A big gap in church/religious-planting training is teaching the practical theology and culture of the working class, which includes the White working class. The nomination of JD Vance as the GOP Vice Presidential candidate makes it clear that there is an urgency for religious leaders to understand the culture and lingo of the working class.
Reading JD Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy would be a good start. Arlie Russell Hochschild’s Strangers in their Own Land is a remarkable study of Louisiana’s White American working class. Barnard College sociologist Mirra Komarovsky wrote Blue Collar Marriage in which she noticed the effects of evangelical religious beliefs. Then, one should get the demographic facts from Richard Alba’s The Great Demographic Illusion.
Of course, it is not just the White American working class that is important in this election. There is a general trend of working-class voters shifting toward the GOP (whether that is bad or good, I leave it to you to decide).
President Joe Biden is on the brink of failing to win a key working-class labor endorsement as leaders of the 1.3 million-member Teamsters union consider backing no candidate at all in the U.S. presidential race. However, the decision is not yet finalized.
A Journey through NYC religions was the first news outlet to recognize that New York City was in fact becoming more White and Asian, less African American and to assess its meaning for religious organizations. This trend hlighlights the need for religious groups to understand and reach out to the working class of all races and ethnicities.
In 2014, Journey Data Center produced a pioneering series of reports on this trend, particularly the trend toward the rise of the New White Americans in New York City.
This analysis was, of course, unexpected and controversial. It was hard to digest. As George Orwell once wrote, “To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.”
In 2017, Journey published the cutting-edge article, “The New Meaning of ‘White’ New Yorker.” We held seminars for religious and non-profit leaders, church and synagogue planting groups, and scholars on the new trend. Very quickly, the report started to have an impact and a kickback.
In 2019, Journey Data Center published an updated data report on the trend through articles, presentations, and social media. For a brief discussion of the complexities of the New White Americans see:
