Rev. Melanie Jones Delivers Willson Lectureship at Texas Wesleyan

Rev. Melanie Jones, the Visiting Instructor of ethics, theology and culture at Brite divinity school, lectured on the role of black women have played in the history of the US at Texas Wesleyan Tuesday night.

Jones, a doctoral candidate at Chicago Theological Seminary, spoke to the crowd of roughly 200 about the history of political activism of African-American women, from Harriet Tubman to the black female voters who had swayed Alabama’s 2018 special election for a US senate seat against far-right republican Roy Moore.

“Black women redeeming the soul of America is not a new phenomenon,” Jones stated. “The relevant question is however in a contemporary era is, who or what will save black women?”

Jones has good reason to ask this question. Oppressive tropes and traditions are nothing new to black women in the US, Jones seeks answers to finding womanist theologies of redemption in what she calls a “death dealing world.”

Jones goes on to state that redemption for black women is wholeness and that sin is the great oppressor, and that Jesus is the divine co-sufferer.

“Black women hold a deep connection with the human experience of Jesus, in simple terms, black women identify with Jesus because Jesus identified with them.” Jones said.

Wesleyan student Brittany Wade agrees.

“Salvation should serve as more of an external process than an internal process.” Wade says.

Jones says the response to systemic oppression is social services, however it does not replace structural injustice.

Audience member Christian Jones (no relation to Rev. Jones) echoed that statement.

“What is important is being informed, get yourself out and participate.” Jones stated.

It seems as if the large multicultural crowd on a Tuesday night the eve of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was doing just that.

Rev. Jones is part of this generation’s social justice proponents calling on the US to “hold itself to a higher standard.” 

Rev. Melanie Jones is a third-generation Baptist preacher and youngest ordained clergywoman at South Suburban M. B. Church in Harvey, IL.