I think church is great for mixing up people who differ professionally and socioeconomically. But at least in the US it has also very much deepened the racial and (obviously) religious lines between people.
> Not clear at all. Catholics for example are the most likely group to marry interracially.
Catholicism is an outlier here:
About half of people who attend church once a year or never said they had dated interracially; just 27 percent of respondents who attend weekly or more reported dating a person of another race, according to a study using data from the 2007 Baylor Religion Survey.
> Religiously, I don't see the christian sects as very divided, despite their many differences.
It matters less how you personally see this than it does how church-goers in aggregate feel and behave. Certainly, growing up in the South, it was abundantly clear that there were black churches and white churches and that the two very rarely mixed.
The KKK is an explicitly anti-Black, anti-Catholic, anti-Jew, pro-Protestant Christianity organization. Its self-stated reason for existence is to push down members of other religions and races. You can argue that these members aren't "real Christians", but they are sure as hell going to church and their fellow church-goers think they are.
*> I can't think of any widespread religious riot in the US (I could totally be wrong though).
Honestly thanks for the info on the riots. The KKK is so obvious that I'm embarrassed it didn't cross my mind.
I will be the first to admit I have zero understanding of protestantism other than that most seem nice. They're like Muslims to me except they believe in Jesus which seems nice.
