Asian and Womanist and Mujerista Ecclesiology

What would it mean to pledge my body to the walls of a place or a group of people?

Reading from Asian American, Asian womanist, womanist, and mujerista perspectives, our group was left with questions of how it all relates to what it means to be the church. Kirk-Duggan writes about African American women singing the blues, even when no one wants to hear it. Kwok Pui-Lan writes about the white woman working out her oppression at the expense of the two-thirds world woman in the mission field. De Rocchietti writes of the church as — necessarily — working for justice for God’s people. Finally, Yong writes about Christ’s posture toward the immigrant and the call on Christians to be in-between people: among other things, both host and guest.

What does this all have to do with ecclesiology? It’s hard to say. Brynn pointed out in the course of our discussion that perhaps de Rocchietti’s article ties together the others: as each author points out the harm that’s been done, the voices that have been silenced, de Rocchietti acknowledges this and calls Christ’s followers to come together to work for wholeness and justice. Interestingly, she acknowledges the oppression of women in the history (and present-day) of the church not be letting us off the hook, but by calling us to more:

As women, we feel our scope for movement reduced and constricted by the manifestations of human sin which, turning its back on God, has created structures of domination by some people over others. Our responsibility is then dual. We must go forward with the people in its struggle for liberation and for salvation which must be expressed in signs of life, love, and solidarity.

This was a common theme among all the articles we discussed: don’t back off, lean in. And don’t cause more harm while you’re doing it.

So my question for the group is this: how would each of today’s authors answer Chelle’s question to us: What would it mean to pledge my body to the walls of a place or a group of people?