Did you know that girls in impoverished countries are less likely to receive adequate medical care or food, compared to boys? Here are some grim statistics I recently received from World Vision:
- Seven out of ten of the world's hungry are women.
- Nearly half of all girls born in the 50 least developed countries will never attend school, sentencing them to a life of poverty and disease.
- Due to poverty, illiteracy, and the denial of decision-making power, women are becoming infected with HIV faster than men in Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, and Latin America.
- Every six seconds a girl under five dies of preventable causes.
- Of the 800 million who lack basic work skills to rise out of poverty, two-thirds are female.
Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Another little girl has died. It's almost overwhelming to comprehend.
It seems to me that along with sending pharmaceutical drugs, North America should model an appropriate egalitarian stance on male-female relations. Christians should be ahead of the curve on this. Some are, and some aren't.If we know to do good and don't do it, then we are contributing to the problem. We know that we should teach egalitarian values. If we don't do it, we are guilty - we become part of the problem.
- So then, if you know the good you ought to do and don't do it, you sin. James 4:7
2 comments:
Much as I take a conservative stance on gender issues, it does trouble me that so many Evangelicals seem to have little thought that women are all over the world the victims of abuse and oppression.
Sometimes I worry that we are sending the wrong message.
When Evangelicals talk about male authority, are they willing to engage with the position of powerlessness and oppression that so many women find themselves in?
Every Blessing in Christ
Matthew
Thank you, Matthew, for your encouraging words.
My parents were exclusive Brethren, my father ran a business and my mother ran the home. They were conservative on some gender issues, but I never once heard my father overrule my mother. There was no discussion of male authority, and I find this appropriate in a scripture based home.
These days with lower birthrates I would expect that many women will wish to contribute financially to the family as the Proverbs 31 woman did. I believe we can be Bible believing and reject male-lead decision-making and support mutual and responsible power-sharing.
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