Love this. Thank you. I’m just beginning to discover the necessity of Black women theologians. I’m starting with Black Womanist Ethics by Katie G. Cannon. Your list here is helpful for what to pick up next.
Dr. Chanequa thank you as always. I usually read these on Sunday morning, but I was the preacher this Sunday and knew I would need to be revived myself because of my subject and I was SPENT. My foundational reading - Too Heavy a Yoke - Dr. Chanequa Walker-Barnes, If God Still Breathes-Rev. Dr. Parker, I found God in Me - Dr. Mitzi Smith, Womanist Midrash and A Woman’s Lectionary for the Whole Church Year W-Dr. Wilda Gafney, just to name a few. If Dr. Renita J. Weems wrote it I read or have it to read.
I have to say that my struggles with the Church are real. I was a pastor for 14 years. But, I couldn't take the hypocrisy anymore. I started out in all Black fundamentalist-y, Pentecostal-y, evangelical-ish churches as a worshiper and as a pastor ended up in all White super liberal Progressive Christian churches, largely because of language and my heart opening up deciding that I can't deal with the patriarchal junk anymore. When I finished seminary, I just couldn't shape my mouth to say the Statement of Faith of the Church I grew up in that basically translated to "We ain't s*** and we don't deserve God's love. But, we better accept it or burn in HELL!" I'm not going to lie. I got tired of that slave Christianity. Besides, we still had a White Jesus on the wall and funeral home fans in the Black Church, while the White Church had Black and Brown Jesuses. What in the Twilight Zone?
I was struggling for real. Plus in seminary, I learned about Liberation Theology and Womanist Theology. That really messed me up because I got kicked out of a Black Church for complaining about White Jesus and them saying I was headed to hell for listening to my "Moo Slim" cousins who actually knew the Bible better than many Christians I know. And when I found out that a lot of pastors I knew learned the same stuff I learned in seminary but never preach it because they were cowards and scared to lose members, I was hot. Add to it that my church wouldn't let my mom preach and crushed her spirit, had my first and second Black wives all jacked up trying to reconcile the church's BS and their inability to align with the Apostolic Doctrine that pretty much just oppresses women and fake a** preachers and prophets telling me that a campaign of demons were going to kill me on the interstate for walking out of a trash sermon that started out explaining why women can't preach my tailed was cooked.
But, that doesn't mean that the grass was greener on the other side because even though no one had a problem with what I preached even when I referenced you and Christena Cleveland, who wrote God is a Black Woman and had bulletin covers from Harmonia Rosales with Black Women portraying Christ, which I personally believe Christ would have to be today and have preached as such, I was still Black in a 99% White space and I hit my limits after George Floyd. And so now, here I am on Substack writing to keep myself awake and trying to reconcile my Spiritual experiences that have always been bigger than church while contained in Christ. Anyway, thanks for your work. I know this joint is sermon long. But, I just did a stream of consciousness after being surprised that the algorithms put this on my feed. I am actively writing a piece that references Too Heavy A Yoke and I figured perhaps that's why this popped up. So, I dove in.
If it's cool with you, I might reference this piece and tag you--or whatever it is called on Substack--when I am done. I am still new up here. Blessing to you on all that you do.
Cite black women, why don't you? Very well done and I'm not saying it because I'm one of those cited. I'm saying it because if we don't who will? #justasisteraway
Wow. Thank you so much for this series!! It’s legitimately an answer to prayer for me. I’ve felt so confined and hurt and angered by the theology of white men (though that is what I studied and loved in seminary), but now see how much it is missing and hurting the church—both those within and outside its walls. Your work is so beautiful, powerful, and important. Thank you.
Just a Sister Away by Dr. Renita Weems changed me. It was my first experience of Womanist theology - such a departure from the patriarchal 'required reading' of my early experience in the church. She opened the door to a world of thought I didn't know existed and I am grateful.
Love this. Thank you. I’m just beginning to discover the necessity of Black women theologians. I’m starting with Black Womanist Ethics by Katie G. Cannon. Your list here is helpful for what to pick up next.
Oh yeah and God is A Black Woman- Dr. Cleveland-stay on repeat in my ears and I have a physical copy that I keep leafing through.
Dr. Chanequa thank you as always. I usually read these on Sunday morning, but I was the preacher this Sunday and knew I would need to be revived myself because of my subject and I was SPENT. My foundational reading - Too Heavy a Yoke - Dr. Chanequa Walker-Barnes, If God Still Breathes-Rev. Dr. Parker, I found God in Me - Dr. Mitzi Smith, Womanist Midrash and A Woman’s Lectionary for the Whole Church Year W-Dr. Wilda Gafney, just to name a few. If Dr. Renita J. Weems wrote it I read or have it to read.
Well done!
I have to say that my struggles with the Church are real. I was a pastor for 14 years. But, I couldn't take the hypocrisy anymore. I started out in all Black fundamentalist-y, Pentecostal-y, evangelical-ish churches as a worshiper and as a pastor ended up in all White super liberal Progressive Christian churches, largely because of language and my heart opening up deciding that I can't deal with the patriarchal junk anymore. When I finished seminary, I just couldn't shape my mouth to say the Statement of Faith of the Church I grew up in that basically translated to "We ain't s*** and we don't deserve God's love. But, we better accept it or burn in HELL!" I'm not going to lie. I got tired of that slave Christianity. Besides, we still had a White Jesus on the wall and funeral home fans in the Black Church, while the White Church had Black and Brown Jesuses. What in the Twilight Zone?
I was struggling for real. Plus in seminary, I learned about Liberation Theology and Womanist Theology. That really messed me up because I got kicked out of a Black Church for complaining about White Jesus and them saying I was headed to hell for listening to my "Moo Slim" cousins who actually knew the Bible better than many Christians I know. And when I found out that a lot of pastors I knew learned the same stuff I learned in seminary but never preach it because they were cowards and scared to lose members, I was hot. Add to it that my church wouldn't let my mom preach and crushed her spirit, had my first and second Black wives all jacked up trying to reconcile the church's BS and their inability to align with the Apostolic Doctrine that pretty much just oppresses women and fake a** preachers and prophets telling me that a campaign of demons were going to kill me on the interstate for walking out of a trash sermon that started out explaining why women can't preach my tailed was cooked.
But, that doesn't mean that the grass was greener on the other side because even though no one had a problem with what I preached even when I referenced you and Christena Cleveland, who wrote God is a Black Woman and had bulletin covers from Harmonia Rosales with Black Women portraying Christ, which I personally believe Christ would have to be today and have preached as such, I was still Black in a 99% White space and I hit my limits after George Floyd. And so now, here I am on Substack writing to keep myself awake and trying to reconcile my Spiritual experiences that have always been bigger than church while contained in Christ. Anyway, thanks for your work. I know this joint is sermon long. But, I just did a stream of consciousness after being surprised that the algorithms put this on my feed. I am actively writing a piece that references Too Heavy A Yoke and I figured perhaps that's why this popped up. So, I dove in.
If it's cool with you, I might reference this piece and tag you--or whatever it is called on Substack--when I am done. I am still new up here. Blessing to you on all that you do.
Wish more of these were required reading in seminary!
God Is A Black Woman - Cleveland
Cite black women, why don't you? Very well done and I'm not saying it because I'm one of those cited. I'm saying it because if we don't who will? #justasisteraway
📌 dropping a pin here to come back to this reading list and this piece. Thank you for introducing me to new voices in the womanist theology space!
Wow. Thank you so much for this series!! It’s legitimately an answer to prayer for me. I’ve felt so confined and hurt and angered by the theology of white men (though that is what I studied and loved in seminary), but now see how much it is missing and hurting the church—both those within and outside its walls. Your work is so beautiful, powerful, and important. Thank you.
Amen! 💕💕💕🙏🙏🙏
Just a Sister Away by Dr. Renita Weems changed me. It was my first experience of Womanist theology - such a departure from the patriarchal 'required reading' of my early experience in the church. She opened the door to a world of thought I didn't know existed and I am grateful.