Thanks be to God.

I cannot tell you what a joy it is for me to be here today.

I am thrilled.

I'm on sabbatical this year, and I wasn't going to do anything except work on my books, but Lisa called me.

And so I had to be here.

I had to be here today.

I am, and I'm sure you are as well, I am so, so proud of this sister.

never

which

is to say the struggle of faith was then and it is now, that same reality of struggle has always been a part of our reality as Christians, which means when we think about, when we think about Black folks in Christianity, it's always best to think of it as an ongoing conversation, an ongoing struggle to make sense of a faith, alongside of a reality of white Christianity that has never had to reckon with what I've just been talking about.

They've never had to think and reckon with what it means to struggle with a faith that has been presented in such toxic and horrible ways.

And yet at the same time, people have been able to see, form, create, think through a different reality of faith.

But all that means, right, is that we have people who from the very beginning, I don't believe it.

I think it's a bunch of noise, but I am spiritual, but I don't believe that.

We've had people say, well, you know, I take a little bit of this, I take a little bit of that.

From