Faith Unleavened: The Wilderness between Trayvon Martin and George Floyd
In her powerhouse debut, Tamice Spencer-Helms exposes the leaven of whiteness that pervades so much of Christianity in America today. At a young age, the Black church introduced her to a God of love, empowerment, and joy. But an encounter with White Jesus set her on a path that nearly destroyed her faith altogether. Persistent police brutality against Black people, and the white church's persistent excuses for it, forced Spencer-Helms to carefully identify how the idol of whiteness keeps Christians captive, and how we can burn the idol down. With brilliant prose and gripping storytelling, she takes us on the painful but liberating journey of extracting the leaven from spirituality, and rediscovering the parts of ourselves that a colonized Christianity seeks to suppress. This book will confront readers with the stomach-turning reality of constant injustice, but also delight and overwhelm them with the freedom of Christ.
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"Much has been written about the young white exodus from evangelical religion. Rarely have we been invited to journey alongside young evangelicals of color. Tamice Spencer-Helms takes readers by the hand and walks them through her exodus and liberation. We witness the scales falling from her eyes and see with her, for the first time, that the white evangelical waters she once found respite within are actually filled with the rotting bodies of theology and discipleship stunted and killed by White Jesus. Walk with Tamice through each stage of her healing and transformation, and encounter unleavened faith. This is a worthy read, indeed."
-Lisa Sharon Harper, President and Founder of Freedom Road, LLC and author of several books, including The Very Good Gospel and Fortune: How Race Broke My Family And The World-And How To Repair It All
"Tamice is an incredibly important voice as someone who lives faith at the intersection of practitioner and theologian. Her reflections on historical events that have shaped this emerging generation is a gift to anyone who mentors young people of any racial background, since these events have shaped our ecosystem."
-Rev. Sandra Maria Van Opstal, Founder of Chasing Justice
"I learn so much from listening to stories unlike my own. In this memoir of evolving faith, Tamice bravely invites us into a journey that is tender but unflinching, heavy with grief and suffused with hope. I am challenged by the ways we disagree with one another, and even more challenged by the ways we agree."
-Gregory Coles, author of Single, Gay, Christian and No Longer Strangers
"In Faith Unleavened, Tamice Spencer-Helms vulnerably provides us with her exile experience in white evangelicalism and her courageous exodus out of it. Doing so, she offers a gift for the rest of us, inviting everyone to let go of White Jesus so we can encounter the living, liberating, and unleavened Bread of God. Read this book!"
-Drew G. I. Hart, Associate Professor of Theology at Messiah University, author of Who Will Be A Witness?, and co-host of the InVerse Podcast
