A01=Michael Leo Owens
activism
african american
aid
assistance
Author_Michael Leo Owens
authority
baptist
Category=GTM
Category=JBSL
Category=JP
Category=JPA
Category=QRA
Category=QRM
christianity
church and state
clergy
collaboration
community
decline
democracy
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
faith
faith-based organizations
funding
government
grants
history
influence
leadership
morality
neighborhood
nonfiction
outreach
policy
political science
politics
poverty
protest
race
religion
resources
service
social change
spirituality
urban
welfare
Product details
- ISBN 9780226642079
- Weight: 510g
- Dimensions: 17 x 23mm
- Publication Date: 15 Dec 2007
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
In recent years, as government agencies have encouraged faith-based organizations to help ensure social welfare, many black churches have received grants to provide services to their neighborhoods' poorest residents. This collaboration, activist churches explain, is a way of enacting their faith and helping their neighborhoods. But as Michael Leo Owens demonstrates in "God and Government in the Ghetto", this alliance also serves as a means for black clergy to reaffirm their political leadership and reposition moral authority in black civil society. Drawing on both survey data and fieldwork in New York City, Owens reveals that African American churches can use these newly forged connections with public agencies to influence policy and government responsiveness in a way that reaches beyond traditional electoral or protest politics. The churches and neighborhoods, Owens argues, can see a real benefit from that influence - but it may come at the expense of less involvement at the grassroots. Anyone with a stake in the changing strategies employed by churches as they fight for social justice will find "God and Government in the Ghetto" compelling reading.
Michael Leo Owens is assistant professor of political science at Emory University.
