CHILDREN'S DEFENSE FUND

SUMMER COURSE

On Alex Haley's farm, you will find rocking chairs scattered about the compound dedicated to civil rights activists. Names that had become all too familiar over the trip – Medgar Evers, Benjamin Mays, Rosa Parks, Katie Geneva Cannon and of course Martin Luther King to name a few – reminded me of the necessary role sacrifice played in not only the Civil Rights movement, but in all movements for social justice. I found an evening spent in one of these chairs to be relaxing, yet I couldn’t help but be filled with self-doubt. Rocking back and forth, the relaxing sounds of the country evening soothed me, yet the presence of all those who had risked so much in their efforts for justice brought me, inevitably, to question my own commitment.

As I reflect on the privilege and impact of attending the Children's Defense Fund's Samuel Proctor Institute and on the beautiful 157-acre farm that once belonged to Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alex Haley, I realized how much I didn't know about the intersection of religion, particularly Christianity and the civil rights movement of the 60s and the continuing work of anti-racism in America. The process of learning and unlearning has become a spiritual practice, particularly as I seek to minister in a context where black and brown bodies are routinely sites of violence, prejudice and suspicion. Latent biases are painful to uncover in my own life, but I am reminded again and again that interrogating the privileges that my White skin brings me in this society must be a daily undertaking. 

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THE GIFT OF WOMANISM & WOMANISTS

FEMINIST & WOMANIST ETHICS

I've also included my final exam answers for a Feminist/Womanist Ethics class I took in my second year of seminary. In it I attempted to respond to three prompts: The first, an article entitled "Why Coronavirus Is Killing African-Americans More Than Others;" Second, an essay entitled “The Slur I Never Expected to Hear in 2020,” in reference to President Trump's characterization of COVID-19 as the 'Chinese virus;' and finally a compare and contrast between ethical analysis informed by postcolonialism and womanism. This assignment challenged me to think deeply about how race, racism and privilege have played out during our current global health crises.

​It was through this Feminist/Womanist Ethics class that I was able to read more of the work of Womanist theologian, a scholar of the Hebrew Bible, translator, and gifted orator, has inspired me beyond measure over the past two years. I was introduced to her work first  by my Hebrew language Professor, Justin Reed. He had us read an appendix to Womanist Midrash in which she explains her underlying ethos when it comes to translating and interpreting the Hebrew scriptures. In that appendix, I read for the first time the womanist commitment to multilayered and interlocking systems of oppression and attention to microaggressions and control that keep all women of color in a state of perpetual despair and downtrodden-ness. I saw a theologian who drew directly from cultural sources, from contemporary African-American art and music, literature and experiences, and wove them through their readings of scripture. Wilda Gafney taught me in that short appendix, and I have read her work much more extensively since, that it was important for a pastor and a preacher to have her ear carefully tuned to the voices of those on the margins of society and to proclaim the gospel of good news to them boldly.
 
The growing xenophobia and nationalism place an unprecedented demand for church leaders to raise their voices and to renounce their fence-sitting. Wilda Gafney’s approach to scripture and the art of preaching has sparked my imagination for how I, as a pastor in training, might be a vocal advocate for inclusive practices inside and outside the church and to ground the church’s mission and vision in scripture. I am convinced that my future vocation much take this work seriously. I believe that practices and policies in every sphere of life that seek to see all people flourish will bring about the kind of kin-dom transformation that Jesus sought to inaugurate. 

ELoane_FWE Final Exam
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