I am pretty sure the incident described below is cosmic justice for this incident in my past:
It is the spring of my freshman year in college. I have just signed up to be a reporter for the college newspaper. I am seventeen years old.
The editor, a preppy/conservative guy who was also vice-president of the Young Republicans, sized me up and sent me off to interview the woman who was visiting campus that week as Theologian in Residence. I had never heard of her, but since the senior religion majors were pronouncing the name Elizabeth Schussler Fiorenze in hushed tones, I figured she might be Someone Important.
In those days I was much given to dressing in fanciful, New Wave inspired ensembles. I buttoned up my Adam Ant pirate shirt, sharpened my pencil, and knocked on the door of the guest house at the edge of campus where Prof. Fiorenze was staying. She received me politely, but without the affable mid-western friendliness that was the dominant culture on that campus. Thinking to warm up the tone of the conversation, I gushed: "Oh gosh Dr. Fiorenze! I'm so honored to be here! This is my first interview for the Small Presbyterian College Gazette!" Rather than warming things up, this outburst seemed to deepen my subject's reserve.
Undaunted, I whipped out my freshly sharpened pencil and asked my first keen and penetrating question: "Dr. Fiorenze, could you highlight some examples of women's liberation that you see in the Bible?"
She answered my questions for another twenty minutes or so, then invoked a pending appointment and sent me on my merry way. I went back to the dorm and wrote my article, which the editor promptly buried on the inside of the back page.
As I say, cosmic justice.
Stay tuned for our next episode when, in her sophmore year, Yet-to-be-Reverend Rebel accompanies her sort-of boyfriend as he drives guest lecturer Phyllis Trible back to the Cleveland airport and peppers her with sophomoric questions. More cosmic justice may be needed.
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11 comments:
ROFL
ALthough I admit to a slight bit of eny as well...
Wonder if she blogged about it? :)
hee hee hee!
That's hilarious!
hee, hee. actually when i read the story below i winced at the questions i asked clergy women when interviewing several for a fellowship. they laughed at me more than once. i was so earnest. waiting for my cosmic justice...
and i have a hunch that we went to the same college. is it south of cleveland? about 45-60 minutes on route 3 or 83?
looking forward to the next installment.
More Cows,
Go Scots??
hooray! i swear i meet alums from our little school everywhere! o.k., not so surprising in the church world i guess... but on the street on vacation last week?
so when did you graduate? 98 for me.
More Cows,
Ahem, a little earlier than 1998. And alums are not so thick on the ground out here in SoCal, though there are two in my congregation.
i wouldn't say they're thick on the ground here, either. just a few everywhere i go in the country it seems.
i have a friend who graduated from COW in the late eighties and that's part of why i asked. also... have heard lots of stories about prior students going back many years who were involved at Westminster. so... not fishing for your age. just placing you in the COW universe. but i certainly don't need to know. just curious.
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