I'm ready for a vacation, y'all......

What I've been doing and what is coming in March

It has been a week.

Actually, it has been three weeks since I posted a new substack. My apologies for that. I’m still getting the hang of this, so thanks for bearing with me.

Moving forward my plan is to publish at least every other week and build up to 3-4 posts a month at minimum. I will try to preview each month what you can expect. It will take me a bit to get into this rhythm as I currently am still writing for the Anxious Bench on Patheos. I will officially write my last regular post for the AB in April. After this, Marginalia will be my primary public writing platform. Oh—if you are a paid subscriber, I will give you the opportunity to request topics for me to write on. So look for that as well.

Today let me tell you what I have been up to as well as what is next for March.

First, I have been busy! In addition to my regular duties as a member of the Baylor history department, teacher of record for two courses (one undergraduate course on suffrage and one graduate course on women and religious authority), graduate advisor to three actively-dissertating students, Sunday school teacher, and mom, etc., etc., I have been speaking out more than usual on twitter.

My undergraduate class discussing The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper.

If you missed it, I publicly called out local Waco megachurch pastor Jonathan Pokluda for objectifying women in a recent sermon and then using scripture to justify those who criticized him as evil (this was in the context of him trying to bring the Asbury revival to Waco, too). In addition to my twitter thread here, you can also hear me speak on our local NPR station (Downtown Depot on KWBU) here (the link should be up soon).

I spoke out against Joshua Butler’s article at The Gospel Coalition highlighting his forthcoming book on sex. I will be writing more explicitly about Butler’s thesis and how it ties to Jonathan Pokluda’s argument, but I want to hear from Beth Felker Jones first. Scot McKnight has some important thoughts coming out about Butler on Monday too. You can subscribe to both their sub stacks here and here.

For my next posts in March, I plan to finish my thoughts on 1 Timothy 2 and then turn to a more in-depth reflection on Pokluda & Butler. I will follow this (probably April) with my much delayed post on the patriarchal bargain. I will repost in advance my posts on the patriarchal continuum before it (these sparked quite a bit of push-back from women who subscribe to complementarianism). Oh, before I forget, I will also share my foreword to Nijay Gutpta’s soon-to-be-released Tell Her Story.

In April, I plan to highlight some more work that Terran Williams and Andrew Bartlett are doing in response to YouTube-influencer Mike Winger. I will do this in the context of some of the best recent books written by pastors addressing women and complementarian theology.

Finally, during the next three months, I will throw in some highlights of my ongoing research for paid subscribers (I do have to get them some perks! it is still amazing to me that folk want to support my writing in this way) as well as some free-for-all highlights from my travels in Italy. I plan to start adding some reviews of books I read as future posts too (such as Beth Moore’s memoir), including some of which we have been reading in my graduate seminar this semester (you can see my full list here).

As for what I have been up to (aside from twitter), it is also a lot!

I absolutely loved spending time with Kristin Du Mez at Baylor earlier in February. We had the opportunity to speak about women and leadership in our own academic experiences as well as from our expertise as historians. You can watch us here.

I also had the chance to hang out with Esau McCauley, Greg Garrett, Beth Moore, Malcolm Foley, and Jemar Tisby.

You can catch the entire Racism & the White Church 2023 symposium here (when it is posted), including my conversation with Jemar Tisby.

Carolyn and George hosted me in their home. It was so wonderful.

Just two days ago I had the opportunity to speak in Calgary for a sold-out event co-sponsored by the University of Calgary and the Calgary Public Library. This was a very special event for me as Carolyn Muessig, one of the leading scholars in my field for medieval women, preaching women, and sermons, invited me to give the lecture. It was wonderful to be a medievalist for two days as I talked with both her and her husband George Ferzoco (another fantastic medieval scholar) about our teaching and research. If you remember from The Making of Biblical Womanhood, I quoted Carolyn on more than one occasion. My graduate students are also reading her work this month. Carolyn participated in a book club reading The Making of Biblical Womanhood this month also, and arranged for me to have dinner with many

Dinner with the bookclub in Calgary

members of this group. It was so refreshing to meet these women and listen to their stories. I have to add that Carolyn & George hosted me in their home and pampered me (including George making me cappuccinos). It was the most relaxing speaking engagement I have ever had.

You will be able to view the lecture when it is posted. Just as a preview, I talked about Jonathon Pokluda, the SBC Executive Committee Decision to disfellowship churches with female preachers, Owen Strachan’s ode to the wooden pulpit (that is my name for this hysterical piece he wrote a few years ago), Kevin DeYoung (in the presence of medieval scholars I took on, once again, his attempted-take-down of my discussion of Brigit of Kildare), and my own scholarship in medieval sermons.

Thank you for continuing to read and I can’t wait for what is coming next

The park outside of Calgary downtown as I walked along the river.