“The special called 2019 General Conference [of the United Methodist Church], set for Feb. 23–26 in St. Louis, will focus on moving the denomination past its decades-long struggle with issues around homosexuality. Proposed plans offer ways to stay together and ways to split. (more…)
Nikole Mitchell is a first year student at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, where she is pursuing an M.Div. with a concentration in Social Transformation: "My whole life I’ve had to choose between social justice and my faith," she explains. "I never had a place where those two came together. So, when a friend of a friend suggested I check out United, I went on the school's website and saw they had a Social Transformation program. Plus, was interfaith and affirming. It was everything I’d been looking for!" (more…)
On January 18, 2018, the Trump Administration announced the creation of a “civil rights” division within the Department of Health and Human Services that would allow health workers to discriminate against patients and clients by refusing care on religious grounds. United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities declares this policy as sacrilegious, a perversion of civil rights, and un-American. We call for its immediate reversal. (more…)
At United, a key question is what makes an ethical leader. According Steve Newcom, Director of the Social Transformation Program, "there are injustices in the world" and for many of our students "their faith calls them to do something about that." In the following videos students discuss what calls them to study Social Transformation at United. (more…)
Beloved is Where We Begin (more…)
This semester I am taking Interpretation as Resistance: Womanist, Feminist, and Queer Approaches to the Bible taught by Professors Alika Galloway and Carolyn Pressler. This week’s reading concerns the story of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar. Sarah is unable to bear children, which is unfortunate since her husband Abraham is supposed to father “a great nation” (Gen. 12.2). Sarah comes up with a plan to have Abraham use a surrogate: her Egyptian slave Hagar. Abraham agrees, lays with Hagar, and Hagar conceives. The Bible then tells us that Hagar “saw that she had conceived [and] looked with contempt on her mistress”(Gen. 16.4). Sarah responds by being so cruel to Hagar that she runs away to the desert. Upon finding a spring of water, Hagar meets an angel of God who gives her an ambivalent message: go back and submit to a life of cruelty but also your son Ishmael will be the father of nations. A mixed bag, for sure. (more…)
"The Theology of Prince" is a project at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities headed by Dr. Pamela Ayo Yetunde, Assistant Professor of Pastural and Spiritual Care and Counseling and Director of Interfaith Chaplaincy. The project includes a call for essays, poetry, video, or visual art from the United Community in response to the theme. On September 27, 2017 I interviewed Dr. Yetunde about the project and her connection to Prince. (more…)