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February 6 - February 8, 2022
I would argue that if the oppressed do not support one another and remain strong, public discomfort disappears without pressure.
When the gentleman told me I took his job, I replied, “Oh, really? Tell me what you teach.” My interlocutor began to regale me with courses that are strictly historical-critical or in the vein of “White male biblical scholar.” I proceeded to ask him if he taught Womanist or feminist interpretations of the Bible, to which he responded in the negative. I also asked if, perhaps, he integrated critical social theories into his biblical interpretations. Again, he answered negatively. At that juncture I responded that I teach and engage those modalities, and therefore I did not take his job, since
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Collins helps me connect real life to how inerrancy and infallibility actually work on real bodies. Activism and resistance are inherent to power relations, and both contemporary women and women within the biblical text must find connections of shared activism and resistance. Such a reading of texts, because it engages cultural issues, is counter to the readings that the doctrines of inerrancy and infallibility allow. Where do women have a modicum of power that we may exert in our reading of the biblical text? Further, since power is not something a group possesses but is, in fact, an
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the concept of intersectionality is designed to help members of a community see their blind spots. If some communities, specifically evangelical communities that espouse inerrancy and infallibility, do not engage ways of interrogating their own blind spots, how can they imagine full and complete readings of the biblical text? In my Womanist New Testament mind, watching how some interpretative communities (namely, White male biblical scholars) read women in the text without recognizing women’s intersectionality is highly problematic. Epistemic privilege and power become important details to
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All my argumentation is leading toward the idea that “color blindness” or assimilation is the goal of White supremacist authoritarianism that stems from the doctrines of inerrancy and infallibility. Diversity and inclusion in many congregations simply means “add some Black folk and stir.”
I would argue that any biblical reading that does not pay attention to the ways in which women and racialized people in the biblical text engage oppression is not likely to engage the fullness and complexity of the text.
As a child growing up in Black Baptist churches, I would often hear, “When you know better, you do better.” That is my prayer for all of us.
As I have taught this letter, I have often put forth the idea that the work of the Galatian community was to walk each other home. Similarly, contemporary Jesus followers are charged with ensuring that we all “make it home”—“bearing one another’s burdens” (Gal. 6:2),
During this time, I put forth my own: “You cannot begin a sentence with, ‘The Bible says …’” Often, students are stunned. Many of us have grown up saying, “The Bible says …” as a way to halt a conversation or win an argument. However, during the course of a semester I train my students, when citing the Bible, to quote both book and verse rather than using the generic attribution “the Bible.” Students then begin to realize the nuances of quoting from the Gospel of John versus the writings of Paul, for example, and how the underlying contexts (both cultural and linguistic) of each may be
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As students begin to understand that language learning yields interpretative options, they have to make a decision on how to adjudicate those options. Again, the multitude of decisions forces students to slow down and, dare I say, become less hermeneutically arrogant.
How can one provide a “faithful” translation without bringing harm to a community?
Because translation is viewed as an invisible act, readers often think it is value- and culture-free,
Gafney emphasizes that she has been shaped by the Western scholarly academy. In the ways it shapes and trains scholars, the academy differentiates translation from interpretation, thereby implying that translation is a neutral practice. Gafney argues that the Western scholarly academy has thought of translation as a word-for-word process comparable to a mathematical equation. I find that in my own work and scholarship, both translation and interpretation are predicated upon the idea of objectivity.
Gafney’s words are highly important. Bible translators have been overwhelmingly White, as is our guild. This means that until very recently, the Bibles that hold authority in my religious and academic worlds were produced by scholars who do not look like me, do not share my culture, and are part of a culture that has been openly hostile to the scholastic capacity, literary achievements, and even moral agency of my people.
Instead he tries to make Paul entirely consistent. This is another issue with inerrancy and infallibility. When White supremacist authoritarianism reads biblical texts, all the texts must read similarly. However, Paul is not consistent because he writes to various churches in diverse contexts. It is imperative for contemporary readers of Scripture to understand that concept so that we do not fall into the traps of continued White supremacist authoritarianism that allow no cultural diversity whatsoever as we read the biblical text.
One aspect of ministry that I talk to predominantly White churches and pastors about is the idea that the work I do is not for my liberation alone or even for Black bodies alone. My White colleagues, White pastors, White preachers, and White friends must fight for their liberation from the chains of their Whiteness. Identity as White is a constructed experience. Being White has denial and amnesia embedded in it. When immigrants entered the United States, we must remember that whole people groups became “whitened” as a way to distinguish their fates from that of Native Americans and Black
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