“Ours is a world dry with injustice, hatred, and ongoing racialized terror that limits not only the flourishing of minoritized persons, but all of us. Starlette Thomas calls us back to the refreshing, revolutionary waters of baptism. What identity will define and order our lives together? Starlette Thomas may indeed convince us that centering our baptismal identities is the next most faithful step for those of us yearning to be the body of Christ, not just talk about it. Our Lord is inviting is to the water’s edge through this gifted writer. I recommend jumping in.”

– Rev. William Lamar IV, pastor at Metropolitan AME Church

Starlette Thomas leads us to and through the water. She tells us: “I don’t simply have a problem with race but believe that race is the problem with our shared human being and belonging. I have no interest in working with the word, so don’t add this book to your anti-racism reading list. I am anti-race.” With these words she beckons us to join her on a journey toward understanding, liberation, and healing. For too long, too many Christians have used and continue to use their religious texts and platforms to teach ignorance and maintain unbelonging for some–whether Christian or not–and perpetual belonging for an increasingly short list of others. Thomas illustrates how productive fresh “raceless” understandings of the gospel uphold its message of wholeness for all humans and effectively undo the human-made divisions among us. For anyone who wants to truly practice what they preach, Take Me to the Water is a must read, with Dr. Thomas showing readers how to de-racialize Christianity.

Sheena Mason, Assistant Professor, SUNY Oneonta; author of The Raceless Antiracist: Why Ending Race Is the Future of Antiracism

Take Me to The Water invites readers to reimagine how our new birth in God’s family requires us to see through the lenses of Christ and embrace each other as members of the one family. Drawing from the experiences of the once-enslaved, Starlette Thomas walks us through the pages of the slave narrative, painting a picture of a segregated church with its roots etched in the sociopolitical construct of race. Using water baptism as a catalyst for a unifying church, this book helps us “to deconstruct race and decolonize identity.” Take Me to the Water should be required reading for anyone serious about breaking down the walls of segregation and giving birth to a unified church.

Emmett L. Dunn, Executive Secretary-Treasurer/CEO, Lott Carey Baptist Foreign Mission Convention

“Take Me to the Water”: The Raceless Gospel as Baptismal Pedagogy is at the printer. This means we’re just days away from holding more than a decade of my personal work and witness in our hands. Can you believe it? Are you ready to dive into what it means to belong to ourselves and each other more fully? To draw our deepest meanings from the water of baptism?

“Take Me to the Water” introduces the North American church to the raceless gospel, which doubles as a teaching instrument and an emerging ecclesiology that is egalitarian, non- binary and nondualistic. The raceless gospel is an announcement, preparing the way for an undivided “kin-dom” that is coming. The segregation of the North American church was not by happenstance but began the moment European Protestants positioned themselves as the go- between God and other nationalities for relationship. The first sign of segregation was “down by the riverside.” Thus, the raceless gospel argues that the North American church needs to be taken back to the water to submerge all competing identities so that all members can live freely and more fully into their baptismal identity as expressed by the first creed: “For you are the children of God in the Spirit. There is no Jew or Greek; there is no slave or free; there is no male and female. For you are all one in the Spirit.”

“Take Me to the Water” offers a critical look at the rite of passage meant to signify new birth and the segregation of the North American church that began at the baptismal pool. Proclaiming the raceless gospel for an undivided “kin-dom” that is coming, this living epistle calls on its readers to submerge all hierarchichal ways of being and belonging. While this book is written primarily for a Christian audience, namely baptized believers and would be achievers of a reconciled church, it is also for those of us who are on the decolonizing journey. This is part of the work.

“Take Me to the Water” is for freedom seekers, for those on an exodus expedition after the awareness of their racialized condition. It’s for Christ followers who want to do the work of deconstructing race and deracializing identity as a practice of discipleship and spiritual formation. I wrote this book to prepare a place for me away from white supremacy. With this book in your hands, you can join me here.

For regular updates, be sure to follow me @racelessgospel on all social media platforms. When the book is available, you will can order it here. For more on the The Raceless Gospel Initiative at Good Faith Media, click here.