American evangelicalism in the post-civil rights era: A racial formation theory analysis

This article attempts to demonstrate that Omi and Winant's racial formation theory can be useful to sociologists studying racial discourses and practices in religious communities by providing a racial formation theory analysis of two major phenomena in American Evangelicalism. The article first explores evangelical racial reconciliation theology, explaining its emergence in the late 1960s, its transformation into a conservative racial project in the 1990s, and its recent popularity among white evangelicals. The article then explores the influx of Asian Americans into evangelical campus ministries, linking this phenomenon to popular racial images of Asian Americans and the racial ideologies of white evangelical leaders. The article concludes with a critique of the analysis of race in American evangelicalism that Emerson and Smith offer in their book Divided by Faith.