One more perspective on the issue of getting more African-Americans involved in organized atheism, this one coming from Al Denelsbeck at Walkabout:

Rap, R&B, Gospel, and Soul music are predominantly black. It’s safe to say that this is not from whites being excluded, but instead from a cultural (or subcultural if you prefer) influence. We all may identify better with a particular style of music, choice of car, choice of pet, vacation destination — whatever. We’re not excluded from the others, we just happen to prefer our choices. Bars, restaurants, and even local theaters may have a collection of “regulars,” which doesn’t mean that either the venue or the patrons exclude anyone else, but simply that the regulars are most comfortable in that environment. The poll [US Religious Landscape Survey] actually demonstrates this, too; it’s rather disturbing that many people never got down to this portion. When broken up, the numbers of black churchgoers is incredibly biased towards “historic black protestant churches,” even over “mainline protestant” and “evangelical protestant.” But this is no surprise — protestantism, especially southern baptism, was the first to become open to blacks following emancipation, and churches are, if nothing else, a community affair, relying heavily on tradition. Catholicism was very slow to open up to blacks, and upholds its strong roots to Europe — I’m also not making anybody’s eyebrows shoot up in shock when I point out that the Italian population, not just in this country, favors catholicism to a significant margin. We have to consider the idea that churchgoing is as much a black cultural thing as R&B music. Hell, we already know that the social interactions and status that churchgoing provides is one of the anchors of resistance to secular appeals.

There’s a principle here that applies to other groups as well (including women). When the church provides people with a community, a sense of belonging, and support no matter what problems you’re dealing with in your life, our logic alone isn’t going to get them to leave the faith. We’re doing ourselves a disservice if we assume people belong to a church only because of their stance on god.

Unless we can start offering secular alternatives for so many of the important things churches provide, we’re never going to be able to reach these populations.



