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<\/a><\/p>\nToday, I\u2019m so thrilled to share with you my conversation with Sarah Bessey about her book, \u201cJesus Feminist\u201d<\/a> that releases tomorrow (Yay!).\u00a0 I have one copy of \u201cJesus Feminist\u201d to give away, find out how to win it after the interview.<\/p>\n Last year I was worn out by the climate around \u201cbiblical womanhood\u201d so I wrote a series called, \u201cThird Way Womanhood\u201d about how I just don\u2019t fit in.\u00a0 Then I was introduced to Sarah\u2019s blog and I thought, \u2018Oh good God, here\u2019s another Third Way Woman!<\/em>\u2018\u00a0 I\u2019m thankful for Sarah because she loves the Person of Jesus before positions\u2014her femininity is incredibly Christo-centric. She loves people more than position\u2014she\u2019s the best kind of peacemaker, the one that speaks truth with grace but keeps the circle open for everyone to process truth lovingly, and she\u2019s mindful of the dangers of prescriptive approach to theology<\/a>\u2014Sarah recognizes we\u2019re all writing our stories with God and she honors those stories before she seeks to prescribe a specific way of being and living.\u00a0 I got this heart from her blog and even moreso in her book. This week, I\u2019ll be linking up with her synchroblog, so you\u2019ll hear more of my thoughts then, but today, I want to introduce you to an incredible Shalom Sistah, Sarah Bessey:<\/p>\n Osheta Moore:\u00a0 I love your humility in this book. It\u2019s refreshing and exactly what this hotly debated topic needs.\u00a0 I love this line from chapter one, \u201cI will practice, painfully, over and over patience and peace until my gentle answers turn away even my own wrath.\u201d\u00a0 You call this practice the way of Jesus.\u00a0 When did you realize a book about womanhood with this gentle, yet prophetic tone was needed?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Sarah Bessey: Thank you for all that!\u00a0 I\u2019m thankful that came through because that\u2019s my heart and the posture I want to have around this conversation. I see myself as more of a bridge builder. I\u2019m not looking at any of this like a war, an argument where I\u2019m out to convince somebody, or take them down, or neutralize\u2014that kind of fighting language doesn\u2019t resonate with me.\u00a0 Like yourself, I\u2019ve benefited from Anabaptist teachings and from peacemaking theology, so to me I felt like regardless of the \u201crighteousness\u201d of the argument or the point, your heart should be to make space everybody on all points so that no one is left behind.\u00a0 You may win the argument, but you\u2019re not really changing anyone\u2019s heart, mind or soul.\u00a0 You\u2019re not creating space for them to feel loved or to feel that there is peace there or you\u2019re creating space for peace. You know, there are not two sides to this and we actually have more in common than we think.\u00a0 That was really my heart going into the book. Some may call it provocative, and I\u2019m only wiling to go so far as calling it a provocative love letter that comes from a heart for the church and a lot the thankfulness.\u00a0 To me this book is more of an invitation to imagine what life looks like on the other side of these conversations. Once we get some of these issues resolved, and I believe they can be resolved, then what?\u00a0 How can you reflect the Kingdom of God? It\u2019s the\u00a0 \u201cthen what\u201d that excited me because there\u2019s some really prophetic goodness and rich material to look at there.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n OM: Because God\u2019s bigness cannot be contained in our small boxes, you\u2019ve chosen to pursue \u201ca third way, a redemptive way\u201d.\u00a0 As an Anabaptist, this approach to womanhood resonates with me, will you discuss more of this third way approach you\u2019d like to take to the conversation?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n SB<\/strong>: I see so much of the Kingdom of God as establishing that way. For instance, in the marriage conversation, people who hold to a really hierarchical or patriarchal view within the church, often will say, \u201cYou don\u2019t want to be affected by the culture, so someone needs to be the leader or the head of the home.\u201d But I really feel like that is more a reflection of ancient culture.\u00a0 Our culture right now, in the modern world in a marriage, it\u2019s all about yourself.\u00a0 So you go through your marriage with the mindset that, \u201cit\u2019s great as long as you\u2019re here and your supporting me\u2026but I\u2019m submitted to no one\u201d.\u00a0 So both partners are not really submitted to anyone. In some circles, \u201csubmitted\u201d is a terrible word. A third way I feel that Paul taught, that\u2019s reflected in the life and teachings of Jesus, is not that one person submits and not that no one submits, but that third way that we both submit.<\/strong> In this third way approach, we lay down out lives for each other and it\u2019s always a little subversive and it always counter-cultural.\u00a0 It\u2019s almost even counter-culture within the church to examine some of the unfortunate teachings we\u2019ve picked up from ancient cultures and transplanted along with us, thinking that this is the right way, but really all we\u2019re doing is baptizing another form of secular culture.\u00a0 So the third way would be to say, \u201cwell this ancient culture did this\u2026 and our modern culture does this\u2026but God has called us to transcend culture\u201d. To me the marriage conversation is a good example of transcending cultures both ancient and modern to reflect the Kingdom of God.<\/strong> OM: Since you mentioned the word provocative, I wanted say that honestly, I had a hard time with the title of your book.\u00a0 I had a knee-jerk reaction to the word \u201cfeminist\u201d juxtaposed with \u201cJesus\u201d\u2014 it felt wrong\u2014probably because there\u2019s a lot of misinformation and negativity around feminism. I know for me, I had to work through a few issues and have my own \u201caha\u201d moments.\u00a0 Can you talk a little bit about how the title came to be and if you had your own struggles with accepting the label \u201cfeminist\u201d?<\/b><\/em><\/p>\n SB:<\/strong> I get it!\u00a0 That\u2019s the biggest thing I want to tell people when they have that reaction is that I really understand that reaction.\u00a0 I think if there\u2019s any way to offend just about anybody with putting two words together, I think I might have done it! (laughs) The funny thing is, the title itself arose out of a made up label from my own life.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been very passionate and involved in women\u2019s justice issues like maternal health and education for women. This was where my heart was, I loved women, and so, I just started calling myself a \u201cfeminist\u201d. There wasn\u2019t a lot of baggage around the word for me.\u00a0 I\u2019ve come to understand in the American Church there\u2019s a lot of baggage though. It\u2019s associated with being angry, bitter, and hating men\u2014but I didn\u2019t have any of these associations. For me, being a feminist was more than \u201ccan women serve on the board or be preachers\u201d\u2014it was bigger for me. Those are issues of justice too, but for me I was asking, \u201chow does our culture affect girls coming up with eating disorders, or self harm or sexual\/physical sexual abuse\u201d, these were the questions I was asking when I started calling myself a feminist.\u00a0 So people of course asked, \u201cwell, what kind of feminist are you?\u201d meaning are you all these stereotypes. So, just as one of these cheeky things I started calling myself a \u201cJesus feminist\u201d\u2014I am a feminist precisely because I follow Jesus.\u00a0 Because I want to shape my life into the way he has ministered, taught, and lived his life, I\u2019ve been led me down a path of caring about our relationships, our sisters around the world, my daughters and caring about my mothers.\u00a0 As I was writing the book, I knew I wanted to write about women, the way Jesus encountered women, and how we can encounter each other.\u00a0 So as I was writing the book, I had a chapter called, \u201cJesus Feminist\u201d and after my agent read it she, pulled this label out and said, \u201cthis is you book title! This is the thread that holds your whole book together\u201d. It\u2019s not a book on Christian Feminism, it\u2019s really about the Kingdom of God and what it looks like when we\u2019re walking whole, walking free, and walking together.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
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