Church Folx: Remembering My Mama's Sunday Friends

"My mother’s church friends were not the holy roller/ speaking-in-tongues/bible quiz bowl nerds of the congregation. My mother’s church friends gathered for barbecues and card game nights accented with PG-13 language and secular music. My mother’s church friends were in marriages that struggled with infidelity. My mother’s church friends were congregants ensnared by addiction. My mother’s church friends were closeted and open queer Black folks in the 1980s & 90s. My mother’s church friends told inappropriate jokes and were often the subjects of deacons and ministers’ gossip. My mother’s church friends became grandparents when their kids had kids out of wedlock, and then were made to confess their sins and beg forgiveness from other church folks who hid their skeletons better. My mother’s church friends were up on pop culture and code switched between heavenly and hell-raising language. 

My mother’s church friends believed in God when everything in their lives gave them reasons to be skeptical." Read the full piece here