Glimpsing Eve by Emily Nielsen Jones

Glimpsing Eve

But you have forgotten the Rock that begot you, the God who gave you birth. 

Deuteronomy 32:3,4,18.

Mother of the Living חַוָּה

In my work doing "gender-lens" philanthropy, I have traveled around the globe, and have traveled too within the female psyche, my own and others who have let me in.  The Imago Dei Fund, a relatively new foundation that exists to “protect and preserve the imago dei (Latin for "divine image") where it is most threatened and vulnerable.  A rather lofty vision, we have let our hearts take the lead in discerning macro-movements of God in our world and have found ourselves drawn to work toward the eradication of human trafficking and gender-based violence, both very entrenched yet often invisible problems wreaking havoc on the human family.

As my global gender awareness continues to expand and grow, what I see in the mirror of our world is a wounded but beautiful face looking back at me.  Her name is Eve.

Who is Eve?  Not the literal, historical character some of us learned about in Sunday school, but rather who She represents in a universal, archetypal human sense: the "Mother of the Living", the feminine face of God in our world, the collective embodiment of womankind as image-bearers of God.  Who is Eve?  I am Eve.  My daughter is Eve.  My sisters, my mother, aunts, girlfriends, female colleagues, sisters around the world, each a unique face of Eve in the world, each way more interesting than the "role" churches still teach us we should be and the body images sold to us by the media.

Eve... a female-shaped diamond with many facets... She that cannot be defined by anyone or anything externally... She knows her beauty & strength and offers it graciously to the world, even when it is undervalued & diminished...

God spoke: "Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature so they can be responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the cattle, and, yes, Earth itself, and every animal that moves on the face of Earth." God created human beings; God created them godlike, Reflecting God's nature. God created them male and female. Gen 1:26-28

As we have engaged in grant-making, we have decided to incorporate a "gender-lens" into all our philanthropy:  How can we do our part to continue the unfinished quest for human equality between the genders?  How can we help to create a world in which Adam and Eve--the Masculine and the Feminine--live, love and work side-by-side as full equals?   With this heightened gender awareness, I see two faces of Eve in the women today:

Eve diminished: "submissive", victimized, "lesser than", in her place at the margins of church and organizations, Eve hidden by a veil of shame and inferiority, Eve as scape goat and whipping girl at the hands of male pride and presumption.  I see this wounded face of Eve in the subtle wounds of women raised in the church, which continues to lag behind the rest of society in working toward gender equity, and in the more egregious wounds of girls and women around the world who are victims of gender-based violence. Women have come along way but still suffer a scale of the physical, sexual and psychological violence worldwide that is mind-numbing, a pandemic humanitarian crisis that crosses every social and economic class, every religion, race and ethnicity.

-                   In some countries, up to one third of adolescent girls report that their first sexual experience was forced. (World Health Organization)

-                     At least one out of every three women in the world has been raped, beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise violently abused in her lifetime. (UN Development Fund for Women)

-                     An estimated one in five women will be a victim of rape or attempted rape in her lifetime. (UN. Millennium Project)

Whether subtle or extreme, when one's "presumption of equality" (Sue Monk Kidd in The Dance of the Dissident Daughter) is violated, particularly early in one's development, it can leave scars.  Words hurt.  Religious words and ideas carry particular ontological weight, i.e. they either elevate the human spirit and open it to greater creativity, wisdom and insight, or when they are used to assign differential degrees of value, worth, or place in society, they (religious ideas) can be dangerous and damaging to the soul/psyche which is wounded by any form of human diminishment. Whether from the culture or from religion, Eve carries painful wounds in her body and in her inner being, but she is resilient and strong.  The other face of Eve...

Eve rising up:  strong, empowered, self-actualized, very human and very female, in her full power and glory—God-like—a feminine face of God in our world, a passionate lover, a fierce protector, a compassionate pillar holding up more than "half the sky", inspiring leader, creator, a healing presence in our world.  Eve no longer accepting an inferior place in society, defined by men, Eve rising up to take her full place in creating a better world where all human beings can live and flourish side-by-side. In many ways, as Eve rises up, all of humanity is elevated to a more civil, higher way of being, one in which power is not power over another, but power with, power to give and receive and offer one’s gifts to the world.  Some of the most interesting, capable social activists that I have met this past year are women, women who are working in their sweet spot, living out their calling in the world, empowered by their imago dei to give power and dignity to others and to work toward the betterment of humanity, woman who mirror to me the feminine heart of God, the face of Eve, the Mother of the Living.

Today NGO's are increasingly looking to women around the globe to lead and strengthen their communities.  In development circles, female-focused philanthropy is in vogue.  Girls and women are increasingly being looked to as a lynchpin of social change to start businesses, promote public health, improve child welfare, foster community development, stop the spread of AIDS, and eradicate a whole host of social ills.  In 2001 the World Bank issued a study (Engendering Development Through Gender Equality In Rights, Resources, and Voice) of this recent trend of female-focused philanthropy that concluded that “Women’s empowerment helps raise economic productivity and reduce infant mortality.  It contributes to improved health and nutrition.  It increases the chances of education for the next generation.”    In the "female effect", as its been called, Eve is rising up out of dehumanizing conditions to restore and heal our world.  

 “Study after study has taught us that there is no tool more effective for development than the empowerment of women.”                                                                                                  

~ UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan

“Women are the key to ending hunger in Africa”  

~ the Hunger Project

 “Progress is achieved through women” 

~ Dr. Richard Heinzl, Founder of  Doctors without Borders

In my work walking beside & supporting female change agents around the world, I have felt my own Eve-like heart expanding in empathy and love for women around the globe who are no different than me or my mother or my daughter.  We all deep down want to know that we are God-like, that we have a unique purpose in this world, that we are free to chart our own course.  This is the essence of what it means to be human.  Belief systems which assign and limit women to "roles" create a gender-tiered society which aids and abets the violent, lower tendencies of men to seek domination over women rather than the partnership and mutuality for which we were created.  Regardless of what religious tradition it is, whether Buddhist, Muslim, Jewish or Christian, the language of religious-based gender hierarchy sounds pretty much the same:  women be “quiet” and “submissive” and accept limited roles within the family, the church, and in society.  When Christians export this mode of thinking around the world, it becomes one more rationale for keeping women in a subordinate role in society, doing most of the work but not ever “owning” their own work and finding their own path in life. 

Unresolved questions that linger in my mind in this work of creating a more gender-balanced world:  How can we promote change around the world not only to "rescue" and empower individual women one-by-one but also to change the thought patterns that have created such a violent world where girls and women are still so vulnerable to such pervasive, shocking abuse.  It is a sad reality that there continues to be a religious root to the subjugation of women around the world.  Adam and Eve were not meant to live like this. We can do better than this.  As a species, we are ready to move to the next level of our development and move beyond power-based hierarchies in all their forms.

(image of Adam & Eve & the Tree of Life from the door of a chapel at the Community of Jesus in Orleans, MA)

I am encouraged to see evangelical Christians working to promote gender equality within our tradition and in our world today, but am deeply saddened and troubled that many Christians today still seem beholden to hierarchical notions of gender so at odds with the human soul's wired-in desire for freedom and equality.  God is on the side of human equality. There is something intrinsically true about human equality that all of our highest ideals as human beings point to.  Both men and women carry a “lost Eden” in our hearts.  Regardless of her external conditions, whether she hails from a remote village in Africa or from New York City, deep down Eve knows and believes in her own dignity and equality.  Eve today is strong and resilient.  She is tired of patriarchy in all its forms, whether from a human trafficker, an abusive husband, or from a preacher or missionary carrying a big Bible.  Eve continues to love men.  She can't get around the fact that she carries his rib inside of her. She is looking for Adam not so much to rescue her, but rather to stand with her side-by-side in empathy and human solidarity to create a world more in keeping with Eden.  Eve is standing her ground, holding up way more than "half the sky" with dignity and grace, rising up to heal and restore our beautiful but hurting world.

As we seek together to create a better world, let us all draw strength and grace from Eve, the Mother of All Living, who gives birth to all things and gently restores creation, with our help, back to it's imago dei.

shalom, Emily

The Elephant in the Sanctuary: Abuse & the Church by Mimi Haddad

Dr. Mimi Haddad is president of Christians for Biblical Equality. She is a graduate of the University of Colorado and Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary (summa cum laude). She holds a Ph.D. in historical theology from the University of Durham, England. Mimi is part of the leadership of Evangelicals for Justice. She is a founding member of the Evangelicals and Gender Study Group at the Evangelical Theological Society, and she served as the convener of the Issue Group 24 for the 2004 Lausanne III Committee for World Evangelization. She has written more than one hundred articles and blogs and has contributed to nine books, most recently Living Faith: The Fragrance of Christ, published by the Evangelical Fellowship of India and the Evangelical Fellowship of India Commission on Relief, 2011. She is also an editor and a contributing author of Global Voices on Biblical Equality: Women and Men Serving Together in the Church. Mimi is also an adjunct assistant professor at Fuller Theological Seminary (Houston), an adjunct assistant professor at Bethel University (Saint Paul, MN), and an adjunct professor at North Park Theological Seminary (Chicago, Illinois).  http://www.cbeinternational.org/files/u1/Ideas_Have_Consequences.pdf
We begin our celebrations of Women's History Month with a sober realization that the abuse of females is inseparable from the lives of women and their histories. Gender-violence is also part of the history of Christians for Biblical Equality. Incorporated as a nonprofit in 1988, to advance the biblical basis for the shared leadership of males and females, within months we began hearing from abused women.

From the very beginning CBE has endeavored to understand why so many Christian women have encountered abuse, and how the church might become agents of healing and reconciliation. Catherine Clark Kroeger, CBE founder and president emerita, vigorously addressed the challenge of abuse which she encountered early on. As president of CBE, Cathie directed a significant portion of CBE's energies to this challenge. In 1994, CBE held a conference themed "Women, Abuse, and the Bible." We were overwhelmed by the number of people who attended this event, and who had experienced abuse in a Christian marriage, family, or church. Within several years of this conference, we had enough material to publish three separate volumes on abuse, gender, and faith. Ultimately, when Catherine Kroeger retired as the first president of CBE, she went on to become founder and president of Peace and Safety in the Christian Home (PASCH), a nonprofit organization devoted to address domestic violence and abuse.

While CBE was established largely by academics to explore the biblical, theological, and historical material on gender, we were inevitably faced with the challenge of addressing abuse as well, simply by sheer numbers of individuals who called upon us for help. Had we been more alert, the prominence of abuse in culture would not have caught us unaware. Certainly this is the point James Gilligan, a professor of medicine at Harvard, makes in his very helpful book entitled Violence: Reflections on a National Epidemic. The prevalence of abuse is likewise noted in Jackson Katz's book The Macho Paradox: Why Some Men Hurt Women and How All Men Can Help.

Based on their ten year study interviewing 24,000 individuals, the World Health Organization believes that somewhere between 15%-71% of the world's women report being physically or sexually violated in their lives. Their report also suggests that:

1.        Many women said that their first sexual experience was not consensual. (24% in rural Peru, 28% in Tanzania, 30% in rural Bangladesh, and 40% in South Africa).

2.        Between 4% and 12% of women reported being physically abused during pregnancy.

3.        Every year, worldwide, about 5,000 women are murdered by family members in the name of honor.

4.        Trafficking of women and girls for forced labor and sex is widespread (more widespread than slavery prior to abolition) and often affects the most vulnerable.

5.        Forced marriages and child marriages violate the human rights of women and girls, yet they are widely practiced in many countries in Asia, the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa.

6.        Worldwide, up to 1 in 5 women and 1 in 10 men report experiencing sexual abuse as children. Children subjected to sexual abuse are much more likely to encounter other forms of abuse later in life.

Though groups like the World Health Organization have been assessing the prevalence of abuse for years, Christian churches as a whole are slow to respond to this pervasive problem. For this reason Cathie Kroeger, Nancy Nason Clark, and Barbara Fisher-Townsend published Beyond Abuse in the Christian Home: Raising Voices for Change, to help pastors and churches address abuse. Citing research from interviews with pastors and women parishioners, here is what they found:

Pastors report:

1.        Pastors believe 1 out of every 5 couples in their congregation is violent.

2.        8% feel well-equipped to respond to domestic violence.

3.        9% have counseled 5 or more abused women in the last year.

4.        83% have counseled at least 1 abused woman.

5.        31% have preached 1 sermon on abuse.

6.        40% discuss violence in premarital counseling.

Church women report:

1.        95% have never heard a sermon on abuse.

2.        58% have personally helped an abused woman.

3.        Many Christian women who have been violated by abusive acts do not feel that the term "abused woman" applied to them. So we have a perception problem, as well.

Though abuse is prevalent, we are not necessarily dealing with it, perhaps because we lack the tools. While many pastors are reluctant to discuss abuse in premarital counseling, there are tools used by churches all over the world to help couples prepare for marriage and to assess for the possibility of violence and abuse.

One of the most widely used premarital inventories, the Prepare/Enrich Program, was developed by David Olson, CEO and Founder of Life Innovations. Olson states that he is seeing more and more egalitarian couples in his work in recent years. Fewer women, he says, are willing to be denied decision making, and more men are open to egalitarian marriages because they perceive the benefits of sharing decision making in marriage. Making decisions as a couple reduces stress for men and leads to greater couple satisfaction, according to Olson.

Olson and his colleagues studied 20,951 couples and determined that there are many factors that impact abuse, including financial stress, couple intimacy, support from family and friends, shared religious values, and more. Yet the most significant indicator was partner dominance coupled with spousal avoidance. When one partner is dominant and the other avoidant, there is a significantly higher incidence of abuse. A power imbalance between males and females is a significant contributor to abuse. This may explain why so many abused women, and those who work with them, are drawn to CBE's mission. Thankfully, there are many biblical resources to challenge the abuse of women and girls, including CBE's conference this summer. Will you join us in Pittsburgh, on July 26-28, as we search Scripture and celebrate how God leads us beyond power, domination, and prejudice. Hope to see you in there. Mimi Haddad

"Untying the Knot" of Enslaving Ideas/Practices by Emily Nielsen Jones

Chiming in from NYC at the UN Commission on the Status of Women. Enjoying just being part of this incredible stream of female change agents working around the world...

Lots of cool accents & bright colors!

So many "silos" of impressive programming to learn about: girls schooling, maternal health, anti-trafficking/prostitution, anti-domestic violence, anti-early-marriage, anti-FGM, economic empowerment, women's leadership development, "moving men from bystanders to allies", empowering girls, healthy masculinities, going "upstream", the list goes on and on... at some point all these categories blur together & you find yourself just saying dang it let's just stop all these bad things from happening to our world's girls & women!

So so many worthy efforts to invest in not only financially but as an ally in some form or fashion.  The problem can feel so mammoth it is hard to know where to start.  My two cents is to pick one corner of the movement that "grabs you" to peer into & just start learning...

What rings your bell as you peer out into the world with an engaged gender-lens?

The Liberty Bell, as we have described throughout this blog, is a symbol of the universal human quest for freedom & justice.  Wherever you happen to be in the world, look around you... Every single person you see has this same "liberty bell" inside of them.  Sometimes it gets stifled by life circumstances but, as we have seen in every generation, there is NO ONE whose soul comes into the world willingly embracing a life of enslavement, submission, or being classified as a subordinate, "lesser than" rank of human beings meant to be under the rule (even benevolent) of another benevolent rule.  Certain issues today like human trafficking are such frontal assaults on our collective liberty bells that they are awakening a new call to action to begin the unfinished work of abolitionism. The liberty bell is ringing for many human beings today in repressive conditions around the world, but I submit : ) that it is ringing most loudly today not for a particular minority group but rather for the female half of our global human family which is still struggling to be free of social forces which silence their voices, demand their submission under male authority, keep them out of decision-making roles & commodify their bodies.

What is "ringing my bell" right now is the overlap between two promising global movements: anti-trafficking & anti-early marriage. Both problems have become normalized practices in many places around the world and both involve the sale/transaction of (mostly female) bodies. What is in fact most problematic about both problems (i.e. that they are not just the result of "bad guys" out there but involve parents & families as a central part of the "transaction") is also the key to the power of these movements: addressing & transforming the deeper normalization of the attitudes/practices which make girls bodies into a commodity to sell/rent to a pimp or a an older husband.

Another term for "early marriage" that to me captures vividly the reality of the problem is "enslaving marriage". Many people today have jumped onto the anti-trafficking band-wagon and many are getting engaged around this promising new anti-child marriage movement. Check out this link for an overview of the global Girls Not Brides effort:  www.girlsnotbrides.org
www.girlsnotbrides.org

For most of us, child marriage is a faraway, far-removed reality that may seem irrelevant to other more pressing concerns in our lives.  But if we look closer, is there a thread which ties this to other gender issues closer to home?

One line ringing in my ears from a World Vision forum on early marriage: "Around the world, female oppression is all one big continuum, whatever program "silo" you are working in, whatever country or religious you are in, it all that stems from a low valuation of females."

Hearing this from women working out in the field confirms what I already know from my more removed work doing "gender-lens" philanthropy. My job is to step back from any one particular program or effort and think about the drivers creating the horrific gender mess we are in and the drivers that hold the most potential not just to patch things up but to get the deeper roots creating the problem. With something like early marriage and FGM, things that are a normalized traditional practice, not just run-of-the-mill random-acts-of-violence, you can see very clearly the "enslaving ideas" which underly the "enslaving practice" of selling/transacting female bodies.

 Random outbursts of violence have their own course of treatment, i.e. anger management interventions and the like. On a macro-level the work of elevating the status of women begins with peeling back the layers of the onion to see and address and transform the "enslaving" ideas" which devalue/restrict females which underlie the "enslaving practices" (i.e. trafficking, child marriage, etc) we all seek to combat.

 It is an inescapable reality that Religion has been & is complicit in these enslaving ideas/practices which continue to devalue girls/women.

 It is an inescapable reality thus that Religion must be complicit in the solutions of creating a more safe, just world for girls & women. I pass along this study released today by World Vision on the rise of early marriage in insecure places around the world & efforts to rid our planet of these cruel injustice which robs girls of their childhoods.

http://www.worldvision.ca/About-Us/News-Centre/Documents/Report-UntyingTheKnot.pdf

Toward an Ethos of Mutuality by Tim Krueger

Tim Krueger is on staff at Christians for Biblical Equality, where he serves as the publications coordinator and editor of Mutuality. He graduated from Bethel University (MN), where he studied history and theology. Tim was raised on the mission field, where he developed a fascination with history, language, and culture. He and his wife, Naomi, live in Saint Paul, MN.

New York Times columnist David Brooks spoke at the 2011 Aspen Ideas Festival about the narcissism of American culture in a talk called “The Modesty Manifesto.” Lamenting the loss of humility in American culture, he points out a number of social trends. For instance, our math scores have been steadily declining in relation to the rest of the world. Yet, we are persistent in believing we are the best.

In another striking example, executives in the “computer industry” (not sure what that means, exactly) were given a test that asked questions about their own profession. They were also asked how well they thought they did. They believed they got 95% of the questions correct. In fact, they answered 20% of the questions correctly. We’re performing worse than ever, but we’re more and more confident in our own infallibility.

Brooks also mentions that this tendency exhibits much more strongly in men. That’s why men are also twice as likely to drown (apparently by getting drunk, then going for a swim). Maybe this is just the way men are, and maybe it’s not. That’s a question for another time. For now, let’s just look at some implications. Does this matter for the church? What about for men and women?

Christianity ought to model an alternative to the world’s obsession with self. Yet, the male-only leadership of many churches and Christian homes does the opposite, providing a breeding ground for these very same problems.

Non-religious audiences recognize that Christianity has historically had something healing to say about pride and humility. Indeed, Brooks praises CS Lewis’ thoughts on humility. This has changed in contemporary society, in part because the church has plunged into the same behavior as everyone else. One area this holds true is the insistence by many churches that male-only leadership is God’s ideal.

If there is one lesson to be learned from current social trends, it is that more voices are better than one—or in church terms, a body is better than a single organ. Yet, many churches are led exclusively by one gender, and it’s the gender most vulnerable to (at least some of) these disturbing patterns. And it goes beyond the local church. Seminaries and Christian families are often exclusively male-led. This should not be. Men and women both bring a lot of qualities as leaders. But just like I don’t trust myself to always be right, I don’t trust men alone (or women alone, for that matter) to do what’s right. We need balance.

Brooks states that we used to believe we needed people with different opinions to temper our passions, rein in our extremes, and minimize our follies. Of course, for most of our history, this did not extend across the gender divide, though the Bible clearly indicates that it should. Joint leadership of men and women in the church and home would go a long way toward cultivating an ethos of mutuality in the church and in our culture. Maybe I’m just enamored with my own ideas, but mutual leadership is, I believe, indispensable to a biblical alternative to the prevailing culture of self.

Submit to Serve by Chris Seiple

Chris Seiple, Ph.D., is president of the Institute for Global Engagement (IGE), a research, education, and diplomatic institution that builds sustainable religious freedom worldwide through local partnerships. IGE's newest initiative, Women of Faith for Peace & Security (WFPS) exists to enable women of faith to play a more signficant role in sustainable peace and security.

It is well-understood in development circles that community transformation cannot begin until the girl-child has been educated to at least a fifth-grade level of literacy and understanding. In other words, change only occurs when a mother has the education to understand and seek a better life for her kids.[i] (Obviously, men are also capable of such conclusions, but they are historically less likely to come to let alone implement them.) More unfortunate, it is also a well-established fact that religion has played, and continues to play, a role in preventing women from becoming educated, while, worse, encouraging inequality and a sense of inferiority.
Two imperatives result.

1. The development community needs to more fully examine the interrelationship between and among gender, development, religion, and religious freedom. Fortunately, some ground-breaking scholarship is now taking place, led by such women as Katherine Marshall (e.g., see her recent article in the tenth anniversary issue of The Review of Faith & International Affairs, "Religious Freedom in U.S. International Development Assistance and Humanitarian Relief: Ideas, Practice, and Issues," as well her 2010 article in the same journal, "Development, Religion, and Women's Roles in Contemporary Societies."
2. It is incumbent upon all religious adherents, especially those of global religions and impact, to think through clearly what their faith teaches about gender relations, and what that "looks like" in practice: from marriage and the family to the workplace to policies that one's government pursues. While various positions have been and will be articulated, it is more imperative still that such conversations take place in a manner that edifies and encourages both genders, within the faith, among faiths, and between faiths and the world we live in.

What follows below are some reflections on the second imperative, from three, interrelated, perspectives. First, I write as a married Christian man with two sons and two daughters (all under the age of seven), each of whom I pray will experience a model of mutual submission between man and woman. I also write as someone who works for religious freedom worldwide because of his faith—that is, as someone who tries to love his neighbor better each day, in part by working for my neighbor's opportunity to freely choose what s/he does (not) believe, and therefore how s/he behaves.

Foremost, however, I write as someone who understands the relationship between belief and behavior not as a moral discussion unique to a particular culture from a specific time. Instead I write as someone who understands the relationship between his belief and behavior as an opportunity to testify to the timeless message of Christ across time, a chance to bear witness to the new reality of the Kingdom of God through the mutual submission He requires of every relationship, every discussion, no matter the issue at hand.

In other words, I seek to share some thoughts amidst life's journey to better understand the majesty, mystery, and mercy of Christ. I welcome your response, and rebuke.

To read the rest of this article, click here.

Subverting Injustice by Tim Krueger

Tim Krueger is on staff at Christians for Biblical Equality, where he serves as the publications coordinator and editor of Mutuality. He graduated from Bethel University (MN), where he studied history and theology. Tim was raised on the mission field, where he developed a fascination with history, language, and culture. He and his wife, Naomi, live in Saint Paul, MN.

Dozens of cities battle prostitution through a program called “john school,” a program designed to educate first-time “johns,” or male solicitors of prostitutes, about the negative consequences of prostitution. The program's curriculum includes teaching johns about sex workers themselves. In 2009, CNN reported on a Nashville man who found himself in tears after hearing the story of a woman who had been bartering sex since the age of ten. By twenty, she was hooked on drugs and engaged in prostitution. She’d been arrested more than eighty times and been shot on the job. “I’m so embarrassed,” the man said. “These girls are somebody’s daughter. I have a daughter.”

The program counts on this type of response. It is built on the idea that once we view a person for what they are—fully human, just like us and our loved ones—our actions toward them will change. When men view prostitutes as nothing more than a resource for sex, they can easily justify treating them as such. When we believe that prostitutes willingly choose or want a life of prostitution, we can lack sympathy for the difficulties they face, and this is reflected in our actions and even our legal system. When culture devalues women, they have no escape.

Across the world, women pay dearly for their cultures’ deeply rooted ideas about gender. They are blamed for the moral failings of their cultures and families, they are blamed when they are raped, they are excluded from full participation in society, and their bodies are considered an economic resource, worth more than their humanity. A culture’s fundamental view of women and men is shaped largely by its religious and moral consciousness. And, unfortunately, for most of history, religious teachings about the innate worth of women have been uniformly negative. Christian teachings are no exception.

Yes, Christians ought to be commended for their long history of combating abuse, working to end the sex trade, rescuing women from war and domestic violence, and otherwise seeking to alleviate abuse. Yet, at the same time, many Christian organizations model and promote a hierarchy of function and therefore value between the genders, designating leadership and authority to men over women. In doing so, they undermine their own mission. The gospel demands more.

Jesus did not only address the abuses of the Jewish system, but also the underlying ideas that allowed and perpetuated them. When Mary sat at Jesus’ feet (Luke 10:38-42), Martha’s complaint was not merely that Mary was avoiding chores. Mary had assumed a formal position of discipleship, and Martha perceived that in doing so, Mary was living outside her created purpose as a woman, slapping her Creator in the face. Yet, Jesus affirmed Mary. When Jesus spoke publicly with a disreputable Samaritan woman (John 4), he violated his culture’s standards for moral behavior. To the disgust of his disciples, when he treated this woman as an equal, he denied first-century Judaism’s values regarding the nature of women, adulterers, and Samaritans. Jesus did not simply challenge abuses of the system; he subverted the very foundations of religious thought and identity that enabled injustice. Paul would urge the same in his ministry.

Paul taught that in Christ, we are one. Speaking to churches deeply divided by ethnicity, class, and gender, he attacked the root problem, teaching them, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female.” He knew that as we realize that we are fundamentally the same—fully human, fully redeemed—divisions and injustice will fall away.

As Christians, we should affirm Paul’s vision and imitate Christ. We need to evaluate our deeply-held convictions about women, many of which we believe are scriptural but are in fact incongruent with the kingdom of God as Jesus described. It is only by tapping into this underlying problem—pseudo-Christian ideas that claim to be scriptural but in fact devalue women and undermine the gospel—that we can truly and fully address the injustices women face. May God guide us as we discern his will for all people, and may justice spring forth.

A Resounding Gong by Julie Nielsen Lindsey

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 
1 Corintians 13:1

"Live Strong." "Pre-K director Opposes Pre-K." This was a recent headline in our paper. " Gentlemen's Clubs. " Words like these contradict the very reality they signify, in ways that are oddly comical yet morally disappointing. There are always gaps between our shared ideas and our reality, however as a Christian it is most distressing to me when I encounter hypocrisy within my own faith community. As Christians, we all believe in the centrality of Love, yet lately, the form of Christianity that gets the most air time is an out of touch version of Christianity that is so lacking in love. Many non-religious people understandably dismiss Christianity as an intolerant, regressive force in society. In many ways, the dominant expression of Christianity in America has become "a resounding gong" that repels people rather than draws people to faith.

As a female who has been raised in an evangelical Christian home, I especially recoil from what I see as a renewed anti-woman agenda advocated by many Christians, often veiled by hip names and logos, casual worship styles and misleading phases like "complementarianism." No it is not a real word, my spell checker says so! This is nothing new. It's religion used to preserve male privilege but repackaged for modern ears. Men and women they say are equal, but have different roles. And conveniently, men are the leaders and women are the followers in all areas of life! I continue to be dismayed but not shocked that these outdated ideas about gender have not yet found their way to the trash heap of history.

A new message that I am actually shocked by of late is the anti-contraception message being advocated in non-Catholic evangelical circles. While these folks claim claim to be the true Christians (as opposed to the false liberals) , what they are advocating is really a return to the 1950s rather than the true teachings of Jesus. I believe that this new more hardened manifestation of evangelical Christianity is attempting to clamp down on the freedoms that women and girls have come to enjoy as Christians in America precisely because we have come so far and because the dominance of men is on the decline. If you are on our blog, perhaps you share our dismay, even some of our holy anger! Rather than feeling unproductively angry, which is no fun and bad for your health, we want to connect with other like minded people and elevate the dialogue about gender equality and faith. We would love to hear your thoughts and experiences and be inspired by the progress we are making. We would love to laugh with you about absurdities, for it is so much better to laugh than to cry.

To some, this discussion of gender equality maybe be off putting. To others it might seem a bit so yesterday. My 12 year old daughter's friend saw our blog and posted, "I don't know what the heck you are talking about!" Her response made me realize how uncool it is to talk about gender equality and how forgotten the women's movement has become. However, what a blessing that we have come so far as a society that young girls can take equality for granted! But let's not slumber, for this equality that we enjoy is indeed a fragile. I appreciate my sister's walk down history lane in this blog to remind us of the people like the Grimke sisters who fought for our equality so that we simply be ourselves. Somehow Emily and I relate to these two stodgy looking but cool women, and we long to revive the moral clarity of the suffragists in our faith communities. The Women's Liberty Bell is a beautiful image that reminds us to look back to the ideals of equality in our American Heritage, but also to look forward to achieve greater liberty and equality for all, men and women alike. This is not radical feminism, this is just plain old Christianity and Americana at it's best. As I posted in plain words explaining this blog to my 12 year old friend, if you believe in God and you don't think that girls or women should be pushed around by men in the name of religion, then the Women's Liberty Bell Blog is for you!

Julie Nielsen Lindsey