Search for "gafney"

Will The Bible Miniseries Correct Biblical Illiteracy?

By Sarah Posner

…ments on the series’ erasure of women, Gafney’s take on its portrayal of Hagar, the battle of Jericho, the portrayal of most characters by white actors, except for Samson, depicted as a mandingo figure, in Gafney’s view, and rape and polygamy in the story of King David. The third of ten episodes airs tonight on the History Channel. UPDATE: Gafney’s post analyzing the third episode is here….

Paula White’s Coronation, “Rabbi” Messer’s “Apology,” and Great Parody

By Anthea Butler

…pective of a Hebrew Bible scholar. In his response, Messer referred to Dr. Gafney as a “unnamed male Rabbi” who perhaps had a racial axe to grind against Long. You can’t make this stuff up, people. If “Rabbi” Messer had consulted Google, it would not have been difficult to figure out that not only is Gafney a woman, but she is an African-American woman. The remainder of Messer’s hour-long video apologia was not an admission of being wrong, but co…

Female Deacons: Pope Francis Walks It Back, Women Clergy Weigh In

By Kaya Oakes

…o bring disaffected Catholics-turned-Nones back to the church either. Rev. Gafney points out that “Roman Catholic churches are experiencing the same membership losses as other mainline churches in the West,” and that she has never seen a study linking that loss to an egalitarian clergy. Rev. Brekke says any Catholic who thinks women’s ordination would bring back disaffected young Catholic Nones “will be disappointed. Women’s ordination to the Diac…

Watch the New Birth Throne: Eddie Long Declared ‘King’ by ‘Rabbi’

By Anthea Butler

…ewish sensibilities (and so utterly in error in terms of tradition, as Wil Gafney points out at HuffPo) it would be laughable. I wish I could say I was surprised by Long’s latest antics, but I’m not. Actually, I am surprised he stayed away from the church this long. After declaring in December that he was taking a hiatus to work on the problems in his marriage, Long has returned with a new lacefront and a defiant attitude. Having a fake rabbi de…

In a Powerful Statement Black Presidents and Deans Say: No More Stolen Black Lives!

By Pamela R. Lightsey

…versity, the Divinity School and College of Arts and Sciences The Rev. Wil Gafney, PhD, Professor of Hebrew Bible, Brite Divinity School Rev. Theresa S. Thames, DMin, Associate Dean of Religious Life and of the Chapel, Princeton University Rev. Monica A. Coleman, PhD, Professor of Africana Studies, University of Delaware Rev. Kamilah Hall Sharp, MDiv, J.D., Contingent Faculty Rev. Dr. Irie Lynne Session, DMin, Contingent Faculty Kameron Carter, Ph…

Noah’s All-White Ark, and Other Odd Directorial Choices

By Wil Gafney

In Noah Darren Aronofsky has crafted a provocative cinematic midrash weaving the stories of Genesis and stories from the book(s) of Enoch set in an antediluvian Iron Age. Midrashic commentary traditionally fills spaces in scriptural stories, asking questions of the text, and answering those questions. Aronofsky’s choices create a new interpretation of the story of Noah—neither a good nor a bad thing in itself. Some will care that the movie deviat…

How “White Christianity” Beat Academic Freedom at Wheaton

By Wil Gafney

As a fellow—make that sister—tenured black woman, I feel a particular kinship with Dr. Larycia Hawkins. When I read that a tenured professor was suspended for expressing a theological view some in her conservative evangelical college community found to be incompatible with their views, their covenant, I was deeply concerned for my sister scholar whom I’ve never met. For I know how it feels to use my voice as a black woman to speak theologically a…

#BlackLivesMatterStill: We Cannot Let Anyone Else Define Our Movement

By Wil Gafney

Words are insufficient. Words—like horror, atrocity and domestic terrorism—are inadequate. Words—like sin, evil and blasphemy—are wholly lacking. “Violence is woven into the fabric of our country. Violence has been deployed against black folk from the moment we arrived on this continent — and for some even before that, the journey itself an act of violence.” Gun violence in America took an even more despicable turn last night. Five police officer…

You’re Using It Wrong: Rachel Held Evans Returns to the Bible

By Eric C. Miller

…rs. When I wrote about Hagar, I was influenced by Delores Williams and Wil Gafney, black women who read the story of Hagar in a way that I would never think to read it. Also some feminist theology, some liberation theology—I did my research for this book and I stand by it. You advocate a midrash approach to Biblical interpretation. What is that, and why is it preferable to literalist or inerrancy approaches? Midrash is a Jewish rabbinical interpre…

If We Did Use the Bible to Run the Country…

By Wil Gafney

The Bible is a collection of texts that in varying arrangements are sacred to Jews and Christians. These texts are scripture, not a constitution. The biblical texts have differing authors, editors, and originating contexts. They speak through multiple genres. They employ a variety of literary forms. Like any work of art, act of communication, or experience they cannot be engaged, read, or heard without interpretation. They are no substitution for…