“This Is Not a Space for Politics”: Intergenerational Disagreements About the Meanings of Church Space

Abstract

This article examines the meanings and values attached to an immigrant church by exploring the contents of intergenerational conflict within Christian Indian American families in the United States. Using ethnographic research from two Indian Christian churches in the United States, we find that a source of intergenerational conflict concerns varying expectations of “proper behaviors” within the ethnic church. In examining these expectations, we find “divergent social and cultural understandings” of the ethnic church as a sacred site between the first and second generations. These different understandings mirror the diverging roles of religion for different generations. We uncover the different generational expressions of sacred space as both “physical” (tied to the church building) and “cultural” (expectations of appropriate behavior within that location). We argue that although immigrant intergenerational conflicts are shaped by opposing connections between “religion” and “ethnic culture,” they are also informed by conflicting understanding of “place,” which encompasses geographical, social, and religious dimensions.