Religion, Social Incorporation, and Civic Engagement among Generations
Chapter 5 shows how negotiations and disagreements between generations shape the civic engagement of Mar Thoma American congregations in the United States and India. Recent studies have demonstrated that participation in religious institutions facilitates the civic incorporation of contemporary immigrants. These studies have focused on either the immigrant generation or on the second generation. In one way or another, these studies indicate that concepts of identity and of religious obligation play an important role in motivating civic participation. Not surprisingly, given the different models of religion of immigrants and their children, definitions of community and their perceived Christian obligations toward this community varied between first- and second-generation Mar Thomites. There are no academic studies that examine how intergenerational differences in the understanding of religious and racial identity affect the civic engagement of multigenerational congregations. This is important to understand, however, as most religious institutions of contemporary immigrants are multigenerational.