Old Testament – Feminism and Religion

This week Twitter has been a flurry with information for victims of domestic violence and rape. This ranges from the U.S. redefinition of rape to include men to Nigeria’s first anti-rape toll free hotline for women. There is even a male movement to stand against rape. This problem is an ongoing issue, one that shows no sign of diminishing or going away. According to Amnesty International, one in three women worldwide have been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused and their abuser is normally someone they know. As I contemplate this very difficult issue, I am reminded of the Biblical Hagar in Genesis 16. The story of Hagar and Sarai is abundant

Men Can Stop Rape (http://www.mencanstoprape.org/)

in ethical situations that draw in the reader and presents complex issues that can be very troublesome. If you take the text hermeneutically, through an ideological examination in its English translation, we have an Egyptian woman, who is also referred to as slave or concubine, forced to engage into sex with her owner’s husband for producing an heir. Here the abuser is a woman with a docile and obedient husband portrayed by Abram. What can we glean from such a story for today’s battered women? Hope or horrific defeat? Continue reading “Hagar: A Portrait of a Victim of Domestic Violence and Rape”

The ten students in my fall 2011 class at ABSW, Reading OT Biblical Characters, are currently being instructed to read broadly. I tell them to develop their sensibilities as a reader so that they have a greater capacity to serve the needs of their communities. I challenge them with a question like-How do you liberate a biblical character that is not in a biblical story because they/he/she are/is never directly mentioned, given voice, or described? Or,what is the value of investigating the tensions between the story and the discourse exhibited through minor and major biblical characters? I ask them these questions because half of the students are advocating on behalf of a group that is socially, politically, economically, and/or spiritually underserved. The other half is training to develop themselves as scholars and educators of biblical literature. In the class room, regardless of path, everyone is required to be both scholar and servant.

Each student is asked to develop her or his final project with an ideal audience in mind. To whom do you see yourself presenting this semester-long project? The larger question behind that is whom do you serve? Continue reading “Dr. Seuss, Multiple Hats, and Advocacy: Reading Broadly By Corinna Guerrero”