CLGS

Five years ago, an African American student at the seminary I was
attending spoke her mind and I was fortunate enough to be there when she did. "I have been waiting for the day when white ...

Imagine a quiet rural town in upstate New York and a large parsonage next to the church. We are drinking coffee in our living room on a Saturday afternoon, having just put our eight-month old baby down for a nap. In the midst of this domestic scene, we found ourselves in serious discussion about gender and privilege.

Mitchell: How do we find a working definition for gender privilege? Obviously it is based in patriarchy...

Patricia Beattie Jung, a Roman Catholic laywoman, is an Associate Professor of Theology at Loyola University in Chicago. She has published many scholarly articles and co-edited with Thomas A. Shannon an anthology on Abortion and Catholicism: The American Debate.

"You're 74 years old? Impossible! You don't look a day over 60!" I smile with evident pleasure, blush ever so slightly, and reply, "Aren't you kind! Thank you for saying that! I really don't feel old." Everyone is happy. My friend has been gracious by underestimating my age. And my sense of being a "special person"—not like other old people—has been reinforced.

While attending the National Convocation of Reconciling