Search
Search
News
Multimedia
Sports
Arts & Culture
Opinion
Subscribe
Life & Times
Fine Arts
Features
Send a News Tip
100 Years
Archive
Advertise
Donate

Subscribeto The Echo

The Echo

Friday, September 22, 2023 Print Edition

Donate

  • News
  • Sports
  • Opinion
  • Arts & Culture
  • Life & Times
  • Features
  • Fine Arts
  • Multimedia
  • Archive
  • 100 Years
  • Advertise
  • Send a Tip
  • News
  • Sports
  • Opinion
  • Arts & Culture
  • Life & Times
  • Features
  • Fine Arts
  • Multimedia
  • Archive
  • 100 Years
  • Advertise
  • Send a News Tip
Search

Subscribe

Subscribe to The Echo

The Echo aims to represent the views of diverse voices on Taylor University's campus fairly and without bias and to be a vehicle of accurate and pertinent information to the student body. The Echo also aims to be a forum that fosters healthy discussion about relevant issues, acting as a catalyst for change on our campus.

Fill out my online form.

9/21/2018, 11:00am

Can we talk about last Monday?

By Kitty Trudeau
Can we talk about last Monday?
Drew Shriner
Kitty Trudeau

Share

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Mail
  • Print

By Kitty Trudeau | Contributor

In an otherwise encouraging and inclusive Spiritual Renewal Week, last Monday night left some of us behind.

Most of Pastor John Ramsey's messages were appropriate for the reflective and refreshing time Spiritual Renewal week is supposed to be, but on Monday night, his treatment of the scripture he used was troubling and harmful to many of the women on campus. Though there are several examples, the most salient example is how he spoke on the story of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar.

What I found troubling was the way the personal agency of the women was depicted. While we need to recognize that this story is a story of three complex, flawed and three-dimensional individuals, Pastor Ramsey reduced the two women to opposite choices for Abraham to make - the young, attractive one (Hagar), and the old, frigid, unattractive one (Sarah).

However, Genesis chapters 16 and 21 tell a different story. Sarah made deliberate choices in this situation, and she had complex thoughts and emotions that led her to them. Hagar, on the other hand, had very few choices. She, a literal slave who was told to produce an heir for the man who owned her, was depicted by Pastor Ramsey as a hot, young lady who had "her own condo on the other side of Jerusalem." Then she was turned out of the household and sent to die in the desert.

Drew Shriner
Spiritual Renewal Week ended up isolating some members of the Taylor community.

This story is not cute, it is not funny and it should not be treated as such. This is, among other things, a story about grave injustice committed by God's chosen people against an enslaved woman and her child. Last Monday night, it became a funny anecdote about making the right decisions in marriage. This glossed over the injustice against women, the complexity of these women's identities and even Abraham's culpability and responsibility within the narrative.

When we do this to women in the Bible, it leaves other women behind. We, too, are complex, flawed individuals who have agency within our own lives. Neither I nor any other woman can be reduced down to a choice that a man made. The other women discussed that night - Bathsheba, Delilah - were people before they were introduced in the Bible and they were people long after their stories stopped being recorded.

This is not the first time a biblical woman has been unfairly depicted as flat, two-dimensional and as only important in how she relates to a man's story, thoughts and choices. In a blog post to her website called "Esther and Vashti: The Real Story," Rachel Held Evans writes, "only in the midst of the true contours and colors of the text do the characters of the Bible find their depth."

Digging into biblical stories of women and their lives can help us enrich our view of womanhood. This doesn't mean that this is how Pastor Ramsey views all women. Instead, I think it can be an opportunity to rethink the way we talk about biblical women, paying special attention to the fact that the discussion surrounding women in the Bible has a deep impact on the women who hear and participate in the discussion.

Last Monday night's message left me feeling discouraged, disenfranchised and undervalued - maybe we as a Taylor community can work towards being a community whose language about women empowers us, lifts us up and makes us feel included in the Kingdom of God. I believe faithful consideration is an important first step towards this crucial goal - we are a better Body when all members are given an equal value and voice.

Share



Related Stories

Freshmen Grace Gillmar and Jessie Beaumont pose in their new room.

Home sweet home: Taylor students make dorm rooms their own

By Contessa Hussong

More than 400 students traveled to the local Marathon gas station on Aug. 27.

Taylor students honor 11-year-old gas station tradition

By Matthew Harman

Karis Bland during a practice of “Everybody” with the ensemble in the background.

“Everybody” takes the stage

By Anna Jones


Most Popular


9/1/2023, 12:00am

Blockbuster ‘Barbie’ movie breaks the mold, exceeds expectations

By Kylie Roggie

New movie presents a plastic paradox


9/18/2023, 11:54am

Suspects caught in unlocked car


9/18/2023, 11:54am

Pierce disaffiliates from denomination


9/18/2023, 11:54am

TU systems face cyberattack


The Echo To Homepage
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Covers
  • Awards
  • Get Involved

All Rights Reserved

© Copyright 2023 The Echo

Powered by
Solutions by The State News.

Taylor University