What I Think About Empowering Women by David Drury

David Drury has a passion for teaching on the deep mysteries of God’s Word in a way that is relevant to the next generation but true to the orthodox Christian faith. His writing and speaking comes with a healthy dose of both heart and humor—but is centered on teaching scripture. He serves as Chief of Staff to Jo Anne Lyon, the General Superintendent of theWesleyan Church and previously served as Executive Pastor and Connections Pastor at two large churches for 10 years. David is the architect of the all-church spiritual formation journey SoulShift which includes more than 30 related published or free resources for churches engaging in the Shift journey in their church. He is also co-author of SoulShift: The Measure of a Life Transformed along with Steve DeNeff the spiritual formation book which inspired the all-church resources for adults, youth & children.http://www.daviddrury.com/2013/03/08/what-i-think-about-empowering-women/

On International Women's Day, David posted the following statement on Facebook: “When they question the idea of empowering women I question men on why they are so threatened by the idea of empowered women.” It caused some conversation to develop. 

Says David, "Let me clarify:...

Maybe you have other reactions, but here are 5 things I think of when I think of “Empowering Women.”

1) First of all, I think I made a misstatement  It’s not just “men” who I question. Some women question the idea of empowering women as well, and likewise I question them back on why they are threatened by the idea. “Giving more power to women” in a variety of ways has nothing to do with any “biblical” approach, I should say. Many people just plain don’t like the idea of women having more power in any realm (politics, education, family, legal, economic, etc.) This is much bigger than just religion and “women in ministry.” When I think of “empowering women” (meaning, giving more power to women, in a variety of forms) I am reminded of so many people who find that idea fundamentally threatening and off-putting to them. It is dismissed out of hand by some, and mocked by others, with a not-too-subtle misogyny exposing itself. I find that hard to stomach.

2) More importantly, when I think of empowering women I think of Ricky’s mother who I met in Siamazilla, Zambia. Ricky’s mom has AIDS, and so does his sister. Her husband contracted AIDS and passed it on to them. We sponsor her son through Hope for Children. I met the whole family, and laid hands on her family to pray for hope and healing. I want to empower this woman, and in fact we do, beyond the sponsorship. She is empowered to be on the leadership team in her community because the Wesleyan church in her village created a new organization to meet these needs, and she is on the leadership of that—superseding the male-dominated tribal culture that is in fact often times propagating these kinds of cyclical cultural evils.

3) When I think of empowering women I think of my daughters who are 9 and 7 years old. They have many dreams for their lives, and they are far more privileged than Ricky and his sister for sure. However, my daughters are born in to a world where women give birth to 100% of the children and do 66% of the work, but where women only make 10% of the money and only own 1% of the property. Inequities abound. I don’t want the dreams and callings of my own daughters to be limited. And so when I think of empowering women I think of empowering my daughters with the same magnitude and energy that I empower my son (and perhaps even a little more to make up for the head start he’ll get for being male.

4) When I think of empowering women I think of Rose, who is the pastor of the church in Siamazilla, Zambia. Because the church in her community is Wesleyan, she is able to pursue her calling to preach the gospel and lead a church. I was able to hear her speak briefly, and while I didn’t speak her language, I could tell that she spoke to her people with spiritual power, compassion, & authority. When I think of empowering women I think of Pastor Rose

5) If you’re wondering how to engage, I encourage connection with World Hope International, as I’ve personally seen them successfully empowering women to escape human trafficking and also working with microeconomic models and empowering their leadership through helping orphans and vulnerable children in Africa, including the above stories. Many other organizations I might mention are good–but the people at WHI are people I trust and know personally, and they have worked in these arenas for a good long time. When I think of empowering women, I think of World Hope.

I remember walking two miles with Ricky and his sister back to the Church in Siamazilla where I heard Rose speak and we all ate a great meal together in the village. I remember holding Ricky’s hand on the left and his sisters on the right. And I remember praying that the daughters of Africa, and all daughters everywhere, would have a better future.

So, that’s what I think about when I think of empowering women. How about you, what do you think when someone talks about “Empowering Women”?"

The Power of One Woman is Contagious

Opportunity International applauds The Woman’s Liberty Bell Blog along with the voices of Emily Jones and author Sheryl WuDunn who ‘chime in’ and affirm “the challenge that women & girls face around the world is the moral challenge of our time”. Empowering women in one arena paves the way for equality in every arena.   In many regions of the developing world the suffragist movement is just beginning. We stand in solidarity with you as 93% of our micro-entrepreneurs are female – enabling their God-given potential to flourish. The power of One Woman is contagious!  Carpe Diem!

1.5 billion people live in extreme poverty.  Many are women entrepreneurs who have plans for a better future for themselves, their families and their communities. With a little support, they can change many lives.  That’s the power of One Woman.

As a Global Ambassador to Opportunity International, Carly Fiorina will lend her voice and influence to Opportunity’s efforts to build a network of women investing in women to end the cycle of poverty. Now under Opportunity’s umbrella, the One Woman Initiative will support women in the developing world through financial resources, education and training to build sustainable futures.

Watch Opportunity CEO Vicki Escarra and Carly Fiorina chat with CBS Saturday Morning anchor Rebecca Jarvis on the power of one woman to impact so many around her.


You can learn more about Opportunity International by following us on Facebook and Twitter or by contacting Linda VanderWeele at lvanderweele@opportunity.org

Anger Management... by Gustavo Karakey

Gustavo is a professor of New Testament at the Biblical Seminary of Colombia, in Medellin, Colombia.  He has taught Bible courses in a Bible Institute in Asuncion, Paraguay and masters level Bible Courses for Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in the Dominican Republic and Peru.  He has a Masters of Divinity (MDiv) and a Masters in Theology (ThM) with a focus in New Testament at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and is currently working on his doctorate in New Testament from the London School of Theology.  He is a Hispanic-American born in Mexico, raised in San Diego, lived in Boston for many years, Paraguay and now Colombia where he lives with his wife and three children. http://pinterest.com/gkarakey/

I am an angry man!

I wasn’t always like this.  When I first came to faith through a Charismatic church, I didn’t even know that the evangelical world had a gender problem. How could I? Our church had pastors, teachers and prophets of both genders. 

My seminary days brought me face to face with theological diversity on the gender issue.  In actuality, I discovered during this time that there wasn’t much Christians could agree upon, but I accepted this diversity on gender as a normal part of Christianity.  We should major on the majors, right? 

And then a few years back, it all changed for me during a short CBE conference in Minnesota.  The cumulative impact of hearing the damaging historical, theological and sociological effects of this issue for women was just too much to bear.  That it was being facilitated and perpetuated by the church I dearly loved, well, I quickly reached a boiling point!  The concept of agreeing to disagree, well it just didn't cut it anymore.

To be honest, I began to look for ways to confront people (mostly men) on this gender issue.  And to my great dismay, I even found myself having a difficult time respecting or loving people who held to a view of gender in the church that was anything but fully egalitarian. 

Part of my frustration also stemmed with how non-egalitarian views were actually practiced in the real world.  Forget about the ideals!  How could we do this to our dear sisters?  

Even if we conceded that every controversial passage should be interpreted in a complementarian way, the impact on women of this view (separate but equal roles) was simply too devastating to ignore.  No matter how carefully one tried to practice it, there were far too many casual, abusive and erring listeners to make this doctrine anything but a woman’s worst nightmare.

I teach in a major seminary here in Medellín, Colombia.  Our students come from different denominational backgrounds, some of which are egalitarian, some of which are not.  In addition, it hurts me to say because I want to be sensitive to my host country, but the fact remains that a hierarchical and authoritarian style of leadership predominates in many churches in Latin America.  

These models appeal more to the examples of Old Testament single-rule leaders such as priests, military leaders, kings and prophets than they do with Jesus' models of the servant, the ancient shepherd and being the least.  Thus, it is difficult to get the gender issue right at the personal level when it is so upside down at the ecclesiastical level.

Still there is much hope.  I have made it my goal to deal with this issue constructively, respectfully and in a theologically persuasive way with the students I have the privilege to teach.  In my leadership classes we are looking at well known but lesser practiced models of church and leadership such as the body, the servant and the shepherd and working out the implications of mutual submission and service under these contexts. 

It is what keeps me sane these days regarding gender and what keeps my temper in check on this most critical of issues facing the church in the 21^st century.

Enlisting Male Allies: Stepping Up Together to Be the Change by Emily Nielsen Jones

The purpose of the Women's Liberty Bell Blog is to promote dialogue around how to more fully enlist our faith traditions in the ongoing work of uplifting girls/women around the world, not only in the form of charity/humanitarian efforts, but even more fundamentally to establish a very clear, spiritual framework for women's human equality around the world.

Religion, as we all know, has conflictual forces within it which lean both forward and backwards when it comes to advancing justice and equality for all.  No where is this tension felt more acutely than in the domain of gender where throughout history and still today we see both empowering/disempowering forces which both encourage women to rise up above patriarchal ideas/norms and also to stay in "their place". 

Like so many today, we at the Women's Liberty Bell Blog believe that our world is in a unique moment of time where the sheer shock of how low the floor has dropped for women's human rights around the world has created a holy catalyst not just to engage in humanitarian relief for women but also a deeper change of consciousness of the underlying hierarchical model of gender which has for centuries devalued and disempowered women as the subordinate "lesser than" gender.  Key to this deeper transformation is the involvement of men embracing gender equality/justice not just as a "women's issue" but as a common human struggle.  Without this, all we will have is these tiring gender battles... 

which divide us unnecessarily, make us out to be totally different species rather than brothers and sisters who share the same human DNA, drain our spiritual vitality as both men and women, and militate against all of the humanitarian progress so many are working toward.  (For more info on this regressive gender movement which is cropping up with renewed vigor within men's ministries and family/parenting resources encouraging men to "reclaim their rightful place" as leaders/patriarchs, check out this blog: http://davidfranklin.net/davids-blog/the-hidden-patriarchy-of-the-mens-movement/

All this is to say... we need your partnership to step up together to be fully empowered human beings and to create a better world for our daughters and our sons to thrive as human beings.

Men, please chime in this April!   
Enlisting Male Allies: Stepping Up Together to Be the Change... Empowering women is only half of the equation of gender justice/equality. Men too need to be part of the change of gender balancing our world. For you personally as a male, what shifts have occurred in your gender/faith journey that have enabled you to lean in to gender equality?  How has this enhanced and enlarged your own development as a human being?  Where do you see both obstacles & opportunities to more fully enlisting men as partners in getting faith more fully onboard with gender justice?

Just a short sweet post will do, something from the heart and from your own life experience.  We really really REALLY need your voices & your solidarity! 

Let's work together to be the change we want to see in the world,

together.  Let us know if you would like to chime in!

The Next Malalas: an interview w/ amazing young women stirring up the religious pot in Pakistan @Women in the World

http://www.thedailybeast.com/witw/articles/2013/04/04/the-next-malalas.html

Women and girls word wide are stepping up as powerful agents for change. As people of faith who lean forward toward full gender equality, we need to be aware of and dialogue with the forces within our own religious traditions which are leaning backwards, making it harder for women world wide to be seen and treated as equal human beings with full agency.

Listen to this remarkable young woman in Pakistan making the case to these male village leaders that they should allow girls to attend school.  Listen to how determined they are to preserve male power and limit the independence of girls.  Although most in my tradition (Christianity) are not advocating excluding girls from schooling, do we not have our own voices which seem bent on preserving the idea of male power?

What is ours to do to keep our faith traditions leaning forward for girls and women's full human equality and agency?

The Next Malalas

BY JANINE DI GIOVANNI

Undaunted by the attack on 15-year-old Malala Yousafzai, two extraordinary young women are working to change the hearts and minds of Pakistan. By Janine di Giovanni.

Women like Malala Yousafzai “can only be stopped with a bullet.”

So said Khalida Brohi, the 24-year-old founder and director of the Sughar Women Program, which is dedicated to ending tribal violence against women in Pakistan. Brohi was one of two women introduced in an extraordinary session at the Women in the World Summit called “The Next Generation of Malalas.”

In Pakistan, the right to go to school is not a given. In the more rural areas, a girl is born, married off as early as 9 years old, and basically lives life under the control of men. The brutal attack on 15-year-old Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head by the Taliban for her education activism, is one that every Pakistani woman knows well. But being shot, in the words of Angelina Jolie, only "made her stronger."

Here is a link of Humaira in her work with village chiefs: http://www.sulaimaniyah.org/index.php/component/content/article/10-news-details/30-ho-yaqeen 
humaira Bachal, founder and president of the Dream Foundation Trust, works in her village to start schools. The dream of a school is taken for granted by so many. But women like her and Brohi—the new Malalas—are fighting so that all girls have the right to an education, and that what happened to Malala will never happen again.

Filmmaker Sharmeen OBaid Chinoy uses her camera to expose the plight of Pakistani women. Asked by moderator Christiane Amanpour whether she is able to make her powerful films because she is a woman, she responded, “The very reason I am alive is that there is a certain level of respect people have because I am a woman. When they see a woman who looks them in the eye, sometimes they don't know how to look at me."

Who are the new Malalas? They are the women in Pakistan who are launching initiatives on the grassroots level to change a sexist mindset deeply entrenched in Pakistani society. They are brave, because they are fighting against men who believe that women who are educated become too independent. Their independence is a threat.

Khalida’s father warned her that doing this work would kill her. She responded, “Doing this work will keep me alive."

The Power of One Woman is Contagious

Opportunity International applauds The Woman’s Liberty Bell Blog along with the voices of Emily Jones and author Sheryl WuDunn who ‘chime in’ and affirm “the challenge that women & girls face around the world is the moral challenge of our time”. Empowering women in one arena paves the way for equality in every arena.   In many regions of the developing world the suffragist movement is just beginning. We stand in solidarity with you as 93% of our micro-entrepreneurs are female – enabling their God-given potential to flourish. The power of One Woman is contagious!  Carpe Diem!

1.5 billion people live in extreme poverty.  Many are women entrepreneurs who have plans for a better future for themselves, their families and their communities. With a little support, they can change many lives.  That’s the power of One Woman.

As a Global Ambassador to Opportunity International, Carly Fiorina will lend her voice and influence to Opportunity’s efforts to build a network of women investing in women to end the cycle of poverty. Now under Opportunity’s umbrella, the One Woman Initiative will support women in the developing world through financial resources, education and training to build sustainable futures.

Watch Opportunity CEO Vicki Escarra and Carly Fiorina chat with CBS Saturday Morning anchor Rebecca Jarvis on the power of one woman to impact so many around her.


You can learn more about Opportunity International by following us on Facebook and Twitter or by contacting Linda VanderWeele at lvanderheele@opportunity.org

Lean On: When "Leaning in" Isn't Enough by Tina Brown @Women in the World

http://www.thedailybeast.com/witw/articles/2013/04/04/lean-on-when-leaning-in-isn-t-enough.html

I am fortunate to have been given a ticket to participate in the 4th Annual Women of the World Summit (http://www.womenintheworld.org/page/event/detail/conference/wh7) which was kicked off brilliantly by Tina Brown Editor in Chief of Newsweek with the inspiring words that what we are all here doing is not just "leaning in" (which we need to do) but also "leaning on" cultural practices which continue to try to put women in "their place" and restrict their independence and human development.  From here, we have begun to hear from women around the world who are struggling not only to raise the ceiling for women's advancement but also to lift the floor of basic human rights which have fallen dangerously low around the world.  

The externals differ, but all the stories speak to the same basic reality of unspeakable injustices resulting from deeply entrenched ideas about male power which seek to control girls/women's independence:  whether it be keeping girls out of school so they are only useful for marriage, genital mutilation to mark the woman as belonging to a man, early marriage, and generally speaking a model of marriage which puts women in a submissive role.  Being here gives me the sense that God does seem to call particular people with particular moral clarity and sass to "lean on" these powerful mindsets and challenge their underlying assumptions of male presumption to power in all its forms, whether it is young girls like Malala in Pakistan going around to speak to the village leaders about why they should let their girls be educated or an irish woman activist who spent her life as an activist working on behalf of invisible poor domestic workers in ireland who found their wages continually cut and their rights eroded...  or any of us asking questions, stirring up the holy pot when we see any forms of diminishment of women's agency within a religious setting we are in.  

Listen to Tina and ask yourself what is yours to "lean on" for the sake of creating a more gender balanced world...  Emily Nielsen Jones

Join us on the livestream of the Women in the World Summit and meet all the extraordinary women, many celebrated, but just as many you will never have heard of until now, leaning ON.

We’ve heard a lot in recent polemic about how to win the fight for the corner office. But pushing up against a glass ceiling is practically a luxury when you consider the millions of women who can feel the floor dropping beneath their feet.

At the Women in the World Summit, currently in progress at Lincoln Center, extraordinarily courageous women bring their stories from 16 countries about what it means to struggle against cultural repression, economic exclusion, and systemic violence.

They remind us what it feels like to be a woman in Pakistan, where girls are gunned down for the simple act of boarding a school bus.

To be a woman in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where it's estimated over 1,000 women are raped every day.

To be a woman in Brazil, where a report in 2010 found that 10 Brazilian women lose their lives to domestic violence every day.

To be a woman in Somalia, where 95 percent of girls face genital mutilation.

To be a woman in Indonesia, where every hour one woman dies in childbirth.

To be a woman in Afghanistan, where nearly 90 percent are condemned to illiteracy.

And here in the United States, let’s remember that women are paid only 77 cents for every dollar a man makes. An enormous number of mothers in the U.S. are working double time, graveyard shifts, and more than one job just to put food on the table for their kids. Just last week, we saw the most restrictive anti-abortion bill in the country signed into law in North Dakota.  It’s incredible, isn’t it, that tens of thousands of rape kits sit untested in police storage facilities across the country because the authorities—our authorities—just don’t get around to it.

In recent weeks, in public debate, we’ve been exhorted to “lean in.” There can hardly be a woman in America who hasn't followed that important conversation. And thank you, Sheryl Sandberg, for starting it.

But “leaning in” can only be a partial strategy. Leaning in works only in places where women are close enough to reach for their rightful goals.

But there are vast numbers of places where women are at the wrong end of a chasm. Where you lean in and you're scorned, or worse, flogged, stoned, vilified, or denied entry.

Our mission at the fourth Women in the World Summit is not just to lean in, but to lean ON.

Lean on corporations to change the pitiful representation of women in boardrooms.

Lean on the prosecutors of India to end rampant sexual violence.

Lean on the courts in Latin America to put an end to impunity for violence against women.

Lean on the pimps who sell girls for sex and the johns who buy them.

Lean on clerics from all religions who condone or turn a blind eye to the abuse of women and deny their fundamental rights.

Lean on brothers who would murder their sisters in so-called honor killings!

Lean on entire governments to safeguard the rights and well-being, and to free up the economic potential, of a full half of all their citizens!

Tina Brown, Editor in Chief, Newsweek & The Daily Beast at the Women in the World Conference 2013.( Roxxe Ireland/Marc Bryan-Brown )