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In this timely partial-memoir, octogenarian and ordained Christian minister Laverne Cathey shares 12 life transforming Affirmations from selected Bible passages which have enriched her own life. What gives her effort even more synergy is the way in which Cathey weaves poignant anecdotal slices from her personal life into these 12 biblically based Affirmations to further unlock and illumine the power in each. Her personal narrative of 83 years speaks as a black woman born in 1938 and reared in the Southern U S. in the cities of Byhalia, Mississippi and Memphis, Tennessee.
The 12 Affirmations or life lessons presented in the book emerge from Cathey’s coming of age during her battle with patriarchal power dynamics in the church. This struggle begins in earnest in 2008 when at the age of 68, she experiences a call to the ordained Christian ministry in the Independent Black Baptist Church Denomination. As she navigates this tortuous path to achieve ordination, Cathey is gradually introduced to the trials and tribulations of black women who have endured the worst aspects of institutionalized sexism throughout the history of one of the nation’s grandest religious traditions, the black church. She also experiences a spiritual awakening that provides a clearer, more genuine understanding of the true essence and meaning of the Bible’s message of love, forgiveness, faith, and hope. It is out of this challenging religious context, that her 12 Affirmations or life lessons are gradually given birth.
In this short volume, readers will be able to see how Cathey’s life map impacts her view and promotion of the Bible’s fundamental message as a powerful statement about love’s continuing and unrelenting challenge to all forms of divisional madness and relational chaos. This book invites a serious retrieval of the genuine essence of love as promoted in the Bible. It also represents a call to the church to return to the fundamental message of love that has always been at the heart of the Christian tradition.
Rather than a mere presentation of dogmatic assertions, Cathey’s 12 Affirmations invite dialogue about what love IS, what love requires, and what love offers to all humans who would choose to surrender to its power. Prepare for a serious challenge to assess the quality of one’s relationships. What does it mean to love and value another human being? How do we work to establish right relationships with others that uplift and affirm rather than dehumanize and degrade? What is the connection between justice and tenderness in our treatment of others? How do we work to envision new possibilities for how we relate to others regardless of differences in gender, race, class, and religion? How do we generate hope and inspire efforts to redeem fragmented relationships in our communities and in the world? These questions form the impetus of Cathey’s love-affirming word to the readers.
Cathey’s 12 Affirmations are about encouraging readers to accept the challenge to engage in more serious reflection upon their own life experiences, core beliefs, ethical commitments, and relationship practices. In these pages, readers will meet a writer whose clear intentions are to make the case for the absolute need to interject love as the basis of all human attempts to establish relationships that are healthy, just, and vibrant.
