A-2 PEOPLE FILES
- Jann Aldredge-Clanton - Bruce Allen - David Allen - Bernhard W Anderson -
jann aldredge-clanton
Jann Aldredge-Clanton (born 1946 in Abilene, Texas) is an ordained Christian minister, author, teacher, and chaplain, who leads workshops and conferences throughout the United States. She has authored nine books, three hymnbooks, a children's musical, and a children's songbook. She has also published many articles in publications such as Christian Feminism Today, The Journal of Pastoral Care, The Christian Ministry, and Patheos. She specializes in feminist theology and inclusive worship resources. Ordained in the Alliance of Baptists, she ministers in ecumenical and interfaith settings. She serves as co-chair of the national ecumenical, multicultural Equity for Women in the Church Community, on the council of Evangelical and Ecumenical Women's Caucus-Christian Feminism Today; adjunct professor at Richland College in Dallas, Texas; and on the Dallas Workers’ Rights Board.
Jonathan Merritt
When Jann Aldredge-Clanton enrolled at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1982, she considered herself a bona fide evangelical Christian with a reverence for the Bible and a love for the church. It soon became clear that neither her Southern Baptist denomination nor the wider evangelical world held much space for her. In her preaching class, male students who objected to women teaching men criticized her sermons. One male student in another class dismissively asked if she came to seminary to get an “M-R-S” degree. Her growing interest in feminist theology made her feel like an outsider among her conservative classmates, who felt such ideas were heretical. As graduation neared in 1985, Aldredge-Clanton was informed by the seminary’s placement office that it only sought to place males as pastors. After her applications to evangelical churches across Texas went unanswered, she took the hint. “It had finally been made clear to me that as an ordained woman and a feminist, I was on the outs as a Southern Baptist and in the evangelical world,” she told me recently, “so I took a job as an associate minister at a United Methodist church instead.” --Jonathan Merritt; Religion News Service; Can evangelicalism survive its white, straight, conservative victory? 5.2.23
Jann Aldredge-Clanton Files
When my own Baptist tradition excluded me, Methodists opened wide their arms to welcome my pastoral ministry. Methodists could apply the liberating message of Jesus to me and other women barred from ministry by traditional biblical misinterpretations, so why would they not apply this same liberating message to LGBTQ people?
Millions of United Methodists worldwide, however, do support full inclusion of LGBTQ people, and many have written powerful statements based on the Bible. Many others continue to take biblical passages out of context, instead of using established hermeneutical principles they apply to other parts of Scripture, to back the “Traditional Plan” the General Conference adopted to reinforce the ban on LBGTQ clergy ordination and same-sex marriage. -Jann Aldredge Clanton; Baptist News Global; 3.19.19
Millions of United Methodists worldwide, however, do support full inclusion of LGBTQ people, and many have written powerful statements based on the Bible. Many others continue to take biblical passages out of context, instead of using established hermeneutical principles they apply to other parts of Scripture, to back the “Traditional Plan” the General Conference adopted to reinforce the ban on LBGTQ clergy ordination and same-sex marriage. -Jann Aldredge Clanton; Baptist News Global; 3.19.19
Bruce Allen
Bruce Allen with Forgotten Ministries International says their ministry often sees how blasphemy laws are used to promote state-sanctioned targeting of minority Christians. “Christians are targeted for blasphemy accusations even when they have not perpetrated any blasphemy. But because these laws exist in the book, they’ll use it indiscriminately even when there’s no evidence of blasphemy.”
Allen adds, “Another point that the fact sheet makes is that blasphemy laws encourage individuals and non-state actors to seek retribution against alleged blasphemers.
“Many times, the person who is accused of blasphemy doesn’t even stand a chance to have their day in court. They’re killed in the street outside their home the day [or] the day after the blasphemy charge is even leveled. It’s a vigilante mob violence mentality.”
FMI saw this most recently in the case of a 6-year-old Christian boy in Pakistan who was violently attacked by his Muslim teacher and hospitalized for alleged blasphemy.
Please pray for blasphemy laws to be repealed and for oppressors to have their eyes opened to Jesus Christ.
Allen says, “We want to keep this beleaguered, oppressed Christian community in prayer. Lift them up and say, ‘Lord, may they be walking in the power of your Spirit to follow your instructions because we can’t do that left to our own devices.’” - Lyndsey Koh; Mission News Network; Since 2020, blasphemy laws around the world up 13% 9.21.23
Allen adds, “Another point that the fact sheet makes is that blasphemy laws encourage individuals and non-state actors to seek retribution against alleged blasphemers.
“Many times, the person who is accused of blasphemy doesn’t even stand a chance to have their day in court. They’re killed in the street outside their home the day [or] the day after the blasphemy charge is even leveled. It’s a vigilante mob violence mentality.”
FMI saw this most recently in the case of a 6-year-old Christian boy in Pakistan who was violently attacked by his Muslim teacher and hospitalized for alleged blasphemy.
Please pray for blasphemy laws to be repealed and for oppressors to have their eyes opened to Jesus Christ.
Allen says, “We want to keep this beleaguered, oppressed Christian community in prayer. Lift them up and say, ‘Lord, may they be walking in the power of your Spirit to follow your instructions because we can’t do that left to our own devices.’” - Lyndsey Koh; Mission News Network; Since 2020, blasphemy laws around the world up 13% 9.21.23
Bruce Allen
Many new people are moving here. We’ve had an influx of several Muslim families and we see new mosques being built. So, this migration is a great challenge, but it’s also a great opportunity........The answers to prayer that the people see astound them. They go, ‘Jesus does this? Jesus cares for me? That’s very different than the Muslim concept of prayer.”...“If it’s a women’s ministry that’s, let’s say taking place in a home, more women will be encouraged [to come]. ‘Well, I’m just going over and having tea at my friend’s home,’ rather than ‘I’m going to church on Sunday morning,’ and people or friends from the mosque will be going, ‘What are you doing?’......But no one’s going to question her going to her friend’s home for tea and having a conversation about Jesus or engaging in Bible study because it’s outside the structural context of a church. So, we see some great things happening already and Muslims coming to know Christ.”
--Bruce Allen; Forghotten Ministries International; On womens minsitires in Indonesia Feb 2018
--Bruce Allen; Forghotten Ministries International; On womens minsitires in Indonesia Feb 2018
david l allen
David L Allen
The “shepherds” are the spiritual leaders, including the king, the priests, and the prophets.
The shepherd analogy is the pivotal analogy of the Old Testament for God’s relationship to his people. This term is the personal analogy used by Jesus in the Gospels. He said: “I am the good shepherd.” It is the proper analogy used in the epistles to describe the role of the pastor. Jeremiah uses a stunning word in Hebrew to describe these shepherds: ba’ar – “stupid, senseless.” The word is used of an animal that is deficient in moral and spiritual things. It refers to those who do not fear the Lord or desire his wisdom. They are senseless and stupid. Jeremiah would agree with Forrest Gump: “stupid is as stupid does.” How did this deplorable condition occur? They became stupid because they did not darash, “seek” the Lord. This word is the focal point of the verse. It occurs 165 times in the OT, mostly in the sense of seeking after the Lord. It means “to seek with diligence.” Three primary aspects are observed in the various contextual uses of this word.
There is the volitional aspect. Ezra 7:10 – “Ezra determined in his heart to seek the law of the Lord….” There is the emotional aspect. Psalm 119:10: “with all my heart I have sought you.” There is the intellectual aspect. Isaiah 34:16 – “Seek from the book of the Lord.” Darash denotes the element of “research, investigation, study.” Two consequences follow from not “seeking” the Lord. First, the shepherds shall not sachal – “prosper.” This word denotes the process of thinking through a complex arrangement of thoughts resulting in wise action and use of practical common sense. The end result: success. But in Jeremiah 10:21, the shepherds have no success. In fact, all their flocks will be putz (poots) – “scattered,” a favorite word of Jeremiah.
---David Allen; Stupid Shepherds and Scattered Sheep 8.21.19
The shepherd analogy is the pivotal analogy of the Old Testament for God’s relationship to his people. This term is the personal analogy used by Jesus in the Gospels. He said: “I am the good shepherd.” It is the proper analogy used in the epistles to describe the role of the pastor. Jeremiah uses a stunning word in Hebrew to describe these shepherds: ba’ar – “stupid, senseless.” The word is used of an animal that is deficient in moral and spiritual things. It refers to those who do not fear the Lord or desire his wisdom. They are senseless and stupid. Jeremiah would agree with Forrest Gump: “stupid is as stupid does.” How did this deplorable condition occur? They became stupid because they did not darash, “seek” the Lord. This word is the focal point of the verse. It occurs 165 times in the OT, mostly in the sense of seeking after the Lord. It means “to seek with diligence.” Three primary aspects are observed in the various contextual uses of this word.
There is the volitional aspect. Ezra 7:10 – “Ezra determined in his heart to seek the law of the Lord….” There is the emotional aspect. Psalm 119:10: “with all my heart I have sought you.” There is the intellectual aspect. Isaiah 34:16 – “Seek from the book of the Lord.” Darash denotes the element of “research, investigation, study.” Two consequences follow from not “seeking” the Lord. First, the shepherds shall not sachal – “prosper.” This word denotes the process of thinking through a complex arrangement of thoughts resulting in wise action and use of practical common sense. The end result: success. But in Jeremiah 10:21, the shepherds have no success. In fact, all their flocks will be putz (poots) – “scattered,” a favorite word of Jeremiah.
---David Allen; Stupid Shepherds and Scattered Sheep 8.21.19
bernhard w Anderson
The Eighth Century Prophets: Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Micah: The Old Testament Witnesses for Preaching
Bernhard Anderson has written a commentary that gives new perspective and clarity to the prophetic tradition and demonstrates the timely nature of the prophets' messages for today. 'The Eighth Century Prophets' treats the four Old Testament figures as a 'prophetic quartet' that produced a powerful and startling consensus about Israel's relationship to God and the world. The core of the prophetic message is shown to be both religious and political as Anderson describes and explains the great themes of Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, and Micah: divine judgment, the present and the future, justice and mercy, the covenant, walking humbly with God, and waiting for God. Included is a bibliography and time chart of Eighth Century Israel.
Bernhard Anderson has written a commentary that gives new perspective and clarity to the prophetic tradition and demonstrates the timely nature of the prophets' messages for today. 'The Eighth Century Prophets' treats the four Old Testament figures as a 'prophetic quartet' that produced a powerful and startling consensus about Israel's relationship to God and the world. The core of the prophetic message is shown to be both religious and political as Anderson describes and explains the great themes of Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, and Micah: divine judgment, the present and the future, justice and mercy, the covenant, walking humbly with God, and waiting for God. Included is a bibliography and time chart of Eighth Century Israel.