{"id":507,"date":"2014-08-01T13:54:00","date_gmt":"2014-08-01T13:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/08\/mommy-minister-and-unmarried-single-mothers-in-the-pulpit.html"},"modified":"2014-08-01T13:54:00","modified_gmt":"2014-08-01T13:54:00","slug":"mommy-minister-and-unmarried-single-mothers-in-the-pulpit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/08\/mommy-minister-and-unmarried-single-mothers-in-the-pulpit.html","title":{"rendered":"Mommy, Minister and Unmarried: Single Mothers in the Pulpit"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><span style=\"font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif\">When Philadelphia\u2019s St. Paul Baptist Church hired the Rev. Leslie Callahan as its first female pastor, in 2009, she was nearing her 40th birthday and the tick-tock of her biological clock was getting hard to ignore. She delighted in her ministry but also wanted a husband and children in her life. The husband she couldn\u2019t do much about \u2014 he just hadn\u2019t stepped into her life.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut it was clear to me that I was going to do everything in my power to realize my dream of becoming a parent,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Now Callahan is mother to 22\u2013month-old Bella, who was welcomed joyously by what the pastor describes as \u201ca pretty traditional Baptist church.\u201d She describes Bella\u2019s arrival as \u201ca divine regrouping,\u201d a different answer to her prayers than the traditional mommy-daddy-baby model she had envisioned.<\/p>\n<p>Ever since unmarried sitcom anchorwoman <a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0094514\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Murphy Brown<\/a> shocked much of the country in 1991 by deciding to raise her baby on her own, the culture has changed. Once unthinkable and later unacceptable, single mothers by choice today are met with less judgment.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, according to federal statistics, more than 40 percent of births are to unmarried mothers. But what if, like Callahan, the single mom by choice is a minister, or a rabbi?<\/p>\n<p>Read the rest <a href=\"http:\/\/www.religionnews.com\/2014\/07\/31\/single-unmarried-ministers\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">here<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When Philadelphia\u2019s St. Paul Baptist Church hired the Rev. Leslie Callahan as its first female pastor, in 2009, she was nearing her 40th birthday and the tick-tock of her biological clock was getting hard to ignore. She delighted in her ministry but also wanted a husband and children in her life. The husband she couldn\u2019t [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Mommy, Minister and Unmarried: Single Mothers in the Pulpit<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When Philadelphia\u2019s St. Paul Baptist Church hired the Rev. 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