(VitalNews.org) – Many women of color are trying to find the best church that will represent them and make them feel included.
Brandi Brown is just one woman who has yet to find a black church near her in Southern California. She instead relies on someone that is over one thousand miles away. Ellen Lo Hoffman lives outside Seattle and is a Chinese American who is going through a similar battle.
These ladies have come together for a monthly virtual chat to express themselves through Christianity. “How Black women and how women of color experience God is different from how other people experience God,” said Brown.
“If I imagine myself, like, sitting on a bench trying to talk to God, Ellen is there too — to sit on the bench with me and point out observations and allow me to interpret things that I’m experiencing.”
For many Christian progressives the final push to make them go elsewhere was the lack of support and recognition for the 2020 racial reckoning. Many women of color left after their leaders failed to speak against racism or homophobia.
Many of these people have been seeking out what they call “spiritual directors” which aren’t priests, pastors, counselors, or anything else, but they can help people explore their thoughts about God or another higher power.
For the past seven years, Hoffman has been a self-employed spiritual director, and she said that the death of Michael Brown by a Missouri police officer was the pivotal moment for her. Hoffman said that when the murder of George Floyd happened, she wanted to do more than just protest. She dove deep into the people of color who needed “care in the midst of racial trauma.”
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