The ethnic church attendance gap at Christian colleges

Abstract

While interviewing seniors at our university, we came across a curious and disturbing trend. Students of color were less active in any local church. This finding pushed us to ask: does this gap exist throughout Christian college campuses? We answered this question using survey data from over 800 seniors at Baylor University and a national sample of over 6000 students from 34 Council of Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) institutions. As suspected, many students of color on these campuses attend church less often than their white classmates, despite similarities in beliefs. We suggest some possible reasons for this gap.