Tag: In Memoriam

Jann Aldredge-Clanton called for affirmative action for the divine feminine saying such an approach is necessary, to counter-balance more than two-thousand years of masculine language and images.

The world lost a giant of Christian feminism and an important social justice advocate on September 20, 2024, when Rev. Dr. Jann Aldredge-Clanton passed away.

The two remaining members of the Trigenerational Transnational Telephone Trio, Linda Bieze and Alena Ruggerio, remember their decades-long weekly Bible study and friendship with Letha Dawson Scanzoni.

Letha Dawson Scanzoni died January 9, 2024, at White Oak Manor in Charlotte, North Carolina. Her legacy of building bridges and changing lives will continue to unfold for years to come.

During her fifty years with the Christian Feminism Today organization, Letha served in several capacities, including coordinating conferences and filling several roles in the organization’s leadership.

In my mind, Jeanne was an Olympic diver who pulled off a technically excellent dive and hardly made any splash at the end. The dive was so smooth and so perfect, the splash so light, you might not have even noticed it happening.

"I remember feeling so thrilled to have such an intellectual friend whose memory could always pull up just the right quote at the right time. And once again I felt the same awe and admiration I had felt when I first began reading her books years before. "

Rachel Held Evans "had doubts and questions that many in that religious subculture appeared not to think about or wouldn’t admit because of where such thinking might lead and how others would regard them."

May 7, 2019 Like all Christian feminists across the globe, CFT members mourn the passing of author and speaker Rachel Held Evans, who died on...

Those who distrust grace once again brought about a human being’s undoing, As they have for millennia (just remember the lions and stones). Now, as then, decisions were made, orders were given, and there was someone willing to comply. The hands and feet of the adolescent monster we feed with our votes and our tax dollars Delivered death into her body, forcing her out, and into God's loving arms.

"During those years, I purchased every book Elisabeth Elliot wrote, and each time I looked forward to the next one. Like many women of my generation, I considered her a role model, an example of what a strong, intelligent, confident, courageous Christian woman could be. "

But most of all, I enjoy imagining that the line between Fred Phelps and millions of beautiful and loving LGBT people has been blurred. That his liberated soul is now one with Christ/Sophia, and he finally knows us. He now moves through the Light. Through Love.

Archbishop Tutu put it well, calling Mandela “a terrorist turned into an icon of reconciliation.” Mandela turned to weapons at a time when there seemed to be no other recourse, but he also spent his years in prison learning Afrikaans, the language of the oppressor, as a tool for peace-making.

Marillia Hinds was a woman ahead of her time. I remember her telling about injustices she became aware of through her reading, which prompted her to write to the CEO of the company or organization to share her opinion of the unfairness.

And this is why Marillia Hinds is important. Because she believed that it made a difference when an ordinary person wrote a letter to a person of privilege, and asked them to be more just— more inclusive. Let me say that again, she believed it made a difference.

Anne Linstatter remembers Dr. David Scholer. "Let it be known that one man on the evangelical side of the fence spent a lifetime working to give women access to Christian ministry."

This past spring, EEWC-Christian Feminism Today was deeply saddened by the passing of one of our organization's founders, Dr. Nancy A. Hardesty, who died on April 8, 2011. She had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer two years earlier and was 69 years old at the time of her death. We want to share with you some of the highlights of her life and career.

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.

Throughout her life, Margo Goldsmith served as a role model in demonstrating what women can achieve and how they can use their achievements to make the world a better place.

Longtime EEWC member Dr. Ruth Schmidt died May 24, 2010 in Atlanta, Georgia. She was 79 years old. Ruth wrote one of the earliest articles on the equality of women and men and always worked for women's empowerment. Her article, "Second-Class Citizenship in the Kingdom of God" was published in Christianity Today in 1971 and was later reprinted in Ginny Hearn's book, Our Struggle to Serve. Ruth's personal story is also told in that book.