Post author Dr. Alfie Wines, M.Div., Ph.D., is a pastor, biblical scholar, and theologian. This post contains excerpts from her book, I Wish Someone Had Told Me: Equity for Women in the Church, which appeared in 2020 and includes the voices of clergywomen and their allies as they share their stories of the joys and challenges of being a woman in ministry, and the policies and practices that will lead to equitable treatment of clergywomen everywhere.
"Sexism, patriarchy, sex discrimination, and misogyny have held sway much too long. If these issues remain unaddressed, the church will miss an opportunity to better live up to its ideals of respecting the humanity of every person, or as Jesus put it, to love God and neighbor as we love ourselves."
"Despite these biblical affirmations [Woman at the Well, Mary at the tomb] for centuries the relentless influence of cultures that are not only patriarchal, but also misogynistic, has silenced women’s voices in society and in the church. Yet, today, women declare, ‘No more!’”
"I am convinced that much of the problem comes from a longheld misinterpretation of the first three chapters of Genesis.* . . .Implied in the first three chapters of Genesis is the hope that good relationships— between God and humanity, among human beings, between humanity and the earth—would prevail. Rather than a description of how things must forever be, they silently implore readers to live beyond the strictures of Paradise Lost. They are a reminder that something has to change. They are a call to rethink, do the work, and become the kin-dom** of God.”
*Some of these comments first appeared in “Commentary on Genesis 2:15–17, 3:1–7,” Working Preacher, Luther Seminary, March 1, 2020, https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=4401.
**The word “kin-dom” is an inclusive alternative to “kingdom”; “kindom” emphasizes the nonsexist, nonclassist nature of God’s realm and underscores our common kinship with God and one another.