Sexism and Black Women in Church
















“For a female black preacher it is almost like standing in the middle of the highway and getting hit by traffic from both directions because they are black and because they are female,” said Rev. Maidstone Mulenga in an article that focused on complaints about the controversial eulogy at Aretha Franklin’s funeral.

Following his eulogy, Rev. Jasper Williams Jr. in response to his statement “proud, beautiful and fine as our black women are, one thing a black woman cannot do — a black woman cannot raise a black boy to be a man.”

Rev. Barbara Reynolds explained “It’s like we are still not equal. Women fight in every cause for everybody else, but we are not celebrated or even tolerated in sacred spaces” (Williams, 2018).

I’ve been working on a book about counseling and psychotherapy with Pentecostal Christians. Like many American Christian churches, Pentecostal churches were segregated on the basis of race despite a short-lived multiracial revival in the early 1900s. In recent decades, male leaders of the Black and White churches have worked to reconcile, but the congregations vary in race and ethnic diversity.

White women appeared to fare a bit better because the men who controlled the positions of power recognized spiritual gifts in a few. However, despite the fact that women could be clergy, equality remains elusive.

As illustrated in the lead example, women of color face not only problems within the host culture but they must deal with sexism within the church. Obviously, things can get even worse for those who are assigned other labels.

As others have pointed out, just being Pentecostal meant being low on the spiritual ladder of acceptability. What else could bring one low? Well, consider the stigma of mental illness and a gender identity that does not conform to being a man or woman.

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