Forefront Conversations with Jo Luehmann

As a Colombian woman, Jo has experienced firsthand how quickly privileged identities are to demonize marginalized identities, preferring comfort and power to creating safe spaces for people with experiences outside of their own. After alienating the leadership in her church with her all or nothing approach and working through personal deconstruction and decolonization, Jo boldly and unapologetically arrived at a conclusion: "Marginalized identities do not have an obligation to make privileged identities comfortable. At all." Jo speaks out against power structures that the Church upholds between "first class Christians" - white, hetero men - who preach about the comfort of their identity and "second class Christians" who sit down to listen about how their stories and experiences are invalid. She expresses the importance of forming safe spaces for marginalized voices who are the only ones who can truly speak to what it takes to crawl out of hell to in order to move towards heaven. ABOUT JO Jo Luehmann is a Colombian born and raised pastor who moved to the US to participate in an internship and then get her master's degree in ministry and theology at Point Loma Nazarene University. After 10 years working inside of churches, developing curriculum, and teaching classes on theology and doctrine, Jo quit her job and alongside her partner started a non-profit to help faith spaces consider and evaluate issues of equity and racial literacy. In the summer of 2020 alongside a group of victims and survivors of church abuse, Jo started @doBetterChurch an online space for victims of religious abuse dedicated to peer support and sharing tools for healing, as well as an initiative to invite churches to do better. You can follow Jo on Twitter @JoLuehmann You can follow Jo on IG @joluehmann