"Guess what? God is woke. You can't have Resurrection Sunday without having a woke Jesus. … The wokeness of God is what we celebrate on Easter Sunday."
Thus says my friend Wendell Griffen, pastor of New Millennium Baptist church in Little Rock (Arkansas, USA). I was invited to New Millennium today by Wendell and his wife Pat as their newest granddaughter was welcomed and celebrated by the church with a dedication ceremony.
I don't actually do church any longer. As I told my friend Wendell today after he reminded my husband and me that we always have a home at his church, like a lot of gay folks, we carry a certain among of heavy baggage when it comes to church. We bear scars that are in many ways unique to the LGBTQ community, in connection with church.
Even so, we're deeply grateful to our friends Wendell and Pat and to the loving people of New Millennium.
Some years ago, when I was academic dean at Philander Smith College (now university) in Little Rock, I hired Pat to chair the psychology department there, and then discovered that she attended Ouachita Baptist University when my uncle was academic v.-p. there. My aunt was her English teacher at Ouachita, and she was in school with a number of my cousins, including two who are now Baptist ministers.
The words in /1 above are found around the 1.00.30 mark in the video.
William Lindsey 