“Walking on Water” 11″ x 14″, Acrylic on Paper, DS
Bessey, Sarah. Jesus Feminist: An Invitation to Revisit the Bible’s View of Women. New York: NY, Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2013.
492 words
“Let us be women who love.” (McVicker in Bessey, xvii)
“Let us rise the questions of our time.” ( “ , xviii)
“Let’s head outside. I want us to sit around a fire pit ringed with stones and watch the moon move over the Pacific. I want us to drink good red wine . . . I want us to talk about this –– really talk about womanhood, church, the labels, and where we go from here . . . we are wounded, we are wounding.” (Bessey, 1)
“Let us discover how we can disagree beautifully.” (2)
“Let’s be done lobbying for a seat at the Table.” (3)
“I want to be outside with the misfits . . . the ones rejected by the Table . . . Aslan is on the move.” (4)
“Years ago, I practiced anger and cynicism, like a pianist practices scales, over and over.” (5)
“This night, by the bonfire, I want to wrap us up in the warmth of good stories, of strong love, of prophetic callings.” (8)
“Jesus made a feminist of me.” (11)
“It might surprise antifeminists and anti-Christians equally to know that feminism has its roots tangled up with the strong Christian women’s commitment to the temperance movement, suffragists movements, and in America and England in particular, the abolitionist movements of the nineteenth century.” (12)
“At the core, feminism simply consists of the radical notion that women are people, too.” (13)
“I’ll say that again, louder, and I’ll stand up beside our small bonfire and shout it out loud. I’ll scare the starfish and the powerful alike: patriarchy is not God’s dream for humanity. It never was, it never will be.” (14)
“[Jesus] love us. On our own terms. He treats us as equals to the men around him; he listens; he does not belittle; he honors us; he teaches us; he includes us –– calls us all beloved.” (17)
“Jesus subverted the social norms dictating how a rabbi spoke to women.” (18)
“When Mary of Bethany sat at his feet, she was in the posture of a rabbinical student.” (19)
“The lack of women among the twelve disciples isn’t prescriptive or a precedent for exclusion of women and more than the choice of twelve Jewish men excludes Gentile men from leadership.” (22)
“Jesus would teach or quote a portion of the Law and then move us forward from our current places toward God’s original intent.” (27)
“God’s dream for humanity is clearly not slavery.” (28)
“All this battling to eradicate human trafficking happens despite the fact that there is actually no specific verse in Scripture that prohibits the buying and selling of human beings . . . because we understand God’s creative purpose for humanity.” (29)
“In addition to slavery, the Church has, in general, dismissed polygamy, the buying and selling of daughters, stonings . . . and many other culturally accepted practices. God is still moving, still active, in our world today.” (30)
ShellseekerReflections 