Kimberly Williams acknowledges that she may not be what many people think of when they hear the phrase “evangelical Christian.”
In fact, Williams herself isn’t sure she embraces the label these days, even though she leads worship at the District Church in Washington, D.C., which by any definition is evangelical in belief.
“I’m still wrestling with it,” she says, worried the phrase has become too politicized and misunderstood. “As a woman and as a person of color, it’s just hard,” says Williams, an African-American.
That’s a growing sentiment within church-going evangelical circles in the U.S., especially among the expanding number of evangelicals who are nonwhite.
Almost 1-in-3 American evangelicals are not white, according to a 2017 study by the Public Religion Research Institute. And though many evangelicals of color embrace a conservative theology, their political beliefs are more varied than is commonly portrayed in the media.
In fact, Williams herself isn’t sure she embraces the label these days, even though she leads worship at the District Church in Washington, D.C., which by any definition is evangelical in belief.
“I’m still wrestling with it,” she says, worried the phrase has become too politicized and misunderstood. “As a woman and as a person of color, it’s just hard,” says Williams, an African-American.
That’s a growing sentiment within church-going evangelical circles in the U.S., especially among the expanding number of evangelicals who are nonwhite.
Almost 1-in-3 American evangelicals are not white, according to a 2017 study by the Public Religion Research Institute. And though many evangelicals of color embrace a conservative theology, their political beliefs are more varied than is commonly portrayed in the media.
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