"A Brotherhood of Believers": Religious Identity and Boundary-Work in a Christian Fraternity

This article investigates how Christian fraternity members strategically counter the "identity lockbox" phenomenon during a period when religious identity often drifts into the background for most college students. This study consists of in-depth interviews with members of a southeastern Christian fraternity and supplemental participant observation data in order to investigate religious identity in college. Results show that Christian fraternity members protect and foster their religious identity through three main strategies of boundary-work: evoking spiritual purpose, establishing moralistic bylaws, and reinforcing full commitment. The fraternity's spiritual purpose functions as the group's ethos, while moralistic bylaws and full commitment function as practical applications of the organization's ethos. Findings suggest that these three symbolic and practical strategies act as distancing mechanisms from other fraternities, students who embrace the college "party culture," and members who are perceived as "uncommitted" to the fraternity's values and practices.