We live on a beautiful blue planet suspended in
sparkly darkness, lit up half the time by our glorious sun and the other half
(sort of) by our reflective moon. Life should be good—for all of us. It is good
for many, but not for too many more ... and atrociously horrific for all the
rest.
Wherever
you stand in your belief system, you know this is not right. Whether something
good went wrong, or really wherever and however infection set in, we are
infected. The planet and its people are infected. If you’re not infected
personally, you are at least affected. And infection always spreads. With nearly
as many permutations and combinations as beauty, it keeps us ever seeking new
antidotes.
Mysteriously
however, a huge infection being slowly well-treated in most of society
continues to infect, primarily, people of faith. As much as we Christians in particular
proclaim freedom for all, an oppressed people group remains in our midst:
women.
“Nonsense,”
church men reply. “I let my wife do whatever she wants.” You let your wife?
And
it’s not just church men. I know otherwise powerful women, in Christian
ministry themselves, who have confessed to traces of misogyny. When you’re in
the culture, absorbing, for example, all the scriptural references to men, how
can you not feel at best ‘less than’, at worst, invisible?
Once
upon a time I dated a black fellow who would proclaim he was not ‘black’, but
‘brown’. Well yeah ... and I’m not white, I’m pink. But I didn't feel any need
to make that point. Obscure analogy I admit, but perhaps it begins to at least
partially, racially, illustrate the gender issue.
Recently
I listened to, and was gobsmacked and hugely healed while listening to, a talk
by Danny Silk. So in the spirit of Somebody
Else’s Story, I want to share that talk with you (see link below). As Danny
says, the message is for "anyone who knows a woman.”
Preview: did Jesus—this
Friend of humanity/brother/prophet—come only to break the curse over men … and
not women? You can download Danny's talk here: The
Invisible Ceiling. He has also published a book on the topic: Powerful
and Free: Confronting the Glass Ceiling for Women in the Church.
