Thread by @thearmchaircom

Alright alright alright. I have tried to limit how and when I speak in any kind of capacity regarding @TheWitnessBCC, a Black Christian non-profit of which I am the Vice President. My platform and opinions are my own and I try to compartmentalize...until I can’t. So here goes...

In March, @TheWitnessBCC launched our #LeaveLOUD content focus. Our founder, our President, and I shared our stories of leaving white Christian organizations and churches. We have published articles on our website and distributed other media as part of this content focus.

#LeaveLOUD is BY Black Christians, is FOR Black Christians, and is ABOUT who? BLACK CHRISTIANS.

We understand that a lot of our white siblings, particularly #exvangelicals, have resonated with this movement on some level. Not mad at it.

Lemme tell you what IS bothering me...

#LeaveLOUD is by, for, and about a specific facet of the Black Christian experience in America.

It’s only natural that #exvangelicals and others might find resonance. No problem.

What IS a problem, however, is when we (Black people) are erased from a movement that we created.

@TheWitnessBCC created #LeaveLOUD for BLACK CHRISTIANS. We haven’t even said everything we want to say yet, but we have people out here narrating what our movement is and trying to dictate what it should or shouldn’t be.

We got white people hitching their wagon to our hashtag without fully understanding what #LeaveLOUD fully is and why we’re saying what we’re saying.

We got white people out here gentrifying #LeaveLOUD and we got white people responding to what they think #LeaveLOUD is based on what they’ve seen and experienced from other white people. Which brings me to why I’m on here tweeting tonight...

The @ChristianPost published this sloppy Op-Ed about the “Exvangelical #LeaveLoud movment.” It name checks @TheWitnessBCC, but completely decontextualizes our work and essentially erases us from our own movement. It mischaracterizes what we’re doing.

christianpost.com/voices/heres-w…

I am frustrated because, once again, Black Christians can’t have our own thoughts, talk about ourselves, or create our own movements without the white gaze trying to dictate to us who we are. #LeaveLOUD

I am frustrated because literally all of the mainstream press that #LeaveLOUD has received outside of @TheWitnessBCC has managed to center white people and their concerns and reasons for leaving Evangelicalism. What we are doing as an org has never been specifically centered.

I’m not frustrated that somebody has something negative to say about #LeaveLOUD. People can have an opinion.

I get frustrated when people conflate stuff and have a loud and wrong opinion based on not understanding something.

While the experiences that people share as part of #LeaveLOUD might bear a resemblance to that of the #exvangelical movement, we are having a conversation that is very different than exvangelicals.

(No shade to my friends in the #exvangelical community. I love and support you in your journey)

#LeaveLOUD is addressing a much different set of concerns. Our journeys look much different.

Everything that Black folks do doesn’t need a white analog or white analysis.

I am almost done preaching, but I have a few more things that I need to say. @TheWitnessBCC will be putting out some more material discussing #LeaveLOUD soon (and that actually is an issue, that I’ll get to in a moment) so y’all can get an “official” take on it.

I want to encourage any members of the press who want to discuss #LeaveLOUD to actually talk to Tyler Burns (@burnsclan_ ) or I about it. I’m not trying to be a gatekeeper at all whatsoever. But if y’all going to talk ABOUT us why not talk TO us?

Y’all (the press) all up in the #LeaveLOUD hashtag when y’all could EASILY be in our personal inboxes asking us about it.

We have almost 12 hours of podcast material dedicated to this very thing, but y’all want to talk to/about white people.

I also want to encourage our white siblings to do the work of decoupling #LeaveLOUD from similar white movements. In y’all’s enthusiasm to relate, y’all are steadily erasing us.

To be clear, it’s FINE if you relate to this movement and if what we’re saying speaks to you. But can y’all please refrain from taking the labor put into #LeaveLOUD and centering it on yourselves?

#LeaveLOUD is by, for, and about Black Christians. It is erasure when our white siblings bend a movement that’s not centered on them and shape it to suit their concerns and agendas. Please stop.

Finally, I mentioned above that @TheWitnessBCC will be coming out with some more stuff to address what #LeaveLOUD is.

Let me go ahead and say that this wasn’t in our initial plans for this. We are taking time out to do this b/c we feel the need to speak for/about ourselves.

The fact that we even feel the need to do this is a problem. We have said a lot about #LeaveLOUD. Our intended audience, in general, understands and resonates with what we’re doing.

But it is important for us to exercise self-determination at this moment...

Self-determination, in this instance, means that we (@TheWitnessBCC) will have the final word about what the movement that we created is, its intent, and its commitments. #LeaveLOUD

Black Christians can disagree with us, sharpen us, and ultimately decide if #LeaveLOUD resonates with them. That’s what we’re here for. @TheWitnessBCC is a BLACK Christian Collective.

#LeaveLOUD is a movement that is centered on Black Christians and will continue to center Black Christians. And for as long as we are talking about it as an organization, I will make sure that people do right by us. The end.