At Home in a Cloud of Witnesses

By Rev. Dr. Rhonda Abbott Blevins, Coach and Web Design Coordinator

Recently a well-known preacher made some snide remark about Beth Moore and women preachers, suggesting we should “go home.” The crowd laughed and scoffed. I can’t say for sure that this happened, because I refuse to watch the video. I made a decision long ago not to give that misogynistic ridiculousness any more space in my brain. My internal dialogue with such things goes something like this, “Seriously? Are y’all still that backward?” (The “y’all” gives away my Southern heritage.)

Then something happened on my social media feed. Friends wrote rebuttals. Confession: I didn’t read them. (Again, refusing to rent out brain space.) I’m sure the articles were/are fabulous. I’m just over it. Done. I’ve got way too many t-shirts (and several emotional scars to boot).

Then something else happened on my social media feed. Friends started changing their Facebook profile picture to include a frame that reads, “Not Going Home: I Support Women Clergy.” Once again, I refrained from participating. My internal dialogue shifted to, “That’s cool. Should I change my profile pic too? No. No brain space, Rhonda. Remember, you’re over it. Done. Too many t-shirts. Move along.”

Then something else happened on my social media feed. A friend of mine changed his Facebook profile picture to the “Not Going Home” frame, but with a twist. Dr. Dalen Jackson, dean at Baptist Seminary of Kentucky, created a collage containing pictures of forty women clergy he knows. And right there, top row, third from the right, was my mug shot. Whether I liked it or not, I was suddenly part of the rebuttal to the misogynistic preacher’s insistence that women preachers “go home.”

As it turns out, I liked being included in the collage—a lot. I know many of the women in the collage: they are pastors, seminary professors and presidents, chaplains, ministers of music, missionaries, non-profit employees, and teachers. It’s an impressive collection of friends, former colleagues, and women I haven’t had the privilege to know. I am deeply honored to be at home in such a great cloud of witnesses, and thankful to have been dragged into the resistance.

What Dalen did as a male ally of women clergy, was to take a negative and make it a positive. If the “go home” video was a trigger I needed to ignore, Dalen’s collage affirmed me and my calling. Thirty-nine other women were similarly affirmed. I, for one, am thankful.

I don’t know the misogynistic preacher’s motivation for the “go home” comment—maybe it was to get a laugh or to earn some macho points or something. It doesn’t really matter. I’m still not going to watch the video—I’ve heard it all before. Besides, over the next two days I’ve got a funeral to officiate, a sermon to write, a worship service to lead, and a meeting to conduct with a group of lay people discerning what to do with our overcrowding situation on Sunday mornings. I don’t have time to deal with misogynistic preachers grasping for relevance.

I am simultaneously proud and humbled to take my place among such a great cloud of witnesses—women gifted, called, and chosen by God to lead God’s church yesterday, today, and forever. I don’t take my pastoral calling lightly, nor do I take it for granted—the road hasn’t always been smooth. Let the misogynistic preachers bloviate all they want—we will not abdicate this great and wondrous calling.

And lest anyone question our biblical authority, we know how to proof-text with the best of them: “Your sons and daughters will prophesy” (Acts 2:17). Let it be, dear Lord. Let it be!