Reducing Police Brutality in African American Communities: Potential Roles for Social Workers in Congregations

In the last decade, there have been a shocking number of police killings of unarmed African Americans, and advancements in technology have made these incidents more visible to the general public. The increasing public awareness of police brutality in African American communities creates a critical and urgent need to understand and improve police-community relationships. Congregational social workers (and other social workers who are part of religious congregations) have a potentially significant role in addressing the problem of police brutality. This manuscript explores and describes possible contributions by social workers, with differential consideration for those in predominantly Black or White congregations.

The Recession of National Spirit

Chapter Five examines the closing stages of the Cairo Black Power struggle, situating state repression of activist church agencies and the revival of conservative political agendas within white congregations as fundamental but overlooked causes of the movement’s demise. In contrast to many other grassroots Black Power organizations, the United Front had survived the narrowing structure of political opportunities as well as the initial wave of state repression that characterized the late 1960s. As this chapter will show, United Front leaders – like other Black Power activists across the country – were subject to a systematic campaign of repression at the hands of federal agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Racial Group Affinity and Religious Giving: Evidence from Congregation-Level Panel Data

Since giving to religious organizations constitutes a substantial portion of total charitable giving, an understanding of the determinants of religious giving is a vital policy concern. Drawing on a novel congregation-level panel dataset, we examine whether religious giving is driven by preferences for racial group affinity, that is, loyalty to one’s own racial group. To address endogeneity concerns, we combine a fixed effects estimation framework with an instrumental variable approach. We find robust evidence consistent with the racial group affinity motive: a decrease in the percent of whites in the local community is ceteris paribus associated with a decrease in the total giving receipts collected by predominantly white congregations. The magnitude of this effect does not vary with the extent of racial residential segregation in the community. The effect, however, is driven by the congregations in urban (as opposed to rural) communities. We offer a possible explanation for this result.

Waar is die gereformeerde lidmate dan?

This article discusses the numbers of church members within the reformed main stream churches as researched during the past decade, while focusing on the disappearance process of white members as researched within sample congregations of the RCSA, as well as the absence of growing numbers among black congregations amid the huge South African population growth. To identify trends, the most recent available information regarding the activity of evangelising in congregations, the terminating of membership and whether members leave or arrive with of without testimony, were researched. Reasons are given why numbers increased in a few congregations. These congregations are thus not part of the declining trend in the traditional white congregations, and also not part of the not-growing, stagnated traditional black RCSA-congregations. The literature study, as well as the qualitative and quantitative approach, provides useful information and valuable insights in the recent tendencies regarding the eccleciastical survival battle.

Afríka-sinkretisme - gereformeerde prediking en pastoraat

The Reformed Churches in South Africa are facing a completely new situation as (black) members of the Reformed Churches (Synod Midlands) will ask to be admitted to the (present white) congregations, especially in the metropolitan areas, where more and more blacks permanently settle. The issue is: how should these new members be accommodated in our congregations in order to be able to participate fully as members of our congregations?