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the Fabulous Female Theologians of Twitter (some of)

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No, this isn’t some calendar shoot idea, though admittedly that would be quite amusing. Yesterday Bill Reichart posted a Top 10 Theologians on Twitter and I shot back that there were no women theologians and that they all seemed to be the same stock white males that get thrown out everywhere. So Bill asked for me to add to the list. I am happy to because not that I am in any disagreement with the list (though some of the 10 are not close to my top theologians, but that’s just a flavor thing) my critique wasn’t done in a mean spirit. It is the trouble with making a list, someone gets left out.

So in the spirit of sharing, here are some Female Theologians of Twitter (not in any particular order)

Rachel Held Evans gets my first & easiest nod, mostly because we have actually hung out before. Watching her growing audience and the prophetic voice she is speaking from has been great to watch over the years. Seriously, if someone is going to take the bible seriously enough to sleep in a tent in the front yard when she is on her menstruation period has to get some props, or a honk as you drive by.

Maggi Dawn who has been a voice through the alt worship scene of the UK for over a decade plus is now moving to Yale University as their Dean of Chapel and Associate Professor of Theology which she did similar to at Cambridge for the decade prior. Also a published author as any good minister in the academic circles would be. She has also been a prolific blogger and speaker to add onto her list of good works.

Bishop Vashti McKenzie who is the first female ever elected to the highest office of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (A.M.E.) in its 200 year history and has served there since 2000. She’s pretty cool when it comes to social media podcasting, blogging, and putting up a 12k follower list on twitter (which is the largest for this listing, i think).

Diane Butler Bass first came onto my radar with her book the Practicing Congregation by Alban Press (a great read) and has been a favorite of mine since then. Probably her most prominent book has been Christianity for the rest of Us, which has actually sat in my to be read pile for some time. Promise Diane, I will get to it. &:~)

Tami Heim & Toni Birdsong I am grouping together because they are the duo behind Sticky Jesus. Met them at a TN Christian Chamber event a few months back and they are just delightful. I don’t believe they have the academic theology pedigree, but old friend Stan Grenz put its that everyone is a theologian and under that and considering their prolific capacity and passion to sharing Christ they get on my list & should be on yours.

 

Given, this list was actually a bit difficult to produce in that many prominent female theologians don’t do twitter, or started an account but are rather quiet on them. My criteria for this was rather simple in that they needed to be ‘active’ (totally subjective to according to me) and have around or over 1k followers. That cut into some of my list of people I like to read like a @lnwiner. Thought about adding in some folks like a @sandramccracken but she’s touring now and most of her tweets are about shows at the time of this posting, not quite a time of high theology for her now. Thought about some of the famous pastor wives, but ultimately discounted them because those seem to be ‘team’ influencers. One thing I thought was interesting was that there wasn’t any tribute twitter accounts to people like  Julian of Norwich. Sadly, Teresa of Avila went quiet a few years ago.. Mother Teresa is somewhat alive in bots and tribute accounts.

Most though, I have this idea that Twitter isn’t the medium for the lady. Maybe it was the culturing of its early adopters but Twitter in many ways has a feel of self promotion mixed in with its sharing and conversation & I don’t think it is part of the female drive to get into puffing out the chest to show a “this is what I have to say” everyone.

All guy lists are not anything out of the norm. Andy Rowell put together an add on list a few years back and all his peeps were dudes, and he’s someone who is very open to the various people who take on leadership of the church. So maybe we need more ladies doing their theology thing on twitter, maybe not, someone has to be acting out their theology out in the real world and we are probably better off having the ladies do that while us fellas talk amongst ourselves about who is best.

So feel free to comment away and add more of the lovely ladies of twitter for this listing.. it really is just a start of a hopeful full recognition

so long my friend : nashville no longer talking

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Nit

noticed today that nashville is talking is ceasing to exist as the blog portal for the nashville blogging community.

truth be told, it probably ceased to be the main portal some years ago when brittney left and the whole chaos ensued at nit & music city bloggers was birthed for a short while.

i enjoyed that community of folks at that point, some of the people i'm still in conversations with today. {in fact, have to thank newscoma for tipping me off to this.} back then you looked for the 'fresh rolled blogs' and knew when your site got linked because hits & comments would take off (well, for someone small time like myself). i remember going to the first barcamp cause all my blogger friends were planning on going, which was the first time i met many folks.. remember sitting next to rob robinson & recognizing him immediately because his hat & outfit was exactly like his thumbnail pic on his blog (yes i teased him about that one). met kate o in line with john carney (john whom i've known for years) we were all first in line (well, kate was actually first).

fast forwarding: that medium, that town square, we all met & built our friendships and community on ceases to exist. since those days of nit i can safely say that twitter, facebook, or anything since has garnered the loyalty & passions that the nashville is talking site did for us some four or five years ago. (gosh, has it really been that long?).

i would love some new place find some of that community. but alas, not all good things are forever & nashville is talking served a great place in my cyber musings life. so much so that it impeded into my real life, which i was more than okay with (it just took some explaining to the wife). so long my friend, nashville is talking. (i want to say some 'long tail' ulogy comment, but its just not quite there, so assume i said something clever & smile)

we’re all gonna die : so who is your digital executor

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saturday i spent my day at barcamp nashville 2009. barcamp is one of my fav days of the year. that along with podcamp are when i get to really hang with the geeks of nashville’s tech community. one of the sessions i took in was dave delaney’s session titled “we’re all gonne die!”

i like dave’s presentations because they are never quite what i expect them to be and his gift is that he doesn’t try and cover everything in his braintrust. i say that’s a gift. anyways, i recorded his session for your viewing pleasures with my notes & thoughts to follow.

Dave Delaney : We’re All Gonna Die : BarCamp Nashville 2009 from Gavin Richardson on Vimeo.

my notes:

  • what is going to happen to our content when we die?
  • when die what to do with email, paypal, websites, domain names, web hosting fees, facebook, etc.
  • facebook will close off profiles to new friends when someone is confirmed as having passed away, but will keep the account live for friends to visit.
  • need a “digital executor,” someone who knows all your stuff to keep your digital footprint going
  • i see this necessity as much as leaving a ‘digital legacy’ much like the last lecture was from a dad to his children.
  • facebook/myspace/blogs become a new place of mourning for a loved one or friend as they pass away. taking the place of the makeshift memorials on roadsides, fences, building walls, etc.

this was an interesting chat with erin after this, exploring the ‘digital executor’ idea. i’d thought of what might happen to all this stuff i do if i were to pass away. erin knows my passwords that i use and could figure out how to get into each account should she feel that need. however, her expression was, if you died i wouldn’t want to mess with that stuff, so it’d be better to have someone to handle that stuff.

so i’m contemplating that.. who would you put in charge as a digital exector? friend, family member? someone you are close to or someone that is close to your wife/family who they are comfortable talking to?