Theologian, educator and author Candice Marie Benbow strives to give voice to Black women’s shared experiences of faith, healing and wholeness.
In her debut book, Red Lip Theology For Church Girls Who’ve Considered Tithing to the Beauty Supply Store When Sunday Morning Isn’t Enough, Benbow invites the reader to discover freedom in a progressive way.
Benbow spoke with rolling out about her book. To view the conversation in its entirety, check out Meet the Author with Candice Benbow.
What inspired you to write Red Lip Theology?
I was very committed to marrying the ideas of faith and feminism and an authentic understanding and articulation of who God is to me and who God is for young Black women. It frustrated me that when you look at research data, Black women are statistically the most religious demographic in the country, yet, when you look at who are the religious voices, they’re not largely Black women. So I felt that has to change, sisters need to be given permission and tools to be able to know that they can trust the sound of their own familiar to articulate and formulate a theology and a personal relationship with God.
It has been said that the church is trying to fit in to the culture, would you agree with that?
It’s funny because I think that for whatever reason, church and culture forget that they’re both institutions that have always in some way, shape or form influenced each other, and rightfully so, because people are [the] church and [the] culture like I talked about in the book. I was as much born by [the] Black church — Black Baptist church culture, as I was the hip-hop culture. They were together for me.
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