As a child, my mother introduced me to spirituality, starting with organized religion. I went to Christian and Lutheran schools and later graduated from a Catholic high school rooted in the fundamentals of the Bible. I memorized scripture and sat through hellfire-and-brimstone sermons and mass meant to keep young people on the path of righteousness.
As I got older, my faith evolved, embracing New Age beliefs that God was no longer confined to one denomination. My experience with an interfaith church didn’t feel confined. It felt expansive and was the first time religion didn’t arrive with fear. It gave me space to develop my own relationship with God rather than just being performative.
According to Pew Research, 97 percent of Black Americans believe in God or a higher power. But belief does not lock us into a single way of seeing the divine.
Our communities are facing moments when we wrestle with what faith means in practice as we seek transcendence in our daily lives. Watching the world through the lens of a smartphone, religion can no longer just exist in buildings with stained glass and wooden pews. It’s in viral reels, spiritual content creators, and increasingly on screen.
Moses the Black — the upcoming film produced by Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson — packages the Bible into a street narrative.
Inspired by the real-life story of Saint Moses—an Ethiopian herder who fell into a life of crime before finding his own redemption and later became a monk—the film reframes his life as a testimony to repentance and leadership. Retelling his story through a modern lens places our lived experience within spiritual transformation rather than treating it as something separate.
Image: Eirini Pajak / Simeon Entertainment LLC.
Starring Omar Epps, Wiz Khalifa, Quavo, and Chukwudi Iwuji, Moses the Black centers boxing as a means of discipline and salvation. It’s another reminder that faith often appears in unexpected forms.
The movie is part of a larger trend. Ryan Coogler’s horror-infused historical epic Sinners, which recently won a Golden Globe for Cinematic and Box Office Achievement, ignited fierce debate when it premiered. Some viewers labeled it “anti-Christian.” Others recognized its necessary reckoning, exposing how religion was imposed on enslaved people and how spiritual traditions like Hoodoo survived alongside church culture in Black communities.
Lee Daniels’ The Deliverance showed a family doing what so many of us were taught to do when things fall apart: turn back to the Bible when no other answers suffice. Ruth and Boaz drew on a biblical love story to explore themes of devotion and commitment. These are not just religious ideas but emotional frameworks that shape how we build relationships and strengthen family.
For a generation exhausted by packaged ideals, this freedom in spiritual beliefs and guidance, reflecting what faith in action looks like without restraints, is a refreshing offering, new wisdom beyond the church hour.
For Black Millennials, faith is no longer secular or traditional. It is memory. It is healing and resilience in a world that constantly tells us that our pain isn’t worthy of redemption.
With the daily bombardment of violence we scroll past on our screens, reminders of family we lost, the friends who never made it home, faith is not a luxury: it’s a survival instinct for us as Black Americans. Films like Moses the Black, Sinners, The Deliverance, Ruth and Boaz, and more show how religion, in this era, is being reinterpreted as an accessible, overflowing source of hope.
Moses in Black opens in theaters on January 30.