THE POLITICS OF BLACK RELIGIOUS CHANGE - DISAFFILIATION FROM BLACK MAINLINE DENOMINATIONS

This study explores the hypothesis-popular in the 1960s-that growing impatience with traditional theologies and organizational styles of major black denominations would prompt blacks (1) to join more progressive, this-worldly religious groups, or (2) to abandon organized religion altogether. This racial and political explanation of apostasy and religious switching from the black mainline is juxtaposed with alternative hypotheses drawn from studies of denominational switching in the general population. Multinomial logit regression techniques are used to analyze data from the National Survey of Black Americans. Results lend qualified support to the racial and political hypothesis and provide equally strong support to generational and network explanations of changes in black denominational preferences. We discuss several promising directions for future research and data collection.