In Delores Williams's essay, "Black Women's Experience of Surrogacy and the Christian Notion of Redemption," Williams articulates her issues with problematic feature of most atonement theologies that rely on a surrogate model for understanding the death of Jesus. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Most atonement theories state how Jesus died in the place of sinful humans, thus saving humanity from a similar or worse fate. This essay will primarily focus on analyzing the possible implications of the surrogate nature of Jesus in the context of African American women's surrogate roles through a gender feminist lens and, consequently, salvation. Specifically, Williams articulates in paragraph two on page two how African American women have had a long history of oppression and, as a result, have been forced into different types of surrogate, forced, and voluntary roles. For example, she references the popular forced surrogate role of “moms” that fueled the stereotype of black women “who are nurturing, asexual, religious, overweight, and altruistic.” It is safe to say that surrogacy is dehumanizing; it takes away freedom of choice, so Black women have been stripped of self-autonomy, a product of systematic racist oppression. As a result, I can agree with Williams about how the idea of ​​Jesus dying on the cross in our place as a surrogate can be problematic for African American women (or anyone else) trying to make sense of Christ's death as something positive and liberating, since there is nothing positive in the idea of ​​an innocent person forced to die; nor is it liberating. This notion makes surrogacy seem like something sanctified instead of calling it what it is, a structure of oppression. But this fact is not so shocking considering how theologies of atonement reflect the time period, and such notions are in accordance with the prevailing patriarchy of the time that is still present today. If we have to refer to the topic of patriarchal values ​​and their role in theology in the context of black women's surrogacy, I think we can argue how Jesus in a certain sense played the role of "mammy" and, in a certain sense , played the role of a feminist who brought salvation to humanity. If we are to look at it from a discerning feminist perspective, one of the reasons why Black women have been forced to take on the surrogate role of “moms” is because it follows patriarchal guidelines of women's duty to care, take care of the house, clean, do everything that is stereotypically associated with being feminine; a woman's duty. William states how “the forced roles involving black women were in the areas of education, fieldwork and sexuality.” If one is to agree with William's statements that he makes at the end of his essay about Jesus, rather than coming as something like a sacrificial lamb for the sins of man, but instead coming "for life, to show to beings humans a perfect vision of the ministerial relationship that humans had forgotten long ago,” in a sense it can be argued that Jesus in this context challenged patriarchal notions of gender educate and play the role of mother to the children of slave owners. In the hierarchy of power in patriarchy, slave owners are at the top, and mammies were “household slaves with power (but not power).).