Womanist Theology

Fall 2020 Men and women serving and leading as equals Womanist Theology Unraveling the Double Bind of Racism and Sexism CONTENTS “She Is in Bitter Distress”: A Womanist Ethic of Advocacy DEPARTMENTS 4 A womanist reading of the story of Elisha and the Shunammite woman from 2 Kings 4:8–37. 3 From the Editor by CL Nash Let These Women Lead What I Wish You Knew about Black Women in Ministry: 36 Giving Opportunities 10 An Open Letter A letter about how to understand the needs of Black women in ministry 37 Ministry News and support them. 37 Praise and Prayer by Deirdre “Jonese” Austin 38 President’s Message Always Say Her Name Womanist Liberation for All 15 Little Black girls face overwhelming pressure to fit a particular mold, and egalitarians can speak the truth instead. by Katherine Ladd Smith Six Black Female Artists Christians Should Know 18 Six profiles of important female artists and examples of their artwork. EDITORIAL STAFF by Cara Quinn Editor: Ellen Richard Vosburg Complicity and Silence: How Lament Could Lead Us to a Graphic Designer: Margaret Lawrence 24 Better Place Publisher/President: Mimi Haddad This article confronts the threefold discrimination women of color face and charts a path for reconciliation. Mutuality vol. 27, no. 3, Fall 2020 by Valerie Ranee Landfair Cover design by Cara Quinn God Is Our Liberator: How Christian Tolerance for Injustice 30 Impacts Our Children Mutuality (ISSN: 1533-2470) exists to make egalitarian theology accessible Powell shares first-person experiences of sexism and racism to show how to the non-scholar and to explore its the church can change the lives of children of color. intersection with everyday life. by Octavia Powell Book Review: Parable of the Brown Girl: The Sacred Lives of Girls of Fall 2020 35 Color by Khristi Lauren Adams Reviewed by Jeanne Porter King Men and women serving and leading as equals Mutuality is published quarterly by CBE International, Advertising in Mutuality does not imply organizational 122 W Franklin Ave, Suite 218; Minneapolis, MN endorsement. Please note that neither CBE Womanist 55404-2451. International, nor the editor, nor the editorial team Theology is responsible or legally liable for any content or Unraveling We welcome your comments, article submissions, any statements made by any author, but the legal the Double Bind of and advertisements. Visit cbe.today/mutuality. responsibility is solely that author’s once an article Racism and appears in Mutuality. Sexism All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the 2011 revision of the Holy Bible, New CBE grants permission for any original article (not International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, a reprint) to be photocopied for local use provided 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All no more than 1,000 copies are made, they are rights reserved worldwide. distributed free, the author is acknowledged, and CBE is recognized as the source. 2 MUTUALITY | Fall 2020 WEBSITE: cbeinternational.org From the Editor by Ellen Richard Vosburg Let These Women Lead Mutuality between women and men has been the heart I am a white woman. As I learn from these women, I find of CBE’s mission since its inception in the late 1980s. myself returning to the words of the apostle Paul, which If you return to the early documents of the egalitarian act as an anthem for egalitarians: “So in Christ Jesus movement, and the founding papers of CBE, you you are all children of God through faith, for all of you cannot escape what we believe to be the biblical truth of who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves women’s equality with men in the eyes of God, and thus with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither the obligation we have to share leadership and authority slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all as God’s people. We feel convicted that God has asked one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are us all to serve the church based on the gifts we’ve been Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Gal. given by the Spirit, and that those gifts are not given 3:26–29, emphasis mine). We readily appeal to this verse based on the recipient’s sex. to establish the radical equality of women in the church. We must also see how Paul is radically including gentile What CBE holds to be true about gender we also women (race), especially gentile slave women (race and extend to “all cultures, races, and classes” in our mission class), as fully equal children of God, one in Christ, and statement. God does not show favoritism, so neither do recipients of God’s promise. we. But CBE’s staff and donor base, statistically speaking, is majority white. We are humans still struggling with sin, Talking about race can be uncomfortable, even when we so we have not always held to our ideals that culture, race, are committed to mutuality for all people. In the US, and class ought not to create a distinction between us. we as a nation have yet to fully confess our historical sins of slavery and systemic racism, which can hold us In this issue of Mutuality, we hear almost exclusively back when it’s time to reckon with what has happened from and about Black women who speak from a broadly and how it continues to affect real people’s lives. But womanist perspective. Alice Walker’s now classic definition as egalitarians, we come to the table equipped to have of womanism dovetails with our mission as egalitarians in these conversations. As egalitarians, we are not without that we are “committed to survival and wholeness of entire a framework for listening to and amplifying those who people, male and female.” But egalitarians have struggled have been treated as second-class citizens. Not only do to carry out some aspects of our mission—we struggle to we believe that we are all one in Christ, but we have let amplify the voices of egalitarian women and men of color that truth guide the way we live and work together as and to recognize that, for many, Black women cannot Christian women and men. And now is the time to let separate racism and sexism. In this way we have failed to our faith guide how we work together with our Black see that the quest for equality for women requires that sisters and brothers in Christ. white women use their privilege to make extra space at the table for the leadership of women of color. As you read these articles, I pray you might “be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry” (Jas. The women featured in this magazine have a strong word 1:19). Coming to terms with the ways some of us may have for us, especially us white egalitarians. These articles been complicit in the silencing and the pain of others can were written over the spring and early summer, which make us feel defensive. We must ensure that the freedom was a moment of global protest. George Floyd, a Black we have found in Christ, the freedom we proclaim to man, was murdered by a white police officer while taking women and men, is truly extended to all women and him into custody for allegedly paying with counterfeit men of every race and class. These writers see a way currency. This clear injustice sparked protests against forward for us to achieve true justice and full equality police brutality and rallies for Black lives throughout the for all women and men. Let them lead us in our shared US and around the world. commitment to mutuality. BOOKSTORE: cbebookstore.org MUTUALITY | ”Womanist Theology” 3 She Is in Bitter Distr ess A Womanist Ethic of Advocacy By CL Nash 4 MUTUALITY | Fall 2020 WEBSITE: cbeinternational.org For the past thirty years, many African American I define an ethic of advocacy as an internal mandate, women as theologians, ethicists, and Bible scholars grounded in practices of advocacy, which sees communal have consistently used a womanist interpretation, which wholeness as intricately linked to the wholeness of we call our “hermeneutic” (a method for reading and oneself. If Elisha is lacking, then something within the studying the Bible or theology), to engage the intersection Shunammite is also lacking. This notion of connecting of race and ethnicity, gender, religion, and class. Such beyond one’s self-interest ultimately brings value to us as engagement is grounded in communal affirmation, or well as those around us. the betterment of the “entire people.” The Shunammite woman’s story is particularly relevant In this article, we will observe how the Shunammite today. Many in the US observe the precariousness woman reacts to her situation with an interpretive experienced by African Americans who are lens that is similar to womanist thinking; her story disproportionately harmed or killed by police or can be found in 2 Kings 4:8–37. The story can be while in police custody. A womanist ethic of advocacy summarized this way: A wealthy Shunammite woman identifies social organizing and protest as essential to tells her husband they should create a room for Elisha communal wholeness. African American women do (verse 10), a “man of God” who passes by their home not watch husbands, brothers, uncles, or sons encounter regularly and eats with them (verses 8–9). In return, danger while sitting silently. We mediate with our Elisha promises that God will give her a son (verse minds, bodies, and spirits.

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