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VOW
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The Web Site of The
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One of the more poignant poems of Emily Dickinson is “I Had Been Hungry, All The Years.” Writing of a life lived looking through windows at the plenty she did not possess, she wrote: Spiritual Longing met with Radical Feminism“My Noon had Come – to dine - There are many women in this world today trembling and reaching for life. There is hunger, abuse, neglect, but most of all spiritual need. Emily Dickinson was not poor, she was not longing for material food. She was writing of spiritual longing. The new web site of the Women’s Ministries Program Area reminds me that you can reach out to the physical needs of women and still destroy any chance they may have to find real spiritual life. The site is well developed and easy to use. There are links and resources that lead to help for the needy. But the educational and spiritual resources are mostly meant to recruit women into the world of Radical Feminism. Most of the books start from a feminist viewpoint that sees all human problems subsumed under the heading Patriarchy. Most of the theology found there is slanted toward such theology. There are no books by orthodox Christian women. Where is anything by Elizabeth Achtemeier? What of Feminist Reconstructions of Christian Doctrine: Narrative Analysis and Appraisal, by Kathryn Greene-McCreight? What about the German theologian Susanne Heine and her book, Matriarchs, Goddesses, and Images of God: A Critique of a Feminist Theology. Has anyone considered the Evangelical writer Catherine Clark Kroeger and the book she wrote with her husband, I Suffer Not A Women: Rethinking 1 Timothy 2:11-15 in light of Ancient Evidence. And most of all where are any of the wonderful theological books whose words are simply meant to bring us into a closer relationship with Jesus Christ our Lord. Where are the Greater Doctrines of the Christian Faith? In the same manner the links for National Network of Presbyterian College Women abound with help for such issues as racism and poverty. That is important, but where are the resources for a lively relationship with Jesus Christ? Although there are Horizons Bible studies offered most all other resource materials are slanted toward the same types of subjects and the same radical feminist theology as the women’s area. Where are the resources that seek out, strengthen and under gird the greater doctrines of Christianity for these young women? The newsletter, Sisters Together, found on the NNPCW link contains a Bible study that focuses on the book of Ruth. The usual theme for most of the material on all the women’s site is found here also, “Gender and Class in the Bible.” The writer Kristy Graf, a graduate student at Cornell University has used the book of Ruth as a text for understanding how women deal with a patriarchal society. She is asking how they survive. She suggests there is a different way of acting for the two women. Ruth provides by “getting up and going out to the fields.” Naomi “focuses on manipulating the new relationship between Ruth and Boaz.” This beautiful ancient story does exist in a community where relationships are managed differently than modern America, and it is important to understand their history and social structure. But the story is not about how women can survive in a threatening society. The story is about God’s faithfulness toward individuals and in history. The story centers on three people: Naomi, who loves her daughter-in-law, Ruth who is faithful, kind and caring, and Boaz who is kind, protective, generous and is the kinsman redeemer. None of these people are rendered more important than the other in this story and they all point toward God’s faithfulness to His people Israel as well as the individuals who are a part of His promises. The Bible is not meant to be a book where one explores the possibilities for empowerment but where one discovers the Redeemer. Lift up Jesus Christ, not Crumbs of Empowerment When I visit the Women’s Ministries web site I am reminded of the title of a book written by a well-known woman historian, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese. Her book is entitled, “Feminism is Not The Story of My Life”: How Today’s Feminist Elite Has Lost Touch With the Real Concerns of Women. For most Presbyterian women the gospel of Jesus Christ is the priority of their life. And they not only desire to live that out in ministries of justice and peace, but also by offering the good news that Jesus’ death and resurrection is the way of salvation. In the second verse of Dickinson’s poem she admits, “I did not know the ample Bread – Twas so unlike the crumb.” Perhaps, if the Living Bread of Life were held out to the women of the Presbyterian Church rather than the crumbs of empowerment there would be a rich renewal of Christian faith in the Church and the lives of women. The Women’s Ministries must never let go of their ministries of justice and peace, but it is only utopian crumbs when divorced from a truly orthodox Christianity and placed on the ideology of Radical Feminism. Many of us wish the Women’s Ministries would lift up Jesus Christ.
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