Soul Searching: Why Blacks Are Leaving More Than Just Church

They are leaving a belief in God entirely — here’s why.

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Many Blacks in America grew up in the church. Even the most famous of singers always claimed to have a background of singing in the choir. In fact , you can’t tear us away from Jesus. Whether it was our parents, aunts, or grandparents who made us go to church — we went. Period. Now there is an ‘Ebony Exodus’ occurring, and it is not hard to understand why.

Recently, Black people were asked the reason they left Christianity, not just the church. This question was asked of Buzzfeed’s Black Community.

There were two main common denominators I noticed with their answers: Homophobia and placing church leaders on god-level status — among other reasons.

“My pastor was homophobic”

This is a very common reason for leaving the church. Make no mistake, this is not just in relation to Blacks — others of any race feel this way. However, specifically in the Black church, it is frowned upon, even when the pastor himself could be in a same sex relationship, as in the Bishop Eddie Long situation.

Pastors have used the pulpit to pummel and coerce hatred of the LGTBTQIA+ for many, many years, citing Scriptures such as these…