Jann Aldredge-Clanton
Peggy Jannine Aldredge-Clanton, known as Jann Aldredge-Clanton was an ordained Christian minister, author, teacher, and chaplain, who led workshops and conferences throughout the United States. She authored eleven books, six songbooks, a children's musical, and a children's songbook. She also published many articles in publications such as Christian Feminism Today, The Journal of Pastoral Care, The Christian Ministry, and Patheos. She specialized in feminist theology and inclusive worship resources.
Ordained in the Alliance of Baptists, she ministered in ecumenical and interfaith settings. She served as co-chair of the national ecumenical, multicultural Equity for Women in the Church Community, on the council of Evangelical and Ecumenical Women's Caucus-Christian Feminism Today; adjunct professor at Richland College in Dallas, Texas; and on the Dallas Workers’ Rights Board.
Her career has included roles as a consultant for internship programs at the Perkins School of Theology in Dallas and Brite Divinity School; associate pastor at St. John’s United Methodist Church in Waco, Texas; executive director of the Waco Conference of Christians and Jews; pastoral counselor at the Samaritan Counseling Center of Central Texas; chaplain at the Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas and at Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center in Waco; and professor of English at Dallas Baptist University.
Feminist theology and inclusive language
Since 1990, Aldredge-Clanton wrote, spoke, and preached about feminist theology and specifically about the need to include female language for the Divine as a foundation for equality, justice, and peace.In her introduction to Changing Church: Stories of Liberating Ministers she writes: “My vision is for the Divine Feminine to shine forth in all Her glory in multicultural visual imagery and in the language of worship, supporting equal partnership of women and men. My vision is of a church where the Divine Feminine and women ministers don’t have to be defended or marginalized, but are fully and equally included throughout every worship service and every activity of the church. My vision is for the Sacred Feminine to be worshipped not only in Christian congregations, but in every religion all over the world, and for women to share equally in the leadership of every religion. My vision is for girls to believe they are equal to boys because they hear and see the Supreme Being worshipped as ‘She’ as well as ‘He.'”
Many traditionalists are critical of Aldredge-Clanton's views. Plumeline, a conservative Southern Baptist Convention publication, criticizes the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship for Aldredge-Clanton's leadership at a CBF annual gathering: “The SBC has no feminist theologian leaders calling for the worship of the ‘Christ-Sophia.’ But the CBF does. Jann Aldredge-Clanton conducted a breakout session at the 1995 General Assembly and is a promoter of feminist theology. She is the cited ‘leader’ who espouses ‘Christ-Sophia.’” Additionally The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, an evangelical organization opposing an egalitarian view of gender, takes the organization, Christians for Biblical Equality, to task for including Aldredge-Clanton's children's book, God, A Word for Girls and Boys, in the CBE webstore.
Aldredge-Clanton served as one of the contributors for the CEB Women's Bible.
Inclusive worship resources
Aldredge-Clanton wrote and published inclusive language Christian worship resources, including prayers, responsive readings, hymns set to familiar tunes, and even a children's musical.One of the conservative critics of inclusive theology and language, Russell D. Moore, warned that the children's musical by Aldredge-Clanton and composer Larry E. Schultz, Imagine God! A Children's Musical Exploring and Expressing Images of God is "dangerous" because "feminist theologians are correct indeed that it is easier to transform the imaginations of children in thinking about God." Moore continues his critique writing, "What is at stake here are not whether the church will accommodate more ‘gender-inclusive’ language, but instead the doctrines of God and revelation—and indeed the gospel itself."
Aldredge-Clanton was one of the founders of the New Wineskins Community in Dallas, Texas. The community was founded because "We’re all in deep need of healing. We can never be all we’re created to be in the divine image until we expand our image of the Divine. That’s why New Wineskins Community creates rituals that name and image the Divine as female and male and more. Our words and images for the Divine carry great power to shape belief and actions for justice and peace."
Personal life
She was born in was born in Abilene, Texas, the younger of two daughters of H. Truman Aldredge, the pastor from 1950 until his death of the First Baptist Church, a Southern Baptist congregation in Minden, Louisiana. She graduated in 1964 as the valedictorian of Minden High School. Her mother, Eva Louise Hickerson Aldredge Henley, an educator and Baptist laywoman, married another Southern Baptist pastor, Odus Taylor Henley, after the death of her first husband and spent her later years in San Angelo, Texas. She taught Sunday school for eighty-two years. Truman and Eva Aldredge are interred at Gardens of Memory Cemetery in Minden, Louisiana.In 1968, Aldredge-Clanton received the Bachelor of Arts degree summa cum laude in English] from Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, then known as Louisiana Polytechnic Institute. She procured Master of Arts and PhD degrees from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. She then obtained a Master of Divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, also in Fort Worth.
Aldredge-Clanton resided in Dallas with her husband, David McPhail Clanton, an artist and communications expert. They have two sons, a daughter-in-law, and three grandsons. Her sister, Anne Kathryn Aldredge Morton Funderburk, was the president of the Park Cities Central Dallas Democrats and in that capacity hosted debates involving city and state legislative races. She was a licensed psychologist employed by Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for a quarter century as the head of the Psychology Department.