Book Examines How Racial Wounds and Slavery's Legacy Keep Some Black Americans From Church

Pastor JP Foster of a predominantly Black church in Inglewood, California, released a book titled "The Gospel and My Black Skin: Confronting the Past, Reclaiming the Future," which examines why some Black Americans reject Christianity.

Foster's work addresses the historical manipulation of scripture to justify racism and white supremacy. He also looks at how Southern evangelicals resisted the Civil Rights Movement, a history that continues to shape how many Black Americans view the church.

The book acknowledges what Foster calls "legitimate racial wounds" that deter some Black individuals from the Christian faith. At the same time, it celebrates faithful Black witnesses throughout history and argues that true faith is liberatory rather than oppressive.

Foster challenges the common assumption that Black people were introduced to Christianity solely through slavery. He points to the long history of Christianity in Africa, including the Ethiopian church, which predates the transatlantic slave trade by more than a thousand years.

Christianity Today featured Foster's work in its May 2026 issue, noting that the book arrives at a moment when many young Black Americans are seeking to reconcile their love for Jesus with a rejection of certain interpretations of Christianity.

Pastor Sean Jarrett of New Jerusalem Baptist Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, told NPR that many young people in his congregation are trying to separate their faith from what they see as a co-opted version of Christianity tied to Christian nationalism.

Foster said he wrote the book to give Black Christians language for their experience and to invite those who have left the church to reconsider their relationship with faith on their own terms.