Monday, March 27, 2017

Jarena Lee's Preaching

In Jarena Lee's writing she devotes several pages to essentially arguing for her right, as a woman, to preach. This alone is telling in that she felt the need to do this, but I'm curious as to how this was received both in the AME church and elsewhere, as she seems to make a convincing argument to those who would have disagreed with right to preach. She appeals to theology/doctrine by saying that Christ died for both man and woman, and makes the argument that God is "straitened" or restricted if we claim that he only uses men to preach the gospel, and that nothing is impossible for God. She appeals to Scripture, citing examples where Mary preached of Christ's resurrection, and also warns that church by-laws could bring disrepute into the word of life after describing how Richard Allen initially refuses her right to preach based on lack of precedent. Finally, she cites examples of her effectiveness as a preacher and the people who had been converted as a result. I'm interested if she was seen as an outlier, or if her witness encouraged other women to preach in the AME Church and different denominations.

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