Interrupting A Gendered Violent Church

This project brings readers into conversation at the intersections of gender studies and Christian theology--particularly diverse feminist and queer theologies. Interrupting a Gendered, Violent Church develops over three parts to an extended essay that points to the real ways churches foster violence around gender. This volume discusses this violent reality while also exploring church as a nexus for resistance to gender-based violence and sketches the contours of a Christian theology mapped apart from patriarchal heteronormativity's hold on late modern Christian life. The goal of the Dispatches series is to offer a genuinely creative and disruptive theological-ethical ressourcement for church in the present moment. Volumes illuminate and explore, creatively and concisely, the implications and relevance of theology for the global crises of late modernity. Our authors have been invited to introduce succinct and provocative arguments intended to provoke dialogue and exchange of ideas, while setting in relief the implications of theology for political and moral life.

Working at the intersections of gender studies and Christian theology--particularly diverse feminist and queer theologies--this book points to the real ways churches foster violence around gender. This volume discusses this violent reality while also exploring church as a nexus for resistance to gender-based violence.

Why did it take so long for the United Church of Canada to respond to violence against women? Tracy J. Trothen looks at the United Church as a uniquely Canadian institution, and explores how it has approached gender and sexuality issues. She argues that how the Church deals with these issues influences its ability to name violence against women. In examining the Church’s early approaches to gender and sexuality, Tracy J. Trothen discovered that the United Church had tended to see certain structures or roles as sacred and others as demonic. For example, while sex outside marriage was bad or improper, sexual expression within marriage was largely deemed as proper or good, no matter what manifestation it took. This assumption allowed much violence within families and marriages to go unchallenged. Trothen uncovers significant shifts in this approach through the examination of such issues as redemptive homes, marriage, pornography, abortion, the ordination of women, and family. Then, analyzing three recent case studies, she demonstrates the value of women’s voices in challenging dominant world views. Finally, she suggests how the Church’s approach to human sexuality and gender has facilitated or obstructed the move to address violence against women. The findings in Linking Sexuality and Gender can be applied to faiths outside the United Church and will be important to anyone interested in church and society, sexuality, gender, or the causal dynamics behind one Canadian institution’s response to violence against women. Tracy J. Trothen is an assistant professor of systematic theology and ethics, and director of field education at Queen’s Theological College, Queen’s University, Canada. She was ordained in the United Church of Canada. Why did it take so long for the United Church of Canada to respond to violence against women?

The editors of this volume highlight the fact that although the Church often stands up for other public issues such as human rights, democratic political rights, economic justice, etc., sexual and gender-based violence do not receive the attention they deserve. There are no theological or cultural arguments that can justify such a position. Sexual and gender-based violence are a scourge that defies our Christian understanding of human dignity ? and challenges the Church in all its formations to respond. ÿAlthough most of the case studies are from Zimbabwe, they challenge us regardless of which country we are living in ? or the tradition of our specific denomination.ÿ In the context of Southern Africa, where the HIV and AIDS burden is among the highest in the world, sexual and gender-based violence are a major contributor to the spread of the disease. This will only change if the Church challenges this practice as part of its educational and public work ? in theological institutions, in congregations, but also in its pastoral work within families.ÿ

Violence against women happens in every country, age group and sector of society. Besides physical violence, it takes subtler form in psychological and emotional demeaning of women. Its extent is seldom acknowledged: its victims are often afraid or embarrassed to speak out - or silenced and discredited if they do. Churches too have turned a blind eye to its presence in their own institutional life, sometimes even condoning it. Few are ready to ask how their own structures may perpetuate abuse of power and keep women insecure and fearful.

Reweaving the Relational Mat is an integrative response to the problem of violence against women which grounds theological and sociological analysis in the praxis of Oceanian Christian women's experiences of violence. It focuses on the collusion of the church in the problem of violence against women by critiquing the ways in which its theology and practices have contributed to 'power-over' ways of relating. Employing the Oceanian metaphor of weaving the mat, the analysis 'unravels' the 'patriarchal relational mat,' paving the way for a constructive 'reweaving' of a Christocentric 'egalitarian relational mat.' The study begins by unravelling the correlation between violence and the ideology of patriarchy. It then highlights the various strands of violence against women, and examines the complex mosaic of socio-cultural sources and manifestations of violence against women in Oceania. This leads to an analysis of the interwoven strands of religion and violence, focusing particularly on the church's captivity to patriarchy. The ensuing explication of problematic theological and biblical interpretations and church practices ends with a critique of male clergy power, particularly as it functions in the Oceanian context. This leads to an examination of the relationship between flawed theological education and violence against women. Case studies of violence against women in the Oceanian theological education setting are analysed. The subsequent 'reweaving of the relational mat' issues forth in specific challenges to church leaders, theological educators and church women.

Carlosa third-generation U.S. citizen from New Jersey whose family emigrated from Colombia many years before Carlos was bornis often complimented on how articulate he is and asked how long he has been in the United States. Deborah, a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) who is up for election as church treasurer, has her qualifications questioned, debated, and scrutinized by the congregation far more than any of her male predecessors who were elected with a simple vote. Lisa, a male-to-female transgender person, attends a Sunday school where her classmates continue to refer to her with masculine pronouns (he, him, his). The three examples above portray microaggressions: subtle slights, insults, and indignities expressed to persons of varied minority statuses. Although microaggressions are usually unintentional, they occur on a regular basis in education, the workplace, and daily life. This is the first book that addresses the concept of microaggressions in ministry and church life. Drawing from their background as ordained clergy, Sanders and Yarber introduce ministry leaders to the concept of microaggressions and look specifically at microaggressions directed at race, gender, and sexuality in the church. Sanders and Yarber help readers become more aware of these subtle and often unconscious communications, offering realistic examples and guidance for grappling with this issue in preaching, religious education, worship, spirituality, and pastoral care and counseling. Microaggressions in Ministry equips congregations with methods for assessment and tools for action that will ultimately help create stronger, more welcoming faith communities.

This book is an exercise in political theology, exploring the problem of gender- based violence by focusing on violent male subjects and the issue of entitlement. It addresses gender-based violence in familial and military settings before engaging with a wider political context. The chapters draw on sources ranging from Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, and Étienne Balibar to Rowan Williams and Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza. Entitlement is theorized and interpreted as a gender pattern, predisposing subjects towards controlling behaviour and/or violent actions. Steven Ogden develops a theology of transformation, stressing immanence. He examines entitled subjects, predisposed to violence, where transformation requires a limit-experience that wrenches the subject from itself. The book then reflects on today’s pervasive strongman politics, where political rationalities foster proprietorial thinking and entitlement gender patterns, and how theology is called to develop counter-discourses and counter-practices.