Christian beliefs have been used to support the myths that promote violence against women and to counter those myths, says theologian Rev. Traci C. West. During the annual Antoinette Brown Lecture at Vanderbilt University on March 26, West will address how Christian theology and activism can be used to make the world safer for women.
West, professor of ethics and African American studies at Drew University Theological School, will speak at 7 p.m. in Benton Chapel at Vanderbilt Divinity School, 411 21st Ave. S. The lecture is titled “Lying on Women: Religion, Race and Intimate Violence in the African Diaspora.”
The lecture will address intimate violence against women and girls who are often stymied by cultural myths about women’s culpability. West believes that Christian religious beliefs can add to this problem or offer truth-telling resources to counter it.
The lecture is free and open to the public. It will be videotaped for podcast on VUCast, the website of Vanderbilt News Service, at www.vanderbilt.edu/news/.
West’s books include Disruptive Christian Ethics: When Racism and Women’s Lives Matter and Wounds of the Spirit: Black Women, Violence and Resistance Ethics. She is an ordained elder in the New York Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.
The Antoinette Brown Lecture began in 1974 with sponsorship from Vanderbilt alumna Sylvia Sanders Kelly of Atlanta to honor Antoinette Brown Blackwell, who became the first ordained woman in America in 1853. Previous Antoinette Brown lecturers include Sallie McFague, Stephanie Paulsell, Amina Wadud and Sharon Welch.
Media contact: Jim Patterson, (615) 322-NEWS
jim.patterson@vanderbilt.edu