Black Catholics: Social and Cultural Characteristics

Author(s): Jon P. Alston, Letitia T. Alston, Emory Warrick

Source: Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Dec., 1971), pp. 245-255
Published by: Sage Publications, Inc.
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 BLACKCATHOLICS
Social and CulturalCharacteristics

JON P. ALSTON, LETITIA T. ALSTON,

EMORY WARRICK
University
of Georgia

In recentyears,therehas been an increasinginterestin the

socio-economicdifferences amongreligiousgroupsin Amer-
ica (Alston, 1969; Goldstein,1969; Gockel, 1969; Glennand
Hyland, 1967; Jacksonet al., 1970). However,most studies
fail to simultaneouslycontrolfor the variablesof race and
both.Withfewexceptions,'black Roman
religiousaffiliation
Catholicshavebeen neglectedas a topic of research,and little
is knownabout thisreligiouscategory.This lacuna is in part
the consequenceof the smallnumberof black Catholics.In
1957, only 6% of the nonwhitepopulationwas Catholicas
against28% of the whitepopulation(U.S. Bureauof Census,
1958: Table 1).
However,the increaseof black conversionsto Catholicism
sinceWorldWarII showsthisgroupto be highlydynamic.In

AUTHORS'NOTE: The researchreportedherewas supportedby the

Universityof Georgialibrarysystemand theRoper Public Opinion
ResearchCenter,whichsuppliedthe data. An earlierversionof this
manuscript was presentedat the Societyfor the Studyof Religion,
SoutheastRegionalMeetingsin Atlanta,Georgia,on January
30, 1970.

[2451
[246] JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES / DECEMBER 1971

1967, one out of eightCatholicadult convertswas black,as

againstone out of fourteenin 1953 (Feagin, 1968: 190).
Withinthiscontext,thereexistsan importantproblemfor
sociologists. Given that a minorityof blacks are being
attractedto Catholicism,it is importantto know why these
conversionsare takingplace and what some of the conse-
quences of these changes are. An investigationof black
Catholicswillenableus to see iftheseconversions are a result
of a differential
movementinto a religionwhichholds more
congenialvalues and attitudes.It maywellbe thatblacksare
increasinglybeingattractedto Catholicismbecause certainof
themwish to divorcethemselvesfromthe black,revivalistic-
oriented Protestantreligion. Black Catholics may reject
Protestantism because, as more and more blacks enterinto
the middle classes,they wish to associatewithmiddle-class
religiousbehaviorand beliefs(Feagin, 1968: 191). That is,
upwardmobilitymay encourageblacks to seek out churches
withmore congenialattitudesand beliefs.However,if white
Protestantchurchesrefuse black members,blacks may be
forcedto seek elsewhereforcompatiblechurchmembership.
The presentpaper attemptsto differentiate betweenblack
Protestantsand black Catholicsin termsof socioeconomic
position,secularattitudes,and religiousbeliefs,to see of each
category does or does not resemble its white religious
counterpart.
Contemporarydata based on national samples indicate
that religious groups do vary in attitudes, beliefs, and
socioeconomicposition.Norval D. Glenn(1964) contrasted
nonwhiteProtestantswithwhiteCatholicsand whiteProtes-
tants.Nonwhiteswere foundto be morereligiousand more
theologicallytraditional-fundamentalistic.
They also-in con-
trast to white Protestantsand white Catholics-felt that
churchesshould be more concernedwithsocial and political
issues(Glenn, 1964: 625-626).
In the most extensive analysis of Protestant-Catholic
attitudinaldifferencespublished in recent years, Leonard
 Alstonet al. / BLACK CATHOLICS [2471

Broom and Norval D. Glenn (1966) found that white

Protestantswere, in contrast with white Catholics, less
tolerant,politicallymore conservative,
and lower-scoringon
authoritarianitems.Catholicsweremorereligiously orthodox
and believedmorein in-groupmarriage.However,these and
other differenceswere often slight, and the Catholic-
Protestantdifferenceswere, on the average,less than the
Jewish-Christiandifferences
(Broom and Glenn,1966).
GerhardLenski (1963), using a more restrictedsample,
found that white Protestantswere more orientedtoward
work and constructiveuses of leisure time than were the
Catholics.By contrast,black Protestantswereat timesmore
similarto white Catholics than they were to the white
Protestants.In termsof both politicalideology and family
orientation,black Protestantstended to reflectCatholic
rather than Protestantvalues when social class was held
constant(Lenski, 1963: 113, 212-259). This paper seeks to
substantiateLenski's findingsthroughthe use of national
samplesusinga widerrangeof attitudinalitems.

THE SAMPLE

The data are derivedfromtwo nationalpolls conductedby

the AmericanInstituteof Public Opinion during1957 and
1962. Unfortunately, the total numberof black Catholicsin
our sample is small. Errorsdue to samplingvariationare
large,and our findingsare only tentative,althoughcompari-
son of our sampleswithothersshowsthatour samplesper se
are representative(Glenn and Hyland, 1967; U.S. Bureau of
the Census, 1958). Our threelargestreligious-racialgroups
show a highcomparativeconsistencyin theirsocio-economic
standingsas reflectedin otherstudies(Goldstein,1969). We
feel that, on an exploratorylevel, a small sample can be
utilizedto delineategeneraltrendsand differences.
[248] JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES / DECEMBER 1971

TABLE 1
Responses of WhiteCatholics (1), Black Catholics (I1),
WhiteProtestants(111),and Black Protestants(IV)
to ReligiousQuestions (in percentages)
White Black White Black
Catholics Catholics Protestants Protestants
I 11 Ill IV

At the presenttime,do you thinkreligionas a whole is increasingits influenceon

Americanlifeor losingits influence?(1957)
Increasing 83 68 73 54
Losing 7 21 15 39
Same 10 11 12 7
Number(% = 100) 356 19 918 136
Should the churcheskeep out of politicalmattersor should theyexpressviewson
day-to-daysocial and politicalquestions? (1957)
Keep out 48 40 50 33
Expressviews 52 60 50 67
Number(% = 100) 345 20 897 130
Do you believethat religioncan answerall or mostof today's problems?(1957)
Can answer 91 100 95 96
Old-fashioned 9 - 5 4
Number(% = 100) 333 19 860 131
Do you believe thatthereis or is not a devil? (1957)
Is 65 65 62 83
Is not 20 35 27 17
Uncertain 15 - 11
Number(% = 100) 368 19 977 128
Did you, yourself,happento attendchurchin the last sevendays? (1957)
Yes 77 65 44 44
No 33 35 56 56
NumberM = 100) 370 20 982 144
Do you thinka personcan be a Christianifhe doesn't go to church?(1957)
Yes 73 75 82 70
No 22 25 14 28
Uncertain 5 - 4 2
Number(% = 100) 368 20 978 141
Do you thinkthata personcan be a Christianeven ifhe doesn't believethat every
word of the New Testamentis true?
Yes 73 60 66 50
No 17 25 26 39
Uncertain 10 15 8 11
Number(%= 100) 368 20 976 142
 Alston et al. / BLACK CATHOLICS [249]

DATA ANALYSIS

Table 1 consists of seven items dealing with religious

attitudes.Whilethesefew itemsdo not exhaustthe subject,
they do enable us to indicate relativeposition in a limited
manner.
The firstitem deals withwhetheror not the respondents
felt that religionwas increasingor losing its influenceon
Americanlife.In thisinstance,black Catholicsare closestto
the white Protestantsin similarityof answers.In termsof
rankingorder, they fall between the black and the white
Protestants,being least like the white Catholics. Black
Catholics seem more pessimisticthan theirwhite religious
counterparts, but are not so pessimisticas black Protestants.
The same general patternexists in item two: "Should the
churcheskeep out of politicaland social matters?"Again,the
black Catholics resemble the white Catholics the least.
However,the intraracialdifferences are smallerthan forthe
previousquestion. This is no doubt influencedby the civil
rightsmovementduringthe 1950s, withwhichmanyblack
leaderswerereligiouslyaffiliated.The answerpatternsof the
question, asked in March 1957, must be viewed withinits
temporalcontext. In any case, both white religiousgroups
are higher in feelingthat the churches should be more
insulatedfromsecularactivities.
The thirditem-"Do you believethatreligioncan answer
all or most of today's problems?"-indicatesa highdegreeof
similarityamong all groups,with the black Catholicsbeing
slightlymore positivethan the othergroups.The differences
amongthegroupsare too smallforfurther analysis.However,
it is interestingthat white Catholics have the lowest
percentagestatingthat religioncan be an answerto today's
problems,especiallysince theywere highestin stating(item
one) that religionwas increasingits influencein American
society.
The last four items in Table 1 deal with theologically
related attitudesand behavior.In termsof believingin the
[2501 JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES / DECEMBER 1971

existenceof a devil,the black Catholicscloselyresemblethe

whitesof both groups.Only theblack Protestants diverge,in
that most (83%) state they believe in the devil. Here, the
black Protestantsare more fundamentalistic than the other
threeracial-religious
categories.
Churchattendancealso revealsintraracial divergences.The
black Catholics resemble the white Catholics the most,
althoughthe two categoriesare not completelyalike. The
two Protestantcategories,however,are exactlyalike. If we
definechurchattendanceas reflecting a traditional/orthodox
attitude,then we see thatCatholicsof eitherrace are more
traditional,althoughthe black Catholicsplace slightlyless
emphasison thevalue of churchattendance.
Whenasked if churchattendancewere a requirementfor
good religiousstanding,Catholics of both races tended to
emphasize its importance.However,the black Protestants
were also high on this item, although lowest in actual
attendance. There seems to be less conflictin termsof
attitudeand behaviorfor the white Protestants.Relatively
low in seeing the necessityfor regularchurchattendance,
they were also lowestin actual attendance.The significance
of the itemon the beliefin theimportanceof attendancelies
in the factthatthetwo Catholicgroupsweremostsimilar.
The last item-askingwhethera personcan be a Christian
withoutbelievingthat everyword of the New Testamentis
true-indicatesthat both Catholic categoriestend to be less
permissivethan theirracial counterparts, thoughthe black
Protestantstend to be as rigidin theiremphasison Biblical
authority.
In summary,the last fouritemsin Table 1, those dealing
with religiousbeliefs, indicate that black Catholics tend
towarda Catholicratherthana Protestantideology,although
the two categoriesare not exactlythe same. We suggestthat
the above itemsindicatea partialrejectionon thepartof the
black Catholics of the revivalistic-fundamentalistic
orienta-
tion of the more traditionalNegro churches.That is, the
 Alstonet al. / BLACK CATHOLICS [2511

attractionof Catholicismfor blacks has been influencedby

an upward mobilitymovementfrom the lower-classtradi-
tional black religiousenvironmentto a more middle-class
orientation.
The above speculationsare strengthened in
by the findings
Table 2, which consists of three items measuringthe
socioeconomic position of the four religious-racialgroups
under investigation.We see fromTable 2 that black Cath-
olics, in comparisonwith black Protestants,tend to have a
higher concentrationof those in the $3,000 to $5,000
income range. Althoughthe proportionof blacks in both
religiousgroupsearningabove that amountis the same, the
reversalof percentagesin the lower two incomecategoriesis
TABLE 2
ResponsesofWhiteCatholics(1), BlackCatholics(I1),
WhiteProtestants(111),and BlackProtestants
(IV)
to Socio-EconomicQuestions(in percentages)
White Black White Black
Catholics Catholics Protestants Protestants
I 11 II IV

What is the total annual income of all of the membersof your immediatefamily
livingin your household? (1962)
$ 0 to $2,999 14 33 25 56
$3,000 to $4,999 24 50 28 26
$5,000 to $9,999 55 11 37 14
$10,000 and over 7 6 10 4
Number(% = 100) 677 18 1,776 265
Whatwas the highestgradeor class you completedin school? (1962)
0-8 27 44 32 63
H.S. 56 50 43 31
College 18 6 25 6
Number(%= 100) 690 18 1,782 273
Occupation of the chiefwage earnerin the immediatefamily.(1962)
White-collar 37 13 38 15
Blue-collar 57 87 46 70
Farmer 6 - 16 15
Number(% = 100) 621 8 1,467 213
[2521 JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES / DECEMBER 1971

significant.
A greaterproportionof black Catholicsseem to
have enteredinto a (forblacks)middle-income level.In terms
of educationallevels,black Catholicsalso enjoya higher-class
position than do the black Protestants,as more black
Catholicshave had one or moreyearsof highschool.Having
more educationand higherincomes,we would expect black
Catholicsto be moreliberalin theirreligiousattitudes.Their
highersocial class (in theobjectivesense)is associatedwitha
decreased belief in the devil,higherrates of churchatten-
dance, and a more liberal theology(see Table 1). These
associationsare consonantwithearlierfindings(Horton and
Hunt, 1968: 258; Rhodes, 1960). The factthat theitemsof
income and educationreflectsimilarrankingpatternsforthe
black Catholics and Protestantsincreasesour beliefin the
generalvalidityof the smallsample.
Black Catholicsalso have a different occupationalprofile
from black Protestants,the most strikingdifferencebeing
found in the farmingoccupation. In this context,the two
Catholic categoriesare similar.The similarity in occupation
between the two white categorieswas expected,since the
occupationaldifferences of white Catholicsand Protestants
are now slight,especiallywhen measuredin termsof the
blue-collar/white-collar dichotomy(Alston,1969).
Having more education, higher incomes, and holding
(presumablyhigher-level)urban jobs, the black Catholics
forma distinctsocioeconomicgroupfromthe black Protes-
tants. This suggeststhat blacks enteringinto what may be
considered the middle class are attractedto Catholicism
because theyno longerfeel comfortablewiththelower-class
religiousorientationof theblack churches.Since the Catholic
churchis both urbanand morelikelyto be integrated, blacks
may have little other choice if they findthe whitemiddle-
class churchesclosed to them,especiallywhen these white
churches-as Gibson Winter (1962) has pointed out-are
fleeing to the segregatedsuburbs. The black Catholics'
peculiarsocioeconomicpositionplaces themin an ambiguous
 Alstonet al. / BLACK CATHOLICS [2531

Differ-
situationregardingreligiousbeliefsand membership.
ing in dogma and religiousattitudesfromtraditionalblack
Protestantism,they neverthelessfind themselvesblocked
fromthemoremiddle-class whiteProtestantism.2

SECULAR ATTITUDES

Table 3 presentsresponsesto five questions of a more

secularnature.Black Catholicsprefera smallerideal number
of children,and in this context,theydifferfromall of the
other groups, which are relativelythe same. We see that
three-fourths of the black Catholicsstatethatthreeor fewer
childrenis the ideal number.We would have expectedthisif
we can safelyassume thatthe black Catholicsare mobility-
oriented,as their socio-economicprofileindicates.Only a
fifthof the black Catholicsfind four or more childrenthe
ideal situation,as against roughlyone-halfof the other
groups.
In termsof abstainingfromalcoholic beverages,Catholics
of eitherrace are the same, indicatingin thisinstancethat
religionis morea factorthan race. The same is foundin the
item, "Do you object to women drinkingin public places?"
In the political sector,only the whiteProtestantshave a
largerconcentration of Republicansthantheblack Catholics.
The larger proportion(28%) of black Catholics who are
neitherDemocratsnor Republicansreflecttheirmarginality.
The last item to be discussed-"How happywould you say
you are?" confirmsearlierfindings.We have alreadymen-
tionedthat the blackCatholicis in an ambiguoussituationin
terms of socioeconomic standingand race. Such status-
inconsistencies would resultin a smallerproportionof black
Catholics believingthemselvesto be very happy (Lenski,
1956). While the two white religiousgroups have equal
proportionsof those sayingthey are veryhappy,the black
Catholics fall even lower on this item than the black
Protestants.
[2541 JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES / DECEMBER 1971

TABLE 3
Responsesof WhiteCatholics (1), Black Catholics (I1),
WhiteProtestants(111),and Black Protestants(IV)
to Selected Secular Questions (in percentages)
White Black White Black
Catholics Catholics Protestants Protestants
I 11 III IV

Whatis the ideal numberof children?(1962)

One - - - 4
Two 15 31 18 21
Three 19 46 29 21
Four or more 57 23 46 52
As manyas can have or
afford 9 - 7 2
Number(% = 100) 638 13 1,684 227
Do you have the occasion to usealcoholic beverage orare you a totalabstainer?
(1957)
Use 74 75 51 53
Abstain 26 25 49 47
Number(% = 100) 370 20 975 143
Do you object to women drinking in public places . . .? (1957)
Yes 41 30 57 52
No 59 70 43 48
Number(%= 100) 345 20 948 142
In politics,as of today, do you consider yourselfa Republican, Democrat, or
Independent?(1962)
Republican 12 6 31 13
Democrat 68 66 47 66
Other 20 28 22 21
Number(% = 100) 689 18 1,771 267
In general,how happy would you say you are-fairlyhappy, veryhappy,or not
veryhappy? (1957)
Veryhappy 58 21 56 36
Fairlyhappy 38 79 42 56
Not veryhappy 4 - 2 8
Number(%= 100) 365 19 972 144

In summary,the black Catholics in our two national

samplesforma distinctsocioreligiousgroup,isolatedin one
aspect or anotherfromboth theirreligiouscounterparts and
theirracial peers.Theirattitudinaldifferences
reflectin part
their social class differences.Because of their singular
positionin our society-a minorityin termsof bothrace and
religion-theirattitudinaldifferencesshould also be investi-
 Alstonet al. / BLACK CATHOLICS [255]

gated in greaterdetail. We conclude that black Catholics

differenoughin the fewitemsdiscussedabove to suggestthat
thistopic is worthyof continuinginterestby studentsin the
field of social stratification
and in the sociologyof religious
behavior.

NOTES

1. An exception,althoughblack Catholicsare ignored,is Glenn (1964).

2. A similardilemma viewed in terms of theology and financial supportin
whitechurchesis discussedin Starkand Glock (1968).

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