The Bible claims that God created everyone in Her/His image and found those creations “very good.” The Bible even warns that it is highly dangerous to try to correct God about what She has created.

I have often wondered where people get the nerve to claim that God created only heterosexual males and females or that God created white folks superior to Blacks. Lightsey explains that womanist theologians pin their hopes for universal wellbeing on the doctrine of Creation, “God as the first cause” (p. That’s a delicate spiritual balance, but a necessary one if we are to achieve justice for all. But she asks us to practice that continuous subversion without becoming hate-filled and bitter. 95).Īccordingly, Lightsey calls for Black and queer people to work constantly on disrupting the systems of oppression. 93), in which white people like myself still have a “disproportionate share of American power and benefits” (p. That the American public must raise an insistent outcry against the “new racial system” (p. That Black clergy and Black families must discard the notion that only men are capable of being good leaders (p.

To my mind, Lightsey’s credentials say one thing and say it loudly: LISTEN UP!Īnd so I did listen up, and here is some of what I heard: that Black people have every right to be even angrier than they are, and to respond with acts of civil disobedience, protest, and even riots (p. She is an associate dean and professor of contextual practice at Boston School of Theology a military veteran mother of a Black man who has served in Iraq a contributor to the Black Theology Journal and the only “out” African American queer elder ordained by the United Methodist Church. Lightsey could not be more perfectly qualified. Just as our nation is reeling under protests of police brutality and counter-protests of brutality against police, with many horrible revelations of the murdering of Black and LGBTQ people (especially Black transgender women), this book arrives to shock and shake Christian churches into action. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2015Ī Review Essay by Virginia R.

Pamela r lightsey