GAs Gone Bad
Over the next few days a group of women who study Baptists and gender will gather. It will be our second gathering. The actual group is about three times the number of these pictured. Six of us will be presenting at the National Association of Baptist Professors of Religion later in the week. And on Monday night four of these women will present Baptist Preacher Girl.
Nearly all of us grew up in Baptist churches or the children of Baptist missionaries. And we earned our badges and capes and crowns in Girls Auxiliary or Girls in Action or Acteens (depending on our age). We’ve adopted from Baptist pastor and activist, Nancy Sehested, her hilarious moniker, GAs Gone Bad. The ideas we learned in GA? Well mostly they stuck, and we became the leaders and thinkers they urged us to be… to the consternation of many a Southern Baptist preacher.
Some of us are ordained. All of us are funny. You’ve never heard so much laughter! We teach and write, and educate a new generation of women and men about history and culture at the intersections of gender and religion, which means we also pay attention to race, class and sexuality. We take our work seriously and hope to make a difference with what we do. We are planning two books (if you want to know more, email me). And we are excited to expand our group and our influence.
Karen Seat pulled four of us together three years ago. Betsy, Susan, and I presented our work first at the American Society of Church History, and later at the National Association of Women’s Studies. People are usually first stunned, then fascinated by the study of Baptists and gender. Stay tuned. More to come…
GAs gave me my first experience of hands on ministry. How little they knew of what they were unleashing! (I still have my cape should I need holy accessorizing.).
One of my fondest former GA memories is being in a (thankfully deserted) restaurant in Myrtle Beach, SC, several women singing “We’ve a story to tell” for the benefit the the one who hadn’t grown up as a GA.