The CBE Scroll

Comment by Mindy

December 5, 2006 @ 8:00 pm

Thanks for this thoughtful post, Julia. My earliest association with missions was Africa, too, because of traditional missionaries who visited Sunday School in native dress. The gospel overturns all of our presuppositions about God, ourselves, and others–including gender.

Comment by Fran

December 7, 2006 @ 8:47 pm

There is so much truth in the statement “if I had to put my finger on one overriding issue, it would be gender inequality.” Most men don’t rape because of lust but because of disrespect for women and their sense of power over women. This great tragedy against these young girls is not only a sin, but it keeps them in bondage most if not all of their lives. It makes them feel as if they are unclean and not worthy. Many will feel it is their fault when in reality it was the sin of the man. They’ll always (unless helped) think that they are the property of men and never the equal. Yes, gender equality must be taught.
Fran

Comment by Liz

December 8, 2006 @ 6:35 am

Well said Julia. At times I too am tempted to feel I could be seen as having a “hobby horse” with the issue of equality but you have rightly reminded us that full redemption includes every person being ‘bought back’ to their rightful owner who will restore to original condition.

Comment by Trevor

December 10, 2006 @ 7:45 pm

Thanks for that thoughtful post Julia. I went to post a comment and found that Liz had already done so and she had said exactly what I would have said. So I’ll simply preface it with ‘we feel’ etc. I’m absolutely convinced that we should not apologise that we are seemingly preoccupied with gender equality for the very reason that you have stated in your post. Sexual abuse will not go away without addressing this injustice. To my mind Jesus’ statement about what He came to do, Luke 4:16-21 in fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecy (Isa. 61:1,2), means that we should be unashamedly preaching a full redemption that sees ALL captives set free, including those who are so disadvantaged and abused simply because of their gender. We need to see that the, “downtrodden will be freed from their oppressors,” is a GOOD NEWS mandate and not a tacked on optional extra.

Comment by Lori

December 13, 2006 @ 10:46 am

I have recently finished reading a very remarkable book, Cut Flowers by Sandy Wilcox. It deals with Female Genital Mutilation, which is also a form of sexual abuse perpetrated against young girls in Africa. The author says that FGM is a cultural practice, performed on a girl usually when she reaches puberty, as a sort of “rite of passage.” What was really disheartening was reading how the authors talked to many Christians in Africa, and most of them had no problem with FGM. In fact, these Christian parents talked about how they prouldy had it done to their daughters, considering it a form of circumcision, and thus almost as holy in God’s eyes. How in the world can you fight such injustice when the lies of Satan have even permeated the Church to this extent?

What really jumped out at me, though, was the attitude behind the ritual. Wilcox describes the primary cultural attitudes behind FGM:

1. A woman will be brimming with unbridled lust unless she has this operation done to her. Therefore, FGM is necessary to make sure girls remain a virgin until marriage, and that women stay faithful after marriage.

2. A woman will be too bossy and controlling without FGM. She will want to dominate her marriage and boss her husband around. Therefore, she must be rendered passive so that she will quietly submit to her husband.

Where have you heard these sentiments before, especially number 2? How about Wayne Grudem’s book Evangelical Feminism and Bibilical Truth? In his description of egalitarian couples, he says they are characterized by:

mutual submission, often husband as wimp, and wife as usurper

men become unmasculine, unattractive to women,

women become unfeminine and unattractive to men

ambivalent towards sex

moving contrary to nature

So there you go. The old patriarchal stereotype that women who refuse to remain passive and silent must be the opposite, bossy and dominating. They have “stepped out of their role” and are therefore “contrary to nature.” This means that the women must be disciplined and made “more feminine”. In the complementarian belief system, the husband must reasssert his leadership and authority. In the more extreme patriarchal systems, the woman must be physically punished through practices such as FGM or “domestic discipline” (which we have already discussed in another thread here). Regardless of how mild or severe the system is, though, the same belief undergirds it: that women must be controlled or they will become too threatening. How can the American church have any significant impact in the rest of the world when they share the same belief system? And why oh why can’t more people see how unbiblical and ungodly this type of thinking is towards both women and men?

Comment by Lori

December 13, 2006 @ 12:37 pm

I’m sorry. I forgot to give a link to that quote from Grudem’s book. Here it is.

Better Bible Blog>

And the emphasis in that quote was my own.

Comment by Brandon

December 13, 2006 @ 3:43 pm

Thank you for this reminder Julia. I live my days in relative safety. I can’t imagine having to face those kinds of trials, as they do in Africa, every hour of every day.

Liz and Trevor also hit the nail on the head. Sin disturbs equality, but the gospel is inherently about equality and restoring creation. Christ took on our sins and God looks upon all of us, male and female, with Christ’s righteousness. To be less enthusiastic about equality, is to miss the point of the gospel.

Comment by Craighton

December 14, 2006 @ 10:48 am

I write to you today from Africa. My wife and I are spending a month in Kenya in short term mission work where our skills and gifts are being put to good use. We are at a mission hospital compound where the staff sees more serious pathology in the space of a week than they’d see in years in the states.

We heard a story here of a woman who came in whose husband had rammed a red-hot poker up her for having slept with another man. This and other stories such as told in the book Lori just read make us all wince and cry out for justice, because after all, we are all embodied people, we all inhabit bodies that hurt and we identify and cry out for justice. But it also reminds me that CS Lewis emphasized that the sins of the flesh were less than the sins of the spirit. While taking nothing away from the horror we feel when we see bodies tortured or abused, I also wonder what it will be like in heaven when we can see and understand much more what a true spiritual life can be like and get more of an understanding just how much sins of the spirit can do serious damage to people’s souls and spirits, results that can last an eternity. How many women have been turned away from the faith because of the spiritually shabby ways they have been treated by Christians?

Comment by Jon Trott

January 18, 2007 @ 11:46 am

First, I loved Lori’s use of Grudem in conjunction with genital mutilation. A book could be written…

Second, Julia’s article reminded me of the Southern Baptists’ decision to pull women away from much of the mission field. I imagined in my mind an African woman, after being raped, looking into the face of a missionary inculcated with the hierarchical submission virus… and got a bit queasy at the mind-picture it painted.

Sigh.

Comment by eebbaa fayyisaa

August 9, 2007 @ 2:54 am

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, peace be with you. We are the Voice of Truth Spiritual Ministry and are legally registered and working here in Ethiopia, especially focusing on Muslim evangelism. We have two day programs, which we broadcast for Muslims in the Afan Oromo language, which is spoken by 40% of the population. We are also praying to add two more programs in the coming two or three months. And, we are also praying to start Bible correspondence courses.

Please, dear friends, would you mind if we asked you to join us in prayer and support as partners with this kingdom work of God? Be blessed!