The Word of God May Be Hazardous to Your Health

Abstract

“Given the fact of woman's absence, the Bible is a flimsy ‘authority’ for us in the sense of that which empowers the naming and articulation of our lives as women. To read the Bible as ‘authorizing’ in that sense requires us always to be doing a kind of simultaneous translation into the languages of our own lives. We can do that, of course. We have had to learn to be at least bi-lingual in order to survive in cultures whose languages reflect men's reality. … [Y]ou risk becoming so fluent in the language that gets you the rewards that you lose fluency in your own tongue and break the connections with the community that sustains your life.”