User:3family6/Leah Boyd

Leah Ann Boyd is an American music minister and teacher, pageant contestant, and social media personality from Madison, Alabama. Boyd became an internet celebrity in 2020 after her pseudonymous, and initially anonymous, Twitter account, Sassy Seminary Student, rapidly gained popularity for its satire and humor. She holds a bachelor in music education from Mississippi State University and is currently enrolled at Baylor University for a Master of Music and Baylor's George W. Truett Theological Seminary for a Master of Divinity. Her internet fame has been praised for adding humor to tense online debate, making connections across theological divides, and providing an example of how contemporary female seminarians can make spaces for themselves in a conservative Christian environment that is prejudiced against, and institutionally restrictive of, women. She won the 2020 Miss Mississippi State University competition and finished in the Top 10 of the 2019 and 2021 Miss Mississippi competitions.

Education and work
Boyd's parents relocated to Madison, Alabama, because of the quality of its school system. Boyd's pursuit of music began during middle school, when in 7th grade she joined a choir and in 8th grade when she performed in a school musical. She then went to school at Bob Jones High School in Madison, Alabama, and in 2015 she was selected as alternate for Most Outstanding Female Choir Student in her school district. She was a member of the All State Chorus, Tri-M Music Honor Society, and National Honor Society, and received both local and state-wide awards for piano. She also studied jazz and tap dance.

In 2016, she enrolled at Mississippi State University and graduated in 2020 with a Bachelor of Music Education, concentrating in voice and piano. Boyd had originally aspired to become a professional opera singer, but her interests also included church music and she sought to bring more attention to the theology of church songs. She found work as a music minister at First Baptist Church in Valley Mills, Texas, and enrolled at Baylor University and Truett Theological Seminary in Waco, Texas, to pursue a double degree of a Master of Music in church music and a Master of Divinity. Her scholarship has included research on the Dutch Reformed theologians Herman Bavinck and Abraham Kuyper, the role of hymnody in shaping the spirituality of a community, and whether or not drums should be used by a church congregation. She also works as a music teacher.

Humorous Twitter account
In February 2020, Boyd launched an anonymous Twitter account called "Sassy Seminary Student" (later re-named "studying seminary student") with the intention of bringing humor to online debates. According to Boyd, "Christian Twitter can be very bitter and angry, and so I try to make things humorous, though there might be a larger point I’m trying to make as well." Through the account, she reflected on and satirized theology, evangelical culture, gender dynamics, politics, and contemporary worship. Boyd states that "Christians are not always known for doing humor very well or criticizing our own. I try to keep it pretty general and (criticize) in a way that’s not spiteful or malicious." She notes that the limited character count makes it difficult to have nuanced conversation and real theological discussion. Still, she manages to reference her theological studies or comment on Southern Baptist church structure and doctrine. After only a few months of activity from the account, a friend recognized Boyd as the owner of the account and Boyd subsequently made her real name public on the account. By June 11, 2021, Boyd's account garnered about 17,000 followers. By April 9 the next year, her account had 27,700 followers.

Kaitlyn Schiess, who profiled Boyd in Christianity Today, the historian Beth Allison Barr, and the author Hannah Anderson held up Boyd as an example of how contemporary female theology scholars will find methods of making themselves heard despite sexism and the institutional restrictions on female roles in conservative Christianity. The pastor and author Eric Schumacher praised Boyd for making personal connections across theological debates which frequently depersonalize online participants. Anderson and Barr, along with the comedy writer Ben Fort, have also praised Boyd for interjecting humor into online theological debates, which are otherwise frequently tense and angry. Conversely, some women have criticized Boyd for not taking the problems within conservative Christianity seriously enough. Fort noted that Christians are generally uncomfortable invoking humor to address serious topics, and opined that Boyd's jokes express a hope that the mistreatment of women will be undone. Boyd and Anderson likewise opined that Christians often are uncomfortable using humor. Anderson added that because women struggle to be taken seriously in ministry, they have avoided humor, but Boyd might indicate a change in conservative Christianity. Boyd's belief in complementarianism, that is, that men and women have different but complementary roles and that only men can qualify to preach from the pulpit or be a pastor, has been criticized from some ministers and friends from other denominations. She lightheartedly says “My theology is too conservative for some, and for others I’m in rebellion of God’s created order.” While Boyd says she has not encountered sexism or "weirdness around women" at Baylor, she has encountered a lot of it online, particularly from fellow members of the Southern Baptist Convention to which she belongs. Her self-labeling as "sassy seminarian" is also too flippant for some of her critics. One pastor tweeted that sassiness is not a desirable quality in a wife, which resulted in numerous tweets, both supportive and critical, about Boyd and her account. Boyd considers most of the criticisms she has encountered from men to be "tone policing", as the objections are over women criticizing male church and denominational leaders or doing it in a manner her critics do not appreciate. Often the criticism is nasty and personal, regarding which Boyd remarks "Why do they have so much vitriol against a woman they don’t believe? It says a lot on how they control women." On June 7, 2021, in the midst of debate over sexual abuse allegations within the Southern Baptist Convention, Boyd shared that she also was a victim of rape. She hoped that sharing her story would support other sexual abuse survivors within the denomination as well as highlight the prevalence of such abuse in the church and the failure of church leaders to seek justice for these survivors. After the 2021 annual meeting in mid-June, in which the more moderate wing of the SBC fended off what The Economist described as a "right-wing insurgency", The Economist wrote that the victory of the moderates might help halt the decline in SBC membership, especially of young people, which is fueled in part by the denomination's approach to social issues. Boyd commented to the magazine that "either the Southern Baptist Convention rectifies the ways that it has hurt people.. .or I think that more young people like myself will find new avenues to pursue ministry and denominational affiliations. They told us to read our Bibles and so we did and then we all became... very social justice-minded."

Pageant competitions
In 2018, Boyd competed for Miss Mississippi State University 2019 and finished 3rd runner-up. She competed once again in 2019 for Miss Mississippi State University 2020, this time winning the competition. She then competed as Miss Greenville in the preliminaries for 2019 Miss Mississippi, in which she finished in the Top 10. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 Miss Mississippi competition was postponed. For the 2021 competition, many 2019 competitors retained their titles, including Boyd with her Miss Mississippi State University 2020 title. She finished the 2021 Miss Mississippi competition in the Top 10.