Tag: Feminism and Language
What Do You Call It?: A Response to Dr. Alena Ruggerio’s “The Gracespeak Lexicon”...
"Another measure of change: for decades our goal was to be inclusive, but now intersectional better expresses our understanding of how oppression works and how we can work for change."
The Gracespeak Lexicon
"So if you will please permit me a silly metaphor with a serious point: If sexism is rotten eggs, and racism is curdled milk, and homophobia is expired cheese, a Black lesbian woman will not experience oppression as if eggs, milk, and cheese were all slopped together in her bowl as batter; instead, she will experience casserole. Not delicious casserole, this is poison."
An Interview with Singer-Songwriter Jennifer Knapp
I’m resisting language in many ways and I’m seeking to find that language that expresses something more. At the end of the day, I don’t think what we do changes who God is, but what we say about it changes how people view God.
Language About God Matters
April 23, 2018
"Language is never separate from our experiences. When several years ago I awakened to how limited our speaking about God in masculine...
Church of Sweden Adopts Inclusive Language for God
December 27, 2017
"According to the Church of Sweden, it’s preferable not to refer to God as a "he." The official decision to use gender-neutral...
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.
Anita Peebles Asks, “Is ‘Our Father’ It?”
September 18, 2017
Anita Peebles, writing for Christianity Now, makes an argument for the expansion of God language to include divine feminine terminology.
"Why do we...
The Great Impasse and a Tiny Change of Heart
There’s just one obstacle in our way: we’re likely to find it’s nearly impossible to make the leap from “I know I’m right” to “I could be wrong.” We have too much invested. The cognitive dissonance can overwhelm us.
What is inclusive language?
Inclusive language is a way of speaking that includes everyone. It contrasts with male-centered (androcentric) language that addresses the church as “brethren” or other ways of speaking that exclude some people.
New Box of First Wave Feminist Letters Found
April 3, 2017
The year is 1869. The issue is whether to support a proposed 15th Amendment to the US Constitution giving black men the...
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.
Women’s Bodies as Battlefield: Christian Theology and the Global War on Women
Delving into topics such as the religious, philosophical, and Christian roots of both war and the War on Women allows Thistlethwaite to educate the reader on the complexity of the historical indoctrination surrounding the topics of war and women, without entirely overwhelming those readers who may not yet be aware of the history surrounding these issues.
Hurtful Words Hurt
There are millions of new combinations of words created every day, combinations that are put here, on the web, for anyone to view. And there’s one thing that nobody seems to notice, or care about, or even comment on, one important thing about all those words. A lot of them are hurtful. Some intentionally so.
The Invisible Man, Language, and Faith
Posted May 12, 2015 by Lē Isaac Weaver
Today I'm writing about all the difficulties swirling around those of us occupying the margins, and how...
Bible Women: All Their Words and Why They Matter
One has the impression in reading Bible Women that the words of women are overwhelmingly (but not always) positive in their courage, spirit of enterprise, and profound spiritual insight.
Bible Women brings into focus how often the words of women change the course of events.
Wearing God: Clothing, Laughter, Fire and Other Overlooked Ways of Meeting God
We confront the “self-hiding God” or at least hints of that fullness but never a final face-to-face experience during this life. Winner states, “The self-hiding God seems to be the God who wills Her own disclosure”(p. 236).
The Words of the LGBTQ Christian Experience
The primary difference between me and a heterosexual person is not my sexual activity. The primary difference between me and a heterosexual person is with whom I am most comfortable establishing my primary intimate partnership.
Oriented to Love— All these Words
My experience of hearing that song, in that moment, can only be described as feeling I was wrapped in the tender softness of the sacred presence of God. Through my tears, I looked over at Tim, and with eyes full of tears, he met my gaze. Something I will never find the words to describe flowed between and through us. I will never get over it.
Are Women Broads? The Power of Words
"I believe and have taught my daughters that language matters. How we talk about ourselves, as well as how we describe others is important. The words and adjectives we use can carry a different message, depending on what we choose. Words can motivate or destroy.
What does “evangelical” mean?
Learn about the meaning of the word "evangelical."
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.
God is Not a Guy, and Neither Am I!
"Just when I thought we’d about eliminated the so-called 'generic' use of 'man' because it really is exclusive, up pops 'you guys' almost everywhere. Women and girls seem to use 'you guys' as much as men and boys do. So why do females think they’re included in 'you guys'?"
The Heartbeat Benediction
As a college instructor for the past fifteen years, I’ve never liked that feeling of the students departing loudly as I was still talking. Eventually I hit upon a solution, a counter-ritual to leave-taking behavior I refer to as the “Ruggerio Benediction.” On the first day of class, I explain that the students are not permitted to pack up and go until they have been formally dismissed with the sentence I use to close every class session: “Go forth and use wisely every heartbeat.”
The Power of the Word: Scripture and the Rhetoric of Empire
Into this theological ferment, Schüssler Fiorenza inserts her feminist vision of radical democracy. Rather than “patriarchy” or “hierarchy,” what she opposes is “kyriarchy/kyriocentrism.” These terms derive from the Greek kyrios (lord) and describe how empire works—through “domination by the emperor, lord, master, father, husband, elite propertied male.”
On Being Evangelical and Ecumenical
Some limit use of the word evangelical and call themselves "biblical feminists" or "Christian feminists," as did the women who published Daughters of Sarah.
Remembering Mary Daly
My personal story points to the internal conflict many biblical feminists might have felt upon the passing of Mary Daly, the blazingly brilliant woman who moved further and further away from our theological territory with each book she published.
Feminism in Peril: Contending with the F-Word
Instead of drawing them into the public sphere, I need to be leading by example right where I am: showing others what it means to be a Christian feminist through how I live my life, how I teach my classes, how I relate to others.
More on Friedan: Marketing of Desire and What Language Hides
Hi Letha,
Thanks so much for your last post on Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique, in which you helpfully outlined the historical realities that many women were facing...
Verbal Violence Is No Joke!
Dear Kimberly,
I had many thoughts as I read your last letter about the fraternity hazing at Yale that required new pledges to march through...
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New Noah
May 2023 Poetry Selection
We travel the waters;
the waters travel us, trace us,
turn us dark and dank. The
trip from pupil to lip: traversed
We travel the waters;
the waters travel us, trace us,
turn us dark and dank. The
trip from pupil to lip: traversed
