“Candace Gorham shows incredible courage as she exposes the insidious messages the Black Church programs into its parishioners. She reveals the depths to which the African-American community is infected with self-defeating messages and looks specifically at the consequences of superstitious behavior on the health, finances, sex lives, and relationships of black women. Any woman (or man) would do well to read this book and learn how religion uses powerful psychological tools to manipulate and control—and how this indoctrination impacts our entire culture.
—Dr. Darrel Ray, author of Sex and God and The God Virus

About the Book

Black women are the single most religious demographic in the United States, yet they are among the poorest, least educated, and least healthy groups in the nation. Drawing on the author's own past experience as an evangelical minister and her present work as a secular counselor and researcher, The Ebony Exodus Project makes a direct connection between the church and the plight of black women. Through interviews with African American women who have left the church, the author reveals the shame and suffering often caused by the church—and the resulting happiness, freedom, and sense of purpose these women have felt upon walking away from it. This book calls on other black women to honestly reflect on their relationship with religion and challenges them to consider that perhaps the answers to their problems rest not inside a church, but in themselves.

About the Author

Candace R. M. Gorham, LPC, is a researcher, teacher, and credentialed counselor who has worked with children, adolescents, and their families for more than ten years. She holds a master's degree from Wake Forest University.

Details

ISBN: 9781939578020
Format: paperback
SRP: $17.95
Page count: 224 pages
Trim size: 6 x 9
Pub date: September 2013

“Emancipation of a Black Atheist offers an emotional and intellectual odyssey through the expansive sea of religion in the Black community . . . . Believers will appreciate the respect Dr. Evans pays them, but they may encounter challenging questions about their own faith. Nonbelievers will find comfort in his familiar and relatable experiences. All will be challenged by his prescriptions for bridging over the troubled waters that stand between believers and nonbelievers in the Black community.”

—Candace R. M. Gorham, LPC, author, The Ebony Exodus Project: Why Some Black Women Are Walking Out on Religion—and Others Should Too

About the Book

Great journeys often start with a single question. For D. K. Evans, a newly married professional in the Christian-dominated South, that question was, “Why Do I Believe in God?” That simple query led him on a years-long search to better understand the nature of religion and faith, particularly as it applies to the Black community. While many taking such a journey today might immerse themselves in the writing of Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens, Evans took inspiration not only from John Henrik Clarke, Yosef-Ben Jochannan, Hubert Harrison, and John G. Jackson, champions of a rich Black tradition of challenging religious orthodoxy, but also from many others in his own community who had similarly come to question their core religious beliefs. While this journey eventually led him to discount the notion of God, he calls on all to ask their own questions, particularly those within the Black community who act on blind faith. While their own journey might not lead to his truth, he acknowledges, that is the only way they will ever emancipate themselves from the truths thrust on them by others and arrive at their most important truth—their own.

About the Author

D. K. Evans, PhD, is a corporate trainer in Morrisville, NC. Aside from writing, he enjoys spending time with his wife and two kids.

Details

ISBN: 9781634311465
Format: paperback
SRP: $14.95
Page count: 200 pages
Trim size: 5.5 x 8.5
Pub date: November 2017

“All three Abrahamic religions are nasty, and women have borne the brunt of the nastiness throughout history. It still persists, and it is moving to listen to women of today telling their personal histories of the various ways in which religion has oppressed them, from childhood on. In their interestingly different ways their testimonies seem to add up to the same story, a story as old as the myth of Eve. I closed the book with uplifted admiration for all these women and for their courage in breaking their historic fetters.”
—Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion

About the Book

Women have made great strides toward equal rights over the past hundred years, especially in the West. But when considering the ongoing fight over reproductive rights and equal pay—and the prevalence of sexual violence and domestic abuse—it is clear that a significant gap still exists. With scripture often cited as justification for the marginalization of women, it is time to acknowledge that one of the final barriers to full equality for women is religion. Much has been written about the great strides humankind has made in knocking down many long-held religious beliefs, whether related to the age of the earth or the origin of the species. But religion’s negative impact on women has been less studied and discussed. This book is a step toward changing that. Twenty-two women from a variety of backgrounds and Judeo-Christian traditions share their personal stories about how they came to abandon organized religion, and how they discovered life after moving away from religious and supernatural beliefs. Their words serve both as a celebration of all who have taken similar steps under the weight of thousands of years of religious history—and as a source of inspiration for those individuals, especially women, who have deep doubts about their own belief traditions but who don’t yet know how to embrace life without falling back on religion.

About the Editor

Karen L. Garst, PhD, is the former executive director of the Oregon Community College Association and Oregon State Bar. She is editor of the book Women v. Religion and writes at the Faithless Feminist (http://faithlessfeminist.com/).

Details

ISBN: 9781634310826
Format: paperback
SRP: $16.95
Page count: 272 pages
Trim size: 6 x 9
Pub date: October 2016

“Reading Women v Religion is truly a journey through the minds and lives of women who have experienced the oppression and intimidation of the Abrahamic religions. They often lay their inner struggles bare as they take you through the journey of being in search of validation and wholeness. The essays clearly show that as one attempts to meet the constrictions of religious “rightness” and “goodness” they become lost to themselves. Shame, guilt, sin prevail until religion’s grip is released allowing for the full expression of the individual.”
—Rebecca (Becky) Hale, President, American Humanist Association and board member of the International Humanist and Ethical Union

About the Book

Throughout history, religion has been used as a tool of female subjugation. Women have been deemed less worthy than men, have been prevented from owning property, and worse—all in the name of a higher power. In recent decades, women have made progress in terms of equal rights with men, at least in Western democracies, but still, why has the United States never had a female president? Why aren’t more women heads of Fortune 500 companies? Why do politicians in the West continue to attack women’s reproductive rights? As this volume explores, it would be hard to find a bigger culprit than religion when identifying the last cultural barriers to full gender equality. With topics ranging from the subjugation of women in the Bible to the shame and guilt felt by women due to religious teaching, this volume makes clear that only by rejecting the very system that limits their autonomy will women be fully liberated from its malignant influences, not just in codified law but also in cultural practice.

About the Editor

Karen L. Garst, PhD, is the former executive director of the Oregon Community College Association and Oregon State Bar. She is editor of the book Women Beyond Belief and writes at the Faithless Feminist (http://faithlessfeminist.com/).

Details

ISBN: 9781634311700
Format: paperback
SRP: $16.95
Page count: 272 pages
Trim size: 6 x 9
Pub date: June 2018