Advent Liturgies, Housing Not Hospitalization, Dutch Apologize for Colonization

KTF Weekly Newsletter

Hey everybody,  

Every week, as we finalize Tamice Spencer-Helms’ forthcoming book, research for our weekly newsletter, and plan season 3 of Shake the Dust, we are especially grateful to you, our subscribers, for your support that makes all of it possible. Thankful to be on this journey with you.  

Now, let’s get our political discipleship for this week! 

Suzie’s recommendations: 

• Advent reminds us of the sacred work of wombs. But as we reflect on the Christmas story, we are also reminded that not all wombs are valued and protected equally. As I have written in the past, and to echo the words of Shawnee Benton-Gibson, this Advent season, we would do well to remember that Black wombs matter. This article highlights the work of a local artist and activist creating a monument dedicated to the memory of the enslaved Black women who suffered tremendously at the hands of America’s “father of modern-day gynecology.” While James Marion Sims is revered and lauded, his victims have largely been erased from our collective memory. No more. This museum and clinic enshrines their names, mourns their suffering, and acknowledges their contribution. To the God who sees every person and hears every cry, even of a young Palestinian girl laboring in a stable, it is fitting that the names of Lucy, Betsy, Anarcha and many others also be recounted, lamented, and honored. In the upside-down Kingdom of God, it is not men of letters like Sims who are celebrated, but women such as these. For we worship a God who has “put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted the lowly” (Lk. 1:52, NKJV).