Ayers Receives Visionary Award
Perkins student Rev. Danielle Ayers was recently recognized with a Visionary Award by the State Fair of Texas and the Friends of Juanita Craft Civil Rights House & Museum. The award honors Juanita Craft, a Dallas civil rights leader who helped integrate many Dallas establishments, including the State Fair. Ayers, who is pursuing a D. Min. as a Baugh Scholar, serves as Pastor of Justice at Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas, leading the church’s public policy efforts, legislative agenda, and justice initiatives. Ayers is also involved in the Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program (DVAP) legal clinic, racial justice work, various civic engagement initiatives, and in efforts addressing immigration and the crisis at the Texas border.
Garrett Publishes Op-ed
Perkins student Paula Garrett has published an opinion piece on the Baptist News Global website, “Disaster bring out the best and worst theology.” After witnessing the flooding and destruction off Hurricane Helene in her community in North Carolina, Garrett was angered by well-meaning comments on social media that implied God had kept her family safe. “I cannot believe in a God who would thump some people into the river to their deaths while sparing me and my family,” she wrote. “Was God with me but not them? Was God with them but not me? What kind of God allows hurricanes, floods, devastation?”
Garett noted that climate change is contributing to more and more dramatic weather events, and that her safety was assured, at least in part, to her economic status. Yet many Christians deny climate change and refuse to grapple with economic injustice.
“There is one thing I do know about the God I can believe in,” she wrote. “God did not choose to be with me and not with others during the worst of the storm. God did not give me enough prosperity to live safely while denying it to others. God’s people frustrate me a good bit, but never more than when our self-centeredness allows us to make of God something that God isn’t.”
Honoring Latine Heritage Month, All Year Long
Perkins student Lily White wrote a blog post about Latine Heritage Month (September 15 – October 15, 2024) for the Alliance of Baptists website. “Recognizing Latine Heritage Month goes beyond honoring history,” she wrote. “It is essential that we amplify Latine voices, support Latine-led initiatives, and work toward dismantling the systemic barriers that many still face. As we reach the end of Latine Heritage Month, I challenge you to continue recognizing the Latine people and their effect on our lives throughout the rest of the year. While there is no one way to do this, here are a few ways that work for me.” White is interning at the Alliance of Baptists. She is also a Baugh Scholar, a student ambassador for the Baptist House of Studies Board of Visitors at Perkins, and a member of L@s Seminaristas, an ecumenical Latine student organization.
Victoria Jones on Good Faith Media
Perkins student Victoria “Tori” Jones has published two opinion pieces on Good Faith Media. The website, launched in July 2020, is the result of a merger between two historic Baptist entities: Baptists Today (operating as Nurturing Faith) and Baptist Center for Ethics (operating as EthicsDaily.com).
In one post, “Asking Challenging Questions in Rural Churches,” Jones wrote about confronting the theology of a church in a rural Texas town near the border of Oklahoma, which she’d been considering joining along with her family. Church leaders told her that women were not permitted to teach men in the church, citing a passage in the Bible. “Sadly, experiences like these are common in our rural American churches,” she wrote. The experience led her to apply to Perkins.
In another piece, “Don’t Ask Me How I Am: A Reflection on Loss, Grief, and Making Meaning When There is None,” she described the death of her best friend due to cancer. At times of loss, she wrote, platitudes about “God is in control” don’t work.
“Grievers don’t need you to explain their loss or even to fix it,” she said. “But they do need you to sit with them, sharing moments, holding hands. Let their tears fall without handing them a tissue to wipe them all away. Don’t ask if they’re okay. They’re not. And it’s okay for them to not be okay.
“I pray we become more willing to be present to the pain of this world. Perhaps then, we might be able to transform it, together.”
