“Black is King” came out a week ago and, for an entire week, I’ve received emails and DMs because I said how much I love it and embrace spiritual fluidity.

These emails swing the pendulum from “girl I’m praying for you because you don’t know what you’re doing” to “you are pulling Black women from Christ and you need to repent before you find yourself in trouble with God.”

I always wonder if the same people hop in the inboxes of Black male pastors who constantly preach messages dehumanizing Black women. Do they have this same smoke for White clergy/religious thinkers who preach anti-Blackness and white supremacy as if it were the gospel?

Or do we just reserve this kind of venom and gaslighting for the Black women we can no longer control and regulate? Does the notion of a free Black woman frighten you more than misogynistic Black men and racist White people?

I’ve been writing in public space about millennial Black women’s faith and spirituality for the past 10 years. Much of this is par for the course and I know it will only ramp up once the book comes out.

I’m also learning what it means to see+not see things, respond+ignore and balance it all out against my first inclination to pull up and drag.

Black people, Black women especially, have embraced spiritual fluidity for centuries. This ain’t new; it is home. And, though it may not be how you choose to live into your faith, it doesn’t make it demonic or mean that the Black women who embrace this are less holy than you.

It amazes me how many sent me OT scriptures to tell me I’m wrong but when I point out how their fly haircut and color, pierced ears, arched eyebrows, bomb bundles, different fabrics and the shrimp+grits contradict scripture too, all of a sudden we’re under grace and not the law.

There are many Christian women writers whose views align with yours. Nobody said you have to listen to and follow me. Inundating my inboxes with these messages doesn’t do what you think it does. It does a lot of other things, tho.

Namely, it proves that mental health professionals were right for identifying hyper-religiosity and fundamentalism as warranting DSM distinction.

One of my best friends asked me to stop responding to folks with “you don’t have the range” because she said it’s mean. She’s right; it is and I told her I’d stop saying it. Y’all gon have to meet me halfway, tho, and stop sending me stupid shit.

Rather than emailing me, perhaps you should sit with what in you won’t allow you to believe that Black women’s freedom can actually exist beyond the boundaries that have been placed on it and Black women are thriving out there.

Shorter: Seven days is long enough. Cut it.