The editor of the EEWC-Christian Feminism Today website welcomes reader responses to material on our website.
To submit a letter to the editor please fill out the submission form located here.
Susie Stanley submitted a Letter to the Editor on December 3, 2015.
Dear Editor,
I was singing in church a couple weeks ago and it hit me! It had been 40 years since I made the decision to use only inclusive language for God when , singing, speaking and writing. It was at the first EWC conference at the 4H center in Washington, D.C. over Thanksgiving weekend in 1975. I made two other momentous decisions that weekend. First, I would publicly identify myself as a Christian feminist. Second, I answered the call to ministry in Nancy Hardesty’s workshop on 19th-century women. And I’ve never looked back! I can still remember the excitement in D.C. as we crowded into the auditorium to worship. It was so refreshing to be with like-minded people, many of whom were also wrestling with important issues. I had just planned to participate at the conference on Friday and Saturday while my husband John took responsibility for our children. But I was so thrilled with the gathering that I negotiated with him so that I could bring our 9-month-old daughter on Sunday and he would watch out two-year-old son. Her attendance made her the youngest participant at the conference. She’s a United Methodist pastor now. My husband’s side of the bargain required a bit more work on his part since he was a pastor and had to preach that morning. He’s been supporting my ministry including my involvement in justice issues ever since.
Anne Eggebroton and I were so excited about the conference that we wrote a press release and sent it to every newspaper in the country. Since this was before computers, we sorted the address labels on the living room floor.
The decisions made at the first conference in 1975 have had a major impact on my life. I just wanted you to know I haven’t forgotten!
Susie Stanley
P.S. The web site is great!
Susan Vanderburgh submitted a letter to Editor on July 14, 2013 in response to the Quarterly Website Update eNewsletter sent out to the EEWC-CFT General Interest Email List (sign up by clicking this link).
Susan writes:
Thanks for the inclusive summary of EEWC-CFT resources (including the link to this page) which has just popped up in my inbox. I really appreciate all you are doing to keep us informed.
I do not visit any websites very often, unless the link is showing in my email-inbox, as the EEWC ones have been each day. I’m not very adept at using the computer, and mainly use it for email-contact and word-processing. And I am not on Facebook or Twitter, since I already am connecting with a bunch of people in other ways, and don’t feel ready or willing to put in the extra time and effort to learn more on the computer at this time. But I DO really appreciate being able to “eavesdrop” on the conversations that come up on the listserve, and ot participate from time to time. I am glad to read some of the rich letters and articles you post, and I forward some of them to others too. I am VERY pleased to read recently that there have been links made with many other resources so EEWC-CFT’s resources are becoming more widely known and available.
Thanks for all you do!
Erin Simpson submitted a Letter to the Editor on May 29, 2012, in response to Gladys Childs’ May 2012 article, “My Son, My Protector.”
Erin writes:
This website is interesting and full of compelling content and links, but I found Gladys Childs’ recent article My Son, My Protector disconcerting. Maybe it’s a matter of people of the same mind talking amongst themselves, and my not fully grasping what those people are working from in terms of common understanding, but I cringed at Childs’ negative reaction to her 4-year-old son’s comment that he would protect her – as if that impulse was somehow sinister. I imagine he felt some confusion at her sour response to what he was undoubtedly communicating out of love for her.
Raising a son who respects and honors women as equals does not mean that one has to raise a son who rejects innate impulses to protect his family members. I respectfully offer that Childs should let her child be who he is, that she should not only accept his maleness, but help him enjoy and appreciate the qualities God is creating in him. Children pick up on anything that smacks of rejection from their parents and it hits them hard. A parent rejecting harmful conduct is appropriate, but rejecting honorable conduct confuses and confounds children and causes pain.
To submit a letter to the editor please fill out the submission form located here.
