The week before Easter, one of my Millennial friends told me that she would like to find a Black church to go to on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. I was surprised that she expressed this desire because she had never spoken about church before. Up to this point, I had not given much thought to Millennials and their religious habits and affiliations.
Shortly after this revelation that a Millennial was interested in going to a Black church for Easter services, I saw the documentary, gOD-Talk: A Black Millennials and Faith Conversation. The film is the product of a collaboration between the National Museum of African American History & Culture and the Pew Research Center.
The narratives given by early and later Black Millennials are enlightening and fascinating. Some of these Millennials grew up in a family of generations of churchgoers and remained with their origins. Others expressed adherence to the beliefs and practices of other religions or philosophies—Atheism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Ifá, and Spiritualism. They talked about their journey to find themselves within the faith that was right for them.
Faith was the bedrock upon which they built. The tools were different according to the life they wanted to live. Regardless of the avenue they took to find themselves in a community of faith, the commonality was their orientation to eschew sexism and racism and to value social justice. In other words, similar to the traditional Black Christian church, they sought community and action in their gOD. What may seem fractured regarding Black Millennials and the church is more like a fusion that includes grace, acceptance, and transformation.
Gwen Dungy 