“God is a feminist” – Mira Ungewitter asks: How pink is the Bible? – Culture

Impetus in matters of church and feminism is coming from the free church corner. The Baptist pastor Mira Ungewitter has a successful book with “God is a Feminist”.

“I’m an atheist,” says a visitor at “Buch Wien,” where Mira Ungewitter is presenting her book. “Because I had the same questions as Sturm and didn’t get any answers.” According to the visitor, she wanted to know whether there was another Christianity than the patriarchal one.

Mira Ungewitter’s theses and her book are well received. At the book fair, at readings, on social media. In “God is a Feminist – My Life with Eva, Maria and Lady Gaga” she brings together her own life experience, pop culture and feminist theology.

A sound of your own

Feminist theology is not new – but Mira Ungewitter updates it. She tells biblical stories with her own sound, based on scientific feminist interpretation.

Her book is a little pink manifesto that tells a diversity-friendly version of Christianity. “There should be a lot more pink in this world,” says the 38-year-old with a laugh. It is also a color of self-empowerment – ​​see the “Barbie” film.

Does the Bible really allow this reading? Or are the texts bent to fit a certain world view? Ungewitter counters that every theology is a certain reading – even the patriarchal ones.

It is important to justify the respective interpretation well. She worked her way through the ancient biblical languages ​​to get to the range of meanings of the original texts.

Eva is not a (cleaning) helper

This involves, for example, the question of how women can be read in the Bible. Eve as a “help” to the man, as Luther translated? No: The Hebrew word it he It actually means “rescue,” says Mira Ungewitter. In the opposite, the human being, Adam, is rescued from his loneliness.

Sex, blood, abortion, shame – Ungewitter likes to call things by their name. She talks about her own menstruation and thus connects with the story of the “bloody woman” from the Bible. It’s strange how much blood there is in films, but “we give this blood a wide berth,” says Ungewitter.

Holy Lady Gaga moment

Ungewitter raves about the “Song of Songs,” a collection of partly erotic love songs in the First Testament. And the word “holy” is mentioned again and again, which means that something becomes “healer”.

She had a sacred moment at a Lady Gaga concert. On a small stage in the middle of the audience, Lady Gaga sang “Born This Way” on the grand piano. 60,000 people, including many queer people, sang along: “God has made no mistake. I was born this way.”

Legend:

Lady Gaga enables religious moments for people who cannot find a place in church.

Keystone / CHARLES PERTWEE

Queer people are repeatedly excluded and hurt in churches. “I was deeply touched by the fact that the support then opened up other paths,” said the feminist pastor.

Queer wedding with conviction

As a free church member, she also experiences headwinds. Especially after a queer couple’s wedding. As a result, she was asked to leave the Association of Baptist Churches in Austria. “This wedding was a step too many for many,” she sums up.

But it was clear to her that “God wanted to bless all people equally.” After the blessing, the 86-year-old grandfather of one of the grooms came to her and thanked her: “It can’t be that no one wants to bless my grandson.”