“I Want to Reclaim Christianity”: Boundary Work among Inclusive Christians

ABSTRACT

Members of religious groups in the United States engage in boundary work to maintain distinct identities, but we know little about how inclusive Christians navigate the exclusionary aspects of boundary work. Drawing on one year of participant observation at a liberal congregation and twenty-six interviews, I find that congregants develop three strategies for boundary work that reflect their inclusive identity. I argue that this boundary work reflects the congregation’s high social class, thus reinforcing the underlying social boundary of class. This research extends our understanding of boundary work in congregations and further elucidates how churches may contribute to inequality.

KEYWORDS:

• Boundary work
• symbolic boundaries
• social boundaries
• congregations
• inequality

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Lisa D. Pearce, Sherryl Kleinman, Karolyn Tyson, Claire Chipman Gilliland, George Hayward, and other members of the sociology of religion workshop at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for their feedback on previous drafts of this article. An early version of this article was presented at the 2016 American Sociological Society annual meeting.

Disclosure Statement

I have no potential conflict of interest to report.

Notes

1. All names, including Dogwood Church, are pseudonyms.

2. The Spanish-language service, which was supported financially by an external grant awarded to the Spanish-speaking associate pastor and by Dogwood Church, maintained a separate identity from the English-language services, so I did not collect data there.

3. I have modified the denominational phrase to preserve anonymity. I use the quotation marks to indicate that this is an official phrase.

Additional information

Funding

I have no funding to report for this research.

Notes on contributors

Laura M. Krull

Laura M. Krull is an assistant professor of sociology at St. Norbert College. Her research focuses on religious congregations and how they contribute to or challenge the reproduction of inequality.