The Diversity-Affirming Latino
The Diversity-Affirming Latino
Ethnic Options and the Ethnic Transcendent Expression of American Latino Religious Identity
This chapter demonstrates how religion transcends race and ethnicity for the new second generation. At Mosaic, a multiracial evangelical church in Southern California, Latinos have chosen to leave their ethnic churches and worship in a multiracial community with whites, blacks, and Asians. Mosaic members downplay their ethnicity due to the church's emphasis on evangelism and its vision to be diverse. The “ethnic transcendent Latino” at Mosaic prioritizes his or her evangelical Christian faith and identity over his or her racial and ethnic identities and commitments. As Herberg predicts, the Latinos at Mosaic are second- and third-generation individuals who have lost a meaningful connection to their own ancestral heritage. Nevertheless, as a result of the racialized multicultural discourse, race and ethnicity do not fade away completely for these Latino evangelicals. Ethnicity is fluid and contingent, at times emphasized and other times downplayed, depending on the context.
Keywords: Latino evangelicals, Mosaic, multiracial evangelical church, ethnicity, race, evangelism, ethnic transcendent Latino
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