Welcome to my blog!! Here’s a little bit about me.
I’m a feminist and a Christian social ethicist. I studied at Union Theological Seminary in NY with this amazing woman, Beverly Wildung Harrison. She pioneered the field of feminist Christian ethics and she taught me how to do ethics and how to be a good mentor and a passionate and caring colleague. I’ve written and edited several books which you can find on the “books” page.
In my most recent book, Trust Women: A Progressive Christian Argument for Reproductive Justice (Beacon Press, 2018), I outline how the justification framework shaping current American discussion of abortion is fatally flawed and argue that the framework of Reproductive Justice offers a more ethically robust opportunity for public dialogue. Buy it, read it, study it in your church or with friends. Then, let me know what you think!
What do I do? Well, lots of things but I get paid to be a Professor of Religious Studies at Elon University in NC. I’m starting my 18th year this fall and feel incredibly fortunate to have a great job at a great institution. This photo is of a Wealth and Poverty course that I teach during our three-week winter intensive where I take students to NY for a week to visit the UN and to look at anti-poverty grassroots organizing in the City. I helped start a Poverty and Social Justice program at Elon and also teach environmental ethics and feminist and other liberation theologies.
I also am very active ecumenically. Ten points for Gryffindor if you can find me in this photo! It was taken at the most recent meeting of the World Council of Churches Faith and Order Commission. I represent the Presbyterian Church (USA) on Faith and Order, which a commission of representatives from churches around the world that meet together to talk about issues that continue to divide us from one another. It is the only place where official representatives of Orthodox churches, Protestant churches, and the Roman Catholic church work together on issues of Christian unity.
I have been active in the international ecumenical movement for 25 years and am passionately committed to the WCC and the World Student Christian Federation. If you are a college student and a progressive Christian or progressive college student trying to figure out what you think about Christianity – you should definitely check on the Student Christian Movement (or SCM) in the US. Here is a photo of me and some colleagues at a recent SCM-North America event.
I’m an ordained minister of Word and Sacrament in the PCUSA and here you can see me with my family one Sunday when I preached, my husband played his guitar in the church band, our oldest daughter read the scripture, and our youngest lit the candles.
I’m a drinker of tea, a lover of wine, a cyclist, a mom, a wife, a daughter, and a seeker of justice. I’m a Christian who struggles with the history of Christianity and many of the people who claim to be Christians yet understand what that means in very different ways than I do.
I am passionately committed to inclusive language for all peoples and expansive language for God and I am always seeking worshipping communities that can speak to my deepest spiritual needs – inclusive language, progressive Christianity, and embodied justice. I am even lucky enough to find these spaces on rare and miraculous occasions, it’s how I continue to know there is a holy presence in the world.
In this blog, it is my fervent hope to think with you about what it means to live faithfully as a Progressive Christian in the world today. Seeking “to do justice” is how I understand my Christian calling in the world. I hope you will follow my blog and walk with me on this journey.