[The Sexuality Blog] Ekemini Uwan of the ‘Truth’s Table’ podcast is asking the hard questions about gender in the Pentecostal Church

It shouldn’t be news to anyone at this point that while the Church has been at the forefront of social justice battles, like racial equality and the emancipation of people from economic slavery, they have remained incredibly stoic on matters of sexuality and gender. Especially gender. The Church has held on to its patriarchal history, stemming right from Paul the Apostle himself, who sidelined women in many of his letters to the early church, laying much of the ground work that continues to be invoked when the oppression of women within the church is brought up. But not all women are going to take it and are finding new ways to have this important discussion. Especially Ekemini Uwan, Christina Edmondson and Michelle Higgins, three very Christian women living in America’s bible belt who often found themselves the only women who actively participated in Church activities outside sunday services and the groups designated to women. They found themselves the only women who were allowed to. So they started “Truth’s Table”, a Christian feminist podcast that takes these issues and hashes them through the lenses of the bible and their personal lives.

The Truth’s Table podcast has become very popular among black Christian women for its unapologetic take on Christianity and its refusal to embrace the gentility that is often expected of them, even when they are fighting for their very lives. But the episode that truly showed exactly what these women are up against was their Gender Apartheid podcast (I’ve included a full transcript of the episode here, for those of us who aren’t quite into podcasts). Tyler Burns and Jemar Tisby, two black Christian men who host another podcast called Pass the Mic were invited to help discuss the topic and the podcast they recorded is explosive.

The Church, in most of its iterations is incredibly misogynist and paternalistic. It coddles men and silences women, forcing them to live less than fulfilled lives, quiet shallow lives where they never express themselves and it has to end. And it is great that black women are leading the conversation. actually a Nigerian woman is leading the conversation on how this needs to change.

Maybe we aren’t all lost.

Maybe.

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