Black folk and People of Color: if you are apart of the Southern Baptist Convention or any of things it is affiliated with, you need to leave. They do not deserve you. Their institutions and churches will not love you the way you need. They will choose whiteness again and again.

Time and time again they have told us that staying in places like the SBC is the Christian thing to do while they simultaneously choose white supremacy over neighbor-love that Jesus calls us to. They try to convince us things are better than they actually are.

The leaders will have private meetings that are performative while simultaneously using other people of color who talk and think and walk like white conservatives to thwart any racial progress in churches, seminaries, and networks. They will also act like ignorant victims.

They are not ignorant victims at all; they know what they are doing. You know how other Black and people of color have spoken out and what happened to them. You watched it. You saw how members in the pews are connected to white supremacist groups. And the leaders are silent.

They have been silent with Trump, they have been performative with event event of racial terror, and they have changed in no institutional way to actually center the concerns of the people we come from. And that’s love? That’s like Jesus? That’s Christianity? Nah, cuz.

We have given our time, our talents, and our tithes to people who continually to promote and protect the project of white supremacy. And every time we have met with them—even cried in front of them—weeks and months later they choose whiteness again and our hearts are broken.

At what point do y’all have to realize that these folks and their institutions have not be socialized or discipled out of white supremacy and into neighbor-love of Black folk and POC? They intend to keep the country white and you in your place. And guess what? We let them.

There have been white folk in their institutions and churches who privately have lamented to us how bad they feel but publicly stood lock-step with the powerful white folk in the institutions and churches. They lament how bad things are but do nothing.

How do I know? I once had one of the most prominent pastors in the SBC show me an email of what a Black member felt when he said something from the pulpit. Years later? He’s still there, his church still white, and still choosing to stand with the white leaders of the convention.

How do I know? I was apart of a Southern Baptist church in Georgia for almost four years. I was so involved. They loved me...until I changed and started talking about race. If I could show you what is and what was said about me, you would throw up. Literally. Throw up.

All this is to say: it is not worth it. You deserve so much more than what Southern Baptist have to offer you. We all deserve so much more. It grieves me—and really angers me—the stuff we believe we have to endure and are forced to endure in the name of Jesus for white folk.

Leave the Southern Baptist Convention. Leave their seminaries. Leave their churches. Stop giving them your money. Stop believing you can’t be a Christian without them. Stop choosing whiteness. Choose yourself. Choose your neighbor. Choose Jesus.

Aite? Cool.