Ken Fong is senior pastor of Evergreen Baptist Church of Los
Angeles and author of several books. This article was featured on
God's Politics (sojo.net) and is used with permission.
At the urging of one of EBCLA's deacons, I began reading
NY Times bestseller Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into
Opportunities for Women Worldwide. Co-authored by NY Times
reporters Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn (who are married to
each other), it's an eye-popping revelation of how believing that
girls and women are inferior to men is causing them to disappear
from the face of the earth.
The ratios of male newborns to female newborns around the world is
always pretty darn close to being 50/50. So why is it, when
governments and agencies count the number of males and females in
the world later, that there are consistently fewer females than
males? I mean, we're talking significantly fewer females than males
and yet, according to an old Chinese proverb, women hold up "half
the sky." Girls and women are somehow disappearing off the face of
the planet.
In far too many places there are all kinds of customs, religious
beliefs, and prejudices that revolve around some form of the belief
that women are not as valuable as men. When a poor family in Asia
discovers that one of their sons is ill, there's a great likelihood
that the parent will take him to see a doctor. If one of their
daughters is ill, the parents are hugely reluctant to spend time and
money to take her to the doctor. Same goes for food: sons are
typically fed better and more food than daughters. Or if the family
is destitute, the parents are far more likely to sell their daughter
to a shady character than one of their sons. Maternal mortality
(dying while trying to deliver a baby) is another injustice that
claims the life of one mother every minute. Being trafficked as a
prostitute in a neighboring country. Being denied the same education
that boys are given. Being kidnapped and then raped so that she is
no longer a virgin and 'unfit' for any other male in the village.
Then the kidnapper/rapist has the gall to approach her father and
ask for her hand in marriage! "Honor killings" are committed by the
girls' own brothers in an effort to "regain" the families' honor if
it's found out that she is no longer a virgin. Or, like in some
parts of India, if a young woman spurns the advances of a male
suitor, oftentimes he will surprise her later and throw acid in her
face, horribly disfiguring and often blinding her. In the countries
where these "honor" acts of violence and evil toward women occur,
the male culprits are rarely if ever arrested and then prosecuted.
"She had it coming, you know." It's enough to make you blow a
gasket, especially if, like me, you are committed to loving and
honoring girls and women.
Through the CARE organization, the United Nations, and a growing
"Half the Sky" movement around the globe, girls and women are being
empowered to speak up and speak out, to insist that they are as
valuable as any male. We heard numerous stories of even young girls
who, when given access to education and protected from the perils
associated with being born female in their societies, learned the
laws of their countries, brought charges against the male
perpetrators, and even eventually were the catalysts for shifting
their culture's paradigms toward girls and women. It was truly
inspirational to 'meet' some of these valiant heroes who couldn't,
in many cases, restore their own virginity or dignity, but pursued
this as their Heroes' Journey on behalf of all other girls and women
in their countries.
I came home with a disturbing question and a determined conviction.
The Disturbing Question: When some Christian groups interpret the
Bible as teaching that God created women to live in a male-ruled
hierarchy, that they must obediently submit to male 'heads' or risk
violating a divine mandate, aren't they also contributing to the
oppression of girls and women? I left the theater no longer
satisfied with just saying, "different strokes for different folks."
Even if the point is made that the Bible teaches that women are of
equal value before God, if a person's being a female automatically
and always means that she is overtly or subtly denied equal
opportunities to learn, to lead, to teach, etc., that is oppressing
her in the name of God.
The Determined Conviction: As a male whom the current Christian and
societal system favors, I must take even more seriously God's
challenge to steward properly whatever power I've been given simply
because I am male. Rather than use it to "rule over" those who start
with less power, I am more determined than ever to use it to open
doors that are now closed, to provide opportunities to grow as
leaders and thinkers and preachers. I've been doing this for years,
but now, more than ever, I will not simply enjoy my male privileges
but use them to bless girls and women who today may not have access
to those same privileges.