A note about today’s post: I have a bi-weekly column on National Catholic Reporter, and I plan to use these posts as my “Faith and Feminism Friday” posts for the month of November. You’ll have to go there for the full text. This is not a #bloglikecrazy cheat day! The full content was originally published on Nov. 4th on National Catholic Reporter, but I wrote it on Nov. 1st, and published something completely different here on that day. Not cheating. Please read and enjoy!

Image by Walt Jabsco via Flickr/Creative Commons

My body is the Lord’s temple

Don’t mess with me! God’s property!

–Trin-i-tee 5:7, “My Body,” lyrics by Travon M. Potts

My Christian girlfriends and I would feel validated and encouraged whenever we heard the female trio Trin-i-tee 5:7 (pronounced “trinity five seven”) sing this pledge to sexual purity until marriage. The song was released during our sophomore year in college. The first time she heard the song, one of my roommates, a brown-skinned, petite woman with jet-black hair worn in a big, curly afro that blew in the wind, sat in our suite living room, raised her Black Power fist high like she was standing to receive a medal with Tommie Smith and John Carlos in the 1968 Olympics and shouted, “Yeh!”

This image of Christian womanhood, purity and Black Power …

[Read the rest at NCR]