“Curtain Call, Renita Weems!”

“Curtain Call, Renita Weems!”

Abraham is cast in the main role in the Genesis story. He is righteous, upholding, steadfast, and favored in the eyes of God. Abraham is a man of few emotions. For all his faith, he displays little compassion for the mother of Ishmael. He hands his beautiful wife, Sarai, over to the Egyptians in Chapter 12. In Chapter 16, Abraham declines to get involved in the family crisis, telling Sarai to “do to her as you please.” Only limited conversation is revealed between husband and wife. The next contact occurs in Chapter 18 when he tells her to “make ready” some food. It is difficult to figure Abraham. We learn in chapter 21 that, at Sarah’s direction, Hagar and Ishmael are sent homeless into the wilderness of Beersheeba. Although Abraham is distressed at the loss of a son, he does not appear saddened in the least over the loss of Hagar. A little bread and water for the road was the extent of his consideration. Now it’s doubly difficult to figure Abraham.

We love him, but does he love us?

Renita Weems pursues a different path. For a great read, open to chapter one, A Mistress, A Maid, And No Mercy in her book Just A Sister Away. It is for mature audiences only, tough love to say the least. It is a story, says Ms. Weems, of racism, class stratification, sins of arrogance, mercy, betrayal, distrust, conspiracies, and most of all, sisters.

Ms. Weems wants to spotlight women. In times of need, as both Sarai and Hagar are, each was in need of healing that could have come from a sister. They find themselves, like the name of the book, Just A Sister Away. What each needed most, the other had.

Ms. Weems writes with shocking insights.

She makes it clear that she is haunted by the problem of exploitation saying, “I am painfully aware of this…when I eat out at a restaurant and the white waitress who is the age of my mother calls me ‘Ma’am.’”

I, of course, do wish Ms. Weems had spotlighted Abraham. That is a story easy to imagine. What was Abraham doing while all of this transpired? As Hagar suffered? As Ishmael hungered? As Sarah watched and walked? I, of course, wish she would write about Abraham and men who are Just A Brother Away.