Women’s Equality Day

Today we celebrate with our sisters nationwide the passage of the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution. This climax of the women’s suffrage movement marks, still today, the risks that our foremothers embraced and withstood to pave the way for equality. Do you wonder or imagine the level of enthusiasm and peaks of inspiration that must have originated from the Seneca Falls Convention?

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of those who suffer from it to refuse allegiance to it, and to insist upon the institution of a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

The above is the second paragraph of the Declaration of Sentiments. A document drafted by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her friends in 1848 in response to their Convention. Arguing the right to vote and participate in government more fully, the sentiments do well to articulate the limitations society had placed on women. It wasn’t until 72 years later that Congress granted that right. The closing list of resolutions in the original declaration do not mince words. They evoke a sense of justice and excitement in even the most modest of feminists. Here is just one.

Resolved, that woman has too long rested satisfied in the circumscribed limits which corrupt customs and a perverted application of the Scriptures have marked out for her, and that it is time she should move in the enlarged sphere which her great Creator has assigned her.

Tonight several women’s organizations across the state of Kentucky in partnership with the Kentucky Commission on Women are sponsoring a free event open to the public. A PBS documentary entitled, “Makers: Women Who Make America” narrated by Meryl Streep and including the work of such women as Sandra Day O’Connor, Gloria Steinem, Oprah Winfrey, Phyllis Schaffley, and Ellen Degeneres will be shown. Here is the info if you want to attend. Johanna and I will be there!

UAW local 862 Union Hall
3000   Fern Valley Road, Louisville, KY 40213
5:30 p.m. 
with drinks and appetizers

Leaning In to Greatness

Barack Obama follows this month a course his presidential predecessors walked, the path originating with JFK, by awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom to several noteworthy individuals. These women and men contribute(d) to the American legacy by dedicating themselves to living out the proposition that all women and men are created equal. There are several women on the recipients list this year:

Oprah Winfrey
Sally Ride (astronaut)
Loretta Lynn (country music singer)
Maria Molina (Nobel Peace Prize winning chemist)
Patricia Wald (judge)
and the one for whom I hold most anticipation | excitement | celebration:
Gloria Steinem. 

This recognition traces back to the idea that God and God’s people will not be mocked, not by history or oppression or the lie that women and men are not created equal. (Here are those thoughts.) As women continue to shatter wide the glass ceiling, for which Steinem and Freidan and so many others liberally and radically revealed, we younger women are more equipped to follow Sheryl Sandberg’s lead and lean in to the conversation. It is a conversation and business tactic that defies gender norms. Who would have thought that literally shifting our bodies forward while at the board room table empowers us women to pursue our ambitions with great confidence while demanding of our colleagues greater respect and equality? (You can join the facebook group here.) The rapid, wildfire growth of this movement, sparked by Sandberg’s book, testifies to our ongoing glass-pulverizing, compassion-building, strong yet tender, feminine approaches to leadership and just how much this is making the world a better place for all of humanity. The ash that wisps through the air from this electric, feminist firestorm reminds us that our work for equality is not yet complete but totally worth celebrating.

This post is keeping it simple! The Women’s Center leans in to the celebration, rejoicing alongside the White House with those who will be recognized for their bravery and achievements. Way to go Women! Thank you for passing on to us, once again, the torch of God’s freedom.

In the Hands of an Angry God

This picture comes from Caryn Riswold’s blog. A feminist Lutheran theologian, Riswold reflects in this post on the idea of God’s wrath. She traces her readers back to Sarah Over the Moon, who wrote a provocative piece entitled “Maybe God is A Bitch.”  Both articles articulate quite eloquently God’s solidarity with marginalized peoples. Rather than spend time here telling you about how they explore preconceived notions of God’s anger as bad, I recommend both articles before moving forward here.

Though, I will go on to say, Riswold confesses her own insecurity with the idea of an angry God as a result of notions that take root with Jonathan Edwards, way back in the nineteenth century. Edwards’ rather infamous sermon articulates why God must go against God’s otherwise pleasurable demeanor and send the wicked to hell. Here are a few excerpts:

The Wrath of God burns against them, their Damnation don’t slumber, the Pit is prepared, the Fire is made ready, the Furnace is now hot, ready to receive them, the Flames do now rage and glow. The glittering Sword is whet, and held over them, and the Pit hath opened her Mouth under them.

Sin is the Ruin and Misery of the Soul; it is destructive in it’s Nature; and if God should leave it without Restraint, there would need nothing else to make the Soul perfectly miserable.The Corruption of the Heart of Man is a Thing that is immoderate and boundless in its Fury; and while wicked Men live here, it is like Fire pent up by God’s Restraints, whereas if it were let loose…if Sin was not restrain’d, it would immediately turn the Soul into a fiery Oven, or a Furnace of Fire and Brimstone.

No wonder mainline Christianity continues in her struggle to overturn such sexism and faulty theology like “God is love, but only to a certain point.” To the extent that entirely new waves of theology have arisen in response to traditional conservatism, the likes of which we learned from our Puritan frontrunners, we are able to craft new ideas that turn our orthodoxy into orthopraxy. Thanks to liberation, feminist, womanist, queer and other budding theologies, it is orthodox to experience an angry God. To take a step further, let us say that it is a sin to not be angered by the oppression that God’s people endure. How do we image/imagine this within the lens of Jesus’ own liberation-love tactics?

The two bloggers ask “What if the wrath of God is something else?” Aside from what Edwards explains as a force of domination or coercion. Aside from fundamentalism threatening hell. Aside from the fear of those who are in power losing their power.

Here’s a quote from Sarah over the Moon. I like how she also re-appropriates a term usually relied upon to connote a derogatory attitude and female posture. It also shows the idea of God’s anger coming from love, not fear.

Maybe God’s a “bitch.” An “angry black woman.” A “bitter” abuse survivor. Maybe God’s “too sensitive” and needs to “learn to take a joke.” Maybe God is all of the dismissive words that we throw out to try to silence those who are fighting for change and for justice. Maybe God is angry, and we should listen to her.

Here’s a quote from Caryn as she validates Sarah’s hypothesis with liberation theology.

…[E]ver since I became familiar with James Cone’s description of wrath as ‘God’s almighty NO!’ to the sins and oppressions we inflict upon each other, I started warming up to it, seeing it as Cone does, an essential ingredient of God’s love.

Wow! Anger as an essential ingredient of God’s love. How beautiful to experience God’s indignation that blossoms, not from fear, but from an intense understanding of the longing of our human condition. Who knows better than our Creator of our systemic woes, corporate sins, and beleaguered ideas of equality? When we are angered by injustice, we do well to mimic God’s anger with our efforts of advocacy and education.

This year the Women’s Center is one of expressing solidarity and giving voice to the issues that anger God. We also hope to proclaim honestly our own anger when we see people of God alienated from justice. So let us stand united under a banner that has been redefined yet still claims we are, indeed, in the hands of an angry God. And let us work to absolve fully God’s anger of love as we embrace ALL of God’s children.

As my blogging sisters already stated,
Maybe God is angry and we should listen to her.

Open Doors

It does not take a Ph.D. in public media to see that women have been at the forefront in our news and politics. (Let’s go ahead a give a giant shout-out to Wendy Davis!) Aside from the government attempting to (re)take control of the female body through draconian legislation and fear-mongering, not the least of which stems from ignorance and a lust for power, a phenomenal and well-orchestrated event transpired this past weekend. The FBI succeeded in their largest nation-wide bust on the sex-trafficking industry here in the US. Over one hundred individuals were freed from the tyranny of their pimps and trading routines with even more arrests made to secure the freedom of the innocent. The majority of those rescued were women, the youngest only 13. Unfortunately in this case, good news does not make the bad more palatable. Like the ubiquity of the sex-trade for one instance.

I preached a sermon this past week from the lectionary passage Luke 11:1-13. The “Parable of the Persistent Neighbor” is a quirky little pericope exploring the idea of charity and compassion. The protagonist needs a loaf of bread to entertain some unexpected guests. Unfortunately, he called upon his neighbor at midnight for the favor of sharing his bread. Inconvenienced by the late-night call the benefactor eventually shares of his resources–not because they are friends, but because the guy was so persistent in his asking. He was not going to leave until he got what he needed! The crux of the story comes when Jesus says that God is not the curmudgeon neighbor trying to cover his head with the pillow when our middle of the night door knocking won’t cease. Seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened. God is eager to share the gifts and goods that make for abundant living.

Except when we are still lost and the door is locked, right?

Are women across the globe not knocking loud enough? Have we not been knocking all night, so to speak? How dare our governments turn a deaf ear to our knocks. (Let’s give another shout out to Wendy Davis, our s-heroic persistent neighbor!) And what of the governments around the world who leave their female populations even more lost and wandering than America does?

God is a communal God. Jesus lived in community and spent his life compelling others to care about those who are left out in the cold night after night seeking food/security/shelter/equality/justice. God acts through God’s community of people. God continually shapes us into God’s fuller intentions for us. This means that we get to help God respond to those persistent and pesky knocks. The great doors of freedom and justice do not magically open on their own accord, especially with the winds of patriarchy and dominance bellowing to keep them shut! This means we have to react against the thrusts of looming legislation, entitled power-hungry, politically savvy men, and rise up ourselves in the middle of the darkness to usher in those whose rights are compromised.

The Women’s Center operates with an open door policy. (Well, not literally 24/7; I like to sleep in my own bed at night.) As we are formulating and growing our calendar of events for the coming academic year, we seek to be in partnership with the God who says, “Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened.” We long to see this promised reality now. We also seek to participate with other women and organizations in Louisville who are also about the business of sharing our resources with those who have need. Will you partner with us?

A few events for you to anticipate this Fall:
October 10th  Celebrating National Coming Out Day (10/11) in Chapel
October 13th Louisville AIDS Walk
November 17th  Transgender Awareness Memorial Service in Caldwell Chapel

Events TBA:
> A film showing of “Pink Smoke Over the Vatican” followed by a conversation with two women seeking ordination in the Catholic Women Priest Movement.
> Our Light + Lunches with special guests from the community

Finally, William Sloane Coffin, former senior minister of The Riverside Church in NYC and rhetorical genius extraordinaire prophetically claimed in a sermon about the subjugation of women during the 19th and 20th centuries that God will not be mocked. (Published in this book.) How so? Sloane Coffin instructs us to remember early suffragists. These women who were martyred for their work and who are today celebrated, emulated, and revered. They are in our history books, their work having paved the way for many of the liberties we to which we are privy. We have erected statues in their honor, in some cases in the very cities that outlawed and murdered them. Women like Anne Hutchinson, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojouner Truth (just to name a few of the big ones) along with more contemporary names like Katie Geneva Cannon, Emilie Townes, Sheryl WuDunn, Hillary Clinton and now Wendy Davis inspire and remind us to run with God to open wide the doors of oppression and truth.

What will our great-grandchildren celebrate in a few years because we kept our doors open with God today? Indeed when one who seeks is found and one who knocks is let in, God’s justice prevails. God will not be mocked!

Dr. M. Shawn Copeland to be 2012 Katie Geneva Cannon Lecturer

Dr. M. Shawn Copeland

Dr. M. Shawn Copeland, Associate Professor of Systematic Theology at Boston College, will be the 7th annual Katie Geneva Cannon lecturer. Dr. Copeland is the author of  numerous articles focusing on the ethical and theological lessons of black women’s lives, experience, and spiritual struggles. Her early work on suffering in womanist perspective is now classic. (See the widely anthologized “‘Wading through Many Sorrows’: Toward a Theology of Suffering in Womanist Perspective” – in, among other collections, A Troubling in My Soul: Womanist Perspectives on Evil and Suffering, Emilie M. Townes, ed. (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1993) 109-129.) More recently she is the author of Enfleshing Freedom: Body, Race, and Being (Fortress Press, 2010); The Subversive Power of Love: The Vision of Henriette Delille: The Madeleva Lecture in Spirituality (Paulist Press, 2009); and Uncommon Faithfulness: The Black Catholic Experience. With LaReine-Marie Mosely and Albert Raboteau (Orbis Books, 2009).

The Women’s Center is grateful that Dr. Copeland is able to include the Katie Geneva Cannon Lecture in her active scholarly and public speaking schedule, and we look forward to hearing from her in September.

The Katie Geneva Cannon Lecture is set for Sunday, September 23, 7:00 p.m., in Hundley Hall, Gardencourt, on the LPTS campus. Dr. Copeland will lead a workshop on Monday following the lecture at 10:30 a.m. in Laws Lodge. We are also looking forward to Monday worship, 9:00 a.m. in Caldwell Chapel, with Alumna preacher Kerri Allen. Monday’s events will be capped by a closing lunch and worship in the Women’s Center.

For additional information and pre-lecture registration, contact the Women’s Center, 502.894.2285. We hope to see many of our readers there!

The Women’s Center at LPTS presents . . .

. . . The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler!  There are two opportunities to see the show!

Dress Rehearsal (open to students):  $5,  Thursday, February 16, 8:00 p.m., Hundley Hall, Gardencourt, LPTS campus.

Performance:  $10, Friday, February 17, 8:30 p.m., Hundley Hall, Gardencourt, LPTS campus.

Proceeds will benefit La Casita Center in Louisville, Kentucky, and Eve Ensler’s 2012 V-Day spotlight campaign.

Tickets will be available for sale at at the Box Office (Gardencourt lobby) thirty minutes before each show opens.  Or, click on the link below to purchase tickets online (before February 15):

https://co.clickandpledge.com/?wid=39864

Fall Arts & Crafts Sale on December 9

‘Tis the Season . . .

For colorful, hand-knit scarves,

Pretty homemade pottery,

And beautiful beaded jewelry.

‘Tis the season . . . 

For sharing gifts and treasures with the ones you love,

A pretty pair of earrings for a friend,

A warm knit hat for a Stranger.

‘Tis the season . . .

For giving gifts that reflect the love and care of the people who made them,

And that symbolize the love of the Holy One for all who will receive them.

This year, consider donating a treasure that you’ve created to the Women’s Center Fall Arts & Crafts Sale, which will be held on December 9, 2011.  That’s less than two weeks away, so start working on your treasures now!  We would like to receive all donations by Wednesday, December 7.

Proceeds from the sale will support the work of the Women’s Center.  Drop by the Women’s Center* or email for an appointment to drop off your items.

* Women’s Center hours: M-F 9-12, MWF 12:30-5:30

Thank you!

Amy Hartsough

Student Coordinator

Women’s Center at LPTS

https://wimminwiselpts.wordpress.com/

WOMENSCENTER@lpts.edu