1. 13 years ago, my wife & I intentionally sought out majority white congregations b/c we believed that we could serve Kingdom best by being a presence in such spaces. After all, they all told us how much they desired “racial reconciliation”. We were nothing less than exploited.

2. I speak from a place of personal experience, not just the countless stories I’ve heard from others (which I have). Every predominately white evangelical church we’ve belonged to exploited us. They all sought to tokenize & assimilate us, & when we wouldn’t bend, dismissed us.

3. Why did we stay, why did we endure such treatment over & over again?

B/c we believed in John 13:34-35, & we saw ourselves as being missional by being in such spaces & we believed the isolation, judgement, & abandonment we experienced in such spaces to be our cross to bear.

4. There are so many other people, not just black, but other minorities like my wife (Vietnamese) who are in an abusive relationship with their church & they stay b/c they believe their abuse/trauma is simply the cross God has called them to carry, & their joy is forever stifled.

5. I don’t know how to say this in a way that won’t offend, but my experience tells me that the “racial reconciliation movement” within the white evangelical tradition is not real. They don’t really want it. What they want is the optics of reconciliation. It’s self-righteousness.

6. If these churches really wanted it, they’d hire more NON-ASSIMILATED minorities, listen to more NON-ASSIMILATED minorities, and they wouldn’t consistently seek to establish church cultures that are merely extensions of white culture & force others to submit & conform to it.

7. I’m glad my work pays bills, but I would HAPPILY give up my ministry of racial trauma care in exchange not even for white churches serious about racial reconciliation; I’d gladly give it up merely in exchange for white churches that claim to be to stop traumazing minorities.

8. Come to think of it, I don’t charge traumatized black & POC saints for soul care & so this is like the only branch of my ministry that brings in no income.

Still, I wish this branch of my work didn’t have to exist. It shouldn’t have to exist. The fact it does is tragic.