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A review by kevin_shepherd
The Ebony Exodus Project: Why Some Black Women Are Walking Out on Religion--And Others Should Too by Candace R. M. Gorham
4.0
“…black women are the single most religious demographic in the United States, yet they are at the bottom of the totem pole in practically every measure of quality of life—physical health, financial health, mental health, and more.”
CANDACE (author, The Ebony Exodus Project: Why Some Black Women Are Walking Out on Religion—and Others Should Too):
“After a while, the belief that Jesus is all we need in the world began to lose its power of persuasion. The reason was simple: I educated myself.”
BRIA (ex-Jehovah’s Witness):
“This is a black community thing. How do they control us? Fear! Fear! You’re scared not to go to church. You feel guilty if you decide, Oh, I don’t feel like going to church this weekend. I’mma sleep in. Now you feel guilty because somebody is going to call you and ask why you didn’t go to church …You’re going to deal with some guilt. Especially women. To me, a woman wasn’t taken seriously unless she was a mother of the church or unless she was wailing and prevailing and presenting at a shut-in. Unless she was important to the church, she wasn’t worth the time of day.”
CRYSTAL (ex-Seventh-day Adventist):
“…I just said, “Well, this doesn’t make sense to me anymore.” Actually, it surprised me that I felt so free. Growing up with, “You’re going to do this or you are going to hell if you don’t believe in that.” Maybe that experience impacted the feeling I felt when I stopped believing. And I just felt free.”
JANET (ex-Evangelical Christian):
“I don’t know about the Black Church. I feel that, in general, black people just don’t think about anything. We don’t question anything. We don’t try to recognize that a lot of ideas were forced on us. I am very serious about the way that my culture has put certain things in our heads. Our whole society is based on not thinking. I don’t know why. I can’t say I blame the church, but I think it helps contribute.”
TANIA (ex-Apostolic Christian):
“I don’t like to use the word “brainwashing,” but people aren’t allowed to be freethinkers. It’s just mind manipulation. It’s not that I was very angry, but I was disappointed at how much hatred and discrimination people had toward one another, all based on the Bible.”
IVORI (ex-Catholic):
“…it’s pretty hard to go from agnosticism and atheism back to a belief because once you know, you always know.”
RAINA (ex-Nondenominational Christian):
“I went to teen retreats to “acquire the fire.” That’s a mainstream nondenominational Christian thing. Now that I’m older, I realize that it really resembles a Nuremberg Rally because they don’t really give the kids any real sort of information. It’s all propaganda, you know, and manipulation.”
HEATHER (ex-Baptist):
“…I started putting these questions up and I started saying, “Hey! What about this? What about that?” everybody was like, “Girl, you going off the deep end. There’s no contradiction in the Bible.” But I said, “Yes there is! I’m trying to show you right here! There is a contradiction!” …It was like I was talking to a brick wall.”
STEPHANIE (ex-Baptist):
“I used to hate when people would say, “I’m blessed and highly favored.” I’m thinking, Okay, what about the kids in the third world countries that are starving and who are dying every day of starvation? Did god just turn his back on them? Are they not blessed and highly favored? I didn’t get that. My life has been great and it had nothing to do with me praying, nothing to do with god favoring me more. It’s because I had more opportunity …Don’t get it twisted. Don’t mistake the privileges that you have living here as god’s work.”
MANDISA (cofounder, Black Nonbelievers of Atlanta):
“The image of White Jesus just never made any sense to me. It would kind of creep me out, especially with me growing up learning about how slavery was imposed and forced upon Africans when they came to America. So, I would just never understand how black people could worship a white god.”
DEBBIE (director, African Americans for Humanism):
“I think that in the black community, particularly, religion is tied to racial identity. If you’re black and atheist, it somehow makes you less black. Being religious is tied to being black. Many people aren’t too bothered if you go from being a black Christian to being a very religious Muslim. But an atheist? That’s totally wrong.”
CANDACE (author, The Ebony Exodus Project: Why Some Black Women Are Walking Out on Religion—and Others Should Too):
“After a while, the belief that Jesus is all we need in the world began to lose its power of persuasion. The reason was simple: I educated myself.”
BRIA (ex-Jehovah’s Witness):
“This is a black community thing. How do they control us? Fear! Fear! You’re scared not to go to church. You feel guilty if you decide, Oh, I don’t feel like going to church this weekend. I’mma sleep in. Now you feel guilty because somebody is going to call you and ask why you didn’t go to church …You’re going to deal with some guilt. Especially women. To me, a woman wasn’t taken seriously unless she was a mother of the church or unless she was wailing and prevailing and presenting at a shut-in. Unless she was important to the church, she wasn’t worth the time of day.”
CRYSTAL (ex-Seventh-day Adventist):
“…I just said, “Well, this doesn’t make sense to me anymore.” Actually, it surprised me that I felt so free. Growing up with, “You’re going to do this or you are going to hell if you don’t believe in that.” Maybe that experience impacted the feeling I felt when I stopped believing. And I just felt free.”
JANET (ex-Evangelical Christian):
“I don’t know about the Black Church. I feel that, in general, black people just don’t think about anything. We don’t question anything. We don’t try to recognize that a lot of ideas were forced on us. I am very serious about the way that my culture has put certain things in our heads. Our whole society is based on not thinking. I don’t know why. I can’t say I blame the church, but I think it helps contribute.”
TANIA (ex-Apostolic Christian):
“I don’t like to use the word “brainwashing,” but people aren’t allowed to be freethinkers. It’s just mind manipulation. It’s not that I was very angry, but I was disappointed at how much hatred and discrimination people had toward one another, all based on the Bible.”
IVORI (ex-Catholic):
“…it’s pretty hard to go from agnosticism and atheism back to a belief because once you know, you always know.”
RAINA (ex-Nondenominational Christian):
“I went to teen retreats to “acquire the fire.” That’s a mainstream nondenominational Christian thing. Now that I’m older, I realize that it really resembles a Nuremberg Rally because they don’t really give the kids any real sort of information. It’s all propaganda, you know, and manipulation.”
HEATHER (ex-Baptist):
“…I started putting these questions up and I started saying, “Hey! What about this? What about that?” everybody was like, “Girl, you going off the deep end. There’s no contradiction in the Bible.” But I said, “Yes there is! I’m trying to show you right here! There is a contradiction!” …It was like I was talking to a brick wall.”
STEPHANIE (ex-Baptist):
“I used to hate when people would say, “I’m blessed and highly favored.” I’m thinking, Okay, what about the kids in the third world countries that are starving and who are dying every day of starvation? Did god just turn his back on them? Are they not blessed and highly favored? I didn’t get that. My life has been great and it had nothing to do with me praying, nothing to do with god favoring me more. It’s because I had more opportunity …Don’t get it twisted. Don’t mistake the privileges that you have living here as god’s work.”
MANDISA (cofounder, Black Nonbelievers of Atlanta):
“The image of White Jesus just never made any sense to me. It would kind of creep me out, especially with me growing up learning about how slavery was imposed and forced upon Africans when they came to America. So, I would just never understand how black people could worship a white god.”
DEBBIE (director, African Americans for Humanism):
“I think that in the black community, particularly, religion is tied to racial identity. If you’re black and atheist, it somehow makes you less black. Being religious is tied to being black. Many people aren’t too bothered if you go from being a black Christian to being a very religious Muslim. But an atheist? That’s totally wrong.”