Starlette Thomas is an author, activist, visual artist and race abolitionist. She is an associate editor and the director of The Raceless Gospel Initiative at Good Faith Media, which was inspired by her work and witness and is dedicated to leading didactic dialogues on race and its progeny. The Raceless Gospel aims to empower Christians to speak about the sociopolitical construct of race and the myriad injustices that intersect in their churches, communities and country. The pedagogy is imbued with the spirit of somebodiness.

A womanist in ministry, Starlette is graduate of Buffalo State College (B.A., English, minor in African and Afro- American Studies), Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School (M. Div. with a concentration in Black Church Studies) and Wesley Theological Seminary (D. Min., Spirituality for Transforming Community, Thesis: “Take me to the water”: A raceless gospel as baptismal pedagogy for a desegregated church). In 2024, during their 212th commencement ceremony, Starlette was awarded an honorary doctorate in Sacred Theology for her work as a public theologian by Wayland Baptist Theological Seminary. She has served as an associate and interim pastor as well as a denominational leader. She regularly preaches and teaches throughout the country and her sermons have been featured by Sojourners. 

She has spoken before the World Council of Churches,  the Baptist World Alliance and the United Methodist Church’s Council of Bishops. Starlette has also spoken at gatherings hosted by American Baptist Women’ s Ministries, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, the Southern Baptist Convention and the Baptist World Alliance. She has presented lessons on togetherness at numerous churches and other faith- based organizations, colleges, universities and seminaries, including the Queen’s Foundation in Birmingham, UK. Starlette is also a member of the Christian Community Development Association, the Peace & Justice Studies Association and the Koinonia Farm Advisory Council.

She has written for Plough, Word & Way, Red Letter Christians, Baptists Together, a publication of the Baptist Union of Great Britain, the Woman’s Missionary Union’s (WMU) Missions Mosaic, Formations, a publication of Smyth & Helwys Publishing Company and Herald, a publication of Baptist News Global. Starlette is also a contributing author for the book Faith Forward: A Dialogue on Children, Youth & a New Kind of Christianity. Her thesis is now a book, “Take Me to the Water”: The Raceless Gospel as Baptismal Pedagogy for a Desegregated Church (Nurturing Faith).

Starlette’s research on the sociopolitical construct of race in the malformation of Christian community has been supported by the Louisville Institute and the Lilly Foundation.  Examining the work of Rev. Dr. Clarence Jordan, whose farm turned “demonstration plot” in Americus, Georgia, refused to agree to the social arrangements of segregation because of his Christian convictions, Starlette now takes this dirt to the Church.  Her thesis is titled, “Afraid of Koinonia: How life on this farm reveals the fear of Christian community.” To read more, click here and here.

A full circle moment, she was invited to write the introduction to Jordan’s newest collection of writings, The Inconvenient Gospel: A Southern Prophet Tackles War, Wealth, Race and Religion (October 2022). You can read about how the raceless gospel and Koinonia Farm go hand in hand by clicking here. 

The Raceless Gospel podcast is now in its sixth season and offers listeners a respite. “Stay Woke?” is an inquiry for the sleepy-headed who are tired of the narrative of white-body supremacy and refuse to give it any more energy.

You can also follow Starlette on this journey of embodiment and a faith seeking understanding– without race on most social media platforms at racelessgospel (@racelessgospel).