The twentieth century has witnessed a number of major social changes that have affected America's churches by virtue of the changes challenging traditional interpretations of scripture. Among these changes have been declines in anti-Semitism and racial prejudice and discrimination, and transformations in the role and status of women and in sexual practices and attitudes. In the past, scripture has been used to justify anti-Semitism, discrimination against Afro-Americans, women's being subordinate to men, and opposition to divorce, premarital sex, adultery, and homosexuality. Churches have responded to the social changes, sometimes by modifying scriptual interpretations to accommodate them, sometimes by standing fast against them. The differences in response prove to be highly associated with differences in church performance. They also have sharply varying implications for the churches' future, especially their ability to exercise moral authority.
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References
1.
Oscar Handlin , “American Views of Jews at the Opening of the Twentieth Century,” in Antisemitism in the United States, ed. Leonard Dinerstein (New York: Holt Rinehart Winston, 1971), pp. 48-57.
2.
2. Marcia Graham Synott, “Anti-Semitism and American Universities: Did Quotas Follow the Jews?” in Anti-Semitism in American History, ed. David A. Gerber (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1986), pp. 233-274.
3.
3. Results of polls conducted in 1938 and 1962 by the Office of Public Opinion Research, reported in Charles H. Stemberet al., Jews in the Mind of America (New York: Basic Books, 1966), pp. 54, 65.
4.
4. Gregory Martire and Ruth Clark, Anti-Semitism in the United States (New York: Praeger, 1982), pp. 15-30.
5.
5. From the General Social Survey for 1989, an annual poll of the national population conducted by the National Opinion Research Center, reported in An American Profile: Opinions and Behavior, 1972-1989, ed. Floris W. Wood (Detroit: Gale Research, 1990).
6.
Jonathan H. Turner , Royce Singleton, Jr., and David Musick, Oppression: A Socio-History of Black-White Relations in America (Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1984).
7.
7. Reynolds Farley and Walter R. Allen, The Color Line and the Quality of Life in America (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1987).
8.
8. Reported in Rita James Simon, Public Opinion in America: 1936-1970 (Chicago: Markham, 1974), p. 57.
9.
9. Richard G. Niems, John Mueller, and Tom W. Smith, Trends in Public Opinion: A Compendium of Survey Data (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1989), p. 170.
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10. Beth Millstein and Jeanne Bodin, We, the American Women: A Documentary History ([Englewood, NJ]: Jerome S. Ozer, 1977), pp. 199-226.
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11. George H. Gallup, The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion, 1935-1971 (New York: Random House, 1972), p. 131.
12.
12. Wood, ed., An American Profile, p. 531.
13.
13. Based on a privately arranged tabulation of the 1990 General Social Survey, conducted by the National Opinion Research Center.
14.
14. Gallup, Gallup Poll, p. 67.
15.
15. Wood, ed., An American Profile, p. 541.
16.
16. U.S., Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1991, 111th ed., 1991, p. 86.
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17. Sandra L. Hoffreth, Joan R. Kahn, and Wendy Baldwin, “Premarital Sexual Activity among U.S. Teenage Women over the Last Three Decades,”Family Planning Perspective19(2):48 (Mar.-Apr. 1987).
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18. Wood, ed., An American Profile, p. 599.
19.
19. Ibid.
20.
20. Privately arranged tabulation from the 1990 General Social Survey.
21.
21. Wood, ed., An American Profile, p. 603.
22.
22. In this paragraph, 1973 and 1980 figures are from ibid., p. 583; 1990 figures are based on a privately arranged tabulation of the General Social Survey.
23.
Charlotte Klein , Anti-Judaism in Christian Theology (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1975), pp. 92-126.
24.
24. See, for example, Not the Work of a Day: The Story of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith (New York: Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, 1965).
25.
25. Notably the series of studies conducted under the auspices of the American Jewish Committee by the Institute of Social Research, University of Frankfurt, Germany.
26.
26. Helga Croner, comp., Stepping Stones to Further Jewish-Christian Relations: An Unabridged Collection of Christian Documents (New York: Stimulus Books, 1977).
27.
27. Charles Y. Glock and Rodney Stark, Christian Beliefs and Anti-Semitism (New York: Harper & Row, 1965).
28.
28. Forrest G. Wood, The Arrogance of Faith: Christianity and Race from the Colonial Era to the Twentieth Century (New York: Knopf, 1990), esp. pp. 84-115.
29.
29. Richard A. Apostleet al., The Anatomy of Racial Attitudes (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983), pp. 38-43.
30.
30. Franks S. Loescher, The Protestant Church and the Negro: A Pattern of Segregation (New York: Association Press, 1948), pp. 28-30.
31.
31. Ibid., pp. 30-33.
32.
32. Ibid., pp. 34-50.
33.
St. Clair Drake and Horace Cayton, Black Metropolis (New York: Harper & Row, 1958), pp. 582-587.
34.
34. Jack Bloom, “The Negro Church and the Movement for Equality” (M.A. thesis, University of California, Berkeley, 1966).
35.
35. The Roman Catholic Church's practice on the ordination of women to Holy Orders is contained in the Code of Canon Law, canon 968, 1: Sacram ordinationem valide recipit solus vir baptizatus (“only a baptized man receives ordination validly”).
36.
36. Michael P. Hamilton and Nancy S. Montgomery, eds. The Ordination of Women: Pro and Con (New York: Morehouse-Barlow, n.d.), pp. 82-99.
37.
37. John H. Reumann, Ministries Examined: Laity, Clergy, Women, and Bishops in a Time of Change (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1987), pp. 78-99.
38.
38. For example, Methodists are now instructed concerning divorce, “Where marriage partners, even after thoughtful consideration and counsel, are estranged beyond reconciliation, we recognize divorce as regrettable but recognize the right of divorced persons to marry.”The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church: 1988 (Nashville: United Methodist Publishing House, 1988), p. 94.
39.
39. For example, in 1920, Methodist instruction concerning divorce was, “No divorce, except for adultery, shall be regarded by the Church as lawful.”Doctrines and Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church (New York: Methodist Book Concern, 1920).
40.
40. Andrew M. Greeley, The Catholic Myth: The Behavior and Beliefs of American Catholics (New York: Scribner's, 1990), p. 117.
41.
41. See, for example, “Keeping Body and Soul Together: Sexuality, Spirituality, and Social Justice” (Document prepared for the 203rd General Assembly [1991], General Assembly Committee on Human Sexuality, Presbyterian Church [U.S.A.], 1991); Human Sexuality and the Christian Faith: A Study for the Church's Reflection and Deliberation (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1991).
42.
Human Sexuality and the Christian Faith, pp. 12-27, 41-46.
43.
43. The statistics reported on in this sentence and in the balance of the paragraph are based on Gallup polls of the national population conducted in the indicated years. George H. Gallup, Jr., and Jim Castelli, The People's Religion: American Faith in the 90s (New York: Macmillan, 1989), pp. 3-45.
44.
44. Caution should be exercised in interpreting this association. All it tells is that a church's performance and its response to social change covary together. The association is not a demonstration that the one causes the other. It is not possible with existing data to determine the extent to which church performance is a result of church response to social change. It appears self-evident, however, that a church's performance potential is enhanced where its moral authority is accepted, threatened where it is not. The noted association between church performance and response to social change bears this out.
45.
45. J. Gordon Melton and Phillip C. Lucas, Secularization and Resacralization: Reflections on a Religious Census of the United States (Santa Barbara, CA: Institute for the Study of American Religion, 1991).
46.
46. Andrew M. Greeley, Religious Change in America (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989), pp. 67-75.
47.
47. Melton and Lucas, Secularization and Resacralization.
48.
48. William D'Antonioet al., American Catholic Laity in a Changing Church (Kansas City, MO: Sheed & Ward, 1989), pp. 95, 139.
49.
49. Ibid., p. 64.
50.
50. Based on a privately arranged special tabulation of Catholic responses to the General Social Survey for 1990.
51.
51. Melton and Lucas, Secularization and Resacralization.
52.
52. D'Antonioet al., American Catholic Laity, p. 44.
53.
53. Greeley, Catholic Myth, p. 130.
54.
54. Rodney Stark and Charles Y. Glock, American Piety: The Nature of Religious Commitment (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968), pp. 204-224.
55.
55. Robert Wuthnow, The Restructuring of American Religion: Society and Faith since World War II (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1988), esp. pp. 35-70.
56.
56. John Shelby Spong, Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism (San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1991).
