The title and cover are intentional for this story; hoping to grab the attention of the audience, of course, but even more than that—drawing you into what the Lord set in my heart to communicate, in light of my last 17 years. This burden has become my confession of nearly two decades under the White, evangelical subculture known to most as “Christianity.” Being stuck in a “White American-Christian purgatory” by being “white” on the surface in the name of Jesus, peace, and harmony while denying my kingdom blackness (sometimes forced and other times by volition) has withered the soul. This dichotomy I lived (and that others are compelled to endure in the name of “gospel”) is nothing more than modern-day colonization. It is a theological “bleach,” to use the words of one of my heroic, pastor-friends from Brooklyn.

While many saw a confident, six-foot-five Black man, A. D. "Lumkile" Thomason lived most of his life in fear and anguish, deeply wounded by encounters with violence, abandonment, and family tragedy. In this book, Thomason uses his artistry as a poet and storyteller to share how he confessed his internalized pain and embraced the liberating joy of Christ. Throughout American history, Black people were not given the freedom to acknowledge their suffering. A. D. Thomason believes that the Holy Spi...