God and Government in the Ghetto : The Politics of Church-State Collaboration in Black America

The University of Chicago Press

God and Government in the GhettoThe Politics of Church-State Collaboration in Black America\nAuthor(s): Michael Leo Owens\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: The University of Chicago Press, United States\nImprint: University of Chicago Press\nISBN-13: 9780226642062, 978-0226642062\nSynopsis\nIn 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 publ.