Women who have told their #MeToo stories in Christianity Today, The Washington Post and The Christian Century reveal the way church leadership can be a hiding place for abusers. The #ChurchToo hashtag on Twitter last month provided a place for women to speak out about abuse in the church. This month, a group of 150 prominent church leaders
#MeToo in the Bible: Sarah and Hagar’s Voices Read More »
Mary of Magdala and Mary the mother of James and Joseph witnessed Jesus’ sufferings and death (Mt. 27:33) along with many other women. Then they emerged onto the scene as present in a unique way before and after Jesus’ resurrection. The women stand out from the men around them, in three ways, in Matthew’s gospel.
The Two Marys Who Stayed Read More »
Bathsheba Wanted It Bathsheba was a favorite subject for Renaissance painters, because she should obviously be painted naked. She was an adulteress, after all, right? Surely, she knew David was watching her do her monthly ritualistic bath from above. No, Bathsheba was a survivor of power rape and a woman made a widow by her rapist,
Bathsheba Only Wanted a Bath: Exposing Power-sins in the Church Read More »
Holy Chutzpah Mary is big lately. This week, I read a blog post about Mary by a woman trying to discover a Mary to identify with. She writes, “it’s exactly the kind of feminine archetype I don’t really relate to — the kind of person about whom people say, ‘oh, she’s really nice’ as if
The Price of Being Mary Read More »
Have you ever wondered about the back story of some of the Bible’s women and men? Like what happened before, or after, a certain conversation with Jesus? Sometimes there’s a story right in front of us, hidden in the text. Or just beyond us, in the history kept through the Catholic and Orthodox churches. A
Fabulous Photina (The Samaritan Woman) Read More »
Meeting Naomi for the First Time I opened the Old Testament the other day and found myself on the first page of the book of Ruth. As I read, I saw for the first time that the story is at least as much about Naomi as Ruth, and that Naomi’s story is similar to Job’s. I think this is
Naomi, a Feminist Job Read More »
