gender and Mental Health, Race and Mental Health, and Participation in the Sanctuary Movement

Abstract

This dissertation aims to address the ways that American religious congregations and religious leaders respond to and are formed within the context of a society marked by inequality. Specifically, I study: (1) the ways that the stress of the pastorate, and the ways that clergy respond to those stressors, is shaped by gender; (2) the ways that the racial make-up of religious congregations relate to the mental health of Black church-goers; and (3) the ways that white liberal religious leaders talk about race and racial inequality during our current period of ferment about race in America. To do so, I use three primary sources of information: (1) the Clergy Health Initiative Statewide Panel Survey of United Methodist Clergy, a longitudinal study of all UMC clergy in North Carolina from 2008-2019; (2) the linked General Social Survey and National Congregations Study dataset, a representative repeated cross-sectional sample of individuals and the religious congregations they attend in 2006, 2012, and 2018; and (3) 41 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with leaders from 41 religious congregations from across the United States that housed an undocumented individual in their congregational space during the Trump era Sanctuary Movement, conducted in 2020. I find that clergywomen are potentially more resilient than their male colleagues at processing occupational stress; that Black individuals who attend predominantly white and liberal congregations report better mental health than Black individuals who attend predominantly non-white congregations; and that, in line with recent quantitative research, white liberals’ rhetoric concerning race seems less colorblind than it used to be but, moving beyond the recent quantitative evidence, it remains complex and continues to perpetuate some features of racist discourse. These findings contribute to the sociology of religion, and they connect to important debates concerning gender, health, occupations, social stratification, and social movements.