Strategies for Christ-Centered Women By Angela R. Treadway The Presbyterian Layman Wednesday, November 11, 1998
The conference, titled "Strategies for Christ-Centered Women in a Self-Centered Culture," focused on committed Christian women who are serving at the front lines of physical and spiritual warfare all over the world. That focus ranged from a poignant presentation by Baroness Caroline Cox on atrocities being committed against Christian women and their families in the Sudan to a forum on radical feminist theologians "who are not willing to do the honorable thing and leave the church." Relying on miracles Cox, president of Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) and deputy speaker of the British House of Lords, spoke powerfully and eloquently about CSW's direct ministry to persecuted Christians. Cox presented a slide show that offered first-hand evidence of the atrocities taking place today against Christians, especially women and children, in Sudan. She spoke of how some Islamic troops use hunger as a weapon against Christians. Armed with fast horses and Kalashnikov rifles, they destroy crops, livestock, homes, and all means of subsistence. Victims of this jihad can receive life-sustaining essentials from Islamic relief centers only if they first convert to Islam. Christians who refuse to renounce their faith face death by starvation, exposure, or execution. Frequently, women and children are abducted into slavery. The price of freedom Cox has visited Sudan more than 20 times in the past three years and has personally redeemed over 1,000 Christian slaves from the open-air slave markets of that country. The price of a woman or child is 3 cows, or around $150.00. In Burma, and also the Armenian enclave of Nagorno Karabakh, Christians and ethnic minorities are being kidnapped, raped, mutilated and murdered. Cox recounted horrific recent experiences in villages and refugee camps that had been obliterated by bombings. In one village she was shown a pit with the mutilated and freshly burned bodies of many of the village's men. She also told of a local Christian nurse who had been forced to watch the decapitation of her son only hours earlier. After grieving with the nurse, Cox asked if she would be willing to give a message to the outside world. Instead of the outpouring of pain, outrage and anger Cox expected, all the grieving woman had to say was "thank you" to the individuals and organizations that are finally starting to pay attention to the plight of persecuted Christians and who are sending food, clothing, and medicine. Cox described this woman, and others like her, as a "miracle of grace." Equal partners in ministry Kay F. Rader, world president of Women's Organizations for the Salvation Army, presented verbal portraits of Salvation Army women who are serving on dangerous frontlines with their male counterparts. "The position of the battle lines depends on where the political, social and spiritual SCUD missiles are landing," she said. In particular, these people are fighting the impact of poverty, the most debilitating disease and the leading cause of death and illness among women around the world. Being attacked from every side
But she asks, "When 585,000 women die in childbirth each year, when rape is a documented weapon of war, when 2 million young girls undergo female genital mutilation annually, primarily at the hands of other women, when the majority of women worldwide are still abused, undereducated, impoverished, when women have to watch their children being brutalized and murdered, how do I tell them that 'gender' is more important?" Alice Bratton, a correspondent for the USA radio network, founding director of A Woman's Voice International, and a former Bible smuggler, also provided a stark contrast between the issues of radical feminism and women's issues worldwide. "How," she asked, "can a small group of highly privileged, professional women claim victimization in the face of this suffering? All these atrocities - and they're fighting about gender?" Radical feminism's war on the family F. Carolyn Graglia, a graduate of Cornell University and the Columbia University Law School, delivered a riveting, detailed and concise account of the impact of radical feminism on family life in America. Graglia worked as an attorney with the United States Department of Justice before becoming a law clerk for Warren E. Burger on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. She later served as Special Counsel for Federal Housing Administration Litigation in the Justice Department, then retired from legal practice to become a housewife and mother of three daughters. She continues to provide legal consulting in constitutional law and anti-trust litigation, and is the author of Domestic Tranquillity: A Brief Against Feminism.
She asked, "Why is it more important to fulfill the market production needs of strangers than to fulfill the needs of your family?" Without diminishing the positive accomplishments of the early feminist movement, "the radical feminist movement has sold women a defective bill of goods." Lillian Calles Barger is the founder of The Damaris Project, a ministry to reach the brightest women in our culture with the gospel. While also giving credit to the early feminist pioneers for their accomplishments, Barger stated, "The Gospel is not a 'self-esteem' program. Don't focus on pain. Pain is always played out within a particular world view. Women are right that they have been oppressed - but why is that? We know it's because of the Fall. But freedom from oppression is found through Jesus Christ. We need God rule, not woman-rule or man-rule." Cafeteria religion The problems with radical feminism and syncretism were also addressed by Donna F. G. Hailson in her workshop, "Designer Gods & Smorgasbord Spiritualities: The Challenge of Syncretism." Hailson is a researcher, writer and speaker on contemporary culture, new religious movements, evangelism, church renewal and apologetics. She counsels those involved in cults and the occult and currently serves as a visiting professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Hailson says that liberals, as well as evangelicals, are guilty of syncretism, which is the mixing of different religions, cultures and new-age thoughts with Christianity. Both sides are influenced by culture and "new messages" from the Holy Spirit that are divorced from Scripture. Hailson lists the reasons for syncretism including: biblical illiteracy, pop culture, therapeutic culture (psychology without spirituality), philosophical pluralism (all things are true), and self-worship (narcissism). She also listed cultural post-modernism, where each person constructs her own reality with an emphasis on experience. Hailson presented fourteen specific actions to counter syncretism: 1. Stand firm on the essentials - the Trinity, salvation, and the person and work of Christ. 2. Examine your own beliefs and the beliefs of others in the light of Scripture. 3. Overcome biblical illiteracy. 4. Confront errors where you see them. 5. Overcome your own fears. 6. Call others to discipleship. 7. Be aware of the culture. 8. Be knowledgeable of the spiritual marketplace. Put the Word of God before culture. 9. Know objective truth. 10. Be careful about ecumenism. Ecumenical ties must be within Christian values. 11. Tolerance is not a synonym of relativism or syncretism. 12. Find bridges. Make bridges in order to communicate with people, as did Paul. 13. Understand the language of the people. Don't look at people as targets. 14. Work to glorify God. Public Policy/Private Convictions For women, many public issues are also intensely personal ones. One forum explored three of these - motherhood, child care, and abortion. Brenda Hunter, author of The Power of Mother Love, examined the mother-child relationship from the perspective of a psychologist, counselor and renowned authority on motherhood. Charmaine Crouse Yoest, a national spokesperson on family policy issues and a political commentator appearing frequently on shows such as CNN's "Crossfire," looked at the issue of child care from her perspective as a mother of young children and political scientist. Kim Turkington is the Outreach Coordinator for Lifewatch, an unofficial movement within the United Methodist Church that works to create esteem for human life. "Surely, she says, "the woman and her unborn child in tough situations are among 'the least of these' of whom Jesus spoke in Matthew 24:40." 'Re-Fems' The conference ended with a forum by Sylvia Dooling, president of Voices of Orthodox Women, Janice Shaw Crouse, director of ECWS, and Diane L. Knippers, president of the Institute of Religion and Democracy. Identifying radical theological feminists as "Re-Fems" ("re" for ReImagining, re-centering, remembering), Crouse said Re-Fems are not willing to do the honorable thing and leave the church. "They are playing G.A.M.E.S. with us, and they intend to win." The acronym stands for Gender, Abortions, Marriage is Unimportant, Eliminate Evil (no such thing as individual sin), and Superiority (over men), Struggle, Sexuality, and Secretions (a reference to the celebration of bodily fluids by worshippers of the goddess Sophia). Says Crouse, it's a B.A.D. game. "B for no Boundaries, A for no Authorities, and D for no Demands." Summing up the essence of the evangelical and ecumenical conference, Crouse proclaimed "We need to be the force that says 'Over my dead body.' " |
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