Evangelist Priscilla Shirer won't define herself as black: 'Gives too much power to my blackness'

Priscilla Shirer — a black evangelist, speaker, author, and actress who starred in the 2015 film, "War Room" — has spoken out about her identity, vehemently expressing that she is a Christian first and foremost.

In a viral video featured on Chuck Bernal's Facebook page, Shirer delivered an impassioned speech about her identity in Christ.

Bernal, who is the founder and lead pastor of Lifepointe Church in North Carolina, shared the video about two weeks ago. The video has received more than 6 million views.

Bernal captioned the video, "This is one of the best statements on a Christian perspective regarding RACE and POLITICS that I have ever heard."

"Priscilla Shirer speaks truth!" he added. "Take 90 seconds and watch."

In the video, Shirer says, "I do not describe myself as a black woman — because that gives too much power to my blackness."

"I don't want 'black,' my race, to be the describing adjective, the defining adjective, as a woman," she cries. "I am not a black woman, I'm a Christian woman who happens to be black!"

Shirer goes on to note that if there's any adjective to describe her, it won't be her race.

"It's going to be that I am a woman who believes in every single thing that my God has declared to be true, and I will stand firmly on the promises of His word, because I will be girded in His truth," Shirer declared.

Treading into politics and culture, Shirer adds that it doesn't matter what your race, gender, or political affiliation is.

"You may be a black woman, a black man, a white woman, a white man, but that should not define you. So that if your race or if your political group is going in a different direction than the word of God, you don't choose your blackness or your whiteness or whatever culture you are," she warns. "You do not choose that, or your political persuasion, over what God's word declares to be true."

Shirer concludes her moving speech with a political joke — and on a note of encouragement for those who might feel helpless at times in today's culture.

"I hate to tell you this, but God doesn't ride the backs of donkeys or elephants," she said. "He did not come to take sides; he came to take over."

(H/T: The Christian Post)