Recently Published
The Gathering: A Womanist Church
"This quick, engaging read is, in fact, a practical “how to” for this movement and, indeed, for this very moment, as recent events have exposed the deep divisions in U.S. society."
In the Beginning…According to Eve
January 2021 Poetry Selection
It was color,
calling from across the field
or through the woods.
Close up it had shape
and I got to name it.
It was color,
calling from across the field
or through the woods.
Close up it had shape
and I got to name it.
Gender Politics in Early Christian Art
"In this Bible and Beyond video interview, she first shows how to distinguish Jesus from other biblical characters and how to distinguish women from men depicted on Christian sarcophagi, mosaics, and other art forms."
Light Shines in the Darkness: My Healing Journey through Sexual Abuse and Depression
“I see in my mind’s eye that we women are standing in a circle, holding hands and singing. The picture reminds me of my feminist days in the ’70s, when we banded together and fought for women’s rights,” writes Lucille.
When something new is on the way
December 2020 Poetry Selection
I lost hold of all I thought I could keep
Lost all hope for what was to be
The knowing of what I had come to do
I lost hold of all I thought I could keep
Lost all hope for what was to be
The knowing of what I had come to do
All the Good
"TThe simple act of dropping my envelope in the mail was an act of love. They may not have thought about it like that, but I do."
Thanksgiving Day For Christians, Jews, and Muslims
"The time for enmity is over... few non-Muslims know that Islam considers reconciling with people to be better than many acts of worship. "
What 1 Timothy Says about Women
"Some readers will respond by embracing this (whether enthusiastically or grudgingly) as authoritative teaching requiring that women be excluded from positions of teaching and leadership. Others will respond by seeing it as proof Paul was the chauvinist he is reputed to have been and dismiss him, and quite possibly all of Christianity itself along with him."
Preparing Jesus for Sunday
November 2020 Poetry Selection
Anyway, try not to doze during the homily.
No one can best your show on the Mount.
The way you used anaphora was brilliant
and so was ... but I digress.
Anyway, try not to doze during the homily.
No one can best your show on the Mount.
The way you used anaphora was brilliant
and so was ... but I digress.
You Might Have Missed...
I Corinthians Epilogue—It Ain’t Over Till It’s Over
Lesson 19 - “'Everything will turn out alright in the end, and if it’s not alright, it isn’t the end.' Such Yogi Berra or Marigold Hotel wisdom applies well to the Apostle Paul’s rocky relationship with his Corinthian churches. 'First' Corinthians wasn’t even the first letter he wrote to them. In 1 Corinthians 5:9-10 Paul refers to an earlier letter which at least some had misunderstood. We can be sure that the letter we have, with its radical vision of sharing honor, wealth, and power equally in the Body of Christ in Corinth, will be resisted by those with the most to lose."
Christian Feminism To You
Speakers Bureau
Let our speakers bring the inclusive message of Christian feminism to you. Check out our available speakers and presentations here.
Editor's Picks
Calling God “She” — It’s Just Another Pronoun!
To linguistically portray God as a father, or God as a woman giving birth, or an eagle, or a sacred wind, all of those things put a limiting image up to represent God. And, for that matter, so do the three letters, G-O-D. All the ways we choose to refer to God are images, all are limited representations, all are potentially idolatrous symbols. But all our metaphors and ways of referring to God are not necessarily idolatrous. Only potentially.
From Kingdom to Kin-dom—and Beyond
But in the larger context of the New Testament, both “kin-dom” and “kingdom” make sense. The Apostle Paul plants small house churches, and when he writes to them, he calls them adelphoi—sisters and brothers—united in a kin-group not by blood but in a common loyalty to the Lord Jesus, over against the Lord Caesar. To these tiny outposts, Paul promises the coming victory of God over all other empires, through the return of his representative, Jesus.
How to Help a Victim of Domestic Violence
If someone is being abused, they feel responsible for the abuse. Why this logical inconsistency? Because if everything is the victim's own fault, they have the power to change it. I would advise you not to take that sense of power away, but, instead, to model what it is like to not accept responsibility for what the abuser is doing.
No Longer Trapped: Insights on Spiritual Abuse Recovery
Survivors of spiritual abuse can feel justifiably averse to anything having to do with God or spirituality after emerging from the war zone of spiritual abuse. However, cutting off the aspects of oneself that are yearning for healthy, edifying connection to something other than the self—the essential definition of spiritual expression—can be equaling damaging.
When Evangelicals Were Open to Differing Views on Abortion
"There was a time in the not too distant past when the majority of Protestant Christians, including those who called themselves evangelical, did not consider the point at which a fertilized ovum or developing embryo or fetus becomes a human being to be clearly defined, indisputable, and settled for all time."
Latest Book Reviews
How the Syro-Phoenician Woman Changed Jesus
August 28, 2017
Unvarnished truth from the remarkable mind of Rev. Wil Gafney, PhD, as she unpacks the story of the Syro-Phoenician woman in Matthew.
"One...
Feeling Good and Healing with Tiana Marquez
"Sometimes you need a strong, positive message—repeated with an insistent beat. That’s what the title song on Tiana Marquez’s latest album brings. “It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life for me, and I’m feelin’ good.”
Some Thoughts on Modesty
We need to stop allowing Augustine and the flawed theology of other early Church Fathers into our hearts, minds, and society, because they have nothing good for women except slut-shaming and blaming women for all men’s lust and sin.
True Inclusion: Creating Communities of Radical Embrace
Unfortunately, many Christian churches have made marginalizing others into an entire theology. “The . . . evangelical theological paradigm depends upon patriarchy,” which must, therefore, be “completely deconstructed” (p. 68).
Equality as a Multiple Choice Test
I'd like it if everyone was very well aware that equal is equal, that anything else is greater than or less than. Because I want to believe that in my life I will experience at least a little time in which I am equal, not less than. But actually, how things are? Equality is more like a multiple choice test. And some people will circle every single answer, and some people will, miraculously, manage to circle one or two.
Bathroom Legislation: Unconstitutionality Is Only Part of the Story
In this article, I explain why HB2 is clearly unconstitutional. But I will also stress that constitutionality is always only one small part of understanding why legislators do what they do. A hostile feeling (or animus) toward transgender people becomes an important part of the legal discussion.
From the Archives
My Fifty Year Journey with Women and Ministry…
The Pauline (as one of my students once said: “I have had enough of Paul; I want to meet Pauline!”) vision of Galatians 3:28— the text used in the ordination sermon of Antoinette Brown in 1853, the first woman ordained in the USA in a recognized denomination—continues to be a critical beacon light of and for the gospel.
Recent Comments