The Ebony Exodus Project: Why Some Black Women Are Walking Out on Religion—and Others Should Too

Candace L. M. Gorham, LPC, discusses her new book, The Ebony Exodus Project: Why Some Black Women Are Walking Out on Religion—and Others Should Too. Drawing on her own past experience as an evangelical minister and her present work as a secular counselor and researcher, she makes a direct connection between the church and the plight of black women, who are the single most religious demographic in the United States, yet among the poorest, least educated, and least healthy groups in the nation. Through interviews with African-American women who have left the church, the author reveals the shame and suffering often caused by the church—and the resulting happiness, freedom, and sense of purpose these women have felt upon walking away from it. She calls on other black women to honestly reflect on their relationship with religion and challenges them to consider that perhaps the answers to their problems rest not inside a church, but in themselves.