Ethnicity and Religion

Cultural defence

Bruce – religion offers support in a hostile environment
Bird – religion among minorities can be a basis for community solidarity, a means of preserving one’s culture and language and a way of coping with oppression in a racist society
African and Caribbean Christians found that white churches in the UK did not actively welcome them so they turned to funding or joining black-led churches, especially Pentecostal churches

Cultural transition

Herberg – religion is a means of easing transition into a new culture by providing support and a sense of community for minority groups in their new environment
E.g. high levels of religious participation among first generation migrants in the USA
However, once a group has made the transition into wider society, religion may lose its role and decline in importance

Family pressures

Family structures are much tighter knit in Asian communities, with strong extended families
Combined with generally closer-knit communities may result in pressure to conform to religious values and behaviour
However this ignores other ethnic minorities which do not necessarily have these values

Social identity

Religion provides ethnic minority individuals with markers of identity e.g. customs, dress food, rituals and festivals
Allows members to resist the denial of status and the devaluing of their own culture by racism
E.g. Johal suggests that younger British Asians forged a single new hybrid identity which he calls “Brasian” by blending both British and Asian cultures

Community identity and cohesion

Davie – higher levels of religiosity help to maintain tradition, group cohesion and community solidarity
E.g. Mosques and Sikh temples are community centres as well as places of worship, and provide a focus for social life as well as a means of protecting and promoting cultural values and traditions which may be under threat by the dominant white culture
Modood et al – religion is a source of socialization, means of maintaining traditional morality and helps them to cope with the worries and pressures in life arising from hostility and discrimination

Social deprivation, marginality and status frustration

Marx – religion is the ‘opium of the people’ – comforting diversion from attacking the causes of their povery
Weber – religion provides a ‘theodicy of disprivelige’
Stark and Bainbridge – religion is a compensator

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Class, age, gender and ethnicity notes