ABSTRACT
In this essay, we propose devoting more research attention to religion, an important dimension of social life that bears considerably on the racial/ethnic patterns of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using the United States as a microcosm and drawing from recent insights into the complex relationship between religious affiliation and other intersecting social identities—namely, sex, race, gender, ethnicity, and class—we contend that understanding COVID-related inequities requires consideration of the religious beliefs, participation, and collective resources of racial/ethnic minorities in predominantly white localities. We furthermore suggest that religion can help and hurt simultaneously in those localities by offering a salve to vulnerable communities but increasing the spread of COVID without solving a major problem, insufficient access to care.
