A Junia Thanksgiving

I’ve said it before, but I love and appreciate being a part of a community of scholars, bloggers, practitioners and writers thinking about issues of gender equality. To put it mildly, it’s nice not to have to challenge Tertullian alone.

And one group of vital allies in the movement are the good folks behind the Junia Project. I’ve encouraged you to hang out with them a few times over the last year or so.

Once again, I was honored to be mentioned on the Junia Project blog the other day, as a part of their thankful list. The whole post is more than worth reading, particularly if you are someone who is interested in learning from a diversity of voices.

I’ll excerpt the first portion of the post below. It’s amazing to be mentioned in the same company as these other men, and, again, it’s an honor to be mentioned by my friends at JP.

1. Men who publicly advocate for women

We appreciate the men who consistently advocate for women’s equality in public spaces. Men like Rob Dixon, Tim Fall, Nick Quient, Jeremiah Gibbs, JW Wartick, Bob Edwards, Eugene Cho, and many more who advocate through social media and blogging.

Men like John Ortberg (that link takes you to what may be one of the best introductory sermon on women’s equality in the church out there), Bill Hybels, Greg Boyd, and many more who advocate from the pulpit.

Men like Craig Keener, Miroslav Volf  (see “Exclusion and Embrace”), Andrew Sloane (“Tamar’s Tears”), and many more who advocate through their scholarship.

These public affirmations are gamechangers, folks. As Rob Dixon writes in his post “Taking My Cue From Jesus“:

Jesus was/is a gamechanger. He really saw women, he trusted them, he taught them as disciples, he respected them, he valued their stories and he mourned with them. And here’s the kicker…he did it all publicly. What I mean is that there was a public dimension to each of the stories. It’s not like Jesus was going around empowering women behind locked doors; he was engaging with women on the streets, in house meetings and surrounded by crowds.”