Margarita A. Mooney

My Contributions to a New Blog for Patheos: Black, White and Gray

2011-10-19T11:31:00.000-04:00

Starting in October 2011, I will be writing a weekly entry for a new collaborative blog hosted by Patheos. It's entitled Black, White and Gray: Where Sociology Meets Christianity. Please read my posts and feel free to leave comments.

Haitians' Gratitude Reminds us of the Meaning of Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T16:45:00.003-05:00

It is appropriate Anne Barnard’s excellent coverage of Haitian Catholicism, entitled “Suffering, Haitians Turn to Charismatic Prayer,” should appear on the front page of the New York Times on Thanksgiving Day, for one of the strongest themes of Haitian Catholic Charismatic movement is gratitude. During the nearly two years of fieldwork I conducted in Haiti and the Haitian Catholic communities of Miami, Montreal and Paris, published as Faith Makes Us Live: Surviving and Thriving in the Haitian Diaspora (University of California Press 2009) I was struck by how Haitian Catholics, no matter how desperate their circumstances might seem like to outsiders, always expressed a profound sense of gratefulness for God’s gifts. During this holiday season, we can learn from Haitians how living in gratitude for the gifts we have received opens up our lives to be a gift to others.

To read my full comment on this article, visit the University of Notre Dame's Contending Modernities blog.

Review of My Book Published in the Canadian Journal of Sociology

2010-11-23T14:45:00.002-05:00

Philippe Couton of the University Ottawa published a review of my book, Faith Makes Us Live: Surviving and Thriving the Haitian Diaspora, in the fall edition of the Canadian Journal of Sociology. This is an open-access journal, so all should be able to access it by clicking here.

Professor Couton summarizes the main points of my book and states that “the result is an original, richly detailed study of one the world’s great diasporas, and one that makes a clear, well-supported argument about the role of ethnic and mainstream religious institutions in the lives and adaptation of immigrants in three very different social settings.”

After pointing out the book’s merits, he then critiques the book because it “often seems biased in favour of Catholic organizations and quick to dismiss or at least ignore their potential problems (of which the current spate of scandals is only one). It has been widely known that religion is a very common lifeline for immigrants (particularly refugees, illegals, and others who face difficult situations), but organized religion has almost as often been a crutch or worse.”

In response to Couton’s review, Brian McDonough, the director of the Social Action Office of the Catholic Archdiocese of Montreal wrote to me in an email, “I'm not sure that I agree with Couton's assertion that organized religion has been ‘a crutch or worse’ for immigrants. On what grounds does he make this assertion? Also his reference to the ‘current spate of scandals’ is a cheap shot that is hardly relevant to the role the institutional Church play in welcoming and assisting in the integration of persons who have just arrived [in Canada].” As a lawyer and a member in good standing of the Québec Bar, a former board member of Montreal’s United Way ("Centraide du Grand Montréal) and the founding president of Community Chaplaincy of Montreal (a prison ministry program), McDonough’s reply provides an expert voice questioning Couton’s assertions.

In early November 2010, I presented the findings of my book to a group of scholars who participated in a seminar on Religion and Public Life in Canada organized by Solange Lefebvre from the University of Montreal. In that presentation, I stated that, as evidenced by Couton’s review, the dominant perception in Canada (and particularly in Quebec) is that organized religion is a crutch for weak members of society and that the personal failures of members of Catholic Church impede its institutional work for the poor. This popularly accepted narrative portrays religion as a problem in society rather than as part of the solution to society’s problems. In contrast, my book portrays the power of Haitians’ faith—lived through organized religious communities—to transform their lives. Furthermore, I show how Catholic social service institutions—another expression of organized religion—were once crucial to the successful integration of Haitians in Montreal. The soon-to-be-published scholarship from the November 2010 conference at the University of Montreal will provide further information on the long-overlooked contributions of religion to public life in Canada.

Review of My Book Published in the Miami Herald

2010-10-23T14:26:00.002-04:00

On Thursday, October 21, 2010, Marifeli Perez-Stable, Professor of Sociology at Florida International University, published a review of my book in The Miami Herald. Click here to see the review. Her review shows a great appreciation for both the ethnographic and the comparative arguments of my book.

My Book Review of Liogier's "Legitimate’Laicité: France and its State Religions"

2010-08-10T11:07:00.003-04:00

The May volume of the American Sociological Association's journal of book reviews, Contemporary Sociology, published my review of Raphael Lioger's book " 'Legitimate' Laicite: France and its State Religions" (Paris: Entrelacs, 2006). Liogier heads the World Religion Watch at the French University Sciences Po in Aix-en-Provence, France, which aims to spark dialogue between French and English speaking scholars of religion, such as by translating works from French to English and vice-versa. Click here to read about Liogier's work, much of which has been published in French. As he writes more in English and presents his work to English-speaking audiences, I hope my book review sparks a wide audience for his work.

A selection of the book review is below. Please click here to see the full review (for subscribers to Contemporary Sociology) or email me for the full review (for non-subscribers).

Raphaël Liogier’s book is a provocative argument about French discourse and practice regarding laïcité, a term generally translated as secularism. Liogier correctly points out that scholars should interrogate how well actual practices reflect the discourse and common understandings of terms such as secularism and laïcité. Liogier makes a powerful and convincing argument that French laïcité is not what many inside and outside of France believe it to be, the separation of church and state, but rather an organized and hierarchical system of state intervention in religion.

Interview Published by the NY-based National Center for Haitian Apostolate

2010-07-23T23:12:00.002-04:00

On June 23, 2010, the National Center for Haitian Apostolate, based in New York, published an extensive interview with me where I talk about my book and its implications for post-earthquake Haiti and Haitian-Americans. Click here to read the article.

Article Published on Religion, College Achievement and Satisfaction

2010-07-23T22:53:00.005-04:00

In June, my article entitled "Religion, College Grades, and Satisfaction among Students at Elite Colleges and Universities" was published by the journal Sociology of Religion. Advance Access published on June 2, 2010. Sociology of Religion 2010 71: 197-215; doi:10.1093/socrel/srq035

To see the abstract (full public) and full text (individual or institutional subscribers only), click here.

Abstract: Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Freshmen, a sample of nearly 3,924 students at 28 of the most selective college and universities in the United States, this paper tests hypotheses about religion, academic performance, and satisfaction at college. Two measures of religiosity—attending religious services every week or more and a 1 to 10 scale of observance of one's religious traditions and customs—increase the amount of hours students report spending on academic work and extracurricular activities, as well as reduce the hours students report going to parties. Even when controlling for time spent partying, studying and in extracurricular activities, regular attendance at religious services increases academic achievement. Finally, students who attend religious services weekly and those who are more observant of their religious traditions also report being more satisfied at college.

Thomas G. Wenski named Arcbhishop of Miami

2010-04-24T19:42:00.007-04:00

The priest I wrote about in Faith Makes Us Live, Thomas G. Wenski, was named the new Archbishop of Miami on April 20, 2010. For more on Wenski and his appointment to lead the Miami Archdiocese, click here. As he founded the Haitian Catholic Mission of Miami (Notre Dame d'Haiti Catholic Church and the Pierre Toussaint Center), I interviewed Wenski several times for my book. He led those two institutions for two decades before serving as Auxiliary Bishop of Miami and then Bishop of Orlando. I remember Wenski for his great enthusiasm and agility for both pastoral and social work. My interviews with him challenged my presumption that the church's social work is its most important contribution to immigrant assimilation. "Remember," he told me, "I built the community starting with the Eucharist. The social programs came later." He also insisted that rather than sharing a parish with other English-speaking or Spanish-speaking Catholics in Miami, the Haitian Catholic community of Miami needed a place of its own. He moved quickly to find a home for Haitian Catholics and founded Notre Dame and the Toussaint Center in the geographic center of Miami's neighborhood called Little Haiti. As I argue in my book, Notre Dame and the Toussaint Center have welcomed thousands of Haitians in Miami and helped them successfully integrate in Miami, all the while helping them maintain their devout Catholic faith. Wenski's return to Miami as Archbishop means, among other things, that his pastoral and social work on behalf of the Haitian community of Miami is greatly valued.

Miami Herald Easter Sunday Article on Faith and Social Action at Notre Dame d'Haiti in Miami

2010-04-06T16:33:00.002-04:00

Click here to read an article published on Easter Sunday in the Miami Herald about the faith and social activities at Notre Dame d'Haiti in Miami (one of the sites of my fieldwork) in response to the earthquake.

Theodicy at Notre Dame d'Haiti, Miami, March 2010

2010-03-26T17:04:00.011-04:00

In March 2010, I visited Notre Dame d'Haiti Catholic Church in Miami's neighborhood called Little Haiti, where I did fieldwork for my book. I had the opportunity to attend Mass at Notre Dame with other academics who are members of the Congregational Studies Team (pictured here from left to right are Steve Warner, University of Illinois-Chicago; Nancy Ammerman, Boston University; Omar McRoberts, University of Chicago; Fritz Armand, Notre Dame d'Haiti; myself; Larry Mamiya, Vassar College). Given the enormous damage caused by the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, how have the leaders at Notre Dame interpreted the earthquake in the light of faith? At Mass on Sunday March 7, Father Jean Jadotte reminded those present that Jesus clearly stated in the Gospel that those who suffer greatly are not bigger sinners than anyone else. When Father Jadotte asked rhetorically during his homily, “Are we better than those who died in the earthquake?” many members of the congregation said “no” under their breath. Father Jadotte then specifically mentioned he disagreed with Pat Robertson’s claim that Haitians have suffered because they made a pact with the devil. However, Father Jadotte added that all Haitians have some responsibility for the death caused by the earthquake, pointing out that no so many people would have died from the earthquake if Haitians had organized their country better. When he said that some Haitians also bear responsibility for interrupting the aid distribution by stealing and creating disorder, many of the faithful at Notre Dame responded “mm hmm,” signaling their agreement this criticism. To conclude his message, Father Jadotte pointed out that St. Paul wrote that all people, not just some, are in need of conversion. God has given those who survived the earthquake a second chance, during which they have to work harder than before to rebuild their country. Rather than attributing a natural disaster to an individual’s sins or the collective sins of a people, Father Jadotte’s homily emphasized a recurring theme in Catholic social and moral teaching: the people of God are called to build a just world, achieved through a constant conversion that obliges them to keep improving this world even when tremendous obstacles arise. This homily extends the “theology of grace and hope” I wrote about in Faith Makes Us Live to the latest and probably greatest tragedy in Haitian history. This recent theodicy of grace and hope is powerfully illustrated by the picture placed on the altar of Notre Dame, which shows a man in Haiti gazing at the ruins of Sacred Heart Catholic Church. A crucifix remains standing, and at the foot of the crucifix is an image that looks remarkably like the Virgin Mary. The stained glass window behind the picture depicts the Virgin Mary and says in Creole "Mother Mary, you always come to our rescue."

Review of my book in Books and Culture

2010-03-08T20:17:00.001-05:00

A review of my book appeared in the March/April edition of Books and Culture. It mentions how my book is especially relevant now that so much international attention is on Haiti after the January 2010 earthquake.

Article Published on Disaster, Religion, and Resilience in Haiti

2010-02-24T17:30:00.002-05:00

On Wednesday, February 24th, I published an online article at "The Immanent Frame", a web forum sponsored by Social Science Research Council, in which I argue that disaster relief efforts in Haiti can be bolstered by building on the resilience of the Haitian people. Click here to see the story.

Article in America magazine on Faith, Suffering and Resilience

2010-02-22T14:14:00.003-05:00

I published an article in the Jesuit magazine America where I discuss faith, suffering, and resilience in Haiti. Click here to see a link to that article. For now, the full article is only available online to subscribers, but if the full article is made available to all at a later date, I will post that on my blog as well. In the meantime, you can see the beginning of the article and a photo.

Carolina Population Center features my research on Haiti

2010-02-18T15:59:00.003-05:00

The Carolina Population Center has featured my research on Haiti on their website. You can see the website by clicking here.

The website also contains testimonials I received about relief work in Haiti. Father Mario Serrano wrote about setting up an aid distribution center in Port-au-Prince. My uncle Walter Mooney wrote to me about his trip to Haiti with the U.S. Geological Survey. Teresa Gonzalez of Amor en Accion wrote about the relief efforts being organized in Miami, and Carlo Dade wrote about the the role of the Haitian disapora in rebuilding Haiti.

Letter to the Editor Published in the Miami Herald, January 24, 2010

2010-01-24T13:50:00.002-05:00

The letter to the editor I submitted to the Miami Herald about its coverage of the Haitian earthquake was published on January 24, 2010. Click here to see the article. It is a slightly edited version of my blog entry from a few days ago.

How We Can Transform Disorder into Cooperation in Haiti

2010-01-20T16:14:00.001-05:00

Op-Ed Submitted to the Wall Street Journal by Margarita A. Mooney. Although disorder, looting, and sometimes even mobs threaten the earthquake relief efforts in Haiti, I suggest that we need more than force to establish order in Haiti—we need the active cooperation of the Haitian people. As I argue in my book, Faith Makes Us Live: Surviving and Thriving in the Haitian Diaspora (University of California Press, 2009), Haitians are often to be so poor that they are incorrectly assumed to be helpless. As a sociologist of international development, a veteran working in development projects in Latin America, and having spent extensive time in Haiti and among Haitian immigrants to the United States, Canada and France, I saw time and again that too many social projects reflect a paternalistic attitude by which “we” come to “their” aid. An email I received on Monday from Mario Serrano Marte, a Jesuit priest who works in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, illustrates how even people in the most desperate circumstances can be transformed from passive recipients into agents. After the earthquake, Father Mario quickly mobilized resources and drove in a caravan with relief supplies from the Dominican Republic to Haiti. The military accompanied them on the journey and they arrived safely at nighttime. The next day, however, residents of the neighborhood threatened to disrupt their relief efforts. Father Mario, a priest who has worked in the poorest areas of New York City, India, the Dominican Republic and Haiti, has never told me he felt scared in his work, but when a mob began to pound on the door yelling and demanding help, he felt terrified. Even after they called the police to help them, the people refused to leave and kept angrily demanding help. The crowd finally dispersed when Father Mario gave everyone in the crowd a bottle of water and when he promised to meet with them to discuss how the aid would be distributed. That afternoon, he met with neighborhood residents, and humbly confessed he was scared by their angry behavior. If he was able to organize his distribution center first, he explained he would then be in a better position to help them and many others. Most importantly, he pleaded for their cooperation in carrying out his mission. Once the group understood both that they would receive emergency relief and that their cooperation was indispensable to the operation’s success, they helped Father Mario unload the trucks full of supplies and they now provide security as he runs the distribution. Elated at this turn of events, Father Mario wrote in his email, “Now we have stronger security and protection than what the army can give us. We have the active participation of the same people we came here to help.” The more than 1 million residents of Port-au-Prince who survived the earthquake are understandably hungry, thirsty, and fearful for their survival. In this emergency situation, we must certainly be concerned for order and security. However, let us not forget that a basic rule of sustainable development also applies to emergency relief: we need to turn the beneficiaries of our assistance into cooperative actors in our programs. In these desperate circumstances, let us not only heed Haitians’ call for humanitarian aid, let us also remember that inviting their active cooperation both affirms their dignity and furthers our work.

Can We Learn from Haitians' Resilience?

2010-01-18T17:22:00.007-05:00

Margarita A. Mooney's response to: “A Celebration of Faith, Even Among Church Ruins.” By Fred Grimm. Published in the Miami Herald, January 18, 2010. Accessed on January 18th, 2010. Click here to read Grimm's column.

I congratulate Fred Grimm for his passionate writing and insightful interpretation of what it means to worship God amidst the current ruinous state of Haiti. He both presents the worldview of the Haitians he observed at Sunday services in Haiti—one based on God’s goodness and ability to bring new life from ashes—and he lays bare what I dare say is the worldview of most American commentators on the situation in Haiti (including Mr. Grimm)—namely, that God, if he exists at all, would not have let such a terrible thing happen. As I write about in my book, Faith Makes Us Live: Surviving and Thriving in the Haitian Diaspora (University of California Press, 2009), because Haiti is so poor, others often interpret Haitians’ boundless faith in God as simply a crutch to rely on. However, as I found in my research in three Haitian Catholic communities of the diaspora (Miami, Montreal and Paris), the expressions of faith such as those Mr. Grimm describes— people coming together to pray, to ask for forgiveness, to thank God for miracles—help communities renew from within. Clearly the Haitian people need all the material and logistical help they can get right now. But let us not forget that this inward renewal and community strength will greatly magnify any external help we send to Haiti. The Haitian people will not and should not be the passive recipients of external aid. The Haitian people are the greatest resource Haiti has to rebuild itself. Their resilience in the face of disaster forms a foundation upon which all organizations rushing to aid Haiti can build upon. I hope that all of those who help Haiti open their hearts, as Mr. Grimm did, to the possibility that maybe we have something to learn from the Haitian people’s response to the disaster that has struck them. Although Mr. Grimm starts off his column clearly disheartened by the “random, awful, incalculable cruelty” that has occurred in Haiti, he concludes by admitting that it does indeed appear miraculous that people buried under rubble for several days could be rescued alive and recover. If we don’t believe we will see miracles as we rush to help Haiti, why would we expend so much effort looking for life under rubble? If we don’t believe that the faith of Haitian people presents Haiti’s greatest resource as we move forward, with what purpose will we expend millions of dollars in effort and send thousands of relief workers? Regardless of one’s personal worldview or religious faith, we cannot deny that communities of faith provide a tremendous resource to further the hard work that must be done for Haiti’s recovery.

Visit to Montreal for the American Academy of Religion, November 2009

2009-11-18T09:28:00.004-05:00

From November 6-10, 2009, I traveled to Montreal, Quebec, Canada to attend the Annual Meetings of the American Academy of Religion (AAR). In addition to presenting my book on a panel about World Christianity, I also visited the community in Montreal where I did my research, Notre Dame d'Haiti. At the AAR, I attended many sessions, including one on the history of religion in Quebec, one on inter-faith dialogue in Canada, one on the Bouchard-Taylor commission (a study of accommodating immigrants' ethnic and religious diversity in Quebec) and one on understanding secularism today (which included presentations by Charles Taylor, Jose Casanova, Craig Calhoun, and Saba Mahmood). The picture here is from the altar of the Basilica of Notre Dame in Old Montreal. Due to Quebec's rapid secularization since the 1960s, there is growing concern about preserving the cultural heritage of churches such as this one that have many fewer parishoners than before.

Manuel Vasquez's Comments

2009-11-18T09:27:00.010-05:00

Manuel Vazquez, Associate Professor of Religion at the University of Florida (Vazquez is on the left of this picture and Terry Rey, Professor of Religion at Temple University, is on the right), called my book a good example of post-functionalist sociology of religion. Functionalism enters into sociology of religion when scholars talks about religion in terms of what religion does for people in terms of “cash value.” Vasquez commended that although I don’t ignore that religion does things for Haitian immigrants, including connecting them to social networks and social services, I also talk extensively about hope, resilience, and generosity—or the substantive and meaning-making side of religion. In other words, he said I talk about what religion does for people while also talking about what religion means for people. Furthermore, he liked how I embed Haitians’ religious faith within specific institutions without falling into functionalism. He called my use of multiple levels of analysis a non-reductive type of materialism. He cautioned me not to over-generalize the three models of church-state cooperation that I describe. In the U.S., he thinks there may be more conflict between immigrants and the state than I acknowledge in my book. In response, I think that as Milton Gordon said about earlier immigrants to the U.S., American society did not become a melting pot without conflict. Gordon said, and I agree, that what is interesting about the U.S. is that despite some conflict, over time most immigrants and their descendants joined the American middle class mainstream. Similarly, when Haitians first began settling in Miami, there was some conflict with the state. But through the advocacy of Father Wenski and others Catholic Church leaders, the state slowly began to cooperate more with Haitian institutions. Using the term “cooperation” to describe the U.S. model of interacting with immigrant organizations, including faith-based ones, does not mean that conflict is totally absent. Rather, over time in the U.S. and when compared to France and Quebec, the U.S. is remarkably adaptable to new immigrants and new religious groups.

Gerardo Marti's Comments

2009-11-18T09:26:00.000-05:00

Gerardo Marti, Associate Professor of Sociology at Davidson College (pictured here with me), said he thinks my book's greatest contribution is the cross-national comparative research design, which allows me to highlight the importance of the nation-state’s relationships to immigrant communities. Although much work has been done on immigrant religious communities in the U.S., my work highlights how different national contexts contribute to shaping the institutions which immigrants rely on succeed in their new societies. I agree with Gerardo that most scholars in the U.S. find the cross-national comparative research design to be the greatest strength of my book. However, visiting Quebec for the AAR reminded me that the national context also influences what readers think my book's most important contribution will be. In the last 40 years, Quebec has become one of the most secular societies in the world. Many intellectuals and members of the general public in Quebec tend to look upon religious piety as an escape from worldly probelms and they generally view religious institutions as oppressive. Hence, in Quebec, my book may be most cited for demonstrating how religous faith can give people agency and how religious institutions can empower the poor. In Quebec, it is generally known that the American people are generally pro-religious and the American government works extensively with faith-based and other types of private associations in delivering social services. If Americans sometimes forget that our national context is generally pro-religious, then the parallel is that Quebeckers sometimes forget that religion can be liberating and that their state does not perfectly meet all social needs.

Presenting My Book at Notre Dame d'Haiti in Montreal

2009-11-18T09:25:00.006-05:00

On Sunday, November 8, 2009, I returned to Notre Dame d'Haiti Catholic mission in Montreal, where I had done part of my fieldwork for Faith Makes Us Live several years earlier. I must admit that I was nervous when I returned to my fieldsite. Would people remember me? Would they appreciate what I have written? As soon as I walked through the door and saw old friends, all my fears went away. I showed many people the book, including where I had quoted them. I gave out flyers about the book with the link to the website. I saw many people who sang with me in the choir and who I interviewed for the book, including this family pictured here. At the end of Mass, I spoke to the congregation in Creole, telling them about the major argument of the book and thanking them for their hospitality and generosity while I was doing research in Montreal. Sitting in the front row of the church next to one of my friends from the community and singing in Creole reminded me of how much I loved doing the fieldwork for my book. Although I hardly get the opportunity to speak Haitian Creole or even French now, I was amazed at how fast these languages came back to me. In fact, walking around Montreal for 5 days speaking French and Haitian Creole almost feels like speaking in tongues--I am truly amazed that I can communicate in these languages that I practice so rarely!

Mass at Notre Dame d'Haiti in Montreal

2009-11-18T09:24:00.000-05:00

The readings during Mass at Notre Dame echoed two of the themes from my book--keeping the faith in the middle of struggling to survive and being generous even when one is poor. In the first reading, from Kings 17, the prophet Elijah asks a woman for water and then for bread. At first the woman replies that she doesn't have any bread to give him, but Elijah tells her to go bake something, give some to him, and then he promises her that she'll have plenty left. She believes the prophet and obeys him, and her family is saved from starvation because of her faith. During his homily, the priest pointed out that often times God asks us to put our faith in him, to give every last thing we have, and then he will come and save us. The woman I am pictured with here was one of many people who told me that God requires them to be generous even when they wonder how they will pay their bills or find their next meal. The sharing of the bread from this Old Testament passage is analogous to the sharing of the Eucharist at communion--this sacrament signifies both a vertical covenant between Christ and his people and a horizontal covenant among the people of God. The Gospel reading was from Mark 12 and recounted the story of the proud Pharisees who made a big show of donating money a large sum of money at the temple, whereas the poor widow humbly gave a few cents, which was all she had left. During his homily, the priest used this Gospel passage to highlight how God asks us to "give what we have", not to "give what we don't have" or to "give what we don't need." One of the themes of my book was how faith communities turn poor people into givers, not just recipients. These readings and this homily once again emphasized this message: God asks everyone to give, and to give generously, even when they are struggling to survive, not just to give from their abundance. The priest also emphasized the importance of how we give to others. Often times, we give with pride. We want other people to see what we give, or we show disrespect to the person we are giving to. He forcefully stated that when we are in a position to give, we should not show off. Furthermore, he cautioned not to treat the recipients of our generosity like dogs, but rather we should treat all people, not matter how destitute they are, with dignity. Sometimes, he said, it is easy to see God in the beautiful people of this world, but we have to remember that God is in everyone, even those who don't treat us well or who don't share our faith. As I argue in my book, even though many Haitian immigrants are very poor, their religious communities provide them with a way to become givers--both materially and spiritually--and seeing oneself as a giver helps them to then be able to receive with dignity the help they may need from others.

Author-Meets-Critics Panel at the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion

2009-10-30T16:08:00.004-04:00

In October 2009, Kevin Christiano of Notre Dame convened an author-meets-critics panel on my book, Faith Makes Us Live: Surviving and Thriving in the Haitian Diaspora, at the annual meetings of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion. The three panelists were Michael Emerson of Rice University, Melissa Wilde of the University of Pennsylvania, and Richard Wood of the University of New Mexico. All three panelists were extremely complementary about the ambitious three-country research design, the large amount of ethnographic work done, and the passionate writing. In blogs below, I address some of the questions raised by each of the panelists. I would like to thank Kevin Christiano for convening the panel and offering his insights on the Quebec case, with which he is very familiar. When we were talking about whether voluntary organizations, including faith-based ones, are necessary to complement state provided social services, Kevin described to the audience how for many Quebecois, the state is ipso facto better than the church at providing social services. Because the Catholic Church dominated social life for nearly 200 years while French Quebecois were under the rule of Anglophone Quebecois and Canadians, since the 1960s Quiet Revolution many Quebecois have held firmly to the opinion that they need to be liberated from traditional control of the church. Although I agree with this statement, in a discussion after the panel, I told Kevin that it seemed to me that Quebec was still strongly culturally Catholic, even nearly 50 years after the Quiet Revolution begun. In my work with Haitian immigrants, I found that Catholic leaders and organizations--both Haitians and Quebecois--were instrumental in assisting the settlement and adaptation of Haitians who arrived in Quebec from the 1960s-1990s. These Catholic leaders and associations had many connections to the Quebecois state that helped them in their work with Haitians. It was only when large numbers of non-Catholic immigrants began arriving in Quebec and their religious leaders sought to engage the public sphere that the people of Quebec began to really question cooperation between religious organizations and the state. Thus, although the Quiet Revolution clearly altered the social position of the Catholic Church in Quebec, this change occurred slowly and many connections still exist.

Michael Emerson's Comments

2009-10-30T16:05:00.006-04:00

All of the panelists commented that they enjoyed my use of theological concepts in the book, something that is not very common among sociologists who study religion. Michael Emerson asked me to expand on what I meant when I wrote at the end of the introduction that, in my book, a theological imagination accompanies the sociological imagination. In the course of my fieldwork, I experienced the shortcomings of the position from where I started my inquiry. What I saw again and again in my fieldwork was: I was trying to bracket out their faith, move past it quickly, and get to what “really” mattered from the position where I started: immigrants need social services, legal papers, health care and I thought the church helped them get there. But I realized that something was wrong with the position from which I started my inquiry. Over and over again, my interviewees wanted to talk to me first about their faith in God. I came to realize that their theological imagination—their understanding of who God is and how they relate to God—profoundly influences their social struggles. So in writing Faith Makes us Live, I invite my readers to leave behind their position from which they would look into this situation and take seriously the position from which the people I interviewed began their inquiry. I realized that for the people I interviewed just the fact that someone from a very different position in the world was trying to understand their position in the world itself was a powerful healing force for all the suffering they had experience. From their position, using a theological imagination, I am also a child of God, thus I could understand their suffering and console them even though I am from a different social background. My interviewees didn’t see me as simply the product of social forces that have made me a light-skinned, highly educated Cuban-American. They saw me as another human being capable of entering not only their material world, but their symbolical world. I genuinely trying to understand their meaning, I reinforced their belief that faith can triumph over suffering and that faith can trump differences in class, race, and power. In sharing their suffering with me, we met on a level deeper than that of social class, skin color, money. We met as human persons. By entering into their world personally, I learned better what was going on at these faith communities more generally: communion with others relieves suffering. Eucharistic communion as celebrated in Catholic communities is not just about a one-on-one encounter with Jesus, it is about a community coming together to heal, fortify and build strength. Thus, the theological imagination leads us to transcendence, to the concept of the person as a gift and in relationship to others through his or her relationship to God.

Melissa Wilde's Comments

2009-10-30T16:04:00.006-04:00

Melissa Wilde commented on my argument that although France and Quebec try to define an officially "neutral" policy toward religion, in practice their policies do not seem neutral. To extend my argument in the book, I argue that the state cannot be neutral towards religion any more than the state can be neutral to the good. Neutrality among religions is possible, at least more possible, than neutrality towards religion in general. State enforcement of non-expression of religion in the public sphere over allowing religious expressions in the public sphere, the general aim of French laicite and Quebec’s open secularism, is not neutrality toward religion: is it privileging non-religion, and that privilege of non-religion needs to be justified on some kind of legitimate moral grounds. Thus, how religion is included or excluded from public sphere is part of a larger debate about the moral legitimacy of the state and about how non-state actors formulate moral criticism of state power and actions. Melissa questioned why, if second generation Haitians in Montreal and Paris are becoming more secular, I still think that religious communities will be important for their assimilation. Although I am saying that, in comparative perspective, more Haitians in Montreal or Paris will decline in religious practice, but at least some will retain their faith and practice. I’m not saying that faith based services should be the only kind of social services, but they are part of the picture and should be acknowledged for their contributions. Although I’m not trying to say that the US model is perfect, I am trying to say that the French and Quebec model marginalizes one important way that immigrants traditionally have found mobility. Religion alone does not determine any particular assimilation outcome, but it interacts with just about every other thing that influences how immigrants adapt: where people settle, education, family, job hunting, community building, and political advocacy. The narrative of hope provided by religion can help people take advantage of opportunities that are there, rather than turn away from them. For immigrants like many Haitians who are poor, black, not highly educated, and not very welcomed, religion is an extra social support. Religion can moderate the effect of good state policies, that is, make those state policies work better. Religion can also mediate between individuals and the state and market—people can find opportunities for mobility through their religious community. I am not trying to argue that religious communities by themselves can achieve immigrant assimilation, but I am saying that the French and Quebec model weaken one community resource among Haitians--their religious faith--and that the greater secular environment of Montreal and Paris has negative consequences for immigrant assimilation because immigrants there do feel excluded yet they have fewer symbolic and material resources with which to be agents in their own assimilation.

Richard Wood's Comments

2009-10-30T16:00:00.007-04:00

Richard Wood asked for clarification on why I thought faith-based mediating institutions were necessary for successful immigrant assimilation. Can't the French system, for example, guarantee upward immigrant mobility through other means? Isn't the reason we have a strong state, Wood asked, because of the limits of a voluntaristic approach to social services, which would undoubtedly leave many gaps? To answer, I argue in Faith Makes Us Live that an empirical examination of Haitian immigrant assimilation in all three cases show that the state cannot do everything to achieve this assimilation. The downward assimilation of some Haitians and some members of other immigrant groups in each country I studied is a reality. As Steve Offutt in the audience noted, voluntary associations or associations of civil society exist to complement, not replace, the state social welfare system. No matter what country you are talking about, he said, there will be failures in the state and the market, and thus the voluntary sector will always have some role to play. In addition, I think that voluntary sector organizations have an important advocacy role in pointing out to the state and the market what their failures are. Thus, I argue that the successful assimilation of immigrants into new societies requires strong communities, and for many immigrants, these communities will be religious. These religious communities give a sense of meaning and hope to make sense of the difficulties in this assimilation--something the state does not do well. Furthermore, religious communities often help provide real material resources and political advocacy to forward assimilation goals. Comparative research needs to move beyond taking national discourses at face value and confront ideology and narrative with empirical cases, thus refining our theories, concepts and understandings. As Steve Warner said from the audience, the fact that I point out the consequences of these different national models of church-state relations for immigrant assimilation does not mean that it is simple to derive policy implications from my work. As Steve aptly put it, I am not trying to say that France or Quebec needs to turn its back on its own history and traditions, but I am pointing out some of the weaknesses of their approach that emerge in comparative perspective. For example, I argue that laicite and Republicanism lack legitimacy among many in the immigrant banlieue.

On-Line Article about my Book Published on Public Discourse

2009-09-22T08:14:00.002-04:00

An online article summarizing some of the main points of my book was published today. To see it, click the link for Public Discourse.

NY Times article related to my research on older immigrants

2009-09-02T14:24:00.004-04:00

The August 30, 2009, edition of the New York Times featured a front-page article on my new research topic, older immigrants. Click here to see it.

Book Launch/Birthday Party

2009-08-26T14:13:00.004-04:00

To see pictures from my book launch/birthday party on August 25, 2009, please see my book's website. About 50 people came, including friends, colleagues from Department of Sociology and the Carolina Population Center, and some of my undergraduate students. I autographed about 20 books. The raspberry white chocolate cake from Fresh Market was a big hit! Howard Aldrich, the chair of the Sociology Department, is shown here introducing the book. I also told the audience a bit more about the research for the book and displayed the artwork I collected in Haiti, all the while with Haitian compas music playing in the background.

Solange Lefebvre's Comments

2009-08-25T14:54:00.004-04:00

Like the other two panelists, Solange Lefebvre complimented my research design. She noted that Quebec has been a real laboratory of secularism, even more so than my other cases. She thinks my book provides concrete material to reflect on religion in public life, as debates on the topic often lack concrete case studies of what occurs when the state interacts with religious institutions. She was particularly intrigued by my conclusion that the church will only matter for the long-term wellbeing of Haitians in Miami, and that Haitians in Miami enjoy greataer wellbeing than in Montreal or Paris. In expanding upon this point, I commented that for Haitians in Miami, their religiosity is not something they have to hide in their pocket when they step into the public arena. Being religious in the U.S. is a kind of currency, something that allows you to enter into society, whereas in France and Canada being religious is a barrier to integrate. So immigrants who are religious, like Haitians, perceive greater inclusion in the U.S. than in Canada or France. This greater sense of inclusion then translates into more efforts for socio-economic mobility. Lefebvre questioned my interpretation of church-state relations in Quebec as one of conflict. She commented that the Quebec state is very interested in equality of all religions. I responded that too often I found that a discourse of equality led to a practice of exclusion of religious groups from public debates and public functions. Lefebvre also raised some very important points that I do not address in the book. If the state is to give some support to faith-based social services, by what criteria should this be done? With greater religious diversity, she commented that it becomes harder and harder for the state to evaluate all new religious groups entering society. Although I do not have a specific answer to her question for Quebec, in general, the principle of religious freedom should be used to guide the state's interaction with religious organizations. The principle of religious freedom means that the state has the responsibility to ensure that religious groups can function in society, whereas too often a principle of state neutrality towards religion means excluding or suppressing public religious expressions and public functions of religious institutions, such as in social services and education. When speaking to Europeans and Canadians, I also want to re-iterate that the American state does not fund any kind of proselytization or evangelization, but for many decades, the state has cooperated with and funded faith-based social service agencies, such as Catholic Charities or Lutheran Brotherhood.

Omar McRobert's Comments

2009-08-25T14:35:00.006-04:00

Omar McRoberts also complimented my three-country research design. I have to give the credit to my dissertation advisor, Alejandro Portes, for encouraging me to compare the same group of immigrants in three countries. Michele Lamont, who was also on my dissertation committee, gave me crucial contacts that helped me expand my research into France and Quebec and she guided me in my analysis of those two cases. And Robert Wuthnow, my third committee member, provided expertise in the area of sociology of religion. McRoberts commented that in the book, I seemed surprised at times to see how religious the Haitians were. When I started my fieldwork, I chose to study religious congregations because I wanted a way to gain trust in the community. I was not well-versed in sociology of religion when I began my fieldwork, so indeed, I learned a lot about how religion matters in people's everyday lives through my fieldwork, observations, and interviews. McRoberts called my work a "painstakingly, passionately executed ethnography." He remarked that although academics are more comfortable with analyzing the institutional actions of religious groups on behalf of immigrants or the poor, he liked how I asserted the importance of moral fortification to understand religious-based social action. For example, many people I interviewed relied on their faith quite simply to survive, a necessary first step before they were able to organize as a group and challenge any structural barriers to their mobility and successful integration. McRoberts raised two important questions. Could I go more deeply into what exactly is cultural in my term "cultural mediation?" How is it different than a cultural toolkit? Is cultural mediation always narrative? Or can it be interactional? To reply to the first question, I think my term cultural mediation is similar to other concepts from cultural sociology. But I use the term mediation to refer to the ability of religious beliefs to bring together two things that seem extremely different or even irreconcilable. McRoberts also wondered if I could have said more about the urban context in each of my three cases. It seemed clear that Miami's urban context, and the high concentration of Haitians in a few neighborhoods there, facilitated the work of the Catholic Church. I noted that Notre Dame d'Haiti was built when Little Haiti was just emerging, and that the church was a big draw for more Haitians to settle nearby. In France and Canada, Haitians had less flexibility in which neighborhood to settle in and even in which church to gather, thus largely limiting any urban concentration, and hence weakening the mediating capacity of their community associations.

Nancy Ammerman's Comments

2009-08-25T14:17:00.004-04:00

Nancy Ammerman was impressed with the research design of my book that allows us to see the effects of macro-level structures of law, policy and culture on how immigrants form religious communities and how those communities support their adaptation. She complimented me for both sorting out cross-national patterns in Haitians' adaptation and for writing about individual people's stories with a compassionate heart. Although much has been written comparing "religious" America" and "secular" Europe, Ammerman liked how my book makes a more sophisticated argument about church-state relations in Europe, Canada and the U.S. I argue that these relationships are constantly being re-negotiated, and how states respond to immigrants' religious identities and institutions is one of the current battlegrounds for understanding and redefining secularization. One of Ammerman's main questions was: what are the trade-offs of the different national models for incorporating immigrants? Are Haitians in Miami "ghettoized" into a Haitian neighborhood and Haitian church, as some of my informants in Canada and France remarked? Does the stronger state in France and Canada simply mean that immigrants there don't need as many mediating structures? My brief response to that is that the U.S. has a bottom-up approach to immigrant adaptation. That is, immigrants are left largely free to form their own ethnic, religious, and entrepreneurial associations. The French and Canadian government take a more active role in "integrating" immigrants. At times, the top-down approach in France and Canada means that certain kinds of immigrant associations, notably religious ones, can get excluded from the process. I argue that this is detrimental to immigrants' social mobility and feelings of inclusion in their new homes.

Author-Meets Critics Session at the Association for the Sociology of Religion

2009-08-23T19:08:00.002-04:00

Phillip Connor of Princeton University introduces the panelists for the author-meets-critics session about my book at the Association for the Sociology of Religion meetings on Monday, August 10th, 2009. The panelists were (from left to right): Solange Lefebvre (University of Montreal), Nancy Ammerman (Boston University), and Omar McRoberts (University of Chicago).

American Sociological Assocation Book Exhibit

2009-08-23T19:02:00.005-04:00

Ruben Rumbaut and I chatted in front of the University of California Book Exhibit at the American Sociological Association that featured my book. This picture was taken on Monday, August 10th.

History of Zion Baptist Church

2009-06-28T16:06:00.003-04:00

Members of the Engaged Scholars listening to the history of this multi-ethnic congregation.

Reverend Wright

2009-06-28T16:05:00.003-04:00

Reverend Wright telling us about the history of this African-American and immigrant Black congregation. When the congregation outgrew the original church, they built a new church and made the old church a museum of African-American and Cape Verdian history on Cape Cod.

Engaged Scholars Studying Congregations, Cape Cod, Massachusetts

2009-06-28T16:00:00.002-04:00

With other scholars who study religion visiting the Zion Union Baptist Museum in Hyannis, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The statue represents a man carrying the globe.

Zion Union Heritage Museum, Hyannis, Cape Cod, Massachusetts

2009-06-28T15:58:00.003-04:00

Identical Triplets!

2009-05-13T21:55:00.001-04:00

Parfait Gasana, the co-recipient of the 2009 Odum Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Sociology at UNC, with his identical triplet brothers. They were the first known identical triplets born in Rwanda--and apparently doctors came from all over to have a look!

With two of my best students

2009-05-13T21:51:00.004-04:00

Parfait Gasana and Mary Torr were two of the best students in the first class I ever taught at UNC: Sociology/Management 415: Economy and Society (Fall 2007).

Mary Torr and Family

2009-05-13T21:48:00.003-04:00

After three years in the Navy and having three boys, Mary Torr enrolled at UNC. After graduation, she will pursue a Master's in Social Work at NC State. She wrote a senior thesis on children in foster care.

Reuniting with international friends

2009-05-03T13:07:00.002-04:00

I was the discussant on a panel about educational attainment. One of the presenters was Silvia Giorguli, the former Vice-President of the Mexican Society of Demography. I first met Silvia and the Mexican Society of Demography meetings in Merida, Mexico, in October 2008.

My poster session

2009-05-03T13:03:00.002-04:00

I explained my poster to new people as well as to many old friends from Princeton who came by to say hello, like Monica Espinoza-Higgins. My friend Cris Beauchemin from the French National Institute for Demography (INED) also came by, and I was very happy to speak about demography in French for a while.

New friends from Princeton

2009-05-01T08:39:00.003-04:00

PAA means meeting old friends and getting connected to up-and-coming scholars like these Princeton graduate students Alex Rivas and Julia Gelatt.

Seldom Blues hosts

2009-05-01T08:37:00.003-04:00

Katherine Donato, Bill Kandel and Kristin Espinoza at Seldom Blues

Dinner at Seldom Blues with Doug Massey

2009-05-01T08:34:00.001-04:00

A nice reunion with my former mentor and collaborator Doug Massey.

Release of Taming the River (Princeton U. Press)

2009-04-28T21:18:00.003-04:00

My departure to PAA coincides with the arrival of the first copies of my co-authored book "Taming the River: Negotiating the Academic, Financial and Social Currents in Selective Colleges and Universities" (with Camille Z. Charles, Mary J. Fischer, and Douglas S. Massey, Princeton University Press, April 2009).

The book will be on sale and PAA, and you can order a copy from either Princeton University Press or Amazon.

Traveling to PAA

2009-04-28T13:46:00.001-04:00

I leave on Wednesday, April 29th, for the Population Association Meetings of America. While there, I will be attending numerous panels as well as presenting a poster about my new research on religion, international migration and aging. Check back for updates and pictures!