Bishop Leontine Turpeau Current Kelly: Toward an Ironic Prophetic Rhetoric

Abstract

This article considers the rhetoric of Leontine Kelly, the first woman of color to be elected bishop in any Christian denomination. As a black woman bishop in the United Methodist Church, a denomination with a history fraught with contradiction on issues related to gender and racial (in)justice, Kelly often preached to primarily White audiences with the goal of convincing them that racism and sexism were sinful. To do so, Kelly brought together prophecy and irony. This combination proved useful for Kelly and offers possibilities for fruitful interactions between irony and prophecy.