Freaky Friday

Freaky Friday

Okay, so has anyone else noticed that, the same week that Political
Jesus brings on a female contributor, Rod is the one talking about
feminist theology and feminist biblical interpretation, while I’m
talking about things that aren’t specifically informed by my
female-ness?

Would you believe me if I told you that by some
‘crazy-random-happenstance’* our blogging profiles were switched, and I
am actually Rod and he is actually me?  No?  Not buying it?  Darn.

It has got me thinking, though.  Yes I am a woman.  But when I read
theology or Scripture, or do exegetical work, the question in my
subconscious is not ‘how does me being a woman affect how I read and
interpret?’  The question that is in my subconscious is ‘how does me
being me affect how I read and interpret?’

I don’t really know how much more of an influence my being a woman
affects how I do theology, compared to other factors such as being a
Canadian, having the childhood that I did, having the educational
experiences that I’ve had, coming from the church traditions that I come
from, etc.  They all seem to equally play a part.

That being said, I am regularly confronted with the charge that I am not
‘woman’ enough.  On the one side, I am not woman enough because I am
studying theology, I have been a pastor, and I have no desire to just
stay at home tending house, having dinner on the table for my husband,
and spending my evenings scrapbooking.  (Wait a minute, I like
scrapbooking.)

On the other side, I am not woman enough because I am not enough of a
voice for change.  I am not crusading for woman’s equality in the
pulpit, and I’m not advancing the cause of feminist issues.  I am not
woman enough because I’m not making my husband sacrifice his career so I
can plow through my graduate and doctoral work, but rather I choose to
work around his schedule and his career (which in practical terms means
I actually have money to put towards my education rather than falling
farther into student debt).  I am not woman enough because I cringe,
rather than cheer, and am embarrassed, rather than proud, when some
women push and argue and fight when commenting on blogs and articles
that advocate a complementarian position.

And then there is the third side.  Being a Whedon-loving, Star
Trek-watching, World of Warcraft- playing woman is the ultimate black
hole, because everyone knows that there aren’t really women who play
WoW, it’s just guys who have created female avatars.

This is not a complaint, nor is it a pity post.  It is just the reality
of my situation in the now.

So this is me.  I am a woman who does theology.  I am a woman who likes
to wrestle with the philosophical.  I am a woman who is more spiritually
fed when she reads a 1000-page systematic theology text than when she
hears some pithy devotional that is actually aimed at the practical and
busy everyday woman.  I am a woman who gets excited wrestling through
the question of the usefulness of Chalcedon with two guys on a blog.  I
am a woman who laughs and silently cheers, “Go Barth!” when she reads
that Rod emphatically exclaimed “No Barth!” when talking about what
pictures to put in the header of the blog.

So ends my “womanly” contribution to International Woman’s Week.  Now
back to our regularly scheduled programming.

*Ten bonus points if you can correctly identify where in the
Whedon-verse the phrase ‘crazy-random-happenstance’ comes from.

Next Week: The Evangelical Zax

Amanda Mac

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