Womanist Biblical Scholar Reflections

Was Jesus Married? And Does it Matter?

noreply@blogger.com (WomanistNTProf) — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 12:00:00 +0000

Dr. Karen King of Harvard Divinity School discovered a fourth century CE Coptic papyrus in which a scribe writes “Jesus said to them my wife." When some Christians read or heard about this discovery, their first reaction was, “what difference does it make?”. The papyrus fragment discusses issues of discipleship and family in general. In fact, one of my Facebook connections and a friend asked more specifically what difference the possibility of Jesus being married makes for salvation. Dr. King is careful to note that the papyrus does not explicitly say that Jesus was or was not married. In fact, the papyrus is of a quite late date compared to some other New Testament manuscripts dated in the second century CE. But the papyrus does raise questions as to when early Christians started raising questions or talking about Jesus’ marital status. Below is a video of an interview with Dr. King of Harvard University:

I think Christians should be interested in the papyrus fragment, and other such archaeological finds as well, for the following reasons: (1) They are historical documents. And as historical documents they give us a glimpse into the history of Christianity. We ought to know about our history, how it impacts the present, and how it may inform the future. Christians who belong to denominations that require their pastors to obtain a theological education are exposed to church history for the prior-mentioned reasons; it makes good sense to be able to understand things in their historical context. Without context we have no meaning or meaning is distorted. Members of Christian churches should want their pastors and teachers to be able to place things in their proper historical context, in as much as it is possible. Nothing happens in a vacuum. (2) Some Christians base their understandings of marriage and singleness in general, as well as the impact of marital status on ministry, on whether or not they understood Jesus to be married. In fact, some Christians place a higher value on being single over being married with regard to commitment to Christian ministry, relying heavily on Paul’s statements in First Corinthians chapter 7. Other Christians have believed and some still believe that all clergy should be married (as well as all men and women!). Such a discovery that Jesus was married might certainly impact how we understand ministry and the Christian life. (3) If Jesus had been married, we would certainly read differently some of the canonical and non-canonical witnesses that preserve the sayings of and about Jesus. For example we might read differently the two somewhat contradictory testimonies at Matthew 5:31-32 (when Jesus says in Matthew that no man should divorce his wife except if she is unchaste. If he does so for any other reason and remarries, he has committed adultery) and at Mark 10:10-12 where Jesus takes the position that there is no exception or excuse for divorce (anyone who divorces and remarries as committed adultery). Or we would at least expect that Jesus definitely set the example in his own marriage and was, as the author Hebrews writes "touched with all the feelings of our infirmities." If he could maintain a good marriage, certainly we can. If we see it as a bad thing for Jesus to have been married, then it may be that we place a low value on the institution of marriage in general. Again, however, the fragment does not say he was single or married. I personally think God would be fine with Jesus or anyone making the choice to be married or to remain single, as long as they lived a life pleasing to God.

We should not be so readily dismissive of new finds and evidence. It was not until the middle 1940s (1947-1956) that the over 800 Dead Sea Scrolls were found in caves thirteen miles east of Jerusalem. That archaeological find yielded invaluable manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible (written in Hebrew and Aramaic), not including the book of Esther (as well as other nonbiblical texts). The Isaiah Scroll, found relatively intact, is 1000 years older than any previously known copy of Isaiah. It also contains never before seen psalms attributed to King David and Joshua. The scrolls are the oldest group of Old Testament manuscripts ever found! I don’t believe that our salvation is threatened by keeping an open mind and being humble about what we know and don’t know. God probably has quite a few more surprises for us.

Practicing Initiative. More Than the Minimum.

noreply@blogger.com (WomanistNTProf) — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 15:11:00 +0000

This Psalm Sunday I am reminded how Jesus exercised initiative in his early life, in his ministry, and during the final days of his life. Despite knowing that he would die in the Holy City because of the purposeful, inclusive, compassionate, and power-filled life of ministry he practiced, Jesus headed toward Jerusalem; he did not wait for his adversaries to come after him (Luke 9:51). As womanist biblical scholar Raquel St. Clair asserts in her book Call in Consequences, it was not Jesus’ purpose to die but to live; his suffering was a consequence of his ministry. This historical Jesus was God with us (Matthew 1:23). Jesus lived a life in which he continually exercised initiative; he took charge of his life. Jesus chose to go to John the Baptist so that John could baptize him even though John thought himself unworthy to baptize Jesus; that Jesus should be the one baptizing him. Jesus followed the Spirit’s leading and spent 40 days and nights in the wilderness fasting, praying and being tempted by the adversary in preparation for his ministry (Matthew 4:2). Jesus, like his forerunner John the Baptist, did more than the minimum required to fulfill his purpose. Perhaps, because he believed that with God nothing is impossible (Luke 1:37). Jesus understood that to exist in and exercise a God-like perfection or wholeness means exceeding what is required and allowing possibility, purpose, compassion, and passion to compel us (Matthew 4:43-48).

In order to pursue our lives and vocations in excellence, we will exercise initiative that is motivated by possibility, purpose, compassion, and passion. This means that we won’t wait for others to compel us or overlook us, but we will step up to the plate and do what needs to be done and more. Too often people wait to see if someone else will do a task rather than doing it themselves. This lack of initiative occurs in situations from helping people in distress to asking questions in a classroom. Many people won’t ask questions that can help them to understand a particular topic because they are waiting to see if someone else will ask the same question. Meanwhile, nobody asks the necessary questions. So like the majority, they just show up, which is the minimum required of them. I don’t want to minimize the importance of showing up; showing up is half the battle, but only half the battle. Too many people set the example of only doing the minimum required for a task or project. Some students will only do the homework a teacher assigns, even when it would greatly benefit them and increase their knowledge to do more. But those motivated by possibility, purpose, compassion, and passion will exercise initiative. We can exercise initiative by thinking about and researching our options beyond the obvious ones, by asking questions, and by doing more than is required. For example, if an executive asks her assistant to reserve a room at her favorite hotel in a certain city and the hotel is booked, then the assistant should take the initiative to, (1) ask her employer at the time of the initial request if she has a second or third option if the hotel is booked; (2) search for comparable alternatives, and (3) ask the hotel to notify her in case of cancellations.

We value initiative in others; therefore, we should cultivate it in ourselves. Most parents and adults value initiative in children. If we ask them to take out the trash, and they only empty the trash in the kitchen and not in the rest of the house, we become annoyed with them. To do only what is required of us will only assure that we are average or mediocre.

Democratic Womanism

noreply@blogger.com (WomanistNTProf) — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 16:57:00 +0000

Democratic Womanism

By Alice Walker

You ask me why I smile when you tell me

you intend in coming national elections

to hold your nose and vote for the lesser of two evils.

There are more than two evils out there, is one reason I smile

Another, is that our old buddy Nostradamus comes to mind

With his fearful 400 yr old prophecy that our world

And theirs too, our enemies, lots of kids included there

Will end by nuclear Nachbah?, by holocaust, in our life time

Which makes the idea of elections

and the billions of dollars wasted on them somewhat fatuous

A southerner of color, my people held the vote very dear

While others for centuries merely appeared to play with it

One thing I can assure you of, is this,

I will never betray such pure hearts by voting for evil,

even if it were microscopic,

which as you can see in any newscast, no matter the slant, it is not.

I want something else – a different system entirely

One not seen on this earth for thousands of years, if ever

Democratic Womanism

Notice how this word has “man” right in the middle of it

That’s one reason I like it.

He is right there front and center, but he is surrounded.

I want to vote and work for a way of life that honors the feminine

A way that acknowledges the theft of the wisdom female and dark mother leadership may have provided our spaceship all along

I am not thinking of a talking-head kind of gal—

happy to be mixing it up with the badest bad boys on the planet

Her eyes a slit; her mouth a zipper

No, I am speaking of true regime change

Where women rise to take their place unmasked

At the helm of earth’s frail and failing ship

Where each thousand years of our silence is examined with regret

And the cruel manner in which our values of compassion and kindness

Have been ridiculed and suppressed, brought to bear on the disaster of the present time

The past must be examined closely, I believe, before we can leave it there.

I am thinking of Democratic, and perhaps socialist, Womanism.

For who else knows so deeply how to share but mothers and grandmothers,

big sisters and aunts, to love and adore both female and male,

not to mention those in between

To work at keeping the entire community educated, fed, and safe

Democratic Womanism, Democratic Socialist Womanism

Would have as its icons such fierce warriors for good as

Vandana Shiva, Aung San Suu Kyi,Wangari Maathai, Harriett Tubman, Yoko Ono, Frida Kahlo, Angela Davis and Barbara Lee

With new ones rising wherever you look

You are also on this list,

but it is so long, Isis would appear midway, that I must stop or be unable to finish the poem

So just know that I stood you in a circle

that includes Marian Wright Edelman, Amy Goodman, Sojourner Truth, Gloria Steinem, and Mary McCleod Bethune,

John Brown, Frederick Douglass, John Lennon, and Howard Zinn

are there, happy to be surrounded.

There is no system now in place that can change the disastrous course the Earth is on.

Who can doubt this

The male leaders of Earth appear to have abandoned their very senses

Though most appear to live now entirely in their heads

They murder humans and other animals, forests and rivers and mountains everyday they are in office and never seem to notice it.

They eat and drink devastation.

Women of the world, women of the world, is this devastation us?

Would we kill whole continents for oil or anything else rather than limit the number of consumer offspring we produce and learn how to make our own fire?

Democratic womanism, democratic socialist womanism

A system of governance we can dream and imagine and build together

One that recognizes at least six thousand years of brutally forced complicity

And the assassination of Mother Earth but foresees six thousand years

Ahead of us when we will not submit

What will we need? – a hundred years, at least, to plan

Five hundred will be handed us gladly, when the planet is scared enough

In which circles of women meet, organize ourselves, and elide with men brave enough to stand with women.

Nurture our planet to a degree of health, and without apology, impossible to make a bigger mess than has been made already,

Devote ourselves heedless of opposition to tirelessly serving and resuscitating our mother ship

And with gratitude for her care of us worshipfully commit to rehabilitating it.

Black Women's Voices on Voting and Politics

noreply@blogger.com (WomanistNTProf) — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 22:54:00 +0000

“In the summer of 1965 Congress passed the Voting Rights Act, which eliminated all literacy tests. After that, people in Alabama did not have to answer twenty-four questions. They could register to vote if they could sign their name in cursive. It didn’t take us but twenty minutes in Selma, Alabama, to teach a woman to write her name. The white students took her to the courthouse. She wrote her name in cursive writing and came back with a number that meant she could register to vote. This is the way we did it.” ~ Septima Clark (1898-1987), educator and voting/civil rights activist (Ready from Within)

“Of course, I don’t know very much

About these politics,

But I think that some who run ‘em

Do mighty ugly tricks.

When we want to school our children

If the money isn’t there,

Whether black or white have took it,

The loss we all must share,

And this buying up each other

Is somthin worse than mean.

Though I think a heap of voting,

I go for voting clean.” ~ Francis Ellen Harper (1825-1911), Sketches of Southern Life (1896)

“If white American women, with all their natural and acquired advantages, need the ballot, that right protective of all other rights; if Anglo Saxons have been helped by it—and they have—how much more do Black Americans, male and female need the strong defense of a vote to help secure them their right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? And neither do the colored citizens of the Republic lag behind in the fundamental duties of tax-paying and using the elective franchise. The price of their freedom as far as that freedom has progressed, was too dear a price to be treated lightly.” ~ Adelle Hunt Logan (1863-1915), educator and activist

“And gentlemen, I warn you no longer to stand out in refusing the right to which we contend; in trying to withhold from these noble ladies here and their darker sisters the franchise they now demand. Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton, with their high moral and intellectual power, have shaken the states of New England, and the shock is felt here today… Woman has a power within herself, and the God that reigns above, who commanded Moses to lead the children of Israel from out of the land Egypt, from out of the house of bondage, who walled the waters of the Red Sea, who endowed Samson with power to slay his enemies with the jawbone of an ass, who furnished Abraham Lincoln with knowledge to write the emancipation proclamation, whereby four million Blacks were free—that God, our God, is with and for us, and will hear the call of woman, and her rights will be granted, and she shall be permitted to vote.” ~ Naomi Talbert (Anderson) [1814-1894], writer and lecturer, pioneer in black women’s suffrage movement

“By a miracle the 19^th Amendment has been ratified. We women have now a weapon of defense, which we have never possessed before. It will be a shame and a reproach to us if we do not use it” ~ Mary Church Terrell, 1920 [1863-1954], educator, activist, professional lecturer

“It is important that I never made the rights of women or of blacks a primary theme of my campaign but insisted on making my role that of a potential voice for all the out-groups, those included. As best I could, I tried to keep stressing the principle that our government cannot keep on being primarily responsive to the privileged white upper classes but must serve the human needs of every citizen. Long unmet needs for housing, health care, pensions on which the aged can live decently, effective schools everywhere, including the poorest neighborhoods—all people in need must be helped, not written off as malcontent, demanding, lazy, ignorant bums and cheats.” ~ former and first serious female Democratic candidate for the Presidency of the US, Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm (1924-2005)

Unqualified Rape, Life & Choice

noreply@blogger.com (WomanistNTProf) — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 13:49:00 +0000

Yes, rape is rape, and I believe in a woman’s divine and civil right to choose what she will do when she is raped or when her life is threatened. Representative Todd Adkin’s recent remarks about women who experience “legitimate rape” and the utter nonsense about the rarity of pregnancy in those cases [tell it to the 33,000+ women who have been impregnated by rape] have sparked an old debate and spotlighted perennial attempts to control women’s bodies. It is no secret now that the Republican Party’s platform includes on its political agenda a prohibition against all abortions regardless of how the woman was impregnated (e.g., rape, incest…); against a woman’s right to choose.

Recently Rev. Eva Melton Billingsley asked for a response on a Facebook post that read: “If we use Todd Akin's logic then the thought of Bathsheba being raped is impossible because she got pregnant. What's funny is some won't even entertain the thought that David raped her. Biblical scholars what say ye?”

My response was/is: Bathsheba was raped by a man that exponentially outweighed her in power and authority, by a man who felt he deserved any woman he desired and had the power and authority to take what he wanted and cover it up. Many men who don't have David's power think this way. David even went the step further of murdering her husband and because of his power went unpunished by any civil or judicial system. And maybe we need to question that author's labeling of him and our reinscribing of him as a "man after God's own heart," which somewhat implies the crime was not so bad; that a man should serve no time for raping a woman and killing her husband, if he has enough power and authority and is God's anointed. He faced no time in jail for his crime but was allowed to live out his life. Yes, he lived with other consequences, but none that might not happen to others by just living and having children that make choices of their own or by being a bad example to their children.”

Rape is rape, whether the victim is female or male, child, run-away-teen, or a grown-up in or out of a relationship, drugged or sober, naked or fully garbed – rape is rape and it should not be tolerated in a civil society or among God-fearing people of any religion. I am “pro-choice” and I am for life. I am for the life of an unborn child; I am for the life of the child born and living on the streets of America, or any country, homeless and dying; I am for the life of children who have easier access to drugs and guns than to a quality education, decent housing, and three meals a day; I am for the life of a child or adult whose spirit for living is murdered by other people who practice racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, hatred and/or with words meant to diminish and tear down.

Don’t want to Talk about Gabby’s Hair but about Priorities

noreply@blogger.com (WomanistNTProf) — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 14:40:00 +0000

It is nothing new for women to be convinced and try to convince other women and girls that physical embellishments should be one of our biggest priorities. An older woman once told a friend of mine that she was not a lady because she did not wear make-up. I was once told during an interview at an employment agency in the DC area that I should polish my look with makeup (wasn’t wearing makeup at the time as a Seventh-day Adventist; still don’t wear much). Didn’t think twice about taking the recruiter’s advice, and I got the job I wanted. Fast-paced law firms preferred competency and efficiency to superficial embellishments.

Don’t get me wrong, I take pride in my appearance and have received plenty of compliments about my personal appearance and dress. But I’ve seldom spent a lot of money on my hair; when I have, I’ve experienced more horror and disappointment than not. Oprah is my model when it comes to my nails; I prefer them cut short and unpolished (though I could use a manicure now and then).

Since I’m not in the cosmetology, modeling, or some similar business, I don’t count personal embellishments as a priority. When I was a student at Harvard, I was somewhat troubled, when a sister studying for ministry said she had to make a choice between getting her hair done (i.e. weave) and buying food. Her sister friend advised her to get her hair done, and she would bring her some food—told her she had to look good at all cost!

That said I love that at 16 years old Gabby Douglas (and her family) has her priorities straight. Gabby’s mother sacrificed financially and emotionally to help her daughter pursue her gifts and dreams. Natalie Hawkins was probably neck high in taking care of her children and the struggles that accompany being a single mom, which can distract from focusing on the dreams of one’s children as one would like. After prodding from another sibling, Hawkins entered Gabby in gymnastics classes when she was 8 yrs old. When Gabby achieved all she could with the coach she had, her mother sacrificed to send Gabby to live with a host family in Iowa (the first one didn’t work out) so that Gabby could have the training she would need to fulfill her Olympic dreams. A girl does not become an Olympic champion by spending a lot of time in a hair salon chair, or a nail parlor. (If they were wealthy that might be a different story, of course; they could have the chair come to them). She and her mother set their priories based upon their dreams and the resources and energy needed to fulfill Gabby’s dreams. Gabby did not become the first African American all around Olympian champion in gymnastics by chance but by giving priority to the necessary time and effort in training and constructing her dreams. Our priorities should be set based on the dreams we are pursuing. If your biggest dreams are to be told how wonderful your hair looks or how beautiful our nails are, then let those things control your priorities. But if you have allowed peer pressure and your environment to sucker you into giving up on your dreams by giving priority to superficial stuff, it’s not too late to re-evaluate and make a u-turn.

Modern-day Sex Slavery & High Profile Predators

noreply@blogger.com (WomanistNTProf) — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 14:54:00 +0000

When a link is created between social status and ideas of familiarity, persons who attain to levels of social status based on positions of authority held in a society are considered as safer and less dangerous than persons of lower social status. The elite and persons of authority in any society or community are as capable of violence against women and girls as are any other members of a society. In the story of the brutal rape of the Levite's concubine in chapter 17 of the biblical book of Judges, the dissonance between the concubine and the Levite’s social status are clear. Although both the Levite and his concubine are anonymous, their social class is foregrounded. God consecrated the Levites to serve as priests (Num 1:48-54), but concubines are sex slaves used in the service of men and women (Gen 16; 25:6; 35:22; Ex 21:7-11). The foregrounding of the Levite’s social position within Israel in the story is similarly achieved in the preceding story of the unnamed Levite (Judges 17-18) and the unnamed Levite in the “Good Samaritan” story at Luke 10:32. Perhaps, like the Levite in the story of the “Good Samaritan,” the Levite in our story is unnamed because he might represent anyone within established religious circles and leadership. The fact that this unnamed man is identified as a Levite might prejudice some readers in favor of the Levite so that they are willing to overlook or mitigate any questionable behavior attributed to him. Or the Levite’s status may motivate some readers to view the concubine as the guilty party in the marriage because she is of lower class status. The narrative and textual ambiguity as to precisely why she left her husband might contribute to such a reading.

Familiarity based on social position fosters the notion that persons holding authoritative and respected positions in a community (neighborhood, church or parish) can be trusted more so than persons of lower social position or class. According to David Batstone, “we do not expect to find [modern-day slavery] in ‘respectable’ settings. To learn that slave holders press children into forced labor in the cacao plantations of the Ivory Coast may not surprise us. But we regard it as unthinkable that an otherwise upstanding citizen might be a slaveholder.”[i] (We believe we are far removed from the time when a country such as the U.S. or South Africa deemed it legally and morally acceptable for “respectable” citizens to own slaves.) A prime example is Kim Meston who, wishes that she had not been so invisible to her New England community. In a rural town near Worcester, Massachusetts, the minister of the local church used her as his domestic sex slave for five years without raising the slightest suspicion in the community. At the age of sixteen, Kim began a double life in America. Everything would have appeared normal to the casual observer—she attended the local high school, ran on the track team, and attended church on Sundays. The minister even had a wife and a stepdaughter living in his home. But behind closed doors, she became the household servant, doing nearly all the cooking, housecleaning, ironing, and even tending the church grounds. Moreover, the minister sexually abused Kim frequently over a five-year period.[ii]

We have all heard of or know of high profile predators. We must stop making excuses for and relaxing the boundaries that would protect our children from people (of high and/or low social standing) who might physically or verbally abuse them. We should not make assumptions about their safety based on social status. We have to be proactive in setting up boundaries, asking for background checks, and taking primary responsibility for their safety and well-being. And we must be vigilant keeping our eyes open for all God's children.

[i] Batstone, Not for Sale,7.

[ii] Batstone, Not for Sale, 7-8. Kim was brought to the U.S. by a church minister visiting southern India from the U.S.. Her parents were Tibetan exiles living in a refugee camp when the minister offered to bring Kim to America and provide a better life and education for her, promising to treat her like his own daughter.

Feminist and Feminism are not double four letter words!

noreply@blogger.com (WomanistNTProf) — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 02:37:00 +0000

Not all feminists think or act the same. But very simply understood, a feminist is a woman or man (yes, male feminists exist) who believes that women are human beings too. And as human beings, women or females deserve to be treat with the same consideration, freedoms, privileges, and benefits as their male human counterparts. Feminism is a political and human rights movement that seeks to raise the consciousness of men and women about systems of domination that oppress people because of their gender, race or class (and other categories of oppression). The system of domination that oppresses persons based on their female gender is generally called patriarchy. Feminism is a movement to end sexism and sexist exploitation. It is a movement to end violence against women and all forms of violence.

It was the feminist movement that fought for and won the right for women to vote. It is because of the feminist movement that women can work outside of their homes and earn a wage. (Of course, black women have had to work outside of the “home” as slaves long before the women’s suffrage movement of the nineteenth century.) Many two parent homes benefit from two incomes and are able to provide for their families in ways that one income might not permit. A man does not have to bear total responsibility for the welfare of his family, particularly in a bad economy or in a system in which some men are underemployed, underpaid, last hired, and first fired. I remember visiting a church with my then husband in Chattanooga. This particular denomination of the church we visited that day generally has a strong patriarchal theo/ideologies about women and men’s roles in church and society. This was the denomination my now ex husband grew up in. That Sunday the pastor preached that men as heads of the household should bear sole responsibility for the household; that if his wife works, she should be able to do whatever she wants with her money (shop it away, regardless of bills that need paying). As quick as we sat down, my now ex said, “let’s go.”

Anyone raised in a single-parent, female-headed household should be grateful that his or her parent could work and earn a decent wage. It is because of the feminist movement that families have legal access to birth control of many forms and can therefore generally plan when and how many children they will conceive. It is because of the feminist movement and the courage of individual women that women can enroll in colleges and universities and pursue dreams and degrees that tradition, fueled by patriarchal ideology and not divine ordination, had reserved for men. As bell hooks writes “Feminist politics aims to end domination to free us to be who we are. . . . Feminism is for everybody.”

God did not create two unequal human beings: Male and female created God them. God gave them the responsibility of taking care of the earth that God entrusted to them. To point primarily to the story of God taking a rib from the Adam (the human being) as a sign of women’s subordination or submissiveness to men or to the story of the curse after the “fall” in the garden of Eden is to dismiss the rest of the story. God did not consider God’s self a suitable partner for Adam. It was about being of the same species or kind; it was not a matter of subordination or an inferior flesh. Why not take a rib? Why “reinvent the wheel” when all God had to do was put the “wheel” to sleep? God created them in the image of God! And the feminist or womanist [see Alice Walker's In Our Mother's Gardens where she defines womanist/womanish] movement is about existentially, socially (and soul-cially) and politically reaffirming that image in women and minorities despite operative patriarchal ideologies and constructed theologies to the contrary. Women deserve equal pay for equal work. Feminists/womanists are not about emasculating men (which I might add is only possible if a man’s masculinity resides outside of himself in the form of traditional roles constructed on women’s backs). We are about empowering women to live and freely express their full God-given humanity. We are about engendering the wholeness and health of the entire community.

Human language does not limit God: A note on Agape.

noreply@blogger.com (WomanistNTProf) — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 03:57:00 +0000

Some interpreters claim that the Greek noun agape or the Greek verb agapao, translated as love in English, is the ultimate or sole designation of divine love or God’s love. Simply, not true, at least not in the biblical book the Gospel of John. In fact, humans, as well as God, are the subjects of the Greek verb agapao in John’s Gospel. And sometimes the verb agapao is used in a positive sense and sometimes in a negative way. Sometimes the Greek verb phileo (also translated love) is used to describe God’s love and is not limited to human love. For example, “ for God so loved (agapao) the world” (3:6); “the people loved (agapao) darkness rather than light” (3:19); “the Father loves (phileo) the son and shows him all that he himself is doing” (5:20); “those who love (phileo) their lives lose it” (12:25); or “as the Father has loved (agapao) me, so I have loved (agapao) you” (15:9). The writer may have preferred one word over the other at times or used one word more often, but that does not make one word significantly different in meaning than the other word. And if by chance it did, such significance need not be God’s, but ours.

God is not and will not be limited by human language, whether that language is Greek, Hebrew or English. The author of John’s Gospel seemed to know the limitations of language when it comes to describing God’s love, even if we try to interpret his Gospel to make it “preach” a certain way. Language is for our benefit to communicate with one another. God does not need language the same way we do. God created the world with speech and is not to be equated with whatever “speech” God may have used. The Word that was with God and was God at John 1:1 is not to be equated with human language.

God can speak to us and manifest God’s self in any language God chooses, whether it is English, Spanish, Arabic, Swahili or Coptic. No language is theologically superior to another any more than any ethnic group is superior to another. And God can choose not to “speak” but to act. In fact a reading of John’s Gospel shows that John’s Jesus prioritizes action above speech. How we treat each other is more important than the particular language and words we use. No language can contain or perfectly express the love of God, only imperfectly. So it behooves us once again to be more humble about our speech and our interpretations and to be more concerned with how we embody or practically express God’s love as we interact with each other. It was the Apostle Paul who wrote at 1 Corinthians 13:1, If I speak with languages of humans and angels and have not love, I am nothing but noise.

A Personal Note on The problem of Decontextualized Public Readings

noreply@blogger.com (WomanistNTProf) — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 21:19:00 +0000

I was recently asked to read a scripture at a public event. I chose my scripture, as requested, and submitted it. A day later, I was sent a “recommended” NIV scripture reading. I looked at the text and knew/felt instantaneously that I could not read it. I asked the sender of the email if it was really “recommended” so that I could stick with the text I originally submitted at their request. Her boss replied that he “preferred” that I read the “recommended” scripture. I replied that they should choose another person to perform the public reading; I could not. And I did not think the venue the proper place to engage in an un(sus)expected critique of the guest’s text.

Having just completed my lectures for a new prep course “Postcolonial Biblical Criticism” in which I challenged students not to simply reinscribe oppressive, imperialistic and/or unjust relations, descriptions, characterizations, and representations found in the sacred scriptures without contextualizing, unraveling and critiquing them, I could not do it. I barely blinked between the time my heart said no and my fingers keyed the words with my final reply; I could not read the text. Please choose another person to read it.

Over the years, I’ve challenged my students to do the same critical and contextualized reading in different courses. I could not with enthusiasm, spiritual fervor, or oratorical sophistication recite a sacred text in which God is likened to an exacting slave master, even if the translation reads servant instead of slave (both translations of the Greek word doulos).

In my past life as an uncritical, doctrinally circumscribed, and passive bible reader whose consciousness about oppressions in the text, beyond the issue of women called to preach, had not been raised, I would have read the text without blinking. And no doubt many of my students will read such texts without critique and without a second thought (just as many seminarians revert to using nonexclusive language in their sermons and writing). But some will be uncomfortable, at the least. And they should be uncomfortable with such “texts of terror” (a phrase derived from Phyllis Trible), for slavery often allowed for the social and bodily dismemberment of people as well as the brutal rape and murder of human beings considered as property to be bought, sold, used, and abused at will. And ancient Roman slavery was no less brutal and inhumane than slavery in any other slave society. Slavery in any context is an ideologically justified systemic and institutionalized commodification of human beings who are seized, dehumanized, brutalized, and sexually abused; it involves the exacting of under- or unpaid-labor from one human being by another. Slavery is no less terrorizing than the rape and dismemberment of a Levite’s concubine wife or a sister of Judah. Just because it is in the Bible, does not make it okay. Just because some biblical writers had no problem likening God/Jesus to a slave master, does not mean we should not be bothered. If I have contributed to a student’s discomfort with “texts of terror,” then my learning and teaching is not in vain.

The Trayvon Martin Tragedy and the Cooptation of Fear

noreply@blogger.com (WomanistNTProf) — Wed, 30 May 2012 00:33:00 +0000

I started writing this blog entry, this memorial, a month or so ago. Trayvon Martin is still on my mind. In 2005 Florida became the first state to pass a “Stand Your Ground” law under Republican governor Jeb Bush and under the Presidency of George W. Bush. Florida’s “Stand Your Ground Law” permitted a gun toting George Zimmerman to hunt down and murder a black teenager whom he felt was a threat to him. The one aggressively carrying the gun is the one entrusted with the determination of threat. This situation is reminiscent of the permissive lynching of black men or teenagers like Emit Till whose death at the hands of some white men was justified on the basis of a perceived or contrived threat to white men’s wives and sisters. White men who felt that black men and other men of color were a threat to them or their sisters, wives, daughters, mothers, aunts, and nieces could murder said black males in cold blood on their own word that a black male delivered a threat via a glance or whistle. Such constructed and contrived feelings of some among the majority and of those who identify with the majority based on similarity of skin color or other physical features continue to be in some places the sole basis for assaulting and murdering people who are ostensibly other. These others have the misfortune of transgressing the imagined and constructed boundaries of space and place reserved for whites only. An out of place other who transgresses spaces reserved for the majority must be put back in his or her place or eliminated as an example to others who think the world is their playground. For people like Zimmerman, Trayvon Martin had transgressed space allotted for white people like him and needed to be put back in his place. So Zimmerman pursued the young teenager that carried ice tea in one hand and skittles in his pocket.

I reject the feelings of fear usurped by Zimmerman as one who identifies with the majority and takes a stand against a young teenager who is ostensibly black and therefore out of place. I reject the usurpation of fear by the majority or those who identify with them as a basis for determining whether one is a threat. I reject this usurpation of fear because despite the history of violence in this country perpetrated by the white majority against the Native Indians and black slaves and free(d) blacks, representatives of the majority culture (and those who aligned themselves with it) have co-opted and usurped the fear that should logically and experientially belong to racialized, deracinated, colonized, and racialized minorities. Despite White America’s history of being the aggressor and agent of violence against Native Indians and Africans shipped to America’s shores as slave, many white peoples’ fears of racialized minorities (backed historically by gun- and Bible-toting colonists and more lately by powerful lobbyist such as the NRA and wealth without conscious) have been given voice and legitimization. This same usurpation of fear phenomenon played out in South Africa and other places around the globe. I remember when Apartheid ended in South Africa, the greatest fear was the fear of retaliation by blacks against whites and/or Afrikaners. Never mind the perpetual fear that terrorized “blacks” and “colored” people during Apartheid’s bloody reign. The people who should be fearful are not permitted to express their fearfulness in any rhetorical and/or public way. But those who have been the perpetrators of violence are licensed to continue committing acts of violence against those they have historically victimized.

I reject this usurpation of fear because my feelings of fear as a black female are seldom acknowledged or too of ten considered to be without foundation despite the majority people’s not so distant history of violence against black people and against women in general. There is stark contrast between Zimmerman and Marissa Alexander’s cases. Both live in Florida. One is a “white” Hispanic male and the other is obviously an African American female. Zimmerman killed a young teenager whom he felt was a threat to his life. Marissa fired a warning shot at her ex-husband who had a history and record of abusing her. Florida’s “stand your ground law” allowed Zimmerman to avoid initial arrest. The same law provided no shelter or defense for Marissa who was sentenced to 20 years in prison on May 14, 2012. Fear for her life, despite past abuse and threats, was not an adequate defense for Marissa to fire a warning shot at her abuser. But fear of an unarmed “black” teenager by a male who identifies with the majority in a racialized society is enough to keep him out of jail until the human public pressed for a proper investigation and arrest.

If anybody should be entitled to feelings of fear in this society it should be racialized minorities and women. Yet, they are not the ones who vociferously lobby for the right to carry guns. I reject the cooptation of the fears that racialized minorities should more legitimately be entitled to express given the history of violence perpetrated against us in this country. Native Indians were victimized violently when their lives, land, culture, dignity, and human rights were (and continue to be) snatched from under their feet like a worn out mat. Africans and African Americans were enslaved, murdered, raped, disenfranchised, lynched, discriminated against, and continue to experience racism and de facto separate and unequal treatment in education, housing, health care, and jurisprudence. Women have been the inordinate victims of sexual and domestic violence globally and continue to disproportionately, experience sexual and domestic violence.

Our right to (but decision not to) live in constant fear is co-opted when a white majority and/or those who aligned themselves with them pass laws allowing them to kill another human being because they feel threatened or fear for their lives. Their fear is justified and ours is paranoia. Not surprisingly an organization like the NRA, a majority white male group, is the primary financial supporter of and lobbyist for the law that made Zimmerman believe he could hunt down and shoot Trayvon Martin with impunity. When the murder of a black teen like Trayvon Martin by someone hiding behind the shoot-and-ask-questions later law receives the media attention it deserves, the NRA accuses the media of “sensationalizing” the event. Executive VP of the NRA Wayne LaPierre called the media coverage of this case “a national disgrace.” At an NRA rally, Ted Nugent called our duly elected President of the United States of America, President Barack Obama, “vile and evil” and said that he would be dead – sowing fear and violence. But Nugent and other card-carrying (and non) members of the NRA promote the idea that they need to defend themselves from the rest of us. This trivializing of the victim’s tragedy by the perpetrator’s perceived legal and racial privilege is another way of co-opting the legitimate fears of many minorities and women who associate more with the victim, and rightfully so.

An Old Ode Old to You who Want to Know

noreply@blogger.com (WomanistNTProf) — Thu, 10 May 2012 17:22:00 +0000

This is an old ode old to YOU who want to know or who imply

That I am gay because YOU see on my Facebook page

A post in favor of my gay brothers and sisters

Because YOU can’t bring yourself to believe that a heterosexual black Christian preacher girl

Would take such a stand unless she was something you could despise

Or unless YOU in your mind could make her Other than YOU

I would not have YOU to be ignorant, my brothers and sisters

But I do not have to be gay to stand with

Other human beings who want the same rights that

We heterosexuals have

YOU want to know, fellow Christian, who despised me and decided I was/am

Less human than YOU because I have darker skin

YOU want to know brother/sister Christian, YOU who slight me because I say I am

Called to preach but I am the wrong gender for YOU to

Respect me and ask me to preach except on Women’s Day, No matter how well I preach

And how the Spirit uses me.

YOU want to know who am I to claim to be a Christian and to stand with my fellow human beings who believe God loves them as they are and made them as they are

YOU who lied about me, talked about me, tried to pull me down

Just yesterday

YOU want to make me what YOU despise

Because I stand with other human beings who want the rights YOU and I have

YOU want to know because you forgot or you conveniently dismissed

How many heterosexual men and women have abused women and children

Because they are perverse heterosexual men and women, many of who are

Like YOU Christians who hate and oppose gay men and women having rights

Rights they opposed and some still oppose for blacks and mixed couples

YOU who preach hard and long against gays as an abomination before God

And then YOU, self-proclaimed heterosexual preacher, have secretly sodomized, raped, fondled, cuddled with and loved others of your same sex

I remember the youth pastor, a married man with children, in Maryland who was found

Out… YOU know what I’m talking about

YOU know, YOU remember….Let me refresh your memory

About the pastor’s daughter in California who not so long ago raped and murdered

The little girl who attended her Sunday school class

YOU know the not so LONG ago priests/preachers who have abused the children

While YOU in the pews look the other way, support them

Or explain it away by claiming they must have been gay

As if gays are the only people capable of committing such sexual crimes

YOU know the church has its own “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy….

Always whispering about this one and that one

Yet the church roles and rolls on

Don’t YOU know that my grandfather was a heterosexual male, married four times

Don’t YOU know he was a deacon in the Baptist church

Don’t YOU know he was the one who molested me and raped one of his own estranged daughters

YOU in the church, YOU who lied about me to my face without blinking an eye

YOU who continually stretch the truth but never admit to lying

YOU in the church, who dismiss the hungry and homeless by claiming they don’t exist

YOU who gossip, spread rumors, create confusion and dissension

If YOU say gays are an abomination before God because the Bible says so,

Then YOU have more in common than YOU care to admit

But you stand your ground as if your ground is holier….

And YOU want to know what? What is it YOU want to know?

You Are Not Your Breasts, Butt, Hair or Face

noreply@blogger.com (WomanistNTProf) — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 15:54:00 +0000

What do you EMBODY? Yesterday at the Breast Cancer Awareness luncheon at the Westin in Southfield, MI, I met beautiful, bubbly Mrs. Joiner (her and her husband started the Joiner Foundation in Illinois). Mrs. Joiner, an African American woman, had had a masectomy, and she is a survivor! She opened her jacket & flashed her chest which clearly showed she now had one breast under her beautiful bright pink shell. Wow! I was stunned for a second; felt a quick jolt of fear, and then realized the power of the moment. Wow! She has taken control of her life and is EMBODYING herself as a beautiful subject and not the object of degrading sexism. A powerful moment of embodiment and testimony! Wow! It is okay to choose reconstructive surgery, but she chose not to. And she is not ashamed of her body! She embodies her body well, with peace and confidence. Many of us may never have to make such choices about our body in the face of cancer or something else, but yet we can't embody our bodies with such peace and confidence.

Many women are ashamed of their bodies and have not had to struggle with life-threatening illness that force them to choose between keeping body parts and life. Yesterday, Entertainment Tonight aired a story about a woman who paid $10,000 for butt surgery because she wanted a butt like Pippa Middleton's!?! Butt surgery has become the number one surgery sought by women replacing breast augmentation. And most cosmetic surgeries are done solely for cosmetic reasons, to look like someBODY else or because we have been convinced that our BODIES are not sexually appealing; that the body parts we have or the clothes we wear do not objectify our sexuality enough.

Does your self-worth lie in your body parts and how attractive they are or are not to the opposite sex or a significant other? Does your self-worth lie in how close you can come to looking like the thrice painted over and airbrushed models in the magazine covers and in the movies? Then maybe what we have is not self-worth but a deficiency of worth in self -- a worth that is based on how others' value or devalue our bodies. What others demand and require of our bodies will change and will never be enough. We are chasing ever-changing and elusive fantasies that are driving us away from self-worth!

We are not our breasts, butts, hair or face! We are the character we develop and share with the world to make it a better place for ourselves, our children, and our fellow human beings! We should want to live in a world that loves and respects difference, variety, the natural beauty we all have, character, and loving human interaction-- not to mention the ethical questions that arise about spending thousands of dollars on cosmetic augmentation when people who are suffering from debilitating and life-threatening illnesses struggle to pay for or cannot afford good health care treatment or prevention! And I wish our magazines would not make fashion and cosmetic enhancements their primary focus. Let's examine ourselves for health and not to make unhealthy comparisons with other women. I'm saying...

Re-membering Hypatia. Egyptian Mathmetician/Astronomer/Philosopher

noreply@blogger.com (WomanistNTProf) — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 04:36:00 +0000

Recently Netflix sent me a movie that I swear I did not add to my que. But I was pleasantly surprised. The Agora turned out to be the story Hypatia of Alexandria, a fourth to fifth century CE (ca. 370/390 - 415) female philosopher, astronomer, and mathmetician. Hypatia's father Theon raised her. Her mother made no appearance in the film and, historically, little is known of her. Hypatia was considered a woman way ahead of her time. She taught young men mathematics, philosophy and astrology. She followed in her father's intellectual footsteps. Theon was a mathmetician, philosopher, astronomer, astrologer, and he was the last director of the Museum at Alexandria. He himself educated his daughter. And the student surpassed the genius of her teacher (what all good teachers hope for).

Hypatia lived in one of the intellectual capitals of the ancient world, Alexandria. According to the movie, Hypatia never married. But in Damascius's Life of Isidore, she was the wife of the philosopher Isidorus.

Hypatia suffered a vicious and premeditated death motivated by decontextualized interpretations of Pauline texts employed prescriptively and proscriptively. After Constantine made Christianity the dominant religion (later, it became the state religion, ca 391), the state and many Christians put pressure on others to conform to Christianity. Hypatia, as a teacher of young men, came under scrutiny. Thus, some Christians invoked the Pauline prohibition about women teaching men against her, according to the movie. Hypatia refused to become a Christian and to stop teaching. Consequently, a Christian mob seized her, stripped her, and stoned her to death. Socrates Scholasticus re-members in his Ecclesiastical History:

On account of the self-possession and ease of manner, which she had acquired in consequence of the cultivation of her mind, she not unfrequently appeared in public in presence of the magistrates. Neither did she feel abashed in going to an assembly of men. For all men on account of her extraordinary dignity and virtue admired her the more. Yet even she fell victim to the political jealousy which at that time prevailed. For as she had frequent interviews with Orestes, it was calumniously reported among the Christian populace, that it was she who prevented Orestes from being reconciled to the bishop. Some of them, therefore, hurried away by a fierce and bigoted zeal, whose ringleader was a reader named Peter, waylaid her returning home, and dragging her from her carriage, they took her to the church called Caesareum, where they completely stripped her, and then murdered her with [brick] tiles. After tearing her body in pieces, they took her mangled limbs to a place called Cinaron, and there burnt them. This affair brought not the least opprobrium, not only upon Cyril, but also upon the whole Alexandrian church. And surely nothing can be farther from the spirit of Christianity than the allowance of massacres, fights, and transactions of that sort. This happened in the month of March during Lent, in the fourth year of Cyril's episcopate, under the tenth consulate of Honorius, and the sixth of Theodosius.

Hypatia suffered an early and butal death. Letters written by her most famous student, Synesius of Cyrene, who was to become the wealthy and powerful Bishop of Ptolemais, are extant. In a letter to an old schoolmate he wrote of Hypatia, "You and I, we ourselves both saw and heard the true and real teacher of the mysteries of philosophy." Damascius wrote the following about her:

The woman used to put on her philosopher's cloak and walk through the middle of town and publicly interpret Plato, Aristotle, or the works of any other philosopher to those who wished to hear her. In addition to her expertise in teaching she rose to the pinnacle of civic virtue. She was both just and chaste and remained always a virgin [not sure how this accords with the claim that she was Isidorus' wife]. She was so beautiful and shapely that one of her students fell in love with her and was unable to control himself and openly showed her a sign of his infatuation. Uninformed reports had Hypatia curing him of his affliction with the help of music. The truth is that the story about music is corrupt. Actually, she gathered rags that had been stained during her period and showed them to him as a sign of her unclean descent and said, "This is what you love, young man, and it isn't beautiful!" He was so affected by shame and amazement at the ugly sight that he experienced a change of heart and went away a better man.

Hypatia was, to use contemporary slang "all that and a bag of chips." She was a sharp sister. Hypatia authored two books and edited one. I'll leave it to the reader to draw her own lessons from this re-membering.

"AGE IS OPPORTUNITY"; IT'S NOT TOO LATE:

noreply@blogger.com (WomanistNTProf) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 21:48:00 +0000

I truly believe it is never too late to accomplish a dream or desire. I've always admired people who could run marathons and other athletes. I've jogged a mile or more in my younger years, and momentarily considered what it would be like to run a marathon. This week I decided that I'm going to run a marathon. I know nothing about running a marathon, but I have a desire; and I'm acting on it. I Facebooked Myrna Jackson who runs marathons and asked her how to get started. She so graciously found a program on the internet for me to follow and suggested the Martian Race as a start. I commenced my program today. The Martian Race is both 5K and 10K and is scheduled for April 2012. I will, of course, start with the 5K, thanks Myrna. I am not starting as a couch potato; I began getting myself back in good physical shape a couple of years ago, but have not yet reached all my goals. I am in it to win--proper diet and all (no more ice cream binges). I can't say it enough. God made the most forgiving, efficient, and wonder machine when She made the human body. Even people with physical challenges have accomplished magnificent goals with a dream and discipline. What is it you want to do? Do your homework; network for information, support, and lasting relationships; and let's go!

Never Too Late

By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“It is too late! Ah, nothing is too late—
Cato learned Greek at eighty; Sophocles
Wrote his grand “Oedipus,” and Simonides
Bore off the prize of verse from his compeers
When each had numbered more than fourscore years;
And Theophrastus, at fourscore and ten,
Had begun his “Characters of Men.”
Chaucer, at Woodstock, with his nightingales,
At sixty wrote the “Canterbury Tales.”
Goethe, at Weimar, toiling to the last,
Completed “Faust” when eighty years were past.
What then? Shall we sit idly down and say,
“The night has come; it is no longer day”?
For age is opportunity no less
Than youth itself, though in another dress.
And as the evening twilight fades away,
The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day.
It is never too late to start doing what is right.
Never.

Wadsworth had it right! Consider the example of Mrs. Ernestine Shephard who began bodybuilding late in life (60's I believe). She is now 74 yrs old. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/29/ernestine-shepherd-worlds-oldest-female-bodybuilder_n_868577.html

LET'S GO! YOU CAN DO IT!

EACH DAY IS A GIFT! Happy New Year!

noreply@blogger.com (WomanistNTProf) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 15:03:00 +0000

Time calculated in years is both superficial and real. It is real because birthday clock begins again and our bodies sync with it, for the most part. It is real because it marks the end of a tax year with the new April 15 in sight. Year-end and watch night ceremonies and celebrations can lull us into thinking that 12:01 am December 31 is magical, miraculous, or even our lucky day. We watch the clock as if God himself fixed and sanctified it as special. Indeed, New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day can be as eventful, special, holy, magical, and miraculous as any other day. For some, it is like Valentine’s Day, another day that intensifies their aloneness and inability to run into or find that right woman or man throughout the rest of the year. And the media, as with other holidays, brings into relief or bolsters the idea of Jan 1 as the newest of all. Each day we open our eyes, step out of our beds, catch sight of a streaming golden light parading into our bedrooms or the pitter patter sounds of Mother’s Nature’s dripping faucet in the sky, see the rise and fall of our chests signaling that our breath never left our bodies, it is a new miraculous day ripe for beautiful and wondrous encounters. We can help make things happen any day of the year. We are God’s elves in this workshop called earth! If we wait until January 1, 2012 to resolve to live our best life, we just might miss out on the opportunity of our lifetime. Yet, I believe it is never too late to begin again. But if we think we must wait until January 1, we likely will be disappointed when we find that just like December 1 resolutions, January 1 resolutions demand faith, hard work, and stepping out of our comfort zones. Therefore, today I remind myself of and renew these resolutions:

WHEREAS, I am created in the image of God, and

WHEREAS, God’s Spirit moves upon, resides in, and anoints me with wisdom and power, and

WHEREAS, I pray for and am grateful for God’s daily strength, faithfulness, faith in me,

I, THEREFORE, RESOLVE to

BELIEVE in myself even when others cannot and do not.

CULTIVATE the bundled seed that God nourished in my mother’s womb in order to become the talented, gifted, successful, giving, compassionate, innovative, wise woman God envisioned me to be.

KNOW that this cultivation is the work of a lifetime, I pledge each day to ACT in ways that will realize the vision, including hard work, community involvement, heartily laughing and playing, educating my mind and spirit, exercising my limbs and mind, resting my body, mind and soul, reflecting in quiet space, and gifting back to the land and humanity.

HOPE in and VISUALIZE a present and future in which God grants me the desires of my heart, filling my mind with hope-filled thoughts, clothing my body in a way that demonstrates expectation but not recklessness, walking paths that place me at God’s disposal.

GIFT the body temple God loaned me with daily exercise, fresh air, clean foods, ample rest, plenty of water, and dancing.

WRITE books and essays that are liberating, informative, and that reflect God’s hand upon my soul and mind.

CREATE opportunities and space to use my gifts instead of waiting for other people and institutions to acknowledge and appreciate them.

BECOMING a more conscientious, passionate, and compassionate teacher.

EMBRACE and STRIVE to be a kind, loving, forgiving, flexible, friend, sister, aunt, and colleague (and possibly a foster or adoptive parent).

GUARD my boundaries and accept the boundaries others’ deserve and need.

POUR life and commitment into my dreams and encourage others to dream.

GO TO THE OCEAN, SEA, or BEACH as often as I can.

BE OPEN to change;

AND ACKNOWLEDGE in speech and practice that each day is a gift.

Tis’ the Season for Equality. Poverty & Education

noreply@blogger.com (WomanistNTProf) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 07:19:00 +0000

An estimated 16 million children live in poverty in the U.S of A. And Mr. Gene Marks, the author of a December 12, 2011 Forbes article entitled “If I were a Poor Black Kid,” would like to convince us that the solution to this problem, especially for black children in poverty is to alleviate their own ignorance. He begins and ends his article by citing President Obama’s December 6, 2011 Kansas City Speech on the economy in which he addressed inequality in America. Marks speaks through both sides of his mouth:

President Obama was right in his speech last week. The division between rich and poor is a national problem. But the biggest challenge we face isn’t inequality. It’s ignorance. So many kids from West Philadelphia don’t even know these opportunities exist for them. Many come from single-parent families whose mom or dad (or in many cases their grand mom) is working two jobs to survive and are just (understandably) too plain tired to do anything else in the few short hours they’re home. Many have teachers who are overburdened and too stressed to find the time to help every kid that needs it. Many of these kids don’t have the brains to figure this out themselves – like my kids. Except that my kids are just lucky enough to have parents and a well-funded school system around to push them in the right direction….Technology can help these kids. But only if the kids want to be helped. Yes, there is much inequality. But the opportunity is still there in this country for those that are smart enough to go for it.

Where do I start debunking the bunk? Mr. Marks places the burden for the children’s own education on the children themselves, regardless of age. He would make it his number one priority, as “a poor black kid,” to “read sufficiently” (sufficiently for what?). Reading literacy, which Mr. Marks rightly places a high premium on to become a good student and achieving success, must occur early in a child’s education. Reading basics begin in kindergarten and first grade. Mr. Marks states that the big challenge poor children face is not inequality but ignorance. Whose ignorance? It is the children’s ignorance according to Mr. Marks. All poor black children’s parents are busy or overburdened, so the children must assume the burden of correcting their own ignorance and thereby transcending inequality. When technology is not as readily or equally available in the schools poor black children attend as it is in the schools middle and upper class white children attend, we are talking about inequality, Mr. Marks.

Mr. Marks writes, “I believe that everyone in this country has a chance to succeed.” But I believe the point is to provide, as much as possible, a level playing field so that everyone in this country has the same chance at succeeding in this country. I don’t believe it will ever be completely level. We cannot force people to be fair nor can we erase racism from people’s hearts and minds. But we can do our best to put into place school systems that are more equal in terms of quality of teachers, teacher’s pay, facilities, books, and equipment. If our urban schools where most poor children attend are suffering because of white and black flight and consequent loss of tax dollars, then we need to find a way to replace those dollars.

“It takes brains. It takes hard work,” Marks argues. I am assuming that by brains he means access to quality education, since he does admit that his children are no more capable than poor black children. Indeed, unless a child suffers from a physical challenge, all children are capable of excelling; none are born with brains inferior to others because of race, socio-economic status, gender or ethnicity. But what may be hard for Marks’ children may be extremely difficult (and in some cases impossible) for another child who has a parent whose spirit or will has been broken by the system and thus unable to motivate her child. Children whose teachers and peers may tell him or her that he/she is not capable of achieving with no one to buffer such venomous emotional attacks may find it impossible to motivate themselves to succeed. I once tutored a homeless child (third grader) who was bright and did not know it. When I tried to help him with his homework, he told me that he was not capable of doing his schoolwork. I asked why not. He said because my teacher told me so. I told him he could do it; that he was smart and capable. I saw him light up, try, and complete his homework. I don’t know what happened to him once that program was over. I don’t know whether he was able to keep that light burning or if that same teacher or another snuffed his little light out like a wick in an old kerosene lamp. We underestimate the power of motivation. Very few children are self-motivated. Children need parents, teachers, significant others in their lives to spark the light of motivation.

Mr. Marks further writes, “If I was a poor black kid I would first and most importantly work to make sure I got the best grades possible. I would make it my #1 priority to be able to read sufficiently. I wouldn’t care if I was a student at the worst public middle school in the worst inner city.” Mr. Marks’s repeated use of the phrase “if I were a poor black kid” made be dizzy almost ad nauseam. As he stated at the outset of his article, he is not a poor black kid; he is a middle aged white man with a middle class background unable to stand, sit, squat, or tip toe in the shoes of a poor black kid. Poor black and other minority or white children may very well be living a homeless existence either on the streets or in a shelter, their parent(s) could be addicted to drugs or be physically or emotionally ill; these children could be suffering from sleep deprivation, hunger, teasing and/or bullying by peers and adults because of their circumstances, etc. And the best grades most may possibly achieve under such circumstances may be failing grades. Even middle or upper class children who do not have the added burden of poverty may make failing grades due to emotional trauma or bullying (by peers or adults).

In Mr. Mark’s mind, a black child in poverty would transcend all the obstacles in his poverty stricken, inadequate, racist, biased world so that we would not need to talk about equality, alleviating poverty, racism, etc. All those things are not at issue if the child chooses to “pull himself up by his bootstraps.” No matter the age or circumstances of the poor black child, he can be his own superman or superwoman. Mr. Marks can easily afford to not “care if I was a student in the worst public middle school in the worst inner city” because he is not, nor are his children; they are far from it. And he is unable to even imagine it. “Even the worst have their best,“ Marks argues. And sometimes the best of the worst is just across the railroad tracks or down the street. Remember Kelly Williams-Bolar, the black Ohio woman, who was arrested for enrolling her children in a better school district wanting more opportunities for her children? Obviously, even with the help of a caring and capable parent, the best was not to be an option among the worst.

He goes on to say that “the very best students, even at the worst schools, have more opportunities.” My mother spent a lot of time in and out of hospitals, dealing with chronic joint pain. After about the time I was in 3^rd of 4^th grade she was no longer able to actively participate in my education. Before her illnesses, she was a PTA (Parent Teacher Association) mom. In junior high and high school I achieved very good grades, often being on the honor roll. I did not want to go to college out of high school even though I was college material because I wanted to get a job to help out my mother and to enjoy some financial independence. My guidance counselors (those people Mr. Marks speaks so highly of, and I’m sure some are worthy of his praise) never presented me with alternative options. They never told me that maybe I might change my mind about college and therefore may need to take algebra and a language in preparation for college. Teachers, guidance counselors, administrators etc can be racially, socio-economically, and otherwise biased against children and act upon those biases to withhold options even when they are available, Mr. Marks. Mr. Mark’s has no idea of what the “best of the worst” might be. He seems to be pushing some version of the “survival of the fittest” for poor black children. According to Mr. Marks, “It takes a special kind of kid to succeed.”

“If you do poorly in school, particularly in a lousy school, you’re severely limiting the limited opportunities you have,” argues Mr. Marks. Tell a poor child something he or she does not sense or know. This is a good reason to make sure that poor children do not have to attend lousy schools, that is, to bring about equality, Mr. Marks. No child should have to attend a lousy school. When I think of lousy schools, I think of shortages of books, unmotivated and/or poorly trained or equipped teachers, poor facilities and an atmosphere that does not promote or encourage learning. So are we to leave our poor minority and white children in such poor environments and just push a survival of the fittest mentality? God forbid!

Further Mr. Marks writes “I would use the technology available to me as a student. I know a few school teachers and they tell me that many inner city parents usually have or can afford cheap computers and internet service nowadays.” I would love to know who are these “few school teachers” from whom Mr. Marks derived his uninformed gossip; now this is real ignorance. Really, Mr. Marks? I made a decent salary and I have sometimes considered turning my Internet service off and using the internet at my job. In fact, when the gas prices skyrocketed to over four dollars, I briefly turned off my Internet service to save money and tried using the computers at the nearby Novi public library now and then. Too often, I arrived at the library and not one computer was free; older adults looking for jobs occupied all. Poor kids are supposed to go to libraries, other schools, or locate an online outlet and purchase a computer for themselves (or their parents are to do so). Mr. Marks has no idea what it means to live in poverty. People who live in poverty, as I did growing up, might not possess a quarter for bus fare, a credit or debt card to make purchases online (let alone the cost of the computer), a car or the money to purchase gas for the car, etc. And did Mr. Marks miss the news about the many libraries that have closed during the recent economic recession? In some children’s situations, Mr. Marks is asking children to do the impossible despite his assertion that, “It’s hard, but it is not impossible.” And while I believe in God and that all things are possible with God. Even God used another human being to turn an impossible or inconceivable situation into a reality, namely the incarnation of God’s son through the Virgin Mary’s womb. And you might say that Mary called what God did equality and some might call it a total reversal, an upset of the status quo: “[God] has put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree. And he has filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away,” Luke 1:52-53. God works through human beings to create possibilities for other human beings. We who believe in the power of God cannot sit by and watch as poverty swallows up our children and allow ignorance to be their strongest, loudest, and deadliest advocate.

Prayer by Maya Angelou

noreply@blogger.com (WomanistNTProf) — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 03:29:00 +0000

Father, Mother, God
Thank you for your presence
during the hard and mean days.
For then we have you to lean upon.

Thank you for your presence
during the bright and sunny days,
for then we can share that which we have
with those who have less.

And thank you for your presence
during the Holy Days, for then we are able
to celebrate you and our families
and our friends.

For those who have no voice,
we ask you to speak.

For those who feel unworthy,
we ask you to pour your love out
in waterfalls of tenderness.

For those who live in pain,
we ask you to bathe them
in the river of your healing.

For those who are lonely, we ask
you to keep them company.

For those who are depressed,
we ask you to shower upon them
the light of hope.

Dear Creator, You, the borderless
sea of substance, we ask you to give to all the
world that which we need most--Peace.

More Reflections Written During My Stay at Incarnation Monastery

noreply@blogger.com (WomanistNTProf) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 12:00:00 +0000

Monday, October 26, 2009

Listening to the sound of a train's whistle crescendo as it races through town and a bird sounding like a bad imitation of a crying baby drowns out more familiar melodies of chirping birds. But the winds just listen, like me, this beautiful sunny, baby-blue sky morning--listening for God. Wondering what God will say to me today.

Beauty and wisdom can be found up or down; up and down. As I stopped to rest on my hike back to the monastery, I looked down. And there among the Berkeley greenery I saw a gray rock (painted it seemed) with clusters of three-leaf clovers growing around one side out of the dark rich soil. The three-leaf clover is a cultural symbol of luck; and one doubles one’s luck if among them one discovers a four-leaf variety. “Between a rock and a hard place” (in this case the cement sidewalk) this felicitous and iconic plant grows and thrives. If it can do so “between a rock and a hard place,” surely we can too because God is our rock, our refuge, and a very present help in times of trouble.

I wondered to what extent one could detect the changing of the seasons in California. The weather, of course, turns a bit chillier; although it has been pretty warm most of my days here. But the maple tree lives here as in the mid-west and east. Geography makes no difference. Whether she is planted in Ohio or California, in the Fall her locks turn butterscotch, burnt orange, pomegranate red, and they fall from her head leaving behind bald branches. But in the spring, as in the east, she will again don a full head of healthy lush hair. This late October day in fall, her discarded leaves lay a carpet on the ground and become crisp beneath my California feet. Geography makes no difference for other things as well. An African American woman sporting a natural hair style always elicits some stares as well as interesting and crazy comments, even from other black women. This happens from coast to coast. How beautiful are the falling leaves and the confident black woman with the natural do from east to west. God designed both.

Thursday, October 29

I had a final lunch with my cousin buddy. I’m glad we had the time together to reconnect. We ate at an Italian fast food restaurant around the corner from his job. He had chicken primavera and I had vegetables and spaghetti – it was very good. My Italian lessons are paying off. Early into my lessons I noticed the close similarities between Latin and Italian—many of the verbs and nouns are the same. One of the menu items at the restaurant read “Frutti di Mare.” I remembered “mare” as the Latin word for “sea.” The description was shrimp, mussels and other shellfish – “fruit of the sea.” Languages open up a side of the world that otherwise would be closed to us.

My cousin gave me a parting present of a post-card magnet of Oakland. He collects them. I presume the one he purchased while we were at Jack London’s square replaced the one he gave me among the collection that covers his green refrigerator. I purchased a pair of hiking shoes from Buddy’s store with a 40% discount as a relative. They are very comfortable and I’m looking forward to wearing them in Naples....

This evening I felt a little sad about leaving Berkeley and the monastery. This place has grown on me; it is beautiful; it has become a part of me.

Father M knocked on my door last evening to say good-bye. We had a short conversation, and I discovered that he is a doctoral student at the Graduate Theological Union – in his second year. He primarily takes courses at the Jesuit School. I discovered he is not a Camaldolese monk, like others, but a Benedictine monk; they are related, however.

Friday, October 30

I set the alarm on my cell phone for 6:20 am so that I could attend my last laud and vesper service with the monks. Today, as a result of my conversation with Father M last evening, I paid closer attention to the hymnal. It contains songs and prayers, but most of the litanies are taken directly from the Bible—primarily it seems from the Psalms and the prophetic books. Today the readings were of Psalms 100 and 51. After Father T read from the Gospel, we entered into a few minutes of contemplative silence. Father A prayed for me—my future as I leave this place. It warmed my soul. It is always nice to have someone prayer for you. My mother prayed for all of her children. When she could not sleep at night, she would sit on the side of the bed. And I remember asking her what she was doing—she said praying for her children. I hope to get to the point that when I cannot sleep instead of laying there like a blank slate allowing any and all thoughts to parade through my mind, that I will take the opportunity to connect with God in the silence of my body’s discontent.

Third Excerpt from my Stay at Incarnation Monastery

noreply@blogger.com (WomanistNTProf) — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 11:05:00 +0000

Sunday, October 18.

Missed the morning service with the Monks. ...Took the short cut from the Monastery again. (Paced myself better going back up; but that last block was a female dog!) Decided I would find the restaurant that posted their menu on a chalkboard out front advertising a fried trout dinner with mango salsa for $14.95. Thought I found it; but instead something great found me. It turns out that during the day the restaurant donates space to CharityFocus, which runs the Karma Kitchen. This group takes over the restaurant on Sunday afternoons and serves Indian food on a pay-it-forward basis. Once you’ve eaten, you receive a bill for $0 and an envelope in which you can place any amount of money or no money, depending on your ability to pay or not. The idea is that your meal has already been paid for by the previous patron(s), and any money you place in your envelope helps pay for the next person’s meal. Great idea! And the food was great. I had a little bit of everything on the menu—it was limited, but good. And limited is relative when you think of half the children around the world who subsist on a grain of rice or come one step closer to starving to death. The mango lassi was the best I had tasted in a long while.

Because I was dining alone, I sat at what became a community table. What happened next proved providential. Within a few minutes one of the volunteers asked if I minded if a young lady joined me. I looked up and there stood a young African American woman, Amber, in about her early 30s. None of us (the volunteer, Amber, and myself) were California natives. The volunteer had only left England a week earlier; Amber, my table mate, was only three years out of New Orleans having survive hurricane Katrina. Amber said a therapist told her she had post-traumatic distress disorder as a result of Katrina. But the good news was she could also experience post-traumatic stress recovery. She was majoring in neurology and music. We talked about meditation, among other things; how we must be comfortable with letting the mind wander, not yielding to the temptation to reign in our thoughts before we can fully identify what our mind is thinking. Made perfect sense to me. What made my encounter and conversation with Amber so providential was the conversation I had with my friend Sheila the day before. Sheila and I had discussed meditation. How did she understand meditation? How do we control our minds that are so proned to wander...?

Tuesday, October 21, 2009

I can’t seem to stay out of the book stores. I’m drawn to them like ants to bread crumbs. As I browsed the clearance section of [name’s] book store, an African American man came in to sell some books to the store. This book store buys and sells books and keeps no inventory of what books are on its shelves—I know, because I asked. The man selling his books wore light pink soiled pants and talked very loudly, but not obnoxiously so. He was very gregarious and had no inhibitions about speaking to anyone in the store—even me. He provoked my first laugh of the day—don’t even remember what he said now—but I remember how good it felt to laugh. The man also shared that a store nearby had a special of two bottles of wine for one and he was going there to take advantage of it. As he left he shouted something else at me, don’t remember it either; just know it made me laugh. This man was obviously not as well off, financially, as others in the store at that moment—but his soul was happy and that happiness spilled over—no, it oozed out upon those he encountered. I think he said something like life is too short to be sad about anything. Yet, many of us are mad about any and everything and that madness spills over into the lives of those we meet.

While I was in the store I purchased three more books—two were clearance books that I got for $1.00 each and one was $6.98. One of the clearance books is about meditation. The first few pages have already been helpful. Meditation is about “being.” Being present in the moment.

I am learning to pace myself better as I return up the mountainside. I am so accustomed to walking quickly that it is difficult to slow down. Today I achieved a slower more rhythmic pace. Upon reflection, I tend to operate on the premise, consciously and unconsciously, in everything I do, that it is better to tackle unpleasant tasks quickly and get them out of the way. This modus operandi does not work when climbing steep mountains; it just makes you more afraid they might kill you! lol

Still taking the “short cut” back up the mountain—the last leg before reaching the cement stair case is the worst. So I called my friend and colleague Sheila again, thinking this would be a good time to discuss a theological issue concerning women and beauty that was asked of me earlier via email. Although the conversation took my mind off the climb making it less painful—I even walked part of it backwards—the effect on my sweat glands was the same—I was drenched again. I wonder when will my body stop reacting in this way.

At sunset today, about 6:30, I witnessed, in a matter of seconds, the San Francisco fog slithering across the Berkeley sky like an opaque monster; covered everything; detroyed my view of the bay from my room. Things change quickly, but God has so wonderfully constructed us that our bodies, our minds, our spirits and souls can adjust, if we so desire and choose.

On thing that never changes in every city and college town, whether it is Harvard square in Cambridge, Mass or Berkeley, CA the home of the UnivCal Berkeley campus, people are homeless. With some their homeless status is evidenced by the overloaded carts that prop them up and store all their earthly possessions—their mobile homes without walls or floors or ceiling. ...As Christians or ethical people who believe in God or a higher power, we should adjust to meet the needs of our fellow human beings—should we not?

Second Excerpt from my Stay at Incarnation Monastery, Berkeley, CA

noreply@blogger.com (WomanistNTProf) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 04:20:00 +0000

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

The day started out cloudy, and I wasn’t sure whether I’d be forced to fast again since I was not going to walk down the mountain in the heavy rain. But the sun marched through the clouds, and the temperature rose to a comfortable 65 degrees. After some reading, I put on my tennis shoes and walked down the mountain to find something to eat. (Don't know which was worse on my knees & legs, going down or coming back up; both could be painful!). When I reached a level terrain, I stopped at the first restaurant I saw on the opposite side of Shattuck called “Crepevine.” It offered a wonderful selection of healthy foods. I chose the grilled salmon with avocado on wheat bread with a salad and potatoes – very good. After lunch, I decided to venture on toward the University of California at Berkeley, past the Bart train station and almost to Bancroft. My cousin Buddy works at Bancroft and Telegraph. I would meet him for lunch on the coming Friday. Walking back toward the monastery, I decided to sit and drink a café moca at a small coffee shop and mentally prepare myself for the steep, sweaty trek back up the mountain.

...When I got back I changed my sweaty clothes to attended the evening vespers service again at 5 pm. Father A led out this time wearing the green stole over his cream colored robe. It seems the officiating monk for the evening wears the green stole; the monks alternated officiating over the service. But Father T always led the chanting and litany. Perhaps this is because he is the senior monk. I prayed when I entered the sanctuary for God’s Spirit to move upon my heart and in the room. God is always willing to move upon us like God's Spirit moved upon the face of the deep in Genesis, hovering over the waters. God never disappoints in this regard. Several words transformed me in that moment. Father Matthew read, “my soul waits for God in silence.” Wow… every time I thought of it, God’s spirit touched my soul so that it overflowed and tears poured out through the opening of my eyes. Those words touched a place in me, unexpectedly. I had been alone reading the word, silently and aloud, praying, seeking for a word from God. Sometimes it’s all about the silence, not the words of scripture or the melody of a song, but that space in time not manufactured, not fabricated, but just permitted to be. Another word from Father A about the gospel parable of the wheat and the tares also fed my soul that evening. Most interpreters read that parable as a dichotomy between us and them or as a caveat not to become, or to beware lest one become, the tares. Father Andrew noted that the tares and the wheat are found within each of us. Something we need never forget. Powerful!

J Lo Interviewing Marian Wright Edelman

noreply@blogger.com (WomanistNTProf) — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 02:24:00 +0000

Here is a video of J Lo Interviewing Marian Wright Edelman, Esq., Founder and President of Children's Defense Fund, author of number books, first African American Woman to pass the Mississippi Bar, 2000 Recipient of Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Opening Plenary Speaker at the Living in Full Empowerment, Inc. 2012 Inaugural Women's Conference in the Detroit Metro Area, July 26-29, 2012.

Marian Wright Edelman interview

The inaugural 2012 L.I.F.E. Women’s Conference aims to help women across socio-economic, ethnic, religious, racial backgrounds to turn their dreams and/or visions into concrete realities. We aim to help women to be informed, make good decisions, be creative, be courageous, & to contribute to their own well-being and the betterment of our communities. Some workshops assist women in exploring their creativity and learning new skills in songwriting, cake decorating, and website building. We will also address issues of sexual violence, chronic disease prevention, self-care, contemporary significance of lynching narratives, spiritual formation, resources for caring with loved ones with disabilities, finances, and other significant topics. Employment,counseling and other referral services will be available during the conference. ***200 FREE REGISTRATIONS RESERVED FOR WOMEN HOUSED IN LOCAL DETROIT WOMEN’S SHELTERS** Check out our website: www.livinginfullempowerment.com . Or go to the Eventbrite registration site: http://livinginfullempowermentconf.eventbrite.com/

"Strange Fruit" Still Hangs in US "Trees"

noreply@blogger.com (WomanistNTProf) — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 16:00:00 +0000

Troy Davis, Jr. the African American man who was put to death by the authorities of the State of Georgia last night, September 21, 2011, is a reminder that “strange fruit” still hangs from trees, south, north, east and west. Despite lack of DNA evidence, contradictory and retracted eyewitness testimony, and a possible known trigger man, they hung him high. I believe heinous crimes such as cold-blooded murder and rape deserve serious justice; but not eye for an eye, capital punishment justice. I believe in investing

Troy Davis, Jr. Killed, 9/21/11 in Georgia

in rehabilitation and not the herding of people and children into facilities like branded cattle. That said, I admit I could be consumed by anger and pain and my wounds still raw or convinced that the evidence is other than it is, if my loved one(s) were the victims of a horrendous crime. So the criminal justice system should work as objectively and fairly as possible when I as the victim’s family may be incapable of doing so. We need to be willing to rethink and tweak or abolish systems that are inhumane and unfair. Justice codified or legislated in the socio-historical context of 1844 should necessarily be re-examined.

Electric Chair at Ohio Pen

Ohio Pen

Dale Johnston, former death row inmate in Ohio

The Ohio Penitentiary, also known as the Ohio State Penitentiary, or less formally, the Ohio Pen or State Pen, was a prison operated from 1834-1983. As a child, teenager, young adult, I could walk to the Ohio Pen in Columbus from where I lived on the other side of the railroad tracks. As elementary school children, we had a field trip to the Ohio Pen when the ominous electric housed there was still in use. Some field trip! When I look back it was like being on the scene of a SciFi set. I can remember the huge, old, stalwart, dirty gray building that I passed by every time I road the Fifth Avenue bus. I never forgot what I saw in that building – the electric chair where they electrocuted human beings until they breathed their last. I remember a very large steel contraption of a chair with leather straps. So when I visited the Ohio Pen, someone's son, brother, father had not so long ago sat in that chair and someone's son, brother, father was scheduled to die. Somehow I equated the closing of the Ohio Pen with the abolition of the death penalty in Ohio. Somehow I forgot they were still operating under the system of an eye for and eye in Ohio. I forgot about the transition from electric chair to lethal injection. As of August 26, 2011, there are a total of 150 inmates on death row in Ohio: 149 men, 1 woman (74 African American men; 68 Caucasian men; 4 Hispanic men; 1 Native Americans; 2 Arab American; 1 Caucasian female). On March 15, 2011, Ohio legislators introduced a bill to abolish the death penalty in Ohio. Among those who spoke in favor of the bill were Dale Johnston, an Air force veteran and exonerated former death row inmate, and Ohioans to Stop Executions (people across party lines). In 1982 Dale Johnston’s daughter and her boyfriend were murdered and their bodies dismembered. Dale was the only person the police considered as a suspect. Numerous violations of Dale’s rights occurred during the investigation and trial. Still, he was sentenced to death in 1984. “He believes the state expected his attorneys to abandon him once his initial trial was over. But they stood by him, promising to eventually win his exoneration. ‘I never thought I would be convicted of a crime I did not do,’ he says. ‘I was sure once all the evidence was presented, it would be clear that I was innocent and could then get back home and the police would get on with the investigation of the kids’ death. I could not believe my ears when the judges said ‘guilty.’ Even with all the rule violations, the phony evidence and the prosecutorial misconduct, there was nothing presented to gain a conviction.’ He remained on Ohio’s death row for more than five years and was incarcerated for more than seven years. The Ohio Supreme Court overturned Dale’s conviction in 1988 because the prosecution withheld exculpatory evidence from the defense and because one witness had been hypnotized. The state later dropped all charges against him. He was released in 1990.” In Georgia, Troy Davis was not so lucky as Johnston or others who have been exonerated or pardoned. Unfortunately, until we abolish capital punishment everywhere, more people who are not guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and/or innocent will die for crimes they did not commit, not to mention the years of their lives lost imprisoned.

DNA testing has saved a number of people convicted of crimes. The first DNA exoneration took place in 1989. Exonerations have been won in 34 states. Since 2000, there have been 206 exonerations. Seventeen (17) of the 273 people exonerated through DNA served time on death row. The average length of time served by exonerees is 13 years. Currently, it seems to me that the death penalty or capital punishment operates like a firing squad. We line people up and we shoot. It is okay if we accidentally put one or two innocent people in the line up as long the rest are guilty. Or God forbid that in some peoples’ minds it doesn’t matter as long as somebody (and that somebody has historically been somebody black or otherwise undesirable by the majority) pays for the crime. If a person on death row has a criminal record, some people reason that he has "blood on his hands" anyway. And therefore they didn't consider killing him such a great loss. A kind of since-we-got-you-here logic, we might as well. I wonder if this was the case with Davis and what it means for justice, second chances, and the value of a life lived imperfectly ending up in the wrong hands?

Was Jesus a Christian, African American, Republican or Something Else?

noreply@blogger.com (WomanistNTProf) — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 01:30:00 +0000

We'd all like to make Jesus (and God) in our image versus seeking to understand and striving to walk in, imitate the image of Jesus and/or God. I do believe the significant point was the humanity of Jesus. One of my students once responded to a question on a quiz that asked about Jesus’ ethnicity with the answer that Jesus was African American. Don’t laugh. In fact that answer is no more far-fetched than the notion, implicitly and explicitly propagated by some, that Jesus was a (Evangelical or otherwise) Christian. In fact, her answer may be closer to the truth. I often tell my students that Jesus was not a Christian (I was so glad to hear this spoken so publicly by the author of The Shack [a popular book read by so many Christians; must admit I've not read it] William Paul Young the other night at an Ashland Theological Seminary event in Detroit at Hope United Methodist Church). Jesus was Jewish (ethnically and religiously); he lived on the earth, in the eastern Mediterraenean, as a Jewish man. He lived long before the birth of Christianity, although Christians like to connect (retroject) the birth of Christianity back to the actual birth of Jesus before the common era (BC/BCE). As a universal institutionalized religion, Christianity emerged hundreds of years later. There is no testimony in the New Testament that Jesus came to create a new religion or a religious institution centered on himself. Jesus, in all four Gospels, came to be “God with us,” “among us,” “the (present and future) Basileia (trans. Kingdom) of God, and/or to glorify God. (Yes, Matthew’s Gospel does seem to say that an assembly/gathering (ekklesia) of believers was established around Peter’s name [Matthew 16:18]; but we do know that different assemblies (ekklesiai) existed in Jerusalem and Antioch and other places from the Acts of the Apostles. And this is not too much different than the assemblies that met in Jewish houses of prayer (proseuchae) and/or synagogues). Jesus practiced the Jewish rituals and observed the Holy and feast days from birth to the grave (first through his parents and lastly through devout Jews).

Jesus was considerably, I believe, more theocentric than Christianity tends to be. Humanity was created in the image of God. Jesus bore the image of God as the son of God (however, we understand the “image of God”). In John’s Gospel (and elsewhere like Philippians), Jesus sometimes appears to be subordinate to God. At other times, God and Jesus are said to be one and/or at least so close that only Jesus is entrusted with certain information, secrets, or mysteries (the middleperson between God and the rest of creation). Jew was Jewish, theocentric, and never evangelized for the not yet established Christian Church.

Coming Out Part 5: “Virginity and Scars”

noreply@blogger.com (WomanistNTProf) — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 17:33:00 +0000

Through my counseling sessions with Dr. W, I began to take control of my life rather than relinquishing it to my deceased abuser and the abuse. But one ongoing psychological and moral struggle I experience stemmed from the church and society’s teachings about virginity. Women and children (and men) have been taught and believe in the metanarrative or over-arching story or myth that the protection of one’s virginity is paramount to one’s moral value and validity as a Christian. Of course, historically and still today such virginal morality is expected more from females than from males. Persons who embrace the virginity metanarrative and are sexually abused can experience a split within their moral selves. Although, many children (if not all) experiment with their sexuality, children who are victims of sexual abuse may experiment with greater frequency or may do so even earlier than their peers since their sexuality has been unnaturally, prematurely, and violently aroused. Sexually abused children may look back on sexual experimentation with greater sense of guilt.

Recollection of childhood sexual experimentation coupled with heighted feelings of guilt create or contribute to an even greater degree of moral dissonance (conflict) in light of the virginity metanarrative. The virginity metanarrative does not take into consideration, generally, how a female “loses her virginity” (as if virginity is money which one has been instructed to hold for someone else; maybe the equivalent when we think of bride price and dowry). If she loses her virginity, she cannot retrieve it. Although some churches preach/teach that one can become a “spiritual virgin” by confession, repentance and renewal. Yet, the virginity narrative primarily claims that a female loses her virginity when she has sexual intercourse for the first time (penetration of vagina by male penis). Supposedly, when a female loses her virginity by having sexual intercourse with a male for the first time, the hymen is broken and some bleeding is expected. But we now know that the hymen can be broken during any vigorous or strenuous exercise and that not all women bleed when engaged in sexual intercourse for the first time. In the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, a virgin was expected to bleed on the wedding sheets. If there was no blood, the assumption was that she was not a virgin. The consequences of not being able to prove the virgin of one’s daughter on her wedding night were fatal. I can only imagine the many animals whose blood was shed in an effort to provide proof of a daughter’s virginity. The father would be left to take care his daughter for the rest of his life rather than selling her to her future husband for a bride price. (E.g. Deuteronomy 22:13-30)

The point I am making is that the notion or myth of virginity (see Jessica Valenti’s The Virginity Myth) has caused women and girls a lot of psychological and moral distress, which is magnified in the case of sexually abused women. How do I come to terms with the moral necessity to claim my virginity in light of my childhood sexual abuse and its aftermath? How do I understand myself sexually when I’ve been taught to understand myself, my sexuality in the context of the virginity narrative? A woman is either a virgin or she is not. And if she is not a virgin, what are the alternatives? Whore? Used goods? And how does such an understanding psychologically impact women when their sexuality is inextricably linked with their morality by the institutions (churches) they believe to provide the authoritative hermeneutical (interpretative) moral barometer or yardstick for their lives?

This has been a long struggle for me. And to free myself from the oppressive, heavy hand of the virginity metanarrative, I have had to debunk, debrief, and detox from this harmful teaching. Who, I asked in an earlier post, benefits from the notion of virginity? My friend Steve Clayborn replied on that post, “men!” And he is correct. I, of course, do not advocate for “promiscuity” (which may mean different things to different folks), but I encourage responsibility and the valuing of one’s body as a gift from God. But the female body has been treated as a gift from God to be used as men please within the realm of societal norms. And societal norms have not favored the protection of females and historically certainly not black females. While I value my sexuality as a gift from God, categories like “virgin,” “whore,” “prostitute,” etc. that label women in relation to men are not helpful or hopeful.

Why is it that although Jesus declared that the greatest commands are that we love God and love our fellow human beings, some of us have sought to de-center those commands and replace them teachings about women’s sexuality (and now gay and lesbian sexuality)? Often at the heart of such teachings is control of bodies and/or fear of losing control of bodies (one’s own and that of others). Labels imposed by others that define us are oppressive. When our lives fail to meet the expectations of the label, we are subjected to verbal, psychological, moral, and physical violence. And sometimes the violence is inherent within the labeling and we don’t recognize it. The virginity narrative has left many females (and males) frustrated, scarred, and hopeless.

Virginity also does not allow for a woman to be a sexy or sexual being. If you are too sexy or sexual, then you deserve to have (or contributed to) your sexuality being forcefully taken from you. The molester and/or rapist could not help him (or her) self but succumbed to your “feminine wiles.” As a victim of childhood sexual abuse, I felt I had done something wrong to warrant the kind of attention and abuse I received from my grandfather. The scar I carried (and still struggle with) is an uneasiness (to say the least) with my own sexiness or sexuality. I am not comfortable with too much attention. And in the past I have not been comfortable with other women who wear low cut blouses or skirts above the knee (not minis). I had associated such clothing with loose women (and I’m not talking about mini skirts or deeply cut tops). This is a continual struggle for me – becoming comfortable with being sexy and a woman of God. But I have and I am making strides. I used to be very uncomfortable with the deep cleavage my niece would show when we would go on vacation together. It was all I could do not to cover her up. Interestingly, when we went on vacation together this year, her cleavage was mostly covered with tub tops and I wore a sexy, strappy, fitted black dress that she said I looked good in. The bikini I still wear a little conflictedly.