My Testimony @ The Hope Gathering

In June I was blessed to be invited to share my story at the Hope Gathering Conference which was one of the most diverse Christian conferences I have ever attended. The organizer Suzy Silk did a great job of finding women from diverse backgrounds to speak when other conference organizers claim they cannot find people of color or women to speak. To hear my testimony and the testimonies of all speakers click on the photo below:

Hope Gathering June 2014 Talks

Being the Oaks of Righteousness: Domestic Workers United (DWU)

This post was first published on Sojourners God’s Politics , Wrecked for the Ordinary & Ecumenical Women at the United Nations

Note: DWU won a Domestic Workers Bill of Rights in NY State which was a historic win; but now the organization is working on duplication in other states and implementation, so please continue to support their work! Though DWU works on issues affecting domestic workers in the U.S. the issues faced by its membership are shared by women worldwide. The exploitation of women workers is an international human rights issue. According to Article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which was adopted by the U.N. :

• (1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
• (2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
• (3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
• (4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor  and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. THEY will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD   for the display of his splendor. THEY will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; THEY will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations. -Isaiah 61:1-4

Drop it likes it’s hot for Jesus???!! The Sexually Confident Wife by Shannon Ethridge

During the historic election summer of 2008 God blessed me with a fabulous internship at a leading Christian justice magazine and advocacy organization in Washington, D.C. Many Christian authors send their publications to our magazine for review and in the summer the un-reviewed books are put out for employees to take home. As an admitted book worm and broke intern this made my day! As I was going through the collection of books I saw titles on racial reconciliation, politics, Christian living, etc, when a hot-pink and black book stuck out like a sore thumb-Shannon Ethridge’s The Sexually Confident Wife. Why would someone send this book to a Christian social justice magazine? Is this a Christian book? I thought the book was more suitable for Cosmopolitan or an episode of Sex and the City than a faith and justice magazine. Didn’t Ethridge know we were in an election year? As a single woman I like to read about marriage in preparation for my own. When I got back to my cubical I was curious to see what the book was about because on the back cover I discovered that Ethridge was a co-author of Every Woman’s Battle which is apart of a respected Christian book series on purity; proof that this was indeed a Christian book!