Potawatomi Christian chapel speaker Kaitlin Curtice draws ire of Baylor student group
(RNS) A week after Potawatomi Christian author and speaker Kaitlin Curtice spoke in chapel at Baylor University, people are still talking about it.
Although perhaps not for reasons the school or speaker would hope.
Curtice's remarks during the school's three chapel services about her journey of "decolonizing" her faith drew pushback from a student group at the private Christian university in Texas, and her message was reportedly interrupted by a shouting student.The incident has drawn public apologies from at least one faculty member and an alum and brought back memories of a chapel service last year in which Kathy Khang, another progressive Christian author and speaker who is Korean-American, was heckled."I challenged some of them on a deep enough level that it rattled the walls of patriarchal white supremacy that they hide behind, and, well, I've done my job," tweeted Curtice, who has declined interviews about the incident.
In the video of one Feb. 12 service posted on Baylor's website,
Curtice was introduced by Ryan Richardson, associate chaplain and director of worship and chapel at the school.Richardson referenced an Air Force chaplain who had spoken in chapel the week before and said some people had disagreed with the chaplain's comments. Similarly, some people might feel triggered by Curtice's comments, he said, and he invited those people to come to the chapel table in the lobby and discuss what made them uncomfortable.
"This is a place that we're going to bring diverse ideas and understandings of what it means to be a Christian in the world," he said....
"For me, as a mixed European and Potawatomi woman whose inner and outer voice has been silenced, especially by the church, I am reclaiming who I am, wrestling with all parts of my identity, my white privilege, my Native feminism, my spirituality," Curtice said during the service."I'm questioning the systems that I participate in. I'm challenging myself to understand all the aspects of myself and the world around me."
She encouraged students to "envision a decolonized spirituality" with her, calling out "white supremacy," "toxic patriarchy," "settler colonialism" and "capitalist greed."
When the speaker said women are told they aren't valued as much as men in society, a male student
reportedly shouted, "Nobody says that!"
Curtice later tweeted she actually was interrupted twice by the same student both times while talking about women.The outburst was not part of the service that Baylor recorded and posted on its website.After Curtice's chapel message, a student group called Baylor Young Conservatives of Texas
posted a statement on Twitter disavowing the service, where the group said it was met by "the liberal agenda." It called on the university to apologize "for breaking with their mission to provide an unapologetically Christian chapel experience and for allowing a speaker with pagan sympathies to mislead students once again."
One member of the group, Jake Neidert,
told a local news outlet what was "most offensive" was that Curtice had not prayed to God, but to "Mother Mystery."
On Tuesday, Baylor confirmed in an email to RNS that it had reviewed video of all three chapel services in which Curtice spoke.
At no time did she refer to "Mother Mystery," the school concluded."We would apologize for reporting that incorrectly, but the rest of our statement still stands," Baylor YCT said in an email to RNS. Curtice noted in a tweet she's never used "Mother Mystery" in a talk but she's "definitely going to now."In the video, the speaker begins her prayers by addressing God as "Mystery," as she does in several prayers in her first book, "
Glory Happening: Finding the Divine in Everyday Places," published by Christian publisher Paraclete Press in 2017. That's not without precedent in Christian tradition,
according to Christian publication Relevant Magazine, which pointed to the ancient Latin text "
O Magnum Mysterium," or "O Great Mystery."
Curtice's second book, "Native: Identity, Belonging, and Rediscovering God," will be released May 5 by Brazos Press, a division of Baker Publishing Group that publishes books by Christian thinkers.
Baylor told RNS it had spoken with Curtice before she came to chapel and expected her to speak from "Glory Happening."The college seemed to imply in a statement sent to those who had questions about chapel that it was surprised by her message. That statement reads in part: "On occasion, a speaker may veer away from our understanding of the message they planned to convey. When this happens, we address the matter with our Chapel students and invite them to come talk to us after Chapel."Curtice responded on Twitter, "The Baylor chapel leaders knew exactly what I was speaking on before I came.""We can pretend that what happened at Baylor is about me praying to Mystery, or we can recognize that based on the onslaught of anti-native attacks and accusations of being a pagan I've received since speaking there, it's about something else," she tweeted.Rest of article:
https://religionnews.com/2020/02/20/potawatomi-christian-chapel-speaker-kaitlin-curtice-draws-ire-of-baylor-student-group/