In 2001 the General Conference Mennonite Church (GC) and the Mennonite Church (MC) accepted a common set of membership guidelines and a plan to merge into a single denomination.  This union of two historic Anabaptist denominations of North America gave birth to the Mennonite Church USA.  While the vote counts for the merger exceeded the expectations of the Executive Board (Trollinger 9), the road to unification had been fraught with many years of tense debate over the divisive issue of homosexuality.

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In 1973 Dr. Phyllis Trible delivered a lecture at Andover Newton Theological School in which she challenged her colleagues to take a closer look at the second biblical creation narrative found in Genesis 2-3.  The Women’s Liberation Movement, with its characterization of the Bible as a tool written by men and used to oppress women, provided the social and historical backdrop for her commentary.  As a pioneer in postmodern feminist theology, Trible called for a reexamination of the text, attempting to free it of the historical accretion of male exegetical work and extract a core message that recognizes the original role of woman as the peer of man (74).

Continue reading "A Critique of Phyllis Trible’s "Eve and Adam: Genesis 2-3 Reread"" →

In response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, while the crash sites at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were still smoldering, the U.S. had quickly launched an offensive against the Taliban regime and routed out al Qaeda terrorist training camps in Afghanistan. As the nation rode high on a wave of patriotism, President George W. Bush inaugurated a campaign that is now widely known as the War on Terror (Nation).

Continue reading "A Critique of Peter J. Gomes’ "Patriotism is not Enough"" →