Tag: Social Justice
Responding to the 303 Creative LLC vs. Elenis SCOTUS Decision
"The Supreme Court’s decision today will harm LGBTQIA+ families and communities. As UUs, we are committed to supporting them as we see forces working to diminish their rights."
Feminist Responses to Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health
One year after the Dobbs decision was handed down, we share "It’s a hell of a scary time’: leading US feminists on the threat to Roe v Wade" from The Guardian website. Read statements made by notable feminists after the eventual decision was leaked.
Blue on Blue: A Music Video by Mary Ann Vorasky
CFT Member Mary Ann Vorasky shared a music video she made in response to American racism. "I got the idea for this music video during the pandemic after the news of George Floyd’s murder by a police officer."
We Can’t Just “Move Beyond” the Struggle for Gender Equity
"The people who want to “move beyond” debates over questions of equality and inclusion are, most often, the people who already hold power. They do not see a significant problem with the status quo because the status quo is not holding them back from pursuing their goals..."
A ViewPoint on Abortion
"One in four American women will access abortion in her lifetime. And my own abortion story is why I am ardently pro-abortion. I believe, as humans created in God’s image, one of our greatest gifts is agency. That includes agency over our bodies."
Jesus and Women: Beyond Feminism
"It’s argued by theologians that equal participation by women in church masses and services resulted from Jesus’s revolutionary treatment of them and worked its way outward into secular Christian societies, eventually resulting in the gaining of female secular rights and freedoms."
On Love and Mercy: A Social Justice Devotional
"Mattson calls us to expand our definition of neighbor to include all humanity regardless of income, education, background, religious affiliation, race, gender, and sexual orientation or expression."
Women Rising: Learning to Listen, Reclaiming Our Voice
"Women Rising is a powerful story, in large part due to Tschanz’s willingness to look closely at her own participation in what she comes to see as white-saviorism. Her vulnerability is not only endearing but also refreshing."
The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth
"The Making of Biblical Womanhood is not only a timely examination of patriarchy packaged as complementarianism in modern Christianity; it also is a call for both men and women to look critically at what is accepted as gospel truth, especially pertaining to the role and treatment of women."
How Gender Roles Contribute to the Abuse of Women
"It wasn’t until I was older that I realized what an extraordinary thing it is for survivors to speak up, especially if they grew up in a system that valued their silence and submission above all else."
Eco Bible: Volume I: An Ecological Commentary on Genesis and Exodus
"As Neril and Dee see it, the Bible is a powerful tool to integrate spirituality and ethics with environmental science. The Bible has shaped literature, history, and culture more than any other writing."
Ten Egalitarian Children’s Books
"You may know you want your children to have a different experience, one that makes room for questions, social activism, and gender equality, but finding resources to educate your children when you may still be asking questions yourself is difficult. "
To The Survivors: One Man’s Journey as a Rape Crisis Counselor with True Stories...
"Though Uttaro’s treatment of Christianity is gentle, he explores his own faith and the ways in which his beliefs have helped him persevere and serve, without being heavy-handed or pushy—a method that may very well come from years of practice in listening without judgment and guiding without usurping agency and autonomy from the survivors he works with. "
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."
Wave after Wave: A Dialogue on Feminist Thought
"... by acknowledging the vastly different ways oppression occurs and affects people, we are getting closer than we’ve ever been to dismantling these oppressive powers."
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 Analysis of Systemic Oppression in Film
"These women deserve to be at the very top of their organization due to their intelligence, fortitude, brilliance, and internal power. But instead, they live in a world that forces them to fight for their positions in a place stained with institutional racism."
One Coin Found – How God’s Love Stretches to the Margins
"One wandering sheep or a single lost coin. For those of us who have felt lost, forgotten, hungry, or rejected, these are powerful metaphors. Biblical stories can comfort, reframe, and re-name our relationship with God."
Abortion and the Christian Tradition: A Pro-Choice Theological Ethic
"This is a very important book for anyone who is pro-choice on the abortion question. Someone has to stop the nonsense parading as Christian truth, and Kamitsuka has deflated many of the balloons being brandished."
Blessed are You
"Blessed are you when you are treated unfairly on the basis of race or gender or sexuality or any other thing that makes you, you. Blessed are you when you make less and get less, and have to fight all that much harder to thrive."
Respecting Rachel—At Last
"I need to make amends to Rachel for being so contemptuous of her books without even having read them and not considering them worth my time when I first heard about them. Now my attitude is altogether different. I respect her as a feminist, a journalist, a good writer, and an evangelist for biblical feminism."
Does Q Prove Jesus Was the First to Teach Women Are as Valuable as...
March 2, 2020
Does Q prove that Jesus Was the First to Teach Women Are as Valuable as Men? Interested in finding out more about...
My Faith Doesn’t Discriminate Campaign
January 13, 2020
Religious Freedom Day is this Thursday, January 16th! In preparation for the plenary, to be held during our upcoming 2020 Gathering, with...
Saying No in the Community
"Churches rely heavily on volunteering women to take on childcare responsibilities, cooking, fund raising, and administrative duties, usually without pay. In fact, women who are already conditioned to take on nurturing tasks may find it more difficult to say no, and perpetrators of abuse take advantage of that."
Rev. Courtney Pace, Ph.D., Interview
"Opposing systemic racism, sexism, and classism are moral issues, and it is appropriate and good for people of faith to participate in liberation movements. It is also appropriate and good for people of faith to share their concerns about contemporary moral issues within their communities of faith."
UnUnited: LGBTQ Inclusion in the United Methodist Church
"The United Methodist Church’s legislative body, the General Conference, voted in 1972 to prohibit qualified LGBTQ individuals from being ordained pastors and prohibit United Methodist pastors from performing same-sex wedding ceremonies. Since 1972, these prohibitions have been subject to a contentious debate and efforts have been made to repeal them."
Pride Month Interviews with LGBTQ+ Clergy
"Pride is a time when I actively work to amplify the perspectives of my LGBTQ kin loudest because lack of access, lack of resources, and systemic harm still persist today."
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).
God in Captivity: The Rise of Faith-Based Prison Ministries in the Age of Mass...
While prison chaplains are expected to acknowledge the presence of other faith groups, such as Muslims or Jews, they can also restrict funding or meeting times for these groups and cite a lack of knowledgeable volunteers, or some other equally ridiculous claim, to prevent those non-Christian groups the time or space to gather consistently.
Global Leadership Summit (GLS) 2018 — “Do you see this woman?”
I’m afraid that too many Willow Creek protégés have neglected to use their platforms as Jesus used his. Instead of finding ways to ask their congregants, “Do you see these women?”—which really means, do you feel this woman’s pain?—they worked overtime to keep control of their shiny system. Sackcloth and ashes are too dirty for these clean places.
At Least It’s a Start — Southern Baptist Women Protest Paige Patterson’s Misogynistic Comments
May 14, 2018
In a move that surprised many, thousands of Southern Baptist women signed an open letter to the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Board...
Assimilate or Go Home: Notes from a Failed Missionary on Rediscovering Faith
As she acknowledges both their poverty and their richness, she writes, “And only when I recognize how poor I really am do I start to understand that I am right where I need to be” (p. 116). It is in the poverty wrought by her life of privilege that she comprehends what she is being taught by the poorest of the poor.
The Truth about Christopher Columbus
October 10, 2017
With a push to change Columbus Day into a day that honors indigenous people, it's important to know the truth about who...
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.
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...
Intercultural Ministry: Hope for a Changing World
Clergy or laity, Christian or otherwise, all of us carry a vital responsibility of providing hope for our rapidly changing world. Intercultural Ministry will help every reader discern diversities that had previously seemed invisible. And it will provide incentive and techniques to transcend those challenges. What a brave undertaking!
Charlottesville — What Can I Do?
August 14, 2017
The weekend events in Charlottesville have left us horrified. If you, like many of us, are wondering what you can do to...
Immortal Moral Reminders of Henrietta Lacks
One might ask how differently Lack’s story would have gone if the social injustices that disregarded her as a person with agency had long ago been undone. The science and healthcare industries must help address unjust socioeconomic structures that deny the basic humanity and rights of disempowered groups of people before any lasting changes in care can be expected.
The Church of Social Justice
August 7, 2017
Frances Lee, a Seattle based genderqueer scholar and artist, begins their post on Autostraddle with these words:
"There is a particularly aggressive strand...
Time to Sit Down and Listen to the Marginalized
July 17, 2017
David and Constantino Khalaf have some powerful words to share in their July 10, 2017, Modern Kinship blog post on the Patheos progressive Christian...
There Is No Justice for Philando Castile
June 17, 2017
Police officer Jeronimo Yanez "was cleared Friday in the fatal shooting of Philando Castile, a black motorist whose death captured national attention...
Courage to Think Differently
To pressure us toward honesty, Johnson provides seven sections of powerful essays on aspects of our culture: irrelevant religion and idolatry, exclusion and thin democracy; biblical certitudes and ignorance; individualism and cheap grace; ecological crisis and greed; silence and job security; and empire and civil religion.
Borderline: Reflections on War, Sex, and Church
"Women in male-dominated societies are left with fewer reasonable choice in the face of structured male power. [And many] men fail to recognize that women are born into a system of scarcity [because of] male supremacy that leads them to see other women as antagonists…”
Was Esther a Post-Colonial Feminist?
Esther was in the same situation that many women in the postcolonial world are in; and in the end, like her, they do what they need to do in order to survive.
I Am Not Your Negro
I urge all of you, as Christians and feminists, to watch 'I Am Not Your Negro' and live with Baldwin through these difficult years of American history. Our struggle for gender justice depends on understanding the many other ways our society oppresses people.
McKenzie Brown’s Reflection on Protest— How We Prevail
I don’t want to be in a position where I must exercise my civic responsibility to stand and defend other human beings from a political leadership who would oppress them [but] it is a responsibility I cannot choose to ignore right now.
Dan Wilkinson’s Reflection on the 2017 Women’s March — “Dissent is Patriotic”
Throughout the day waves of emotion moved through me. It felt so right to stand for justice and be a part of a fantastic movement that said, “We won’t let our country go backward. We will rise up...”
Rev. Jann Aldredge-Clanton’s Reflection on the 2017 Women’s March — “Changing History”
"The amazingly diverse crowd, estimated at 50,000, moved slowly along, some in wheelchairs and some in baby strollers. There were people of various ages, genders, races, gender identities, religions, abilities, political parties. Even dogs joined the march and were as polite as the people!"
The Women’s March in Pictures
January 23, 2017
On Saturday, January 21, millions of people gathered on all seven continents to demonstrate their support for women's rights and other social...
Healing from Grief over the Role of White Evangelicals in the 2016 Election
January 10, 2017
Writing for her “Born Again Again” blog in the Christian Century, Carol Howard Merritt says, “It’s difficult to know what will happen...
2017 #GCNConf Rev. Janet Edwards Interview, Part 3
There are lots of reasons for women to leave parish ministry, I’d say. Complicated family circumstances and fewer openings because of the implosion of the American church experienced first in the mainline but followed now by the evangelical church, as well, to name two. The bias that blights women’s service is one among them, in my experience.
2017 #GCNConf Rev. Janet Edwards Interview, Part 2
... the PC(USA) cannot confess sin against LGBTQ people with any integrity. First, this action would not include those Presbyterians who do not feel that they are sinning when they judge the LGBTQ person. Second, people with these judgments are still hurting LGBTQ people in the PC(USA). We are not of one mind in the PC(USA).
2017 #GCNConf Rev. Janet Edwards Interview, Part 1
My tradition is Reformed, always being Reformed (which is why we tend to protest what is traditional). Coming to a more expansive understanding of marriage is our generation’s experience of reforming our grasp of God and God’s will for us.
Love More: Trump and the Country We Know
We can react by demonizing those who brought the next four years upon our country. We can judge them and denigrate them and turn on them. And in doing so, we will perpetuate the very situation that led us all to this point. Or we can try to figure out how to love more and love better.
A Letter to My Anxious Christian Friends: From Fear to Faith in Unsettled Times
I was nervous at first reading, as I am among those anxious Christians not worried about how our country is going to go forward. And I admit I was worried that I would have trouble with the conservative-sounding opening (conservative-sounding to me, at least – proving his point about polarization). However, he mostly comes out rather progressive in his view of various issues in light of the Scriptures...
I Love to Tell the Story: 100+ Stories of Justice, Wisdom, and Hope
How would you like to own — or give to someone you love — a book that carries you along on its own joyful stream of stories? Yes? Then I have just the perfect book for you: the Reverend Dr. Nancy Wilson's I Love To Tell the Story: 100+ Stories of Justice, Wisdom, and Hope.
Free Speech—Using it for Healing, Not for Hurting
Each one of us can begin to cool the heated debate and polarization in this country. We can begin by a rigorous moral inventory of our own bigotry, biases, and fear... We can develop the courage and the willingness to listen to those with whom we disagree.
At First Blush
God is with us. Sophia is with us. Woman Wisdom is with us. We are with each other. We can continue to move forward together on this journey of shalom as we lean on God and lean on one another.
What We Can Learn from Christianity Today’s Interview with Saeed Abedini
Allowing Saeed a public forum in which to further denigrate Naghmeh, Christianity Today also denigrates every woman who has heard an overuse of the word 'I' as they were being beaten, and shames every victim who takes the blame on themselves when it’s not theirs to take. The consequences of this piece reach further than one victim.
Queer Virtue: What LGBTQ People Know About Life and Love and How It Can...
"The most oppressive of human binaries is the one that differentiates between those who are in and those who are out. Just as Jesus “took on whatever stigma was applied to the people he was engaging: women, children, Samaritans, lepers” (p. 180), so must progressive Christians and progressive queers continue to disrupt the inside/outside binary."
Disconnected Generations: #NotHereForTheBoys
Clinton, Steinem, and Albright have devoted their lives to public causes and progress for women, and the thought that none of them may live to see—or in Clinton’s instance, be—the first female president when we are so close to the dream must be a hard pill to swallow.
2016 #GCNConf – First Timer Reflections – Jann Aldredge-Clanton
As I listened to people’s stories, my heart ached over the pain they have suffered from denunciation and rejection by church and family, and I felt inspired by their courage in claiming who they’re created to be and working to liberate their churches from homophobia and unjust, unloving actions.
Joan Chittister: Her Journey from Certainty to Faith
This book serves as a useful introduction to an important spiritual figure. It also works to deepen her readers’ perspectives on her life, and to whet the appetite for seeing how the octogenarian feminist religious leader and her cohort continue to shape the monastic tradition in postmodern relief.
2016 #GCNConf — “weconnect” Emmy Kegler Interview
I believe the church at its core can also be a place of healing (and it breaks me when it's a place of trauma). We have confession and forgiveness, peacemaking and reconciliation, prayer and offering going back to the earliest days of Christianity. Self-examination and self-giving isn't something we can do without community...
2016 Gay Christian Network Conference — Introduction
This year’s GCN speakers will include: Allyson Robinson, Baptist preacher and national trans leader; Broderick Greer, Episcopal curate and social justice advocate; Misty Irons, nationally-acclaimed blogger and theologian; and Justin Lee, the Gay Christian Network Executive Director.
Remembering All We Have Lost — #TDOR
For many of you, the gender binary simply exists as a pervasive framework around which you build your life. As a child, you accepted it. You existed within it. It wasn’t until adolescence or adulthood that you were required to understand it and decide how to respond to it.
The Changing Face of Evangelicalism: Rescuing Jesus
Ever since 2007, an award-winning journalist and radio producer named Deborah Jian Lee has been researching contemporary evangelicalism. She has been impressed by a change occurring among evangelicals—a movement that “ditches the Religious Right,” supports working toward social justice rather than political theorizing, and calls itself “progressive evangelicalism.”
Requiem for the Rest of Us — #kellyonmymind
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.
A Report from the “Jobs, Justice, and the Climate” March in Toronto
For me, honoring First Nation people and ensuring environmental justice is essential, especially if we claim to truly love this "blue dot" (what astronauts have called the earth from space, depicted in my poster above) we all call home.
A Charleston Lament – #BlackLivesMatter
I am convinced that this is the lesson of Gethsemane / Not Jesus crying humanly about his own impending suffering and death / But rather Jesus's awareness of the depth of the intractable ruin of us / The universal suffering of the other who threatens the status of the entitled just by being
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.
Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence
Armstrong defines war as “a psychosis caused by the inability to see relationships, “ and describes the First Crusade as particularly psychotic. In Jerusalem the “half-crazed” First Crusaders slaughtered some thirty-thousand people in three days” (p. 214).
The Civil Rights Challenge of the Coming Decade: RFRAs, Wedding Cake, and Faith
... those of us concerned about both religious liberty and equity for LGBT citizens are caught in a bind. I believe in equity for LGBT people, but at the same time I believe faith-based institutions should be allowed room to shape themselves according to their deepest beliefs. Is it possible to have both?
Progressive Evangelicals and the Pursuit of Social Justice
“Yet, humbling though parts of the story may be, this is a history that needs to be heard. It isn’t wholly a story of stumbles. It’s also a story of honorable words and courageous actions, often undertaken in the face of great hostility. For that, we can all be thankful. It’s also a non-static story of growth, evolution, and change. Again and again, you’ll find evidence of that Wind that blows where it wills.”
Ain’t I a Womanist Too?: Third World Womanist Religious Thought
This is a movement that embraces life holistically, that seeks justice and freedom for all regardless of gender identity, socioeconomic class, theology, spirituality, and political ideology."
#KellyOnMyMind — The Death Penalty (or How to Ignore Jesus)
March 5, 2015
Earlier this week, Kelly Gissendaner was slated to be executed in Georgia. She was given the death penalty for plotting to kill...
An Opportunity to Practice Grace and Love
When I realized this was the Wall of Love, I was overcome with emotion. As they formed what would ultimately become a Tunnel of Love, the tears rolled down my cheeks. I had to turn away from them so I could gather myself because the feeling of unconditional love was so overwhelming in the moment.
“With his Stripes”— The Messiah Resonates in 2014
Whipping, pulling out hair, and spitting brought to mind the “enhanced” techniques authorized by Attorney General John Ashcroft on July 24, 2002, and the waterboarding he approved two days later. (What was I doing that summer? For sure, I was not keeping track of my government’s use of torture.)
2015 #GCNConf — “weconnect” Wendy Gritter Interview
My hope is that we will come to the day that our communities are places where LGBTQ+ people can be fully themselves and fully pursue relationship with Jesus without any hindrances. I wish I knew how long this season of transition will last— but I don’t.
Pray For Those Who Murder You
“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” he says. When he himself was the target, he added, “Forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23: 34).
Who heard these radical words and copied them down? Who later collected and preserved them?
By the grace of God, we can find testimony today for this minority position against revenge in the words and acts of Jesus, Terence, Gandhi, Daryl Davis, and others.
By binding our hearts to Jesus and his words, we can counter our intuitive responses and lift up even our enemies to the Creator’s loving care.
El Dia de los Muertos
In Mexico the Day of the Dead is widely celebrated, but this year it is overshadowed by the disappearance on Sept. 26 of 43 students in Iguala, Guerrero, 120 miles south of Mexico City, and by the deaths of many others who have been bystanders in Mexico’s war on drugs.
Prince Ea Thinks this World Should End
September 15, 2014
Starting off the week, we're sharing this inspiring spoken word piece by award winning rapper Prince Ea (Richard Williams) entitled, "Why I Think...
Feminist Faith-Based Social Justice
Backlash is a subtle thing. It can result in even the bravest of us stepping back from what we know to be right because the cost is so high—the loss of a job, perhaps, because of principles, or some dreaded implication for our children, who can become pawns and/or casualties in social justice skirmishes.
It’s Time for Transnational Feminism
Today there’s a term: transnational feminism. As Alena Amato Ruggerio reminded us in her keynote speech at the 2012 EEWC-CFT gathering, once you have a word for a feeling or a problem, you have means to tackle it. The issue becomes widely recognized.
Christian Ecofeminist Theology Today or Gaia, Sallie McFague, and You Walk into a Bar....
Patriarchy and an industrial military complex, whether implicitly or explicitly, promote masculine conquering of the feminine or the perceived weaker "other," as is common in complementarian and/or hierarchical understandings of the world and Christianity.
World Vision: Treating Gay Christians with “Dignity and Respect”?
On the first day, a “Christian” organization whose goal is to help others said I was good enough to serve alongside their other employees. On the second day, millions of other Christians felt it necessary to forcefully proclaim, yet again, that they consider me "less than" and unworthy. On the third day, World Vision buckled under pressure...
Patriarchy, Power, and Sexual Abuse among Christians
March 7, 2014
A special compilation of links you’ll want to know about.
by Letha Dawson Scanzoni
Amanda Marcotte writes that “the message in the Christian right...
The Little Sisters of the Poor And The Health Care Mandate
I have no problem with devout Catholics following the teachings of the Church. But when I am required to live by those teachings, even if I do not agree with them, I am annoyed. The choice of an individual to use contraception (or not) is an intensely personal choice. To be denied that right because of the religious beliefs of the owner is unfair.
Pastrix: The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner & Saint
She wrote this book for people like me, the unchurched, those who are too damaged, scarred, scared or pissed to return to a pew — people who are not traditionally religious, who, as she says, maybe listen to “This American Life,” who have more education than money, who for all our preciousness still want some kind of transcendent moment in our lives.
Reflections from South Africa Upon Nelson Mandela’s Death
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.
The Risk of Returning: A Novel
One rarely encounters a suspense novel in which the protagonist reminisces about insights from C. S. Lewis and the Bible and gets intimately involved with the mysterious woman who is helping him relearn his Spanish, but it's all here.
An Epiphany
The Ruler’s life has been irrevocably changed as a result of absorbing Christ’s world view, and his epiphany results as he sees for the first time his position in his own world. The pathology of that position is now clear to him: he sees the poor and their condition, and he sees in their watchfulness that they are Christ’s emissaries to him.
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.
The God We Serve – Adam Ackley, Azusa Pacific University, and EEWC
So, it is no surprise to me that Azusa Pacific University has asked Heath Adam Ackley to go away. And it is no surprise to me that the people who asked him to do so were apparently not concerned about the justice or righteousness of the request. As is usual, capitalistic considerations trumped all others.
Coming Out— It’s a Struggle for Atheists Too – Wild Goose
Everyone has felt like an outsider; everyone has felt misunderstood. I always believed that a Christian church would have all the answers, that embracing Christianity meant an end to the isolation and the confusion. Clearly, I was wrong; so many people are searching for answers.
Princeton, Demons, and Fundamentalists
'Hence, the controlling metaphor of The Accursed would seem to be that as long as people believe God is angry, totalitarian, and brutally unforgiving, their whole world takes on a vampirish, bloodthirsty, fearsome coloration."
Wild Goose Festival 2013 – Introduction
I've never been to Wild Goose before but am looking forward to the experience. You'll be able to read about and see what I experience here on Where She Is (and on the Christian Feminism Today social media outlets) as I'll be posting frequent updates leading up to, during, and directly after the conclusion of the festival (August 8-11, 2013).
What Does Family Therapy Have to Do with the XL Pipeline, Climate Change, and...
The question facing all of us is whether the unbridled dependence on oil and gas that marks our North American economies and lifestyles, or the creation-care vision articulated by environmental and Aboriginal groups, will determine our future.
There Is More than One Christian View on Homosexuality
"But when it comes to homosexuality, many people have the impression that there is only one religious or biblical view – only one way to consider the question of equal rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people. That view, in the minds of many, is that any and every same-sex sexual expression is sinful in the sight of God."
Moral Minority: The Evangelical Left in an Age of Conservatism
Reviewer Mark William Olson writes, "Nevertheless, in reading [David Swartz's] narrative, you may find yourself thinking that women and feminist concerns are getting short shrift. On one level, of course, that’s simply a truthful reflection of what happened at the 1973 'Thanksgiving Workshop' that created the 'Chicago Declaration of Evangelical Social Concern.' It reflects what happened at various follow-up meetings as well. Men ran things. The concerns of women were regularly pushed aside because they simply didn’t match the agenda of the dominant males. As David’s book honestly acknowledges, nervous, self-serving men sometimes rushed to bury feminist concerns, fearing that other leaders in 'the evangelical world' would write off the larger effort if they thought it was giving support to women’s ordination—or some other apparent 'outrage.'"
Why We Need Immigration Reform: A Christian Feminist Perspective
"Perhaps that’s the worst part of being a modern-day Samaritan in southern Arizona: you may never know if the persons you have hugged and tried to help are living or dead. Laws prevent you from taking a shivering immigrant to shelter: actions like those of the kind traveler in Jesus’ story are currently illegal in the US. You can provide food, water, blankets, jackets, shoes—but for transportation you could be punished with 15 years in prison."
A Time to Embrace: Same-Sex Relationships in Religion, Law, and Politics
"William Stacy Johnson is the perfect author for such a volume: an attorney, a professional theologian, an ordained Presbyterian minister, a professor at Princeton Seminary, and a student of over 270 specialized books and articles and 95 relevant legal cases."
A Christian Feminist Speaks Out on the Drone War in Pakistan
"The notorious instability of many Middle Eastern countries means a seemingly innocuous walk to a market, across the street, through a park might be disrupted by a suicide bombing. A decade-long U.S. military presence has done little to provide safety for women and children in Afghanistan, Iraq, or elsewhere. "
Confessions of a Christian Humanist
For Christianity to be Christian it cannot by-pass St. Paul’s confession of Christ crucified as “the wisdom of God,” for it would have nothing distinctive to contribute to the humanist project. But for it to be humanist it cannot ignore the truth wherever it is to be found, for all truth ultimately reflects the beauty and goodness of God.
A New Religious America: How a “Christian Country” Has Become the World’s Most Religiously...
As for Islam and violence, Eck quotes Jamal Badawi's insistence at Boston University in 1994: "Jihad cannot be equated with senseless terrorism. . . . I would challenge anyone to find an instance of the term holy war in the Qur'an."
Walking with Wisdom’s Daughters: Twelve Celebrations and Stories of Women of Passion and Faith
It is not often that one comes across a worship-related book so richly layered that it becomes a prized resource far beyond the parameters of corporate prayer. This volume, a treasure trove of both scholarship and artistry, is one of those.
Of Widows and Meals: Communal Meals in the Book of Acts
Practitioners of the Way of Jesus today—meal servers, food preparers, scholars, pastors, Bible students, lay leaders, social activists, and evangelists—will all find much to ponder, and repeatedly to return to, in Of Widows and Meals.
Gather into One: Praying and Singing Globally
Ultimately, Hawn concludes, the point of engaging in multicultural musical expressions "is not to 'feel good' but to feel again — feel a sense of the holy and an experience of community" which will move us, with all our sisters and brothers around the globe, to shout in renewed, "polyrhythmic" enthusiasm: Alleluia! and Amen!
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America
I was personally impacted by Nickel and Dimed, because Ehrenreich, in part, was telling my story! For the past four years, I have been a sales associate in a large department store; and in many respects, Ehrenreich's experience parallels mine.
Where Am I Wearing? A Global Tour of the Countries, Factories, and People that...
Timmerman’s research began with the simple act of checking the labels on his clothes, curious about places of origin for his shirt, jeans, boxers, and flip flops. He then decided to travel to those places—Honduras, Cambodia, Bangladesh and China—to go undercover as a garment buyer in order to meet the people who made his clothes.
Broken We Kneel: Reflections on Faith & Citizenship
Bruised and broken, we can abandon our vision. Bruised and broken, we can flee our faith. Or bruised and broken, we can kneel, dreaming of love, striving for peace, pleading for grace.
New Jewish Feminism: Probing the Past, Forging the Future
A number of familiar themes resound: strongly self-critical commentaries; recovering stories from the past and spinning new ones; the importance of knowing the tradition in order better to reclaim or redefine it; the problematics of determining what practices and beliefs are “authentically Jewish”; a robust attitude that can celebrate gains while recognizing there is much left to do.
The UMC Trial of Beth Stroud: A Mother’s Perspective
I refuse to give into despair and instead have hope that attitudes in our churches, regardless of denominational affiliation, will change. In many ways, it is the church that is on trial.
The Galilean Secret
As theology or ethics, The Galilean Secret scores an A for its emphasis on internal reconciliation leading to external reconciliation. But as fiction, the plotting sometimes strains the reader’s credulity with some rather unlikely coincidences.
Justice, Love, and Compassion on Trial
--Why I Took Part in the Jimmy Creech Protest Demonstration
by L. Victoria Peterson
Why did more than 100 persons leave their homes and jobs and...
Capital Punishment of Women and the Mentally Ill
The function of a governor in granting clemency is to mete out mercy. An insightful article about the Karla Faye Tucker case and other executions in Texas during the governorship of George W. Bush was written by Sister Helen Prejean, the Roman Catholic nun whose story was told in the movie Dead Man Walking.
The Help
The Help richly deserves its many weeks at the top of the New York Times best-seller list. Stockett, a white woman from Jackson, overcame her fear and tackled this tricky topic by creating the voices of three women whose lives are forever entangled and unforgettable.
Bold Spirit: Helga Estby’s Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America
Years after her death, Helga has become a role model for tough, independent-thinking, risk-taking women everywhere. We would all do well to learn from her, and from Linda Lawrence Hunt who gave her story back to us.
Matthew and Empire: Initial Explorations
This book can be extremely helpful to Christian feminists who care both about properly interpreting the Bible and who oppose all kinds of private and public oppression. There are many parallels between the ancient Roman Empire and the "American Empire" of the 21st century.
“When One Woman Cries. . .”
Hi Kimberly,
We seem to have come full circle, having begun this blog three and a half years ago with a discussion of Betty Friedan...
Why Should Difference Make Any Difference
I knew the Bible verses some of my teachers were using to teach these things, but it did not make sense to me, though I said nothing at the time. It just didn't sound at all like something that the God I loved and served would do! Why would God create females with brains and talents and abilities and yearnings to serve and advance the good news of the gospel and then say, "No thanks, I don't need or want your service"?
It is painful to have one's wings clipped. I tried to follow the gender hierarchy that I was taught, but down deep the seeds of what would later be called Christian feminism were taking root.
Onmigender: A Trans-religious Approach
his book compassionately explores the dilemma faced daily by “both”, “neither” and “other” categories of humans and proposes that Christ and the Jewish and Christian scriptures demand compassionate acceptance of all people, regardless of their genital or sex chromosome configuration.
Latest Posts on CFT
Damaris of Athens
September 2023 Poetry Selection
Damaris peered into alleyways, stumbled along porticos,
her eyes enflamed by the hot light of stones...
Damaris peered into alleyways, stumbled along porticos,
her eyes enflamed by the hot light of stones...
