Lara Rusch ~ 4
general concepts … mean in their specific operation to uncover the conscious and
unconscious explanations people have for what they do or believe or to capture and
reproduce a particular time, culture, or place so that actions people take become
intelligible” (162). While positivist questions search for the existence of a causal
relationship between two phenomena, interpretively oriented questions target “how” or
“why” the concepts of interest are related (165).
This paper explores the interplay of clergy, lay people, and community organizers
to better understand how power relations within congregations might matter as a support
or limitation for political collective action. The research process focused on
understanding how community organizing participants make sense of their own
institutional environments and how they apply organizing methods in those contexts.
That implementation matters for the ability of local people to mobilize their own
community resources for political action. I argue that the internal navigation of
congregations assists the development of efficacy among lay people and, therefore, helps
move the congregation toward local political action. When organizers work with clergy
and lay leaders, they are figuring out what is sacrosanct and what is malleable within
each religious community. The same initiative by an organizer may have different
implications and outcomes depending on the denominational structure, as well as actors’
interpretation of their leadership roles in that structure. A denomination’s traditions for
clergy authority and lay participation, as well as the clergy and laity’s interpretation and
enactment of those traditions, both matter for how the bridging mechanism (i.e. the
community organizer) interacts with the congregation, and therefore, for their political
impact.
Convention