Faith Unleavened: The Wilderness Between Trayvon Martin & George Floyd - Paperback

by Tamice Spencer-Helms (Author)

"Much has been written about the young white exodus from evangelical religion. Rarely have we been invited to journey alongside young evangelicals of color. Tamice Spencer-Helms takes readers by the hand and walks them through her exodus and liberation." -Lisa Sharon Harper, author of Fortune: How Race Broke My Family and The World--and How to Repair It All

Tamice Spencer-Helms, nonprofit leader and public theologian, once gave themself wholly to white Christian ministry, trusting its promises. But when brutality against Black lives demanded a moral reckoning, the same faith community they had passionately served betrayed them with silence, excuses, and complicity. What they had thought was the gospel revealed, was instead an idol, an insidious, unlivable theology that nearly destroyed their faith.

Faith Unleavened confronts this crisis head-on. Through unforgettable storytelling, Spencer-Helms uncovers how the idol of whiteness seeps into churches, distorts scripture, and shackles the power of truth-telling. Tamice recalls the gut-punch of watching murders from Trayvon Martin to George Floyd, the numbing repetition of "thoughts and prayers," the gaslighting when justice was demanded, and the silences that spoke louder than sermons.

But this book is more than a critique; it is a pathway toward freedom. By "extracting the leaven" of white supremacy that animates American Christianity, Spencer-Helms names the spiritual harm done when churches excuse injustice and when colonized faith tells believers to shrink themselves.

Readers will leave both unsettled and renewed; confronted by hard truths, yet emboldened to claim a deeper, truer freedom.