An Ever Present Help: Black Megachurch Cultural Responses to Conflict

Megachurches are some of the more enigmatic members of the contemporary religious market. Moreover, because of their substantial human and economic resources, they have been described in certain mainstream religious circles as indomitable forces that seem impervious to problems. Few academic studies consider how such churches experience and confront conflict particularly among Black megachurches. Cultural Theory and content analysis inform this ethnographic analysis of sixteen Black megachurches, centering three large-scale cases of conflict and responses. The analysis seeks to answer the following two questions: what types of conflict did the sample churches experience and were cultural tools associated with the historic Black Church used to address challenges? Results show that a toolkit associated with the traditional Black Church that includes prophetic biblical ideology, self-help, a linked-fate stance, and prayer is employed to combat contestation and promote social action. Despite their ease appropriating spiritual and secular cultural tools, findings also illustrate the potential and real negative repercussions, both internal and external, when Black megachurches are confronted by cultural lag and long-held oppositional cultural traditions in the Black community.