Hi friends,
It feels like a bit of a strange time to be launching a book into the world. By which I mean, it’s a strange thing to hold all of the pain and grief and oppression of our world—and especially, currently, of the Palestinian people—while also holding the goodness and joy, the things to celebrate.
But there are still things to celebrate. And one of those things is that the book is still launching. I’m still psyched about it. It releases on December 1st, which is a little over two weeks away!
In a world full of so much inequity and injustice, I feel like Nice Churchy Patriarchy is my small contribution in this moment toward building a new kind of world—a world where everyone can thrive. Toward building communities where people of all genders, races, ethnicities, socioeconomic backgrounds, orientations and gender identities are recognized as having gifts to offer that are essential to the whole.
So I look forward to this book launch with hope. Even in the midst of…everything. I hope the book encourages someone. I hope it sparks change in some small-seeming way that’s actually really huge.
I also wanted to share, since it’s been a minute, some of the things that are out there on the web since my last “out there on the web” post (which I believe was back in July)!
- Over at Feminism and Religion, I reflected on how I (slowly) came to recognize that my struggles and liberation are interconnected with the struggles and liberation of all women, and all sorts of women. Different women are impacted by misogyny in different ways, often in ways much more dire than anything I’ve experienced directly. But it’s all connected. We’re all connected. The piece is called Abundant Life Is for Women, Too, and it touches on a bit of everything from witch hunts to domestic violence to Rebecca Solnit to The New Jim Crow to the prophet Jeremiah to (of course) Jesus.
- More recently, also at Feminism and Religion, I reflect on a recent-ish church group conversation about gender norms, expectations, and stereotypes—and about how none of us, whatever our gender identity, really fit into the narrowly-constructed and culturally-specific gendered boxes of “masculine” or “feminine.” I share why this conversation felt really hopeful and healing for me. The piece is called I Don’t Want to Be ‘More Feminine’: Deconstructing Gender Together.
- I’m still on about the climate crisis, this time over at Christians for Social Action. Reflecting on some of the things I learned about climate activism from Rebecca Solnit and Thelma Young Lutunatabua’s awesome book Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility. I hope it helps spark a bit of much-needed Hope in a Time of Climate Crisis (that’s the name of the piece).
- I had the privilege of writing four lectionary reflections over at The Christian Century. This one and this one have to do with Philippians 2:1-13 and all the complications that come with thinking about things like humility and self-emptying, as well as unity and like-mindedness. I’m aiming for an attentiveness to power and social location combined with an opposition to authoritarianism. There’s also this one, reflecting on what the Ten Commandments were doing in their time and how we might still find them relevant now. And this one, suggesting some wisdom from Psalm 19 as a sort of test for whether various theologies or scriptural interpretations or religious practices are good ones.
Whew. Lots going on. I was also excited that the wonderful Red Letter Christians published a book excerpt—feel free to check that out here if you want to read a wee bit of the book. I’m really passionate about learning to see the women in scripture and to see them as fully human, and I hope the excerpt conveys some of that passion. (If you like the excerpt, feel free to share it with a friend who might like it too!)
Also, in fun things, as I write this, Nice Churchy Patriarchy (kindle version) is #46 in Amazon’s rankings of books on “Women’s Spirituality.” (Lol, now that I’m editing and getting ready to post, it’s at #93.)
I would also like to point out the depressing fact that the current top five books in this category were all written by men; only two of the top ten were written by women, and six of the top twenty. Come on. Whatever “women’s spirituality” means, I’m pretty sure men are not the experts on it.
Which, I suppose, is all the more reason to think about all the things Nice Churchy Patriarchy brings up.
Peace and small-seeming bits of world-changing justice to you and your communities this week,
Liz