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The Spirit of Jim Crow or the Spirit of Jesus? {book excerpt}

 (Here's an excerpt from a recent writing session from my book-in-progress, Unladylike: Resisting the Injustice of Inequality in the Church due out from Civitas Press later this year. I hope I'm hookin' ya!)

In a civil rights case in the late 1800’s, a Black man was arrested when he attempted to sit in a whites only railroad car. A local judge ruled against the defendant. The United States Supreme court upheld that ruling. Its  justification? Separate but equal accommodations did not stamp the colored race with a badge of inferiority. (i) Separate but equal?  Not inferior? This sounds familiar. 

 It was this kind of rhetoric that kept the Jim Crow laws of the South empowered for years. We are troubled today to think of how law abiding, upright  citizens, including Christians, were able to in good conscience live and move in communities that had signs posted like Whites Only, or No Colored People. How effectual would it have been if during the Civil Rights movement when these laws were challenged activists conceded in compromise? Which right would be compromised? Which right would be laid down by Blacks in an effort to preserve the peace? It is ludicrous to put the responsibility of making nice with oppressive conditions on the oppressed themselves. It would have been a half measure that would have availed nothing had Civil Rights activists negotiated which Jim Crow laws to maintain.

Churches that “allow women” to lead in certain pastoral roles but ban them from others due to gender are acting in the spirit of Jim Crow, not the Spirit of Jesus. I believe churches that keep women caged with stained-glass barriers are not fulfilling the scriptural mandate of justice nor biblical equality. It is a half measure when half the church is allowed to be heard to some degree, but  relegated to the back pews in others because they don’t have the correct chromosomes.

---

[i] http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/history/creating2.htm,

In Her Own Words - Gloria Steinem

The first resistance to social change is to say it's not necessary.  - Gloria Steinem

Late last night after I got home from a typical shift at the hospital, I switched on the tv and lo and behold, a HBO documentary was airing about an iconic American woman who's influence in the struggle for gender equality cannot be understated. 

 

Gloria Steinem is a name that I've heard tossed around for decades. Within the evangelical circles I've run with in the past, her voice and influence were viewed as the devil's work. I've honestly avoided her because I was conditioned to not trust her. To not trust the feminist agenda. 

But anyone who knows me now realizes that I'm a recovering evangelical and that I've shifted tremendously to different points of view and beliefs. Such as with feminism. I no longer keep it at a distance to keep myself from falling under it's witchy spell. Now I read feminist literature and critically evaluate for myself what it is to be a woman in the world I find myself in.

Since this is the focus of much of my writing life and reading time these days for my book project (Unladylike : Resisting the Injustice of Inequality in the Church. Click here for more info) I was riveted immediately to watching the remainder of the documentary. It is my first real introduction to Gloria and her message. And let me say, after less than 30 minutes of watching footage from her younger years as an activist with slices of speeches and interviews weaved in with the images, all I can think is, Damn, why'd I wait so long to get acquainted with this woman! She's a force to be reckoned with. Intelligent, well-spoken, fierce and unflinching. My generation as well as the next is beholden to Gloria for the painful path she has paved for women everywhere.

If you get a chance to check out the HBO documentary do so. Let me know what you think of it. I hope you'll find her inspiring as I have.

I'm a Bitch...

Back in the late 90's a singer/songerwriter named Meredith Brooks wrote and performed a song that has become an anthem for many a woman navigating her identity and place in the world we find ourselves in.

If you aren't familiar with the song, here's a video of her performing and also a lyric sheet. Hope you enjoy it!

Bitch Written by M. Brooks, S. Peiken I hate the world today You're so good to me I know but I can't change Tried to tell you But you look at me like maybe I'm an angel underneath Innocent and sweet Yesterday I cried Must have been relieved to see The softer side I can understand how you'd be so confused I don't envy you I'm a little bit of everything All rolled into one Chorus: I'm a bitch, I'm a lover I'm a child, I'm a mother I'm a sinner, I'm a saint I do not feel ashamed I'm your hell, I'm your dream I'm nothing in between You know you wouldn't want it any other way So take me as I am This may mean You'll have to be a stronger man Rest assured that When I start to make you nervous And I'm going to extremes Tomorrow I will change And today won't mean a thing Chorus Just when you think, you got me figured out The season's already changing I think it's cool, you do what you do And don't try to save me Chorus I'm a bitch, I'm a tease I'm a goddess on my knees When you hurt, when you suffer I'm your angel undercover I've been numb, I'm revived Can't say I'm not alive You know I wouldn't want it any other way

The Cold Winds of Patriarchy {book excerpt}

 

****another excerpt from my book project. The deeper I delve into the injustice of inequality of women in the world of church, the deeper I discover it's taproot. No wonder it's so pervasive. 

 

 I’ve heard the word patriarchy thrown around over the years without giving it much thought. I have been too busy raising my children and managing my household to chase after ideological concepts like patriarchy, a word which has had little meaning for me. If you would have asked me, I would have said it had something to do with male-dominated systems like a clan being patriarchal if the decision makers of the clan are always men. To some degree this is an accurate definition. 

In the introduction of his book, The Gender Knot, sociologist Allan Johnson defines patriarchy like this:

A society is patriarchal to the degree that it promotes male privilege by being male dominated, male identified, and male centered. It is also organized around an obsession with control and involves as one of its key aspects the oppression of women. 

Allan also  writes that patriarchy is a “system of inequality organized around gender categories.” This is beginning to sound more familiar, isn’t it? Everyday patriarchy occurs whenever a man’s voice or influence is given preeminence over a woman’s simply because he is a man. When male gender entitles a human being to have power over another human being, that is oppression. Patriarchy is an oppressive system and it is prevalent in the church that is meant to be a society of equals. One of the radical things about Jesus, who is the Founder of Christianity, is that he frequently acted and spoke in an anti-patriarchal way. His conversations with women such as the woman at the well and also the two sisters, Mary and Martha, illustrate how Jesus treated women as humans. He did not perpetuate the patriarchal ideals firmly established in the Roman and Jewish communities he roamed in and around. Jesus was counter cultural and I can only wonder how he would respond were he to come and roam around the halls and corridors of today’s Christendom? 

 Last year I met a woman who has felt the bitter cold of the winds of patriarchy. She grew up in a strict religious home where the roles of men and women were rigid. For her entire growing up she watched as her mother strived to be a good, upright Christian woman who submitted to her husband and pastors. The leadership of their ultraconservative church kept a firm grip on decision making and being the voice for their faith community. Women always occupied subservient roles such as childcare and coffee making. Not because they were better at it, but because they were women. This woman described how she began to realize from an early age that women were not as important as men. “I heard my dad say many times, ‘I have the final say.’ My mom could give him input and her opinion, but in the end, he made the decisions because he was the man.”  It was like that at church, too, she remembers. “Men were in charge,  they were the pastors and elders and deacons and they were the ones who led everything like Bible studies and prayer meetings. Women were always the assistants. I didn’t understand why women didn’t get to lead things, too.”  What she is describing is a typical church scenario and a typical system of patriarchy.  Of course patriarchy runs rampant in many parts of society, but what makes it especially outrageous to me is when it’s not only rampant in the church, but it’s defended as being God’s design. I cannot overstate how much I reject this and I wholeheartedly reject this without any hesitation or reservation. I will not negotiate a diplomatic response to the defense of a patriarchal system that stifles half of humanity in the kingdom that is meant to be the freest, most equality-drenched community of all: The Church.

Food Lady : My Summer of Trauma

 **I needed a writing break from my book project. I did a freewrite today and this is what emerged. Welcome to my working world!

It's nearly one-thirty p.m. I park my mini-van in the hospital parking garage and walk fast to get to the time clock. This is shift work. Somebody is waiting for me to get there so I can relieve them and they can clock out.

I tie my black apron on and sling my lanyard around my neck. My hospital I.D. dangles from it and flops around against my chest when I trot down the long, gleaming hallways.I poke my head into the kitchen to see if there is anything I need to bring upstairs. This is one of the invisible places of the hospital, an underground multi-million dollar state-of-the-art kitchen designed to serve 300+ patients a day.

I'm a Patient Dining Assistant. I work in a Trauma Level One metropolitan hospital.  Most weeks I float around several different units. I'm a supplemental worker which means I am  put where I'm needed. But this summer I've been assigned the  Trauma Unit. One of my coworkers is on an extended vacation to her home country and I get to cover for her while she's gone. It's been great  to have a routine and also to get to know the staff and patients better. That's hard to do when I'm jumping around all the time from unit to unit.

The Trauma Unit is my favorite. There's an energy about the team of nurses, CNA's and unit secretaries and housekeepers who keep the unit humming that draws me in. I find it one of the most rewarding atmospheres to work in out of all the units I've been on, and I've worked all of them.  But what's even more apparent to me are the patients. They have survived a trauma of some kind, likely an accident or a fall or an assault, and here they are on the mend with the expert help of a team of people.  These patients are among some of the most grateful that I've encountered.

Churches Losing Women

In a fascinating article from Her.meneutics, a blog for women from the magazine Christianity Today, comes this startling report:  attendance of women in American churches is down by an estimated 17 percent which is nearly double the number for men.

The research is based from a study from the well-known Barna Group, a statistical research outfit that has been issuing reports to the church for years on the shifts and changes that are rapidly taking place in this point of time and history.

The writer of the blog, Sharon Miller, offers these questions in light of this report:

These changes have real consequences for how Christians reach out to their communities, which means we need to be asking ourselves some evaluative questions. For instance, in order to communicate with increasingly educated and professional women, Christian women must be able to articulate what they believe and why. How is the church equipping women for this? Are Christian women able to answer the basic theological questions of their neighbors, coworkers, and friends? And as more American women populate the workplace, how is the church supporting the Christian women in their midst?

I love these questions. I am hosting another Womens Listening Party this weekend at my home where  I gather women together to discuss how the church has informed and shaped our identities. Gender inequality is a harsh reality for many women who are waking up to the patriarchal messaging of their faith tribes. I can only wonder how many women have exited the church when they feel they have no choice but to go to keep their identity intact. In recent weeks, I've encountered three different women who did just that, none of them abandoning their faith, but all three of them leaving because their gifting and/or womanhood felt stifled by the inequity of gender.

It is a pressing issue that I predict will increase in fiercer rhetoric as the old guard of patriarchal American Christianity heaves a long, dying breath in trying to maintain it's grip on its daughters. There is a generational shift happening, Barna captures this with his research. I like to believe that this shift is positive, a resistance to the injustice of inequality in the church. It is way overdue for women to act unladylike and lift up our skirts as we  run  in the power of our feminine nature which is part of the imago dei of God.

Amen and Awomen.

To read Sharon's full post click HERE

:)

The Dare to Buck Patriarchy {Book Excerpt}

***I'm still feverishly writing towards a deadline for my first book, Unladylike: Resisting the Injustice of Inequality in the Church, due out in November.  Here's a sampler!

Acceptance…belonging, these two human desires are, I believe, the deeper root for women in the world of church for why we put up and shut up with the unjust messaging of inequality. It’s why patriarchy has continued to thrive in many pockets of Christendom virtually unchallenged. 

A woman’s need to belong and be accepted, driven by shame over who she is, keeps her shackled to the lie that she has no power.  If polite oppression is a pretty bitch than shame in all her black dog ways is the guard at the door keeping a woman’s identity      locked up by holy lies. 

Women are meant to be free to serve and lead alongside men. Collaboration and mutuality in leadership and servanthood is the culture of the kingdom of God. I believe with all my heart and mind that the day men and women learn to reflect, shoulder to shoulder, the full imago dei, or image of God, is the day the powers of hell will shudder. From the beginning of our creation story man and woman has been at odds with one another. But the God we are fashioned after is a God of reconciliation. 

Women’s innate drive to belong and be accepted is exploited by the voice of shame who threatens our expulsion from the communities we love if we dare buck up against the system.

Christians for Biblical Equality

Over the weekend I was fortunate enough to make it to the Saturday sessions for the Christians for Biblical Equality conference in nearby Seattle, Washington.  CBE is an international organization devoted to promoting equality and mutuality between men and women. They have a robust website filled with resources such as scholarly biblical articles that show how the Bible is not sexist after all and that God (nor Paul) are misogynistic.


I was so surprised by how many internationals were among the 200 or so attendees. I heard people speaking in Chinese and Spanish and there were several brothers present who were from Africa, though I don't know which nations. One session was opened up in prayer by a woman from Cambodia. Listening to her pray with such passion in Khmer made me miss Phnom Penh and rekindled my hope to return there some day. I also  met a Chinese-American woman who lives in Texas, but is from Hong Kong and we had a fun conversation about HK comparing the places we both have lived and visited. (If the reader doesn't know, I lived in HK for several years as a young woman and even met and married my husband there! We returned to the States in the early nineties.)

Welcome to my Writing Cave

 This is my desk stacked with books on the topic of gender and equality in the tribe known as Christian.  See that little vial?  It's an essential oil that's supposed to stimulate clarity in thinking when it's scent is inhaled.
Yep. Between Red Bull, coffee and inhalents, I have increased my writing power.

 

 Peeking out from behind the books that tower above my laptop is a Dream Big 

card from one of my fave artists,Kelli Rae Roberts.

I can't remember where I found this writing angel, but she has hovered

above my desk for several years now. I love what she says,

Writing: I love the swirl of swing of words as they tangle with human emotions.

 I am not much of an outliner when I write, but now I find myself charting, mapping and (gasp!) sorta-kinda outlining to help keep me on track. And hey, don't judge my wallpaper. I was going through a cutesy country-style phase at the time. Imagine!

 I don't know if any of this will interest anyone besides my mom (Hi MOM!!) but I thought 

I'd put it out there in the interest of creative transparency. And I guess it's my 

way of inviting others into stepping inside my writing cave. I rarely have guests

over besides all the ghosts begging for page time. It's kind of an anti-social kind of space.

Thanks for stopping by!

Writing is utter solitude, the descent into the cold abyss of oneself.  ~Franz Kafka