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Here are links to several lectures, articles, book reviews, videos and more by Virginia Ramey Mollenkott. Many are on this site while others are available on the web.
lectures | articles | book reviews | videos | audio
An archival collection of Virginia Ramey Mollenkott's working, task, project, and correspondence files (and other material) is housed at The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry at the Pacific School of Religion, Graduate Theological Union Library (Berkeley, CA).
Virginia wrote several articles that appeared in the Christian Feminist magazine "Daughters of Sarah." The magazine, no longer published, is still available from various libraries.
If there are online articles or archives that have been missed in the preparation of this page, please contact us with links to relevant material.
Click here to access information on publications by and about Virgina on World Cat Identities.
Lectures
Affirming Queer Spirituality in a Sometimes Hostile World
"... let me turn to talking about some of the very special gifts we queer people have been selected to share with the world. We are 'queer' precisely because we are always somewhere in the middle ground, in between what our society deems proper for 'real men' or 'real women,' who are supposed to be attracted only and exclusively to the so-called 'opposite sex.' Whatever form our queerness may take, it places us outside of what society considers 'normal.' For that very reason, transpeople or queer people were recognized, historically, as being especially gifted at building bridges between the seen and the unseen, between time and eternity.
When the Bible Speaks Concerning Homosexuality, Why Does It Seem to Say Different Things to Different People?
"Part of the problem about letting the Bible 'speak' to us is the inexactness of language. When we say that a certain text "speaks" to us, we usually mean that our interpretation of it stimulates or inspires or challenges us. So far, so good. But then we forget we are moved by our own interpretation of the text. We act as if the text on the page has provided its own clear indisputable statement, has communicated an unbiased and inescapable objective reality that will mean the same thing to everybody no matter how much their life-experiences may differ from our own. We talk as if the Bible preaches its own sermon, rather than providing a text upon which we readers then proceed to preach our own sermons based on what we think the text means."
Coming Out as Embodiments of God Herself: Why is It so Difficult?
Jesus knew it would not be easy for his followers to come out as extensions or incarnations of our Creator. For that reason, Jesus fervently prayed that his followers would "all … be one as you, Abba, are in me and I in you; I pray they may be one in us" (John 17:21). So the next time you think it might be arrogant for you to recognize that you are a beloved child of God, as Jesus was, tell yourself that you are simply answering yes to the prayer that Jesus prayed: namely, that "the love you [Abba] have for me may live in them, just as I may live in them" (John 17:26). To say yes to the prayer of Jesus is not arrogance. It is trust. It is faith.
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Articles
Christian Feminism
Feminism and Evangelicalism
"Evangelicals come in a continuum that runs the political gamut from extreme left to extreme right. What Christian evangelicals have in common is that meaningful living requires a direct personal relationship with God, and that the Bible should be taken seriously. But what that means can differ widely, and our social attitudes differ tremendously..."
Islamic Feminism Clarifies the Tasks of Christian Feminists
"Barlas points out the irony that out of a collection of 70,000 Islamic sayings, only about six can reliably be called misogynistic. But it is always "these six that men trot out when they want to argue against sexual equality" (p. 46). The parallel to using the Bible against homosexuals is obvious, but so is the parallel to male supremacist theories in the Jewish and Christian traditions. We Christian feminists need to lift up such ironies, repeatedly and without apology."
Christian Patriarchy Yet Once More
"In October 2008, a 'True Woman Conference' in Chicago attracted 6000 women. Its goal was to teach 'biblical womanhood' or 'hierarchical complementarianism,' now touting itself as 'Evangelical Anti-Feminisim' or 'the Christian Patriarchy Movement.' The Associated Baptist Press reports that 100,000 signatures are currently being collected for a 'True Woman Manifesto' intended to set off a 'counterrevolution to the feminist movement of the 1960’s.'"
Cochran's Evangelical Feminism—Yet Once More on EEWC - Christian Feminism Today
"What does it mean to say that the Bible is “inerrant” and therefore holds “transcendent authority” over our lives? It is easy enough to make the fundamentalist declaration that the Bible was inerrant in its original autographs because that requires nothing from us: nobody has ever seen the original autographs, and after all these centuries it is doubtful that anyone ever will."
Harvard Divinity School's Conference on Religion and the Feminist Movement: Two Perspectives
Part 2: A Speaker's Perspective on EEWC - Christian Feminism Today
"As a writer/scholar/theologian who has done most of my work in solitude, I was pleased to be invited to Harvard to hear the stories of many women whose writings and activism had influenced my life. And the actual experience was even better than I imagined."
Sexual Orientation and Transgender Issues
To Revere the Image of God in Every Person
"Apparently God wanted to image Herself/Himself/Itself in an immense variety of ways. Transgender and intersexual people are aspects of the glorious diversity of that divine image. But sad to say, recently religious leaders have fired transgender theologian Heath Adam Ackley (formerly Heather Clements), and have punished newly 'out' transgender minister David Weekley after thirty years of excellent ministry. By these actions “Christian” leaders have rejected and scorned the Sacred Presence in these godly transpeople."
Notes Concerning the Eight "Flog Passages" Used to Condemn LGBT People
There are eight passages in the Bible commonly used to condemn LGBT people. This article is a short list in which Virginia explains the problems in translation and interpretation which have lead to the erroneous views held by many Christians.
Gender Diversity and Christian Community on TransFaith Online
"I believe the time has come for Christians to widen their welcome to include the full range of human diversity, including gender diversity. I believe this both because of the biological and psychological realities around us and because of the message of gradually expanding inclusiveness I see in Scripture. I hope for a time when Christian congregations everywhere will embrace all of God's creation as good."
Transwomen, Lesbians and the Border Police on TransFaith Online
"...I happily claimed my gender transgression and described it in my books Omnigender and Transgender Journeys (the latter written with a male cross-dresser named Vanessa Sheridan). It wasn't very long, however, before I discovered there are 'police' on the border between the identity called lesbian and the identity called trans, especially the identity of pre-operative transsexual women. I have noticed five different varieties of 'policing.' "
An Open Letter to the Council of Bishops of the United Methodist Church
"...I am thankful that as Bishops of the Church, you have declared your belief that all persons are eligible to be professing members and participants in programs in a "community of hospitality." But for me, all this raises a disturbing moral dissonance. Hospitality, membership, participation, and community are highly egalitarian concepts."
An Introduction to Nancy L. Wilson on EEWC - Christian Feminism Today
"...Nancy’s voice is the voice of a prophet rallying and empowering the humanity in us all. Although she was writing Our Tribe before the Transgender Movement became a major social factor, she makes clear that omnigender is a terrific threat to fundamentalists and patriarchs because it proves that God did not invent patriarchy, rigid sex roles, or monolithic heterosexuality."
Neither Male nor Female: Understanding the Complexities of Sex and Gende
from the 2006 "Sex and the Church" issue of Yale University's Reflections magazine.
"What society has constructed, society can also deconstruct and reconstruct. The goal is worthwhile: to learn from the facts of human sexuality and genderedness and to develop attitudes that match those facts and, thus, alleviate human pain. Although I have written books arguing the human equality of females and males and homosexuals and heterosexuals, I now understand that no matter how liberationist the context may be, as long as these terms are handled in a binary fashion, they continue to reinforce the dominant gender paradigm.""
Spirituality
A Testimony: God's Kindness to Me
"I am bright enough when it comes to practical or literary matters or getting along with people. But when it comes to understanding, applying, and feeling metaphysical principles, I can be pretty dense. So God has been really merciful and kind to me. She has supplied real-life experiences just when I needed them most, in order to help me feel something I otherwise could not have grasped. Lately I have been sensing that before I die—after all, 84 is a pretty ripe age—I should acknowledge God’s kindness to me, and do it in writing. So here goes!"
Removing My Inner Blockages to Love: How A Course in Miracles Transformed My Life
"The word miracles in A Course in Miracles refers simply to a change in perception, not to miraculously healing the sick or raising the dead. But in fact my changes in perception did heal my sickness of self-hatred and separation. And they did raise me from the deadness of valuing my own "rightness" at the expense of other peoples' "wrongness." Are you up for miracles? Do you have any perception you would be willing to see transformed?"
Fear and Wonder
"Truly, humanity is a paradox: Each of us is a timeless entity who currently lives within time, a being created both fearfully and wonderfully. But what does it mean to live out this paradoxical reality of time and timelessness, of fear and wonder? How can a better understanding of our true nature lead us toward life more abundant? How can it deepen our understanding of our purpose for living, of human diversity, and of our interconnectedness - the mystery of ourselves-in-community?"
Embodiment: Our Prison? Or Our Power?
"... our bodies can imprison us - but only if we view them as boundaries that separate us from our Divine Source and from other creatures. Our bodies become powerful instruments for communicating divine love only when we join affirming and compassionate thought to the passionate charge of our emotions. Instead of trusting the evidence of our senses that make us appear separate, we become powerful as we embody faith, the evidence of that undergirding unified field of energy that we cannot see but can passionately feel."
Archives
The Biblical Basis for Male-Female Equality
"The Bible teaches the full equality of males and females—in the home and in the church as well as in the general society—through mutual submission (concern, deference, and service; see, for example, Galatians 5:13 and Romans 12:10)."
This archival item is the text of a pamphlet published and distributed in the early 1980s by Galatians 3:28 press.
Joyful Worship in the Midst of Danger
"The day was August 19, 1979. The place: a ballroom seating 3,000 people in a Los Angeles hotel. The occasion: the ninth general conference of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches. The preacher whose life is always under threat is Troy Perry, founder of UFMCC and author of The Lord Is My Shepherd and He Knows I’m Gay."
This article appeared in The Christian Century September 26, 1979, and is archived on Religion Online.
The Androgyny of Jesus
"...recognition of Jesus as the androgynous ideal leads us in two paradoxical but interrelated directions: toward becoming more distinctly individual on the one hand, and toward a stronger sense of community on the other. Because we need not shy away from attributes which society has assigned only to the opposite sex, we will become more fully defined by God, who is within us as well as through us and above us (Eph71:7)."
This archival item is an article originally published in Daughters of Sarah magazine, March 1976.
An Evangelical Feminist Confronts the Goddess
"If by their example Goddess worshipers can teach us Jewish and Christian believers the importance of inclusiveness in our language and structures, they will have given us a very important gift. But they offer us many additional challenges and correctives."
This archival item is an article which originally appeared in the Christian Century on October 20, 1982, p. 1043.
Thirty years and five books later, Dr. Mollenkott now regards 'God' as a masculine concept, and balances her use of the term by using exclusiely feminine pronouns with it, as, for instance, 'God Herself'. She also now understands that some early feminists spoke about supporting women NOT with the intention of excluding men, but because they were trying to correct an unjust imbalance. Otherwise, she still stands by what she wrote so long ago..
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Book Reviews
A Lamb’s Exodus: Overcoming Religious Fundamentalism, Sexism, Racism, Fatphobia, and Conversion Therapy
by Rev. Mary Lokers
Self-published, June 2019.
Reviewed on Christian Feminism Today
True Inclusion: Creating Communities of Radical Embrace
by Brandan Robertson
St. Louis: Chalice Press, 2018.
Reviewed on Christian Feminism Today
Outside the Lines: How Embracing Queerness Will Transform Your Faith
by Mihee Kim-Kort
Fortress Press, 2018.
Reviewed on Christian Feminism Today
Worthy: Finding Yourself in a World Expecting Someone Else
by Melanie Springer Mock
Harrison, VA: Herald Press, 2018.
Reviewed on Christian Feminism Today
Light As Experience and Imagination from Paleolithic to Roman Times
by David S. Herrstrom
Madison/Teaneck: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2017.
Reviewed on Christian Feminism Today
She Flies On: A White Southern Christian Debutante Wakes Up
by Carter Heyward
New York: Church Publishing Company, 2017.
Reviewed on Christian Feminism Today
Intercultural Ministry: Hope for a Changing World
edited by Grace Ji-Sun Kim and Jann Aldredge-Clanton
Valley Forge: Judson Press, 2017.
Reviewed on Christian Feminism Today
Born Both: An Intersex Life
by Hida Viloria
Hachette Books, 2017.
Reviewed on Christian Feminism Today
Shattering Masks: Affirming My Identity, Transitioning My Faith
by Laura Bethany Taylor
Sophia Sojourn, 2016.
Reviewed on Christian Feminism Today
Transgender, Intersex, and Biblical Interpretation
by Teresa J. Hornsby and Deryn Guest
Atlanta: SBL Press, 2016.
Reviewed on Christian Feminism Today
Courage to Think Differently Courage to Think Differently
New Revised 2016 Release
Ed. & written by George S. Johnson. Self-published.
Reviewed on Christian Feminism Today
Borderline: Reflections on War, Sex, and Church
by Stan Goff
Eugene, Oregon: Cascade Books, 2015.
Reviewed on Christian Feminism Today
To Drink from the Silver Cup: From Faith Through Exile and Beyond
by Anna Redsand
Sante Fe, N.M.: Terra Nova Books, 2016.
Reviewed on Christian Feminism Today
Angels on Earth: Mothering, Religion, and Spirituality
Edited by Vanessa Reimer
Canada: Demeter Press, 2016.
Reviewed on Christian Feminism Today
I Love to Tell the Story: 100+ Stories of Justice, Wisdom, and Hope
by Reverend Dr. Nancy Wilson
Parker, CO: Books to Believe In, 2016
Paperback, 218 pages
Reviewed on Christian Feminism Today
Personal Transformation and a New Creation: The Spiritual Revolution of Beatrice Bruteau
edited by Ilia Delio
Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 2016.
Reviewed on Christian Feminism Today
A Womanist Theologian Confronts White Privilege and Sex/Gender Bigotry: Pamela Lightsey's Our Lives Matter
by Pamela R. Lightsey
Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2015
Paperback, 104 pages
Reviewed on Christian Feminism Today
Queer Virtue: What LGBTQ People Know About Life and Love and How It Can Revitalize Christianity
by Rev. Elizabeth M. Edman
Boston: Beacon Press, 2016
Hardbound, 181 pp., $25.95
Reviewed on Christian Feminism Today
The Changing Face of Evangelicalism
Rescuing Jesus: How People of Color, Women and Queer Christians Are Reclaiming Evangelicalism
By Deborah Jian Lee
Boston: Beacon Press, 2015
Hardcover, 297 pages
Reviewed on
Christian Feminism Today
A Different Route to the Divine Feminine
God Is Not Alone: Our Mother-the Holy Spirit
By Marianne Widmalm
U.K.: Avalonia Books, 2015
9 ½ x 7 ½ inch paperback, 452 pp., £24.99
Reviewed on Christian Feminism Today
Making Space for Intersexuals
A review of Sex Differences in Christian Theology: Male, Female, and Intersex in the Image of God
By Megan K. DeFranza
Eerdmans, 2015
Paperback, 311 pp, $35.00
Reviewed on Christian Feminism Today
Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence
By Karen Armstrong
Alfred A. Knopf, 2014
512 pages, $30.00, Hardbound
Reviewed on Christian Feminism Today
Slouching Toward Gaytheism: Christianity and Queer Survival in America
b
By W. C. Harris
State University of New York Press, 2014
Paperback, 267 pp.
Reviewed on Christian Feminism Today
The Gospel of Sophia, Volume I: The Biographies of the Divine Feminine Trinity
by Tyla Gabriel, N.D.
One Spirit, LLC, 2014
426 pp.
Reviewed on Christian Feminism Today
The Trans-Evangelist: The Life and Times of a Transgender Pentecostal Preacher
by Sister Paula Nielsen
One Spirit Press, 2012
315 pages
Reviewed on Christian Feminism Today
The Feminist Reformation, Episcopal Style
a review essay by Virginia Ramey Mollenkott on Christian Feminism Today
The Story of the Philadelphia Eleven
by Darlene O’Dell
Seabury Books, 2014
250 pages
The Spirit of the Lord is Upon Me: The Writings of Suzanne Hiatt
edited by Carter Heyward and Janine Lehane
Seabury Books, 2014
197 pages
Looking Forward, Looking Backward: Forty Years of Women’s Ordination
edited by Frederica Harris Thompsett
Morehouse Publishing, 2014
160 pages
The Awakening
by Kate Chopin
Intro by Barbara Kingsolver
London: Canongate, 2014 Paperback, 295 pages, $12.95
Reviewed on Christian Feminism Today .
God and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same-Sex Relationships
by Matthew Vines
Convergent Books, 2014,
$22.99
Reviewed on Christian Feminism Today.
Eternity's Sunrise: William Blake's Vision of Christ
by Lloyd C. Welling
River of Life Press, 2014, $39.95
Reviewed on the Christian Feminism Today website.
The Risk of Returning: A Novel
By Shirley and Rudy Nelson
Troy, NY: The Troy Book Makers, 2013
Reviewed on the Christian Feminism Today website.
Electrical Christianity: A Revolutionary Guide to Jesus' Teachings and Spiritual Enlightenment.
By L. Ron Gardner
Vernal Point Publishing, 2013.
Reviewed on the Christian Feminism Today website.
Maggie Anton's Historical Fiction Novels
Rashi's Daughters, Book I: Joheved (2005)
Rav Hisda's Daughter, Book I: Apprentice (2012)
Penguin's Plume Books
Reviewed on the Christian Feminism Today website.
Birthing God: Women's Experiences of the Divine
By Lana Dalberg
Woodstock, VT: SkyLight Paths Publishing, 2013
Paper, 290 pages
Reviewed on the Christian Feminism Today website.
Princeton, Demons, and Fundamentalists
The Accursed: A Novel
By Joyce Carol Oates
HarperCollins, 2013.
Hardbound, xiii-669 pages.
Review published on the Christian Feminism Today website.
A Time to Embrace: Same-Sex Relationships in Religion, Law, and Politics
(Second Edition)
by William Stacy Johnson.
Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2012.
Paperback, 365 pages.
Review published on the Christian Feminism Today website.
Changing Church: Stories of Liberating Ministers
by Jann Aldredge-Clanton
Eugene, Oregon: Cascade Books, 2011.
Paperback, 386 pages.
Review published on the Christian Feminism Today website.
Sacred Work: Planned Parenthood and Its Clergy Alliances
by Tom Davis
New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2005
Paperback, 264 pp., Index
Review published on the Christian Feminism Today website.
Integral Christianity: The Spirit's Call to Evolve
by Paul R. Smith
St. Paul, Minnesota: Paragon House, 2011
Cloth, 408 pp., index, bibliography
Review published on the Christian Feminism Today website.
The Galilean Secret: A Novel
by Evan Drake Howard
New York: Guideposts, 2010
Hardcover, 444 pages
Review published on the Christian Feminism Today website.
The Help
by Kathryn Stockett
New York: Putnam, 2009
Review published on the Christian Feminism Today website.
My Life So Far
by Jane Fonda
New York: Random House, 2005
Review published on the Christian Feminism Today website.
Confessions of a Christian Humanist
by John W. de Gruchy
Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2006
Review published on the Christian Feminism Today website.
Dating Jesus: A Story of Fundamentalism, Feminism, and the American Girl
by Susan Campbell
Boston: Beacon Press, 2008
Review published on the Christian Feminism Today website.
Engaging the Bible: Critical Readings from Contemporary Women
ed. Choi Hee An and Katheryn Pfisterer Darr.
Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2006.
Review published on the Christian Feminism Today website.
Another Way of Seeing: The Teachings of A Course in Miracles
by Louise A. Poresky, Ph. D.
iUniverse, 2005.
She Who Changes: Re-Imagining the Divine in the World
by Carol P. Christ
Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.
Review published on The Christian Century.
Love
by Toni Morrison.
Knopf, 2003.
Non-fiction Short Takes
Body and Soul: Rethinking Sexuality as Justice-Love by Marvin Ellison and Sylvia Thorson-Smith
She Who Changes: Re-imagining the Divine in the World by Dr. Carol P. Christ
A Feminist Companion to the Deutero-Pauline Epistles edited by Amy-Jill Levine
Subversive Devotions: A Journey into Divine Pleasure and Power by the Rev. Dr. Pat Youngdahl
The Erotic Word: Sexuality, Spirituality, and the Bible by David M. Carr
Islam: A Short History by Karen Armstrong
Fundamentalism: The Search for Meaning by Malise Ruthven
Transparent: Love, Family, and Living the Truth with Transgender Teenagers by Chris Beam
Fiction Short Takes
Sirena Silena by Mayra Santos-Febros
Light, Coming Back by Ann Wadsworth
Days of Awe by Achy Obejas
Night Work by Laurie R. King
Bethlehem Road by Nancy Crowe
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Videos
2017 Mother Eagle Award Acceptance
Virignia was selected the first recipient of the Mother Eagle Award, an award honoring women who were early advocates of LGBTQ equality in Christianity, presented jointly by Christian Feminism Today and The Q Christian Fellowship (formerly known as the Gay Christian Network.
Filmed by Le Isaac Weaver for Christian Feminism Today
"The Transformational Stories of Jesus"
Virginia's lecture from the EEWC-Christian Feminism Today 2012 Gathering in Indianapolis.
This presentation also available as a free audio podcast on iTunes or here on the Christian Feminism Today website.
Filmed by Tiana Marquez tianamarquez.com
Posted with permission.
Feminist Theology II
Virginia's presentation given during Harvard Divinity School's "Religion and the Feminist Movement Conference" - June of 2002.
Who God Is
In this short video Dr. Mollenkott speaks about how she came to grips with her image of God, and how she believes that God really does love us all.
If you have information about the creator of this video please contact us.
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Audio
Listen to some audio recordings of Virignia.
Extensive oral history from the LGBTQ Religious Archives Network website. Listen to these recordings of Virginia recounting her life experiences.
WATER (Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual interview, November of 2010. Listen here on SoundCloud.
“The Transformational Stories of Jesus,” a plenary lecture, June of 2012. Listen on the audio/video page of Christian Feminism Today (scroll down on the page).
“Dutiful or Prodigal: God’s Promise Remains the Same,” a sermon, June of 2010. Listen on the audio/video page of Christian Feminism Today (scroll down on the page).
“Comprehending the Dimensions of God’s Love: What Is Our Contribution?” a plenary presentation, July of 2012. Listen on the audio/video page of Christian Feminism Today (scroll down on the page).