The CBE Scroll

I would like to point out an article in The Weekly Standard by Christina Hoff Sommers, in the May 21, 2007 issue, called “The Subjection of Islamic Women and the Fecklessness of American Feminism.” The first paragraph reads as follows:

“The subjection of women in Muslim societies–especially in Arab nations and in Iran–is today very much in the public eye. Accounts of lashings, stonings, and honor killings are regularly in the news, and searing memoirs by Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Azar Nafisi have become major best-sellers. One might expect that by now American feminist groups would be organizing protests against such glaring injustices, joining forces with the valiant Muslim women who are working to change their societies. This is not happening.”

She goes on a couple of paragraphs down: “The condition of Muslim women may be the most pressing women’s issue of our age, but for many contemporary American feminists it is not a high priority. Why not? The reasons are rooted in the worldview of the women who shape the concerns and activities of contemporary American feminism. That worldview is–by tendency and sometimes emphatically–antagonistic toward the United States, agnostic about marriage and family, hostile to traditional religion, and wary of femininity. The contrast with Islamic feminism could hardly be greater.”

Sommers then follows with example after example of the skewed priorities of American (secular) feminism and takes them to task for their moral short sightedness. She sites Katha Pollitt, a columnist at the Nation, for example, who draws a “common thread of misogyny” between Christian Evangelicals and the Taliban, and journalist Barbara Ehrenreich, who characterizes Christian evangelical movements (that’s us!) as “Christian Wahhabism,” i.e., the name of the sect that is the inspiration for Osama bin Laden. These radical feminist philosophies “collapse moral categories in ways that defy logic, common sense, and basic decency,” such as casually placing “limiting young people’s access to accurate information about sex and opposing abortion [in the U.S.] on the same plane as throwing acid in women’s faces and stoning them to death” [in third world countries]. Likewise they seem to be “incapable of distinguishing between private American groups that stigmatize gays and foreign governments that hang them.”

It may be that some of these feminists are tied up in knots by multiculturalism, she says, and find it difficult to pass judgment on non-Western cultures. Maybe they find it easier to find fault with American society for minor inequities than criticizing heinous practices elsewhere. To her credit, Sommers does mention some activity in the secular feminist movement, such as Eleanor Smeal and Mavis Leno’s efforts with the Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF) to create a national campaign in 1997 to expose the crimes of the Taliban.

Fortunately, Muslim women are creating their own growing movement to address their plight. “Islamic feminists,” says Sommers, “believe that women’s rights are compatible with Islam rightly understood. One of their central projects is progressive religious reform. Through careful translation and interpretation of the Koran and other sacred texts, scholars challenge interpretations that have been used to justify sexist customs. They point out that forced veiling, arranged marriages, and genital cutting are rooted in tribal paganism and are nowhere enjoined by the Koran. Where the Koran explicitly permits a practice such as the physical chastisement of wives by husbands, the feminist exegetes try to show that, like slavery, the practice is anachronistic and incompatible with the true spirit of the faith. This kind of interpretation of scripture has been practiced by Jewish, Christian, and Islamic scholars for centuries. Now Islamic women want to play a part in it, and nothing in Islamic law, they believe, prohibits their doing so.”

I don’t know how much of this slanted piece I believe, but it does appear that Islamic feminism differs radically from its best known contemporary American secular counterpart — having instead a faith-based, family-centered and positive-towards-men approach. Too bad that the CBE version of gender equality isn’t better known, or Sommers might have seen some hope in America.

I appreciate CBE’s international scope and was happy to see the most recent issue of Priscilla Papers highlights gender justice worldwide. The moral need and imperative to engage Muslims can’t be emphasized enough. Does anyone else see an opportunity for Christian egalitarians to dialog with and help our Muslim sisters? Although the details may be different, we speak the same type of religious language and have similar approaches. Perhaps some CBE members have already involved themselves in such projects. If so, why aren’t they better known? Maybe if [more/bigger/more impressive] joint projects could be undertaken, perhaps both our respective patriarchal societies could be helped.

Last Sunday I met James Anderson, the African-American father who in 1963 won his lawsuit against the city of Birmingham, Alabama to enroll his children in the local all-white high school (if you’re younger than me–32–you may need a reminder that this was well after Brown v. Board of Education made desegregation a federal law). He is a lovely man, smiling graciously over the white carnation in his buttonhole even as he remembers the “hell that was Birmin’ham in those days.” He quotes Dr. King in his southern drawl and proudly shows off pictures of his children, all college graduates working in various professions across the country.

Mr. Anderson is a docent at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. In the short time Brandon and I have been in this area, several locals have strongly recommended a trip to the museum, and since this is our last week in Alabama (for now), we made a point to get there over the weekend. The impressive historical collection is housed across the street from the 16th Street Baptist Church, the infamous site of the 1963 hate bombing that killed four little African-American girls during their Sunday school lesson.

The exhibits are artfully arranged, from the “barriers gallery” where visitors stand before segregated water fountains and stacks of textbooks that tangibly demonstrate the disproportionate ratio of educational resources for black and white students; to the “confrontation gallery” where visitors encounter recordings of black and white men and women saying things sadly common behind closed doors but rightfully shocking when made in public; to the “movement gallery” that utilizes a torched bus, the jail cell door behind which Martin Luther King wrote his famous letter, and various video presentations to bring to life the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Freedom March.

One of the most striking photos is of a wrinkled black woman grinning toothlessly as she signs her voter registration card. After spending at least 60 years as an American citizen with no voice in her government or way of life, the joy on her face is really compelling.

Throughout the museum are reminders that it was Christians (black and white, ordained ministers and lay people) who took the lead in seeking justice for black Americans, especially through the founding of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights.

If you are in the Birmingham area or planning to pass nearby on a summer vacation, I encourage you to include the Civil Rights Institute in your plans. Prepare to be offended, no matter your ethnic background. But you will also be encouraged by the works of reconciliation God has already brought about through his people—and praise him if you are moved to carry on that work in any large or small way as you go about your business. It made me grateful that I was born on Martin Luther King’s birthday, and I pledge to pray for civil justice every year as I celebrate the gift of my own life.

Other cultures have a lot to teach us all, but what we often learn is that “they” are “us.” In Ireland, Trocáire, the official overseas development agency of the Catholic Church, runs an annual Lenten ad campaign, which asks for more than just alms: it asks for contributions for movements that seek justice. To get the word out, they use public TV information spots, poster campaigns and public information brochures. Previous campaigns sought to bring attention to apartheid in South Africa, the liberation of child soldiers, and the plight of slave laborers around the world, all of which were supported by the Irish government (the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland [BCI]) and the church.

But this year’s campaign was just too much, and the BCI decreed that it must be removed from its commercial airwaves because it was too “political.” Hmm.

The campaign advertisement this year, according to the National Catholic Reporter, “features an unending grid of diapered babies, black and white, all infants, all charming and bright-eyed and lively. Finally the voice-over says, ‘ These children will have less education, live in more poverty, contract more disease, suffer more violence, face more disadvantage than if they had malaria or HIV. They will never even be given a chance. Why? Because they’re female.’ ”

Gender equality is too political. Apartheid, child soldiers and slave laborers are not. Why? Could it be just too close to home?

This post was written by Arbutus Sider, a CBE board member who attended the recent CBE conference in India.

The trip took me and a dozen others from the US to Bangalore, a city in South India for a conference called “SIDE by SIDE—Gender from a Christian Perspective: Men and Women Dependent on Each Other (I Corinthians 11:11).” I was one of two board members who, along with three staff members, represented one of the sponsoring organizations, “Christians for Biblical Equality (CBE).” The other sponsoring organizations were all from India: “Pilgrim Partners,” “South Asia Institute of Advanced Christian Studies” (SAIACS) and “Union of Evangelical Students of India” (UESI). CBE has in recent years begun working with several international groups. We recognize that gender justice is a global issue, linked to other justice issues. We want to stand with and work side by side with our Christian brothers and sisters around the world.

A few stories about the trip will give you a glimpse of how inspiring an experience it was for me. A few days before the conference began we took a walking tour of some church-related ministries within a mile of the lovely, modern “Ecumenical Christian Centre” where the conference was held. One was a hospice facility for AIDS patients that also included a facility for children with HIV and AIDS. The children’s home was generally cheerful with walls brightly painted with images of children, animals and cartoon characters. The children were getting combed and dressed in their Sunday best for the evening festivities—a group from the church they attended on Sundays was coming for a regular weekly evening gathering. A warm family atmosphere prevailed. I was grateful to hear that better medications are increasing the life span of children in the home who have AIDS. It was also encouraging to see that a poster in the adult facility honestly addressed the fact that many women have contracted the AIDS virus simply by being faithful to their infected husbands. Throughout my time in India I was repeatedly encouraged to see that broader justice issues were being faced and addressed.

Faced and addressed does not always mean solved. As we walked the half mile stretch from the Center we were greeted by a smoky haze in the air that at its worst led to coughing and stinging eyes. Many in the area have developed lung and asthma problems. The pollution, we discovered, results from the use of nearby empty gravel pits and dry river basins as dumping grounds for city garbage which is then burned. Clearly it is a problem that affects many and needs to be addressed at a structural level. Our guide, Dr. Beulah Wood from SAIACS, explained that they have been working with local leaders and talking to city officials responsible for the problem with little success up to this point. Structural problems, because they are more institutionalized, are hard to change.

Two days before the beginning of the conference a dozen of us turned into more typical tourists traveling a few hours southwest to the ancient town of Mysore with its beautiful palace lit up at night with tens of thousands of lights. There we also snapped pictures, visited shops and bargained with street venders. My favorite spot was the game park where we bumped along the dusty trail on a jeep that, with top down allowed us to stand up, feel the breeze in our hair and sing at the top of our lungs. Elephants, monkeys and a wide variety of birds caught our attention as we ambled through their terrain.

An unexpected educational experience took place on our way back to Bangalore. We had been warned that water strikes might affect our driving since a particular community group was unhappy with a recent decision on how water from a local river had been divided between two affected groups. The strikers drew attention to their plight by stopping traffic on the main road that we needed to take to get “home.” The longest stop we were subjected to was one in which about one hundred school children were sitting on the divided highway, stopping traffic in both directions. These children, we were told, were probably being paid by the adult strike organizers since they no longer had enough adults to do the job. The children seemed to have a good time. Who wouldn’t prefer such an adventure to sitting in a boring classroom! They were all being fed a meal of rice by the time we got off our bus to see exactly what was happening at the front of the traffic jam. Was I afraid, someone asked? It was very helpful to have a bus driver and our guide, Dr Wood, to interpret what we were experiencing. What was also reassuring for me was that the strikes were regulated so that after about half an hour a group of police would arrive and remind the strikers that the time allotted was over and they needed to disperse. The other reassuring thing was the fact that, although the police had on helmets and wielded sticks, I did not see one gun.

Finally, to the Conference! From Thursday afternoon through Sunday noon we listened to speakers and participated in workshops led by women and men from India, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Korea, Australia, the UK and the US. When it was over I felt I had completed a seminary courses that crams a whole semester’s work into one week, except instead of listening to only one professor, I had listened to visiting professors from around the world.

Rather than trying to do the impossible of summarizing the eight plenary addresses and twelve workshops, let me simply use the example of the Keynote speaker, Richard Howell, the general secretary of the Evangelical Fellowship of India. As a respected leader of the evangelical community in India, his tone of vulnerability and courage in taking a prophetic stance on behalf of women was a breath of fresh air when compared with the frequently cautious stances taken by men in the western evangelical community. Dr. Howell was passionate about the need for change. He affirmed the women God is using all over India to plant churches. Then he proceeded to challenge male leaders in the Indian Christian community to relinquish their oppressive class, caste and status oriented styles of leadership, and to adopt instead the sacrificial, servant style modeled and taught by our Lord Jesus.

Also encouraging was the freedom allowed for debate and dissent. Divergent opinions of the biblical texts were freely offered. Nor did the conference shy away from discussion of some of the most prominent cultural evils that women still face in India—female infanticide, dowry practices, bride burning, spousal abuse and Devadasi (temple prostitute) children.

From the Philippines, Melba Maggay’s words gave me the most challenging thoughts about how to affect change. Christianity, she suggested, is not so much “revolutionary” as “subversive;” it leavens history by “softening the ground,” by creating “a new and a right spirit.” Christianity builds consensus among stakeholders in such a way that it gradually transforms prevailing norms within structures and cultures. That, I decided, was the goal of the conference.

A new way to think about the style of Jesus—the Subversive Jesus! No, Jesus did not have women disciples among the inner circle of twelve; nor did he directly challenge the practice of slavery. However, he did what he could in his social context. He softened the ground; his teachings produced a new and right spirit. His subversive style prepared the way for a new community to emerge, which soon developed the reputation of turning the world upside down.

I grew up a perfectionist, the oldest child in a middle class family. When report cards came out, I was upset for days if I got an A-. I wanted to do well at everything I did, and put in the extra work to make sure that happened.

By the Holy Spirit’s empowering presence, I found great strength in my faith. But I always felt like I wasn’t trying hard enough to submit myself to the perfect Christian woman model I thought I should fit. I wanted so badly to be what God created me to be, but I felt too strong, too outspoken, too overwhelming.

Unfortunately, my answer to this supposed discrepancy between my faith and my gender was to work even harder to “fit the mold.” This was not just spiritual; it shifted into the physical. I became addicted to exercise and cut out every “excessive” morsel in my diet. I thought if I could make my body submit, perhaps my “rebellious” spirit would as well. Finally, I would be the woman God wanted me to be.

But I was just becoming the woman popular culture wanted me to be: clothes hanging loosely, bones protruding, face pale and gaunt. I looked like a child, not a woman. For nearly five years, I battled with myself, sometimes realizing this wasn’t the way I was meant to be, and sometimes succumbing to the driving pulse of what I thought God demanded of me.

After a two-week stay in the hospital, I woke up. I wanted to heal. And faith, for me, was the one place I began to find rest. Through intensive study of scripture and prayer, I realized God did not demand compliance with this false definition of “woman”; God simply invited me to use my gifts as they were given. It was encountering this God of radical grace that overthrew the false god I had set up, a god that demanded conformity to a certain way of being. God’s grace carried me through many of my own faults and into a new way of being.

It takes time to reconnect body and spirit. The body has been starved for so long that once the person begins eating regularly, the metabolism kicks into high gear, eager to use this new substance called food. But while my body was still relearning to work normally, I was in counseling, learning about this person God had created me to be. This was a time of healing, and I believe less people relapse because of this process-oriented approach.

Fast-forward three years. The symptoms of the eating disorder (ED) are long gone and I haven’t seen a counselor for nearly 18 months. Anorexia is not a persistent thought anymore; I’m too busy exercising the gifts God has given me! Imagine my surprise, then, when I open a letter from the health insurance company: “Due to your history of anorexia in the last five years, we are not able to approve you for service . . .” WHAT?!?

Certainly, relapse occurs in a small percentage of people with eating disorders. But I was being punished for seeking out help. If I had never been treated, never seen a counselor, I would have health insurance today. Eating disorders aren’t treated as many other mental illnesses–which have only a two year waiting period before suffers can seek insurance independently–even though illnesses like depression and anxiety often manifest themselves in the physical body. And the treatment for ED’s are not often more expensive: counseling, some nutritional work, check-ups, an occasional prescription. I am left to wonder if this injustice is partially due to the gender of most of those who suffer. While men do make up 10% of ED cases, it is women who represent 9 out of 10 patients.

I am not alone. Since being denied insurance, I have found others who faced similar injustices. Thankfully, advocates are forming groups to address these issues. The Anna Westin Foundation , created by parents of a young woman who died after her insurance company said her treatments were “not necessary,” has devoted an entire section of its website to information about insurance coverage. Along with the Eating Disorders Coalition of Wasington, D.C. , the Foundation lobbies for greater federal acknowledgement of and action toward just eating disorder treatment legislation. Christian organizations like Breaking Up With Ed and Remuda Ranch offer Christ-centered approaches to healing from eating disorders. There is great promise that situations are improving, but many more people who suffer from eating disorders—and the after effects of their recovery—remain unable to access the basic services they need.

The injustice I have experienced in the health system is a Christian issue. It involves body image, healing, and how we as a community respond to those who are suffering. Whether we write letters to our lawmakers, invite speakers to our youth groups, or offer a listening ear to a struggling friend, I pray that, as people who follow Jesus, we can be part of this ministry of healing and reconciliation (2 Cor 5:16-20).