Theologian Yolanda Pierce grew up in a church that offered her a sense of belonging. She grieves that churches often fail to follow Jesus’s example of welcoming and including everyone:
I grew up in [a Holiness-Pentecostal] church, and in the space of those wooden pews, which were lovingly dusted and polished by the church mothers, my gifts were affirmed and room was made for my talents….
It is only with an adult’s deep gratitude that I can appreciate a space that never shamed me for what I couldn’t do well, never humiliated me for my failures, and also managed to extract gifts I didn’t even know I had. Not a single soul told me that I sounded like a hoarse frog when I sang. No one told me that I missed a line in my Easter speech.… I was simply aware that I could try anything in this church and it would be a safe space to land.
So it grieves my spirit that so many churches, so many religious spaces, have been sites of humiliation and shame for individuals and groups. I mourn that a place that taught a little Black girl that she could go to a college no one had ever seen before is the same place that tells someone else they are going to hell for who they love or who they marry. I lament the private and public humiliations suffered by those whose truths and identities are mocked from the pulpit. I grieve with those whose humanity, vocational calling, or salvation seems under debate by way of narrow-minded sermons and poor biblical exegesis….
These hierarchies, in which those with power and privilege—or those who simply wield the microphone—shame and blame others and reinforce their “superior” social standing, diminish the radical equality God promises in places like Galatians 3:28. These hierarchies fail to recognize that we are all one in Christ Jesus and that our work as Christians is to exalt God, not to shame our neighbors….
I grieve that a place that loved me and propelled me to a rich, full life has been a space of condemnation and castigation for others.
By relinquishing the tools of shame, we become God’s beloved community:
Here is the holy lesson that I have learned: there is no progress unless the wounded among us—those broken in heart and bruised in spirit—have space to tell their stories and share their burdens. Justice is only possible if the ones cast outside of the camp, the city, or the church are lovingly brought back into a changed and transformed community. The discarded and forsaken must be given the lead if we are to move forward in building God’s beloved community…. We build a new foundation for justice and love by releasing the power of the tools of shame and humiliation used by those who try to break our souls. After all, is it progress if we leave the most vulnerable behind?
Reference:
Yolanda Pierce, The Wounds Are the Witness: Black Faith Weaving Memory into Justice and Healing (Broadleaf Books, 2025), 34, 37–39, 44.
Image Credit and Inspiration: Elianna Gill, untitled (detail), 2023, photo, Unsplash. Click here to enlarge image. A group of people, regardless of background, welcome each other into community.
Story from Our Community:
In today’s meditation, I was struck by the line, “Our best questions often sound like doubts, yet I believe curiosity is the most reverent stance a human can take.” In second grade, I asked Sister Ann why I had to go to confession, “Can I not just ask God for forgiveness when I say my prayers?” I was sent to the corner to ask for forgiveness from the Virgin Mary and told, “You never question God.” I am so grateful that over the years of reading CAC’s meditations, I’ve learned that God actually welcomes our curiosity. I think I’m finally getting past the fear of being sent to the corner for being curious.
—Nicki A.
