The Seedbed is a group blog of religiously-interested wisecracking women, begun in 2010 by Sarah Morice Brubaker, a faculty member at Phillips Theological Seminary. (About three seconds of reading will likely prompt you to realize that neither PTS, nor any other institution with which any of the bloggers are affiliated, has any responsibility for the site or its contents.)

The Bloggers

Sarah Morice Brubaker‘s last name is “Morice Brubaker.” In other words, her last name is “Morice Brubaker.” She asks that you remember this, as she does not field inquiries for anyone named “Sarah Brubaker.” She teaches theology, writes (sometimes even for other people!), bakes, tries new perfume, and probably does other things that don’t occur to her at the moment. She has two kids, a spouse named Phil, a dog, a cat, two fish, and a messy office.

Badass Theology Chick Wiv an Attitude is the is the real name of a queer Anglican catholic anarchisty type who became friends with Sarah through Facebook. She is an able-bodied, educated, white, middle-class, average-sized, happily partnered queer and hairy lesbian Christian. She lives in South London in the UK. Her favorite form of exercise is wrestling an Ancient Near Eastern deity into submission and saying, with Jacob, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” She likes cycling and doesn’t care much for oil but is open to being bribed with copious amounts of dark chocolate or gin. Desperate for theological stimulation, she begs people for on or offline face-to-face textual discussion. She hopes for a church that might wash more feet, discuss income disparity and call people into an alternative form of life, instead of pretending that after-church coffee is what Jesus wanted. She is perpetually disappointed.

Priscilla the Explainer (cf Acts 18) is the daughter, by retroactive parthenogenesis, of the late Dorothy Parker and Stanley Hauerwas. She was secretly raised by a family of Mennonite-Catholic crofters on a remote island off the coast of Scotland, until the time came to use her superpowers for the promotion of human flourishing…that time is now. When she is not striving against the dark forces of “the world,” she enjoys cigarettes, extreme knitting, canasta, and the folk music of the Siberian steppe. (Actually, she is a current student in theological ethics, of a Barthian-feminist-consistent-life flavor. She readily acknowledges the incomprehensibility of her own position and is grateful to her fellow lady writers at The Seedbed for inviting a relative conservative to play along.)

hadhufang is the wordpress alias of a ninja theologian who is struggling with the conflict between honesty and polity in the structure of church. She describes herself as old (but not *that* old!), mostly white, somewhat luddite, and artsy-fartsy by profession. She claims more than one religious tradition (including Daoism and forms of Wicca) and she says, along with Jesus Seminar dude B. Brandon Scott, “I’m a follower of the teachings of Jesus, and I’m not sure that’s compatible with being Christian.” She has studied lots of languages, including the scriptural basics of Greek and Hebrew, and she acts, dances, sings, plays instruments, sews, designs, paints, bakes, teaches, travels, and studies–among other activities. She chooses (at present) to live at or below the US poverty line, and she has observed that most people (even other people living with very little) discriminate, perhaps unconsciously, against people living with very little. This in addition to the systemic discrimination. Since most of our economy today is dependent on those who live with very little, this seems counterproductive. Just sayin’.

Yuki is a ridiculously overeducated former newspaper journalist who, realizing the industry was eventually going to go belly up, decided to seek her fortunes in the mainline Christian church (see reference to “ridiculously overeducated” and nod sagely as you fathom how that played into the decision to jump from one sinking ship of a career to another). A very shallow agnostic at the time of this decision, she initially intended to explore Christianity  in order to point and giggle at its silliest foibles and representatives. Falling in love with Christianity hasn’t really changed that goal, although these days she’s just as inclined to seek empathetic resonance as she is to poke fun. Apparently a masochist at heart, Yuki is in the middle of coursework for a PhD in theology and history at a Chicago-area seminary, focusing on trauma, biopolitics, atonement theories and the psychosocial damage that results from all three. In her nonexistent spare time, she cooks, samples wine, and plays Sid Meier’s Civilization 4 while actively ignoring the postcolonial and patriarchal subtexts of the game.

Tammerie Day says “Hello in there,” quoting John Prine. It’s hard to write about yourself; but then, it’s even harder getting someone else to write about you. So, I’m a child of God, writer, parent, partner, preacher, and theologian at large, trying to live a Micah 6:8 kind of life. I like talking and writing about stuff that matters, being quiet, loving on my sweetheart, running, cooking, eating, hanging out with my teenagers, and making new friends. (Tough when you’re shy. I manage, though.) I love God to pieces and like trying to figure God-stuff out. Dig kything-prayer with Jesus and other far-away friends. And I just catch fire sometimes with the ache of the Holy Spirit in my bones …. How ’bout you?