Abstract
The African American helping tradition has been and continues to be instrumental to the survival and advancement of the African American community. Christian religion is integral to the maintenance of this tradition; however, surprisingly few empirical studies of the connection between religion and helping among African Americans exist. The few studies that do exist reveal a complicated relationship between religion and helping; the quality of which, appears to depend on the aspect of the religious experience and the aspect of the helping tradition under study. The present study aimed to further clarify this seemingly nuanced relationship. Applying social learning as a theoretical frame, this study examined the extent to which organizational religiosity, in the form of service attendance, related to the African American helping tradition, in the form of informal community helping among a sample of African American adults in the Northeast of the USA (N = 140). Results indicated that current religious service attendance was positively correlated with informal community helping and was a positive predictor of informal community helping. Implications of these findings are discussed.
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This research was made possible with the support of grants awarded to the second author by the John Templeton Foundation and Fetzer Institute.
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The title of this article is an adaptation of Cheryl Townsend Gilkes’ book, If It Wasn’t For The Women…: Black Women’s Experience and Womanist Culture in Church and Community.
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Grayman-Simpson, N., Mattis, J.S. “If It Wasn’t for the Church…:” Organizational Religiosity and Informal Community Helping among African American Adults. J Afr Am St 17, 243–252 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12111-012-9213-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12111-012-9213-6