Christian Prophets Who Oppose 45

How long will evangelicals stay with dt?

Estimates are that 80% of them voted for him in the 2016 election, according to the Washington Post.

But there are major divisions developing among members of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest religious denomination in the US.  

In fact, the head of SBC's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, Russell Moore, is under fire for criticizing SBC leaders who support 45.  He may be forced to resign.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/03/13/could-southern-baptist-leader-russell-moore-lose-his-job-churches-threaten-funding-after-months-of-trump-controversy/?utm_term=.50c468022127

Last fall, Moore accused church leaders who supported dt of "normalizing an awful candidate" and said they had "drunk the Kool-Aid."

After the Hollywood Access tapes came out, Moore "tweeted outrage at leaders who still continued to back the candidate," according to Washington Post religion reporter Sarah Pulliam Bailey.  He apologized after the election.

Candidate dt even tweeted against Moore in May, 2016.

One hundred Southern Baptist churches have threatened to leave the denomination if Moore stays on as head of the ERLC.

Abortion has been an important issue for the SBC, noted Larry Mantle today on Airtalk, a program of KPCC, an NPR radio station in Los Angeles.  "For many of the Southern Baptists, they supported Trump even though they may have had personal distaste for him, because of the Supreme Court vacancy, the view that he would nominate someone who would uphold the view that life is sacred upon conception."  

http://www.scpr.org/programs/airtalk/2017/03/14/55601/is-backlash-over-southern-baptist-leader-s-critiqu/

"Eight of the 10 policy priorities recently highlighted by Moore’s team touch on abortion, but last year, the ERLC first prioritized religious freedom, an area where tensions have been building among evangelicals," according to Bailey

As a part of religious freedom, Moore with the ERLC and SBC's International Missions Board "filed an amicus brief in support of a Muslim community’s right to build a mosque in New Jersey. Earlier this year, a trustee of the IMB resigned over the move, saying that Islam is not a religion and does not deserve protection. The trustee’s megachurch also pulled funding from the SBC," writes Bailey.

Other reasons Moore is disliked by some:

• He met with black SBC leaders, who were not happy that the SBC chose to ignore dt's comments on race as a presidential candidate. 
• He's against public display of the Confederate flag.
• He denounced 45's first executive order on refugees, though polls say that 76% of evangelicals approved of it.

Another point that Bailey makes: Moore has "called on younger evangelicals in particular to reject the old idea of a 'moral majority' and embrace a role as 'prophetic minority.'"

She reports that he is "enormously popular" among younger Southern Baptists and among the 10% of the denomination who are African-American.

I'm delighted to hear that this SBC leader has reservations about Trump in relation to his sexual immorality, his racism, and his first executive order on refugees.

Russell Moore is a man to keep an eye on and to support.

Christianity Today and some important evangelical leaders came out against candidate dt last fall.  We need to remember that and not paint all conservative Christians, certainly not all Christians, with the same brush.  See my post last fall:
http://marthaymaria.blogspot.com/2016/10/evangelicals-against-gop-nominee.html

Another group whose members were not Trump supporters is the Evangelical & Ecumenical Women's Caucus -- Christian Feminism Today.  www.eewc.com  

These outliers need more public attention--the groups who form a prophetic minority among Christians in the US today.

In Memoriam: Faith Sand

Faith Annette Sand lived a life of courage as well as faith.

She served as a missionary in Brazil for fifteen years, adopting eight children while she was there.  

She had the courage to publish my pro-choice abortion book in 1994, when women's clinics were being bombed and attacked.

In the last years of her life she fought metastatic melanoma with faith and courage.

I met her through Evangelical Women's Caucus, a feminist group founded in 1974. 

Born in Minneapolis in 1939, she died on August 5, 2015.  A family gathering was held shortly after.

Her public memorial service was celebrated on November 7, 2015, at the Cathedral Center of St. Paul in Los Angeles.

Faith attended Hampden DuBose Academy and graduated from Wheaton College in 1961.

After serving in Brazil, she returned to the US and earned an MA in Missiology from Fuller Theological Seminary in 1982.

She founded Hope Publishing House, published many books and wrote three books, Travels of Faith, Adventures of Faith, and Prayers of Faith.

She leaves her husband, the Reverend Albert Gleaves Cohen; two daughters from her first marriage, Heather Pidcoke-Krause and Heidi Pidcoke; and her Brazilian children.

Members of the Southwest chapter of EEWC-CFT will remember Faith for hosting their annual Epiphany party in her beautiful home for many years.

Faith and Albert supported the placement of this stained-glass portrait of St. Teresa of Avila in St. Athanasius Church at the Cathedral Center of St. Paul.

See also http://prabook.org/web/person-view.html?profileId=359064 and her recent Facebook pagehttps://www.facebook.com/faith.sand.

Here’s a summary of her book Prayers of Faith: https://books.google.com/books/about/Prayers_of_Faith.html?id=2BcotVZrnmAC&hl=en.

"Misogyny in the Church" and other gems

I just ordered 7 CDs from the 2015 CBE Conference in LA. Great speakers--having the CDs is almost as good as being there.

Use this link and discount code "LA35" to get a 35% discount. My cost for 7 CDs was $27.30 plus $3 shipping.

http://www.equalitydepot.com/2015losangelesconference.aspx

CBE is Christians for Biblical Equality International.

See my article about CBE and EEWC-CFT recently posted on the website of Evangelical & Ecumenical Women's Caucus - Christian Feminism Today.

The CDs I chose were:

• Eugene Cho (pastor of Quest Church, Seattle) on "Misogyny and the Church" 
• Austin Channing Brown (blogger) on "Teach Them How to Treat You"
• Young Lee Hertig (prof at Azusa Pacific) on "Women Leaders Navigate the Patriarchal Systems of Family and Church"
• Anne Zaki (prof at Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo) on "Women's Ordination as Pastors: A Middle Eastern Perspective" 
• Britt Vanden Eykel-Huff (Palos Verdes Peninsula, CA) on "Strategies for Moving the Egalitarian Needle Forward in Your Church"
• Mariam Youssef (doc student at CGU in Women & Religion) on "Making Space for Women of Color" on racial reconciliation in the Orthodox Church
• Emily Zimbrick-Rogers (MDiv student at Princeton) on "A Question Mark over My Head: Learning from the Narratives of Female Theologians in the Evangelical Academy"

Thank you to Xana McCauley and Bronwyn Stanford for recommending their favorite speakers at this conference.

Change for Christian Women 1974-2014

Three big things happened in 1974 for Christian women:  

• 11 Episcopal women were ordained in Philadelphia outside the rules of the Church (irregularly).

               http://www.religionnews.com/2014/07/23/philadelphia-11-shattered-stained-glass-ceiling-40-years-later-now/

• The Leadership Conference of Women Religious in 1973-74 began "extensive programs related to transforming the perceptions of and about women. We have promoted the recognition of sexism as destructive of both women and men" --in the Roman Catholic Church.  

            https://lcwr.org/about/history

• Evangelical women in Chicago formed an organization to promote women's rights among theologically conservative Protestant women.

                  http://www.eewc.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/CFT_2014_Gathering_Press_Release.pdf

In 2014 all three groups are marking 40 years of work for women's equality within Christian churches.

Hallelujah!

Laudate Dominum! (or Dominam--why refer to God as male?)

Praise the Lord!  (or Lady Wisdom--Sophia in Greek, Hochmah in Hebrew)

40 Years of Biblical Feminism

Evangelical & Ecumenical Women's Caucus--Christian Feminism Today celebrates 40 years since its founding in 1974.

Letha Dawson Scanzoni with (left to right) McKenzie Brown, Ashley Cason, Jennifer Newman, and Jacinda Thomas.

Here's a link to the press release on the Religious News Service website:

http://pressreleases.religionnews.com/2014/07/11/christian-feminism-today-celebrates-40-years-2/

Here's a press release to print out and mail to a friend or pastor or church or seminary near you:

http://www.eewc.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/CFT_2014_Gathering_Press_Release.pdf

For more about EEWC-Christian Feminism Today, see:  www.eewc.com

Press Release: EEWC-CFT Turns 40

We're in the prime of our life, no longer a newcomer on the feminist scene.

Christians who are also feminists have been around for hundreds of years, but in second-wave feminism they appeared in the 1960s.  Evangelical feminists formed an organization in 1974, the Evangelical & Ecumenical Women's Caucus.

See this press release about our 40th anniversary gathering in St. Louis:

McKenzie Brown, Ashley Cason, Jennifer Newman, and Jacinda Thomas with EEWC co-founder Letha Dawson Scanzoni (center)

For immediate release

7/11/2014

Christian Feminism Today celebrates 40 years

In 1974, during a conference of Evangelicals for Social Action, a group of women formed a caucus to show that gender equality in church, home, and society is a justice issue.

Their approach became known as biblical feminism.  From that small group emerged the Evangelical & Ecumenical Women’s Caucus (EEWC), now more popularly known as EEWC-Christian Feminism Today.

The organization celebrated its 40th anniversary on June 26-29 in St. Louis at the Sheraton Westport Plaza Hotel with presentations by current and pioneering Christian feminists and social justice advocates.

Christian Feminism Today is EEWC’s online publication featuring articles, blogs, book reviews and other commentary at www.eewc.com.

In addition to continued advocacy for women's rights, the organization in 1986 adopted a resolution supporting civil rights for LGBT people within the church and community, making EEWC one of the first evangelical organizations to do so.

Pre-eminent among the pioneers was plenary speaker Letha Dawson Scanzoni, whose groundbreaking All We're Meant to Be: Biblical Feminism for Today was named by Christianity Today as one of the “top 50 books that have shaped evangelicals.”  She recounted her questioning of a 1963 Eternity magazine article on the proper place of Christian women and subsequent steps toward leadership in feminist awakening.

“Fundamentalism is like a sword that broke off in us,” reflected another speaker, Susan Campbell, quoting her brother and her memoir Dating Jesus: A Story of Fundamentalism, Feminism, and the American Girl.  After 25 years as a columnist and feature writer for the Hartford Courant, she now co-writes Hot Dogma: The Belief Blog with former AP religion writer Tom Breen.

Reviewing ideas still current in conservative evangelical popular culture regarding women’s nature and roles, Dr. Kendra Weddle Irons of Texas Wesleyan University and Dr. Melanie Springer Mock of George Fox University underscored the need to deconstruct those ideas.  Their forthcoming book will contribute to that effort.  

"Let Justice Roll On like a River!" was the recurrent theme at this year’s biennial gathering near the junction of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, echoing the prophet Amos: “But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!” 5:24 (NIV).

Student presenters McKenzie Brown, Ashley Cason, and Jacinda Thomas dazzled old-timers with feminist theory and historical research.  The first Nancy A. Hardesty Memorial Scholarship was awarded to Jennifer Newman, double majoring in politics and in philosophy at George Fox University with a minor in women’s studies.  

A rousing performance by The Troubadours of Divine Bliss filled Saturday evening.  This folk-bluegrass-gospel duo from Kentucky has released six albums and made headlines at festivals around the globe.

Four ordained women brought their talents to the Sunday morning worship service: the Reverends Jan Clark (North Carolina, Baptist), Leslie Harrison (New Jersey, African Methodist Episcopal), Shawna R. B. Atteberry (Illinois, Episcopal), and Jann Aldredge-Clanton (Texas, Baptist).  In addition to hymns with inclusive-language lyrics by Aldredge-Clanton, music was performed by Vickie Bragg of Oklahoma, The Troubadours of Divine Bliss, and Marg Herder of Indiana. 

Notable among the workshops was Susan Cottrell’s on "Being the Love of Christ: It’s Not That Complicated."  She addressed ways in which the church is called to respond to the LGBTQ community, one part of the larger calling to embrace all who are marginalized or oppressed.  Author of “Mom, I’m Gay” — Loving Your LGBTQ Child without Sacrificing Your Faith, Cottrell is a national speaker, teacher, counselor, and founder with her husband of FreedHearts Ministries.

Other speakers included:

·         Dr. Sharon Groves, Director of the Religion and Faith Program for the Human Rights Campaign, the largest civil rights organization in America working to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.

·         Dr. Mary E. Hunt, Roman Catholic feminist theologian, co-founder and co-director of the Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual (WATER).

 

Dr. Reta Halteman Finger of Messiah College led a workshop on how to counter the Bible’s legacy of violence against women.  She edited the quarterly journal Daughters of Sarah based in Chicago from 1976 to 1996.

Other workshop leaders were the Reverend Deb Vaughn on current grief therapies, Peg Conway on childbirth and empowering women through body theology, Esther Emery on finding our most authentic voice, and Dr. Paula Trimble-Familetti on giving voice to Bible women whose claim to fame was neither motherhood nor prostitution.

More information is available on the Christian Feminism Today website.  http://www.eewc.com/Conferences/2014

Please direct media inquiries to Marg Herder, Director of Public Information for EEWC-Christian Feminism Today.  She can be reached by emailing office@eewc.com  or calling 317-414-8157.

EEWC-Christian Feminism Today
PO Box 78171
Indianapolis, IN  46278
www.eewc.com

She Is, and She Is Here

Below is my submission to the blog Divine Feminine on Patheos.com, 

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/thedivinefeminine/

Thanks to Marg Herder for letting me know about the request for posts.

The Divine Feminine is popping up all over: 

among my Jewish friends, my singing friends, my Women-Church friends, my evangelical and recovering-evangelical friends… even at the annual women’s retreat of my Presbyterian church.

I see Her mostly in the faces of women but also in mountains, hills, streams, lakes, ocean shores, and in the starry skies.  She is Oriana, wearing a knee-length skirt and dancing near the Seven Sisters, whom the Japanese call Subaru.

I see Her in my friend Gilla Nissan, who teaches classes in the Hebrew letters (each of which is a she) and their powers.  The letter Bet, for instance, is about blessing and home and health (berachah, bayit and briut),   Gilla leads meditations in which we enter the Beth and receive her gifts to us.   “We are in Messianic times,” Gilla and her friends believe.  “More is available from above.”  http://thehebrewletter.com/page/2

I see her in my singing friends who meet for Sacred Emerging with Carolyn McDade, who has gathered circles of women around North America for 35 years.  Our group in Los Angeles area has met annually for twenty years.  http://www.carolynmcdademusic.com/

I see her in my Women-Church friends.   Once a month we share a liturgy at Pilgrim Place in Claremont, CA, each time designed and led by a different one of us.  We address Holy Wisdom, Sophia, Mother God, the Shekinah, and our dialogue woven together becomes a sermon.  Many of us are crones, retired from serving and teaching around the country, including Grail women, UN women, former nuns, pastors, missionaries.  I see Her in these faces: Rosemary Ruether, Audrey Sorrento, Ann Hidalgo.  http://www.women-churchconvergence.org/

I see her at gatherings of Evangelical & Ecumenical Women’s Caucus, now also called Christian Feminism Today.  We will celebrate the 40^th anniversary of our founding this summer at a conference in St. Louis.  When Virginia Ramey Mollenkott is preaching or Letha Dawson Scanzoni is recounting how the Spirit led her in 1965 to begin writing a woman’s challenge to male patriarchy in the church, I feel the presence of the Divine Feminine.  Virginia is the author of a 1993 book, The Divine Feminine: The Biblical Imagery of God as Female (New York: Crossroad).  www.eewc.com

I was surprised to see Her speaking and moving at a retreat of eighty women from my Presbyterian church this past January.  Such events can be dominated by male language for God and can become mere social gatherings, but this one was Divine and Feminine, like an EEWC or Women-Church event.  Our guest speaker, Kobie Vermaak, pastor/wife/mother, spoke with vehemence about reclaiming our connection to a Jesus who interacted richly with women, even in the male-centered texts passed down to us.  It was awesome to listen with women who had never before heard “She” and “Her” repeatedly used to refer to God.  http://www.bpcusa.org/uploads/browser/files/8x11_flyer.pdf

In the 1970s I bought an orange and bright pink felt mini-banner designed by Sr. Corita Kent with the message “He is, and He is here.”  About ten years later, I had to add the letter S to each of the God words to make it read “She is, and She is here.”  https://www.corita.org/

Back then I never expected to attend a Mass led by Roman Catholic women priests, to encounter Shekinah while attending a Kabbalat Shabbat, to meet she-roes like Rosemary Ruether or Carolyn McDade, or to find feminine language for God at my local Presbyterian church. 

Today I am more than ever aware of Her immanent presence in the faces of people I meet, in dogs and cats, in plants and layered rocks, in the vast expanses of space.  

Hearing Sr. Elizabeth Johnson speak last week was my most recent breath-taking encounter with the Divine Feminine (she’s the author of She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse (New York: Crossroads, 2002).  In a speech titled, “Creation: Is God’s Charity Broad Enough for Bears?” Sr. Beth expressed God’s presence this way: 

“Plants and animals are profoundly related to God in their own right.... the natural world is the dwelling place of God's Spirit, able to speak in its own voice about the glory of its Maker.”

From a man, these words would have had much less impact on me.  From a Catholic theologian who is a woman, they echoed like God Herself speaking to a fallen world and a male-dominated church.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQKwwHTAbgk

My journey has included much anger at the Christian church and at other religious institutions that oppress women and obscure God’s presence, but when I encounter the Divine Feminine in the faces of Elizabeth Johnson, Gilla Nissan, Virginia Ramey Mollenkott, and my own dog, I find hope for the future. 

I expect the Roman Catholic Church to be ordaining women by 2050, and I expect more of us to be taking ordination with a grain of salt by then.  The important thing is that we all learn to see our lives as ordered and ordained by a Divine Presence that is a birthing mother more than a judging father.  

Open Letter to My Church

Beloved Elders:

Thank you for your service to Brentwood Presbyterian Church and to God as elders with responsibilities for all the areas that sustain BPC’s ministries.

I’m writing today to support BPC moving in the direction of more inclusive and expansive language in worship.  I heard that our associate pastor brought up this subject at last week’s Session meeting, and I want to encourage members of Session to keep an eye on this issue, along with all your other pressing tasks. 

BPC does a great job of referring to the people of God in inclusive ways in worship.  I haven’t heard “Rise up, O Men of God” sung lately!

Of course, it’s a little harder to avoid male language to refer to God.  I like the statement adopted by the PCUSA that appears in the brochure titled “Well-Chosen Words”:

“Rather than using only a very small number of terms referring to God (e.g., Father, Creator, Lord, Almighty), we should seek to employ the rich reservoir of imagery found in the New and Old Testaments.”

http://www.pcusa.org/site_media/media/uploads/pw/pdfs/wellchosenwords.pdf

I always notice and appreciate the times when prayers and hymns during worship refer to God as “You,” “the Holy One,” “Sustainer,” “God of Mercy,” etc. and to Jesus as “Redeemer, Saviour,” etc. 

The equivalent United Church of Christ brochure lists the following expansive images of God in Scripture: Fire, Wind, Rock, Water, Light, Bread, Vine, Word, Wisdom, I Am, Potter, Midwife, Mother, Mother bear, Shepherd, Woman, Baker, Eagle, and Hen (each with a Scripture).

http://www.ucc.org/worship/pdfs/ucc-inclusive-expansive-language-brochure.pdf

I understand that most BPC members are comfortable with hearing God called “Father,” “He, him,” “Lord” exclusively during worship.

But please remember that some of us feel uncomfortable with words that refer to God as male.  In the fall when we have new members in our Small Group, I tell them that I am “allergic” to hearing prayers where God is only addressed as “Father” and “Lord.”

My blood pressure rises and I get a little upset, even if I try not to.  It’s a disability, and I ask them to be understanding of my difficulty in this area. 

Back in the 1970s, masculine language to refer to God didn’t bother me, even though I was quite active in Christian feminism.  It was in the 1980s and 90s that friends pointed out to me how much this language reinforces the view of God as male, and thus empowers men while causing women to think that God is not like them.  Since then, I have sought out worship places where God is not referred to as male, and I have had to condition myself not to react to hearing masculine terms for God.  I drive out to Claremont once a month to take part in a worship service where I don’t have to be on guard like this.

I was surprised and delighted at BPC’s Women’s Retreat in January when I heard God referred to in so many creative ways such as “She” and “Loving God,” and I didn’t have to hear the masculine words.

Thank you for leading BPC to be such a nurturing community under God for so many people, and please continue to move in the direction of inclusive and expansive language for God and the people of God. 

Sincerely,

Anne Eggebroten

Resources and websites on inclusive and expansive language:

Marquette University—guidelines for students:

http://www.marquette.edu/wac/neutral/NeutralInclusiveLanguage.shtml

PCUSA brochure:

http://www.pcusa.org/site_media/media/uploads/pw/pdfs/wellchosenwords.pdf

UCC brochure:

http://www.ucc.org/worship/pdfs/ucc-inclusive-expansive-language-brochure.pdf

Inclusive Translations of Scripture

·         The New Testament and Psalms: An Inclusive Version. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995

·         Inclusive Language Lectionary, Years A (1983), B (1984), C (1985), New York: National Council of Churches

·         Inclusive Language Psalms, Cleveland: Pilgrim Press, 1987

·         The Inclusive Bible: The First Egalitarian Translation, Priests for Equality, 2007

My favorite Christian feminist organization, which supports inclusive and expansive language:

http://www.eewc.com/about

Nancy Hardesty on inclusive language:

http://www.eewc.com/inclusive-language-is-important

Inclusive Language in the Church (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1987).

More discussion of inclusive language:

http://www.eewc.com/christian-feminism-basics

One Day a Year...

I generally hate these holidays that honor women on only one day a year.

My kids grew up knowing that Mother's Day cards and gifts were verboten.  I would lecture them about the origin of Mother's Peace Day and occasionally take them to a peace demonstration.

I especially hate it when every Joe Blow you meet wishes you a "Happy Mother's Day!" as if my choice to bear children and my experience of childbirth and childrearing were part of their business and something to celebrate so they can get back to taking women for granted on the other 364 days of the year.

I'm not sure about International Women's Day, March 8, and Women's Equality Day, August 26, commemorating passage of the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution.

Women in the US still don't have an Equal Rights Amendment, fought for during most of my adult life, and women around the world are way behind in literacy, access to food and health and reproductive services, employment, leadership roles in government.... et cetera.

Taking one day a year to notice that much more change is needed--well, I guess that's good.  Anyway, other women I respect think it's good.

My friend Linda Brebner from Evangelical & Ecumenical Women's Caucus-Christian Feminism Today (EEWC-CFT) sent me a link to a one-minute cartoon about women's rights.  I pass it on to you:

Click on the preview below to load and view the full card. Also, be sure to see Linda Brebner's personal message below the animation.

If you have any trouble viewing the Ecard, click on the link below or copy and paste the web address into your web browser:
http://www.rubberchickencards.com/card/T7N6M

Honor the fight for women's equality in religion by visiting the EEWC-CFT website:
www.eewc.com

"Timidity Is a Sin"

There are two of us EEWC-CFT members at this CBE conference in Pittsburgh!  I'm so happy that Bettina Pedersen is here, presenting a workshop.  I feel a little apprehensive, waiting for rejection because I'm from a gay-friendly group--kind of like being back in the 1970s and being a feminist in the church.

At the first meeting I sat next to Sarah Robertson of Wheaton, IL.  She recognized my name and told me she had been at the Fresno conference in 1986 where the Minnesota chapter of EWC split off from us over the issue of homosexuality.  Sarah was very friendly.  I wonder how many of the 200+ people in the room had been EWC members back when.  

This conference so far is stunningly good.  The title of it, "Take Every Thought Captive to Christ," turns on a metaphor that doesn't appeal to me and in fact feels repressive.  It's from 2 Corinthians 10:5.  However, Mimi Haddad's keynote address emphasized the subtitle of the conference: "Ideas Have Consequences."  

What a profound and feminist insight--like Mary Daly's "If God is male, the male is God."  

Mimi's talk was about the idea of patriarchy, understanding its consequences over the centuries, and the need "to expose and dismantle patriarchy as a 'biblical' ideal... We through the ages have constructed a world view that is harmful...."  

She said that a Weltanschauung (world view) includes epistemology, metaphysics, teleology, and ethics.  "A distortion in these elements leads to oppression, injustice, and suffering."  

We need to expose "the underbelly of patriarchy and its consequences."  She talked about abused women coming to CBE in its early years: "We learned that abusers relied upon a particular reading of the Bible to excuse their abuse.  Ideas have consequences."  

She showed the Bill Gothard graphic of God's hand using a hammer and chisel (the husband) to work on the stone (diamond?), which I think represents a woman.  Just a tad abusive.  

Mimi cited a prominent (unnamed) complementarian woman who has now left the Christian faith. Her husband's "abusive behavior chiseled away at her dignity and ultimately her faith."  Gothard's view of women's roles is related to Quietism, she said, a theology now discredited.  (Mimi holds a doctorate in historical theology from the University of Durham, England.)  Statistics show women leaving the church over ideas such as these; the number of women in churches has decreased 11% since 1991.

In the main portion of her talk, Mimi systematically refuted the four main arguments given by those who hold to patriarchal views in the church: 

1) Jesus, a male, is God.  

2) God is a father (not mother). 

3) Jesus chose 12 male disciples. 

4) Jesus submits eternally to God the Father.  

Next she did a long and dazzling riff on Katherine Bushnell (1856-1946).

* attending medical school, one of the first women to do so

* being a medical missionary toChina

* fighting against the holding of women as sex slaves for US miners, 

* working against prostitution and sex trafficking in India

* deciding that the only way to end trafficking of women is to change Bible interpretation--writing God's Word to Women so that women would no longer be seen as "morally, physically, and spiritually weaker than men."  

Mimi concluded with the preference for male offspring resulting in 100 million girls missing from the planet right now: we must work for "a world where male rule is no longer seen as biblical."  

I was deeply moved by this address.  As a speaker, Mimi Haddad does not disappoint.

Next I heard a surprisingly good lecture by Rick McKinniss (pastor in Connecticut and author of Equally Yoked) about gender issues in first-century Ephesus. 

McKinniss holds that 1 Timothy 2 (which he considers to be genuinely Pauline) is Paul's rebuttal to several tenets of the cult of Artemis.  

* To the priority of Artemis before male gods, Paul says "Eve was not formed first."  

* To the superiority of female wisdom accepted in Ephesus and in the cult of Artemis, Paul says "Eve was deceived but not Adam."  

* To Artemis as goddess for protection in the life-or-death crisis of childbirth, Paul says "women will be delivered through the ordeal of childbirth if they trust in Jesus, don't use amulets etc." as mentioned in Acts 19:18-19. 

I hadn't heard this approach before--I haven't been keeping up with current books and articles on the subject.  I did know that in general these two letters are written in opposition to Gnosticism among early Christians.

McKinniss thinks that Paul, who so often endorsed women leaders in the church, made a temporary exception in Ephesus to counter Christian women who were syncretist, blending Artemis ideas and Christian ideas.  

Sadly, McKinniss was very anti-academic and scornful of the theory that a follower of Paul wrote 1 and 2 Timothy.  Mimi Haddad, however, reined him in a little on this in the Q & A.

As a medievalist, I know that before the printing press it was considered extremely egotistic to put one's own name on a treatise or other original composition.  It was better to translate an earlier author or to comment on his work.  Another approach was to expound on the views of a famous earlier authority and give that person credit for your writing, rather than claiming that your own ideas were somehow valuable.  I'm sure that the author of the two letters to Timothy felt that he was writing what Paul wanted the church to hear.  

A third highlight of the day: the talk by Lee Grady, father of 4 girls and author of 10 Lies the Church Tells Women.  It was excellent and very funny.

He spoke about God calling Deborah to be judge over Israel and about Jael killing Sisera in Judges 4-5--texts "not often preached upon by evangelicals."  His conclusion: God wants women to act independently, to be fiercely brave (timidity is a sin), to be unconventional, and to sometimes "deal the final blow in battle."  

I recommend listening to both Mimi Haddad and Lee Grady's talks.  CDs are available on the CBE website.  

I also enjoyed meeting Xana Macauley and her husband Alan from Johannesburg--so exciting after corresponding with Xana by email for several years. 

Another good thing about this conference: the opening prayer of each plenary session is in a different language, given by a native speaker and then translated into English.  CBE's conference next year will be in Medellin, Colombia.  Getting the message of biblical equality out to women/men in other cultures is primary goal.

In short, it was a good day except for the intensity of so many interactions, often with very conservative Christians ("Is your husband here?).  I even wore a skirt and 1" heeled sandals.  Mimi greeted me in a friendly way and we talked a bit.

I'm passing out business cards with EEWC-CFT's website to many of the women I talk with.  My constant question is whether and when to introduce our materials.  I need to do this because we do not have an exhibit table (see yesterday's post), but I debate whether I'm being too aggressive or too hesitant.

The weekend's MC, Tom McCarthy, began the conference with a plea for restraint: "We war against principalities and powers--not against people.  Let's all commit to be gracious."  

Half of those present are first-timers to a CBE conference, and some are still new to the concept of male/female equality in the church.  After the McKinnis talk on Ephesus, there were a few questions about whether the traditional patriarchal reading of I Timothy 2 can really be refuted.

Today's conclusion on CBE: I would like them to take a welcoming and affirming stance toward gays and lesbians, but I can see that the One Who Loves Us All is using them where they are, flawed though they be--and I guess that's true of all of us.

I CBE

After bouncing around this month between Norfolk VA, Huntington NY, Santa Monica CA, and Telluride CO, I arrived today at a smallish hotel (8 stories in a vertical block) about 30 miles south of Pittsburgh.

I'm here for a conference of Christians for Biblical Equality, a group founded by the Minnesota chapter of EWC (Cathy Kroeger and others) in 1986 when that chapter split off from Evangelical Women's Caucus over EWC's passing of a resolution endorsing the civil rights of gays and lesbians.  

We're not talking gay marriage here--it was just rights to jobs, housing, and hospital visitation without getting kicked out for being homosexual.  Such was life in the US in 1986. 

Note: this is my first CBE conference.  On principle, I will not join CBE, even to get a discount on the price of the conference, and I have stayed away from the group's conferences. 

There's the little problem of one word in CBE's statement of faith: 

We believe the Bible is the inspired word of God, is reliable, and is the final authority for faith and practice.

We believe in the unity and trinity of God, eternally existing as three equal persons.

We believe in the full deity and full humanity of Jesus Christ.

We believe in the sinfulness of all persons. One result of sin is shattered relationships with God, others, and self.

We believe that eternal salvation and restored relationships are possible through faith in Jesus Christ who died for us, rose from the dead, and is coming again. This salvation is offered to all people.

We believe in the work of the Holy Spirit in salvation, and in the power and presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of believers.

We believe in the equality and essential dignity of men and women of all ethnicities, ages, and classes. We recognize that all persons are made in the image of God and are to reflect that image in the community of believers, in the home, and in society.

We believe that men and women are to diligently develop and use their God-given gifts for the good of the home, church, and society.

We believe in the family, celibate singleness, and faithful heterosexual marriage as God's design.

We believe that, as mandated by the Bible, men and women are to oppose injustice.

All the rest I agree with 100%.  It's just that one word.  

If you watch the new documentary God Loves Uganda, you'll understand why I think it's so important not to subscribe to organizations that make a point of being against gays and lesbians.  In Uganda, some legislators (funded by anti-gay Christians from the US) want to set up a death penalty for persons who commit same-sex offenses.  Any individual or organization that is anti-gay contributes indirectly to the continuing deaths of homosexual persons at the hands of others.  

Though I refuse to join CBE, I have tried to stay in touch with CBE members off and on over the years.  I see that God has reached many women and men through the ministry of CBE, people who could not have been reached by EEWC-CFT.  Because the test of being a Bible-believing Christian these days is one's position on homosexuality and abortion (forget the rest of the statement of faith), EEWC-CFT has been branded as outside the fold and our endorsement of equality for women in the church cannot get heard in some circles.

I have emailed with Mimi Haddad, its president, and met her when she was speaking in Minneapolis in 2010 for alumni of Gordon-Conwell who were also attending a General Assembly of the PC-USA.  Mimi holds a doctorate in historical theology and gave a passionate recitation of all the 19th-C. evangelicals who supported women's equality in the churches.  I loved listening to her speak.

To my surprise, this conference in Pittsburgh appears to be maybe 200 people or less.  I expected it to be larger because CBE has held conferences in places like Australia and Kenya. Instead, I find here a room filled with 40 round tables, each set with 6 seats facing the front.  

Nothing starts until Friday, even registration.  EEWC-CFT conferences have usually started on Thursday evening.  The only conference-included meals are dinner on Friday and Saturday, unless a table with bagels or something turns up in the mornings.

Bettina Pedersen, an EEWC member who wrote Being Feminist, Being Christian several years ago, is giving a workshop.  I met her at a meeting of the Conference on Christianity & Literature ten or more years ago.

There are 10-12 exhibit tables set up, mostly seminaries.  I was planning to sign up for an exhibit table for EEWC-CFT until I found out that you have to agree to CBE's statement of faith to have a table.  That's how they keep out the heretics, I guess.

I'm here partly to meet Xana McCauley, who wrote in to EEWC several years ago from Johannesburg SA after discovering our website.  I've been corresponding with her off and on, and in one of our first exchanges I suggested she get in touch with CBE because her faith community in South Africa is fairly conservative.   

The church and ministry she and her husband founded is called Hands of Compassion Rhema:  http://www.handsofcompassion.co.za/

When she told me they were coming from South Africa to this conference in Pittsburgh, I began praying about whether it would be God's will for me to attend as well, traveling from California.  

Many things pointed in this direction, and today here I am--excited to meet Xana tomorrow.