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100 Million Missing Women and the Aftermath of Acute Gender Imbalance – Part 2

WILLS POINT, TX — Gospel for Asia (GFA) Special Report on the aftermath of acute gender imbalance: Discussing the horrendous reality of 100 million missing women worldwide — Part 2.

Do You See This Woman?

Let’s summarize again that story from Luke that began this article, “And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner ”¦ brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, and stood at His feet behind him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil.”

This young woman, Maloti, was kidnapped from the tea farm she worked on as a day laborer and recently married to someone of a higher caste. Her in-laws, disgusted by her being of a lower caste, hated her so much that they poisoned her. Their murderous attempt failed and Maloti survived, but suffered damage to her vocal cords.This young woman, Maloti, was kidnapped from the tea farm she worked on as a day laborer and recently married to someone of a higher caste. Her in-laws, disgusted by her being of a lower caste, hated her so much that they poisoned her. Their murderous attempt failed and Maloti survived, but suffered damage to her vocal cords.

The important religious leader, a Pharisee named Simon, was appalled by this woman who, uninvited, crashed his dinner party. In his heart he thought Jesus could not possibly be who He said He was, or He would know what kind of woman she was. Simon certainly thought he knew what kind of woman she was–an emotional type, obviously; a town prostitute, probably. A woman of bad manners and of lower class, which was not his type of person, certainly.

Jesus tells a parable about two debtors, one who owed a creditor little and one who owed the same man much. Both of their debts were forgiven. Jesus asks his host, Simon, which one he thinks loved the creditor the most–the one with little debt forgiven or the one with much debt forgiven? The answer is obvious, even to those of us reading the story many years removed from the dinner-party incident. We agree with the Pharisee’s answer: the one who was forgiven much.

At the risk of being redundant, it is here that Christ asks the question that resounds through the centuries, one that should be considered by any hostile intimate partner and any theologian or churchgoer who has a twisted, mysogynized theology: “Simon, do you see this woman?”

This photo tells a story from the book of Luke: An uninvited woman, seen as a sinner, a woman of lower class who wanted to wash a religious leader’s feet with her own tears. The owner of the house was appalled by her, but Jesus “saw this woman”, intervened and provided protection, illustrating how to advocate for those longing for forgiveness.This photo tells a story from the book of Luke: An uninvited woman, seen as a sinner, a woman of lower class who wanted to wash a religious leader’s feet with her own tears. The owner of the house was appalled by her, but Jesus “saw this woman”, intervened and provided protection, illustrating how to advocate for those longing for forgiveness.Do you see this woman? Christ saw the woman, not her bad reputation, not her past misdeeds, not her wayward lifestyle. He saw her best potential self. He saw her broken heart. He saw the gratefulness she felt that any man could think she was something other than the role the community had assigned to her.

Jesus saw the women. If you want to conduct a study as to Jesus’ attitude toward women in a time when they were considered lower than second class, look through the stories collected in the Gospel of Luke. Here we see a man who loved women, advocated for them, healed them and welcomed them as companions in His earthly ministry.

We, too, need to see the women of the world. We need to turn our energies toward helping countries change and cure the great harms that have contributed to the extraordinary demographic imbalance of some 110 males for every 100 women. Indeed, many developing countries consider elevating women from underclass to an educated class as a means of increasing the capacity of the country to function competitively in a global economy.

This little girl, along with thousands of other children, lives in the slums of Delhi. She–and the children like her–lack access to education, nutritious food and health care facilities, to name the least. They begin working at a very young age picking up trash or working for small workshops to earn wages to provide for themselves.This little girl, along with thousands of other children, lives in the slums of Delhi. She–and the children like her–lack access to education, nutritious food and health care facilities, to name the least. They begin working at a very young age picking up trash or working for small workshops to earn wages to provide for themselves.

A Consensual Solidarity of Concern

Let us grieve for these who have suffered such hardships, deprivation, bondage, violence, societal disfavor or low self-esteem brought on by the scornful esteem of the men in one’s social circle. Let us form a solidarity of concern and do what we can to change the capacity of others, either men or women, but for the purposes of this article, particularly women.

In 1980, I went on a sponsored survey trip for Food for the Hungry to write about that organization’s work in the disaster areas of the world. It was an extraordinary global journey and an extraordinary exposure to the needs and crises of humanity worldwide as well. At the start of the trip, on April 1 in Hong Kong, I had time to do a study of Christ’s ministry as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, and I wrote out all the verses to remind myself of how dramatic His healing, teaching and miracle-filled ministry must have been to the masses.

Something about Christ’s response to the needy women who were part of all those crowds touched me deeply, and I wrote:

Lord, I praise You that while You are also God of the individual, You are also God of the masses. What did you have in mind for me to write about these masses of women?

  • Those who with little household aids, nevertheless, keep their houses (huts or tents) clean?
  • Those who demonstrate industry weaving or knitting?
  • Those who work in gardens, hoeing with homemade instruments or digging in the soil with sharpened sticks?
  • Those who run sidewalk cafés–little set-up carts?
  • Those who pour cool drips of the water they have walked miles to gather over the bodies of their sweaty and dirty children?
  • Those who are painstakingly learning English in order to better themselves with foreigners?
  • Those who are raising pigs in piggeries?
  • Those in refugee camps who have nothing profitable to do afternoon after afternoon after afternoon?
  • Those who have willingly offered me their babies because the past is horrendous, their husbands are no longer alive and the future looks hopeless?
  • Those with wholesome, plain faces who volunteer their lives to serve the missionaries who bring some sensibility of promise into nonsensical and unpromising conditions?
  • Those who plant flowers in front of their settlement housing (canvas tents or ramshackle shelters)?

There is something about actually seeing the masses of needy and desperate yet often-courageous women struggling just to survive in the resettlement housing in Hong Kong, in the refugee camps in Thailand (those fleeing the Pol Pot massacres in Cambodia), in the canvas villages with dirt paths, in the milk-and-food lines provided by development organizations, or in the old abandoned ammo depots now housing a population of 20,000.

A Little Girl’s Future Transformed

A beautiful story from Gospel for Asia’s archives tells about the day a cook at a GFA-supported Bridge of Hope center noticed an elderly woman begging on the street. The cook was distressed because the older woman had a little girl, filthy and dressed in rags, in tow.

Knowing that adult beggars will often use children as bait to receive monies, then pocket the funds and do nothing for the child, the cook challenged the older woman, “Why are you exploiting this child?”

To the cook’s surprise, the older woman broke into tears and wept.

Daya, pictured at age 8 and age 15. Once among beggars in the street, she is now a thriving teen finding her place in this world and walking in her faith.Daya, pictured at age 8 and age 15. Once among beggars in the street, she is now a thriving teen finding her place in this world and walking in her faith.She wasn’t a professional beggar at all, but the grandmother of the little girl, Daya, who had been abandoned by both her mother and father. Without income and desperate, the grandmother had begun begging at bus stops, train stations and on the streets. With a change of heart, the cook invited the grandmother to enroll Daya in the Bridge of Hope center, which was in a building wedged between a railway station and a slum, conveniently available to children without a future.

The little girl was enrolled in the center but was so filthy that other parents complained. The Bridge of Hope staff conducted an intensive scrub session to relieve the child of dirt and germs and to replace the same filthy clothes she wore each day with clean clothes. They introduced her to soap and taught her to use it when she washed.

As the report states, “Daya’s future hung in the balance. If rejected from the Bridge of Hope center, she would return to the streets as one of the hundreds of thousands of child beggars in Asia. At some point, she would likely join the 20 to 30 million other boys and girls who are exploited as child laborers.”

The staff was determined to see that Daya thrived in Bridge of Hope, and she grew up to be an educated young woman. However, millions of other children never get that chance.

These are the hands of a child, covered in filth from doing construction work. Thousands of children, just like this one, can’t go to school because they are caught in bonded labor. Some 31 million girls of primary-school age are not in school. Seventeen million of these are expected to never enter school.These are the hands of a child, covered in filth from doing construction work. Thousands of children, just like this one, can’t go to school because they are caught in bonded labor. Some 31 million girls of primary-school age are not in school. Seventeen million of these are expected to never enter school.

Child Exploitation

In a fact sheet on girls’ education, UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) explains:

  • Some 31 million girls of primary-school age are not in school. Seventeen million of these are expected to never enter school.
  • Some 34 million female adolescents are missing from secondary schools, which often offer vocational skills that are essential for procuring future jobs.
  • Two-thirds of the 774 million illiterate people in the world are female.
    Thousands of these children can’t go to school because they are caught in bonded labor.

“It is doubtful they’ve ever held a toothbrush or a bar of soap; they’ve probably never eaten an ice-cream cone or cradled a doll,” GFA states. “The child laborers of Asia toil in fireworks, carpet and match factories; quarries and coal mines; rice fields, tea plantations and pastures; and even brothels. Because they are exposed to dust, toxic fumes, pesticides and disease, their health is compromised, and their bodies can be crippled from carrying heavy weights.”

Worse still, these children could be entrapped in prostitution.

These young women are prostitutes in the red-light district; some most likely entrapped since childhood.These young women are prostitutes in the red-light district; some most likely entrapped since childhood.
According to Reuters, “Of an estimated 20 million commercial prostitutes in India, 16 million women and girls are victims of sex trafficking, according to [data gatherers].”

Prostitution is not illegal in India so the chances of victimization are mind-blowing. In addition, many impoverished families sell their daughters to opportunists who promise a better life for their children.

ABC News reports, “Aid organizations estimate that 20 to 65 million Indians have already passed through the hands of human traffickers at one point in their lives. Ninety percent of them remain within India’s national borders, and the majority are female and under the age of 18.”

One social worker, Palavi, explained, “Human trafficking works because the victims are afraid and cannot communicate. ”¦ Many of them have children who live in constant danger of also being sold or sexually abused. They grow up under the beds where their mothers were robbed of their dignity.”

When census data is gathered, these women, mothers and little girls are not in their villages, local communities or urban settlements. They are hidden by sex slave traders (but made available to the men who seek them out).

Let me ask again the question Jesus asked Simon the Pharisee, “Do you see this woman (or child, or little girl or teenager)?”

I have a granddaughter named Eliana who is 10 years old. Four mornings a week, I pick up Eliana and her brother, Nehemiah (8), to drive them to school. Their younger sister, Anelise (5), is picked up by the preschool bus. My driving effort is to help out their mother, who was married to our son Jeremy Mains. Our son, her husband and the children’s father, died five years ago at age 42 of blastic mantle cell lymphoma.

Angela, my daughter-in-law, is raising the children by herself while holding a full-time job as the director of a local community-outreach organization. She has just completed her dissertation and received a doctorate in adult education. Nevertheless, even with remarkable mothers, studies show that children raised without fathers are vulnerable. So my husband and I live close, are on call when babysitters fall through and try to do a lot of one-on-ones with our grandchildren.

Though I watch these grandchildren grow with an attentive heart, I am certain my granddaughter Eliana will never worry about entering bonded labor or be forced to go begging on the streets. It is impossible for me, even for the sake of achieving a frightening empathy, to impose through my imagination the horror of the lives of some 20 to 65 million trafficked females on these precious little girls I love.

These Bridge of Hope students look happy during class time at GFA’s Bridge of Hope program. Education can protect a girl from exploitation–and redirect her future. This is a primary solution to begin changing the statistics of 100 million missing women.These Bridge of Hope students look happy during class time at GFA’s Bridge of Hope program. Education can protect a girl from exploitation–and redirect her future. This is a primary solution to begin changing the statistics of 100 million missing women.

Education as a Deterrent

Education can protect a girl from exploitation–and redirect her future. An educated girl can read. She can find work. She can get training to become a teacher, a doctor or a policewoman, for instance. She can tutor other children. A social system begins to change slowly, very slowly, one educated girl by one educated girl.

The latest statistics regarding GFA’s supported work with women in 2018 include:

Educating girls is a primary solution to begin changing the statistics of 100 million missing women. The Global Partnership for Education maintains, “The power of girls’ education on national economic growth is undeniable: a one percentage point increase in female education raises the average gross domestic product (GDP) by 0.3 percentage points and raises annual GDP growth rates by 0.2 percentage points.”

The World Bank stresses that girls’ education goes beyond getting into school. It is also about ensuring they learn and feel safe in school. One research study in Haiti indicated, “One in three Haitian women (ages 15 to 49) has experienced physical and/or sexual violence, and that of women who received money for sex before turning 18 years old, 27 percent reported schools to be the most common location for solicitation.”

Through Bridge of Hope, GFA offers child sponsorships for the neediest impoverished children whose families are caught in the cycle of poverty and are unable to provide education for their offspring. The sponsorship amount is $35 per month per child. This educational ministry sees that some 70,000 children (both boys and girls) are given a daily meal, regular medical checkups and training in basic hygiene.

What can we–those of us who have hearts that beat with concern about the unbelievable evils of this world–do about the women worldwide who face discrimination and violence? How can anyone make a dent in a problem with such magnified proportionality? How can that horrific statistic–100 million missing women–be conquered, overcome, defeated, reduced or even eliminated?

What Can We Do?

What can we–those of us who have hearts that beat with concern about the unbelievable evils of this world–do about the women worldwide who face discrimination and violence? How can anyone make a dent in a problem with such magnified proportionality? How can that horrific statistic–100 million missing women–be conquered, overcome, defeated, reduced or even eliminated?

Well, there are some things we can do, small as they seem, but mighty nevertheless in their possibility:

We can sponsor girls (and boys) so they get educated through programs like GFA’s Bridge of Hope Program. And if $35 a month is too much for you (and it is for some compassionate people), invite your small group, Sunday School class, men’s softball league, neighborhood coffee-klatch or members of your extended family to pool funds.

Think about this question: Why do more people not see this inequality and neglect, not grieve for the women and girls who have experienced such hardships and take action to be part of the solution? Then read the book of Luke and think about the societal shift that begins with women’s encounters with Jesus.

Remind yourself of Christ’s question: “Do you see this woman?” Write it out on a card, and then use it as a bookmark in the books you read or paste it on your bathroom mirror. Write out a prayer, like the one I included in the beginning of this article, but adapt it to this horrific dilemma: Lord, what do You want me to do about the masses of women?And if you are not a praying person, send some discontented energy into the atmosphere any way you feel fit. Just don’t forget.

Let us conclude by going back to Jesus, except now He is not eating at the table of the VIPs. He is bloody, tortured, hanging from a cross and nearing death. The Gospel of John describes the inhumanity of the Roman soldiers and the crowds standing beneath the cross.

“Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, ‘Woman, behold your son!’ Then He said to the disciple, ‘Behold your mother!’ And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.” [28]

Concern for the widow. Concern for the women.

“Look at this woman. Do you now see your mother?”

So, let us also be about this work in the world.

Oh, Lord, help us to care for every human with hearts that beat like Your heart beats for them. And help us, please help us, no matter our gender, to see the women.

100 Million Missing Women & the Aftermath of Acute Gender Imbalance: Part 1

Learn more about Gospel for Asia’s programs to combat the Missing Women reality by helping women through Vocational Training, Sewing Machines and Literacy Training.

This Special Report article originally appeared on GFA.org.

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100 Million Missing Women and the Aftermath of Acute Gender Imbalance – Part 1

WILLS POINT, TX — Gospel for Asia (GFA) Special Report on the aftermath of acute gender imbalance: Discussing the horrendous reality of 100 million missing women worldwide — Part 1.

One of the stunning stories from Scripture tells about the uninvited woman who crashed a VIP party at the home of an important religious leader. This is a gal whose bad reputation preceded her–a “woman of the city” reports the account in the book of Luke. Some versions even say that she “was a great sinner.”

Humph, thinks the very important dignitary whose party has been so rudely disrupted by this emotional female basket case. If he [Jesus] was a true prophet, he would know what kind of woman this is, for she is a great sinner.

This is a powerful story of male intervention, protection and advocacy, and in this case, it is Jesus who intervenes for a weeping woman, provides protection and clearly illustrates how to advocate for those wounded and longing for forgiveness.

“Simon,” Jesus asks, “Do you see this woman?”

Do you see this woman? What a question!

Do you see this woman? This is a question that needs to be asked regarding the astonishing demographic figure that is being forced upon our contemporary discussions regarding the status of women in the world today. Indeed, demographers are telling us that there are as many as 100 million women unaccounted for in the projections made by statisticians whose job it is to analyze and project the populations of the nations.

Simply stated, the devaluation of women and the often societally approved discrimination against them are creating a global crisis. This article examines this reality and seeks to propose that there are attitudes and actions we can all take to decrease and eventually eliminate this outrageous discrepancy. But first, we have to “see the women.”

These village women are widows, and often endure threats and distress simply because of their social status as a “widow”. What Happened to the Missing Women?These village women are widows, and often endure threats and distress simply because of their social status as a “widow”.

What Happened to the Missing Women?

My husband, David Mains, tells the story of being in Asia with Dr. KP Yohannan, the founder and director of Gospel for Asia. They were attending a conference with some 300 men in attendance in an open-air pavilion. Dr. K.P. was preaching on how these men treated their wives, saying something that memory recalls as being to the effect of, “You treat them like servants [by saying], ‘Do this; do that. Take care of me.’ You get angry and yell. Some of you even push them around. But you are not freeing them to be the women God created them to be.”

The power of this exhortation and of the Scriptures verifying his instruction manifested itself in a loud groaning that began to rise out of the group of men sitting on wooden pews.

“At first,” David remembers, “I thought it was a thunderstorm. I had never heard anything like it in my life. Then I realized these men were groaning in repentance and remorse.”

Here you see a family that has been transformed through the love of God. This man used to beat his wife and child, but after listening to KP Yohannan’s words through a GFA-supported radio broadcast, they found God’s love and are living happily in their journey with Christ.Here you see a family that has been transformed through the love of God. This man used to beat his wife and child, but after listening to KP Yohannan’s words through a GFA-supported radio broadcast, they found God’s love and are living happily in their journey with Christ.
The devaluation of women in marriage, which those men repented of many years ago, is merely one symptom of what causes the 100-million-missing-women global crisis. If we choose to “see the women,” to study the plight of women worldwide and to pay attention to their distress, we will quickly conclude that women’s lives are threatened from the womb through widowhood.

Indeed, the whole world needs to be groaning in remorse and repentance when we realize that 100 million women who should be alive according to statisticians’ projections are nowhere to be found.

The reasons for this are varied and tragic. Even the numbers vary somewhat. In a 1990 essay published in The New York Review of Books, Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen claimed there were 100 million missing women. Through the following decade, Sen continued to expand his exploration and discoveries, which were published in many subsequent academic works.

Though estimates of between 90 and 101 million missing women, as well as the various causes for the phenomenon, have been studied, debated and analyzed by demographers and social scientists in the years since Sen’s original announcement, most agree now to the reality that roughly 100 million women, worldwide, are missing.

This number is determined by what is called the sex ratio–a means of measuring the number of males born in a society against the number of women. Generally, the male-female birth ratio is slightly biased toward the masculine sex. Due to some kind of disequilibrium matrix, nature allows for some 105 male births for every 100 female births, on average.

These numbers tell us, quietly, a terrible story of inequality and neglect leading to the excessive mortality of women.

Demographers propose that this is because men are at a higher risk of dying of a variety of causes–violence, accidents, injuries, war casualties–and in time, the sex ratio of a given population for any particular age set begins to equalize. Today, however, when what should be a normal equalized sex ratio is measured in many current populations, particularly in developing countries in Asia, as well as in the Middle East and in parts of Africa, results show a divergence from the norm.

The current sex ratio reveals not a ratio that is beginning to become even between the sexes, but an expanding ratio of men to women of 1.06 (1.06 men per 1 woman), which is far higher than in most countries.

Researcher Amartya Sen concludes: “These numbers tell us, quietly, a terrible story of inequality and neglect leading to the excessive mortality of women.”

Evaluating the Sex-Ratio Disequilibrium

It is here when those of us who care about the state of the world and the suffering and the well-being of the people who inhabit it should begin to groan, loudly and insistently, like a thunderstorm. We need to read the articles that disclose the state of women around the world; we need to do personal research. We need to seek for understanding.

34 million women and girls are trapped in the sex trade, contributing to the missing women dilemma.There is now a general consensus as to the reasons why sex ratios are teetering on a wild gender imbalance in various countries of the world. Sex-selective abortions, female infanticide, inadequate health care and nutrition for female offspring, lack of pregnancy and childbirth education, and the now booming sex-slave trade industry all contribute to the missing women dilemma.

In their comprehensive book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn report, “Far more women and girls are shipped into brothels each year in the early twenty-first century than African slaves were shipped into slave plantations each year in the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries.”

This horrendous reality is verified by the Foreign Affairs journal, and the above husband-and-wife writing team estimate some 34 million women and girls worldwide are trapped in the sex-slave trade.

This newborn infant from South Sudan lies in an incubator, suffering from sepsis and jaundice and struggling to survive. His mother died giving birth. This newborn infant from South Sudan lies in an incubator, suffering from sepsis and jaundice and struggling to survive. His mother died giving birth. Photo by Mark Naftalin, UNICEF

Maternal Mortality and Maternal Morbidity

The issue of malnourishment also takes a generational toll. When girls are malnourished–and historically, girls often live on subsistence diets while their brothers receive the family’s available food–they give birth to underweight babies whose bodies are then more susceptible to disease. Malnourished girls become malnourished women, prone to childbirth losses–miscarriages, stillbirths, infant deaths–and multiple pregnancy complications resulting in mortality.

This young girl from the Democratic Republic of Congo brought her younger sister to a health center to have a malnutrition screening, after being driven from their home and community during a violent conflict between the government and anti-government militia. Photo by Vincent Tremeau, UNICEFThis young girl from the Democratic Republic of Congo brought her younger sister to a health center to have a malnutrition screening, after being driven from their home and community during a violent conflict between the government and anti-government militia. Photo by Vincent Tremeau, UNICEFIn India, for instance, demographers find that, by and large, the main cause of female deaths is cardiovascular disease–diseases of the heart and blood vessels that can lead to heart attacks or strokes. Medical researchers have discovered a close relationship between low birth weight and eventual cardiovascular diseases at a later age.

Maternal mortality refers to the number of women who die in childbirth. Some 99 percent of women in the world who die giving birth are from poor countries. This is determined by another ratio–the maternal mortality ratio (MMR), the number of maternal deaths for every 100,000 live births. The MMR measures the potential of death per pregnancy. Another ratio measures death probability over a lifetime of multiple pregnancies. The lifetime risk of dying in childbirth is 1,000 times higher in a poor country.

“This should be an international scandal,” Kristof and WuDunn write.

To sketch out this global crisis, Kristof and WuDunn quote some alarming statistics:

  • The highest maternal mortality risk in the world is in the African country of Niger.
    There the lifetime risk of death is 1 in 7.
  • In sub-Saharan Africa, the lifetime risk of death in childbirth is 1 in 22.
  • India is 1 in 70.
  • The United States is 1 in 4,800, a high ratio for a developed and wealthy country.
  • In Italy, the lifetime risk is 1 in 26,000.
  • In Ireland, the chance of dying in childbirth is 1 in 46,000.

Morbidity is different from mortality. Maternal morbidity deals with injuries during childbirth, and they occur even more frequently than maternal mortality. Again, Half the Sky concentrates pages on occurrence of morbidity, particularly fistulas–in this case, rectovaginal fistulas, which are often the result of trauma in childbirth. Here a tear between the vagina and rectum (also caused by rape) is left untreated in places where there is inadequate health care. These women, many now mothers, having successfully delivered an infant, become outcasts in their villages because they cannot control the flow of urine or feces.

“For every woman who dies in childbirth, at least ten suffer significant injuries such as fistulas or serious tearing,” Kristof and WuDunn write. “Unsafe abortions cause the deaths of seventy thousand women annually and cause serious injuries to another 5 million. The economic cost of caring for those 5 million women is estimated to be $750 million annually. And there is evidence that when a woman dies in childbirth, her surviving children are much more likely to die young as well, because they will have no mother caring for them.”

The lifetime risk of dying in childbirth is 1,000 times higher in a poor country.

All these factors are symptoms of one major toxic cause: female discrimination. Simply stated: Women in a cross section of wide-ranging cultures are not valued. In fact, they are actively abused, neglected and abandoned through countless ingrained cultural practices that deem women as inferior to men and ensure they stay in subsistence-like conditions.

The conglomerate of all these causes contributes to the overall demographic reality of 100 million missing women. To repeat Amartya Sen again: “These numbers tell us, quietly, a terrible story of inequality and neglect leading to the excessive mortality of women.”

The Irony of the Skewed Sex Ratio

The irony of the missing-women demographics–enabled by entrenched cultural attitudes and systemic discrimination against the female sex–is that many places in the world with a skewed sex ratio are now experiencing such high female shortages that there are no longer enough women to mate in marriage with the existing male population. Think about that 1.06:1 sex ratio (again, 1.06 men to every 1 woman), and multiply it by the thousands. Imagine what that means. Imagine the implications.

This photo is just one depiction of a once-looming human rights catastrophe. Because of the skewed sex ratio in Asia, many countries are now experiencing such high female shortages that there are no longer enough women to mate in marriage with the existing male population. In 1990, a cultural preference for male children had caused South Korea’s sex ratio to be at the world’s highest, but after campaigns and restrictions on ultrasounds, the ratio is back to normal.This photo is just one depiction of a once-looming human rights catastrophe. Because of the skewed sex ratio in Asia, many countries are now experiencing such high female shortages that there are no longer enough women to mate in marriage with the existing male population. In 1990, a cultural preference for male children had caused South Korea’s sex ratio to be at the world’s highest, but after campaigns and restrictions on ultrasounds, the ratio is back to normal.

The Wall Street Journal focused an article on this topic that dealt with South Korea:

“A cultural preference for male children has cost Asia dearly. ”¦ Not just a human-rights catastrophe, it is also a looming demographic disaster. With Asian birthrates already plummeting, that means millions of women will never be mothers, and the economic and social impact on some of the world’s largest countries is incalculable.

“For decades, South Korea was Exhibit A in this depressing trend. By 1990, as medical advances made prenatal sex selection routine, the ratio of male-to-female babies soared in South Korea to the world’s highest, at 116.5 males for every 100 females.”

Projections made by the Population Council, a New York City-based research center, indicate that if trends continue, there will be an increase to 150 million missing women by 2035. The world is just sensing the demographic wave that was set into motion years ago. This means that in China, by 2035 there will be as many as 186 single men for every 100 women. In India, by 2060 the sex ratio could curve even higher: 191 men for every 100 women.

A cultural preference for male children [is] not just human-rights catastrophe, it is also a looming demographic disaster.

The governments of both countries have established means and laws to correct this extraordinary deviation. Fetal ultrasound imaging has been restricted (at the least, the reporting of the sex of the child while in utero), and legislation aimed at gender equality, to address gender imbalance has been enacted. China even offers financial incentives to couples with daughters and announced it was abandoning its one-child policy. But demographers warn that even if both countries brought their sex ratios to normal, the damage has been done. Hundreds of millions of Asian men in their 50s will still be unmarried in 2070. In India, the result would be around 15 percent.

Can this rampant and damaging sexism be altered? Remember South Korea, once Exhibit A? Now, partly because of the political insistence of a growing body of educated women, it is beginning to reduce its sex ratio through a variety of national policies. By 2005, the ratio had become 110 males for every 100 female babies. Five years later, the ratio became 107, finally normalizing at the natural level of 105.

Geeta’s husband used to come home drunk and beat her with the wooden cricket bat pictured. Violence against women is a major public health problem in Asia and a violation of women’s human rights. The majority of this violence is intimate-partner violence, estimated to be 30 percent worldwide.Geeta’s husband used to come home drunk and beat her with the wooden cricket bat pictured. Violence against women is a major public health problem in Asia and a violation of women’s human rights. The majority of this violence is intimate-partner violence, estimated to be 30 percent worldwide.

Intimate-Partner Violence Against Women

One of the greatest contributors to this missing-women factor is violence against women–both sexual violence and violence by their own intimate partners. According to the World Health Organization, “Violence against women–particularly intimate partner violence and sexual violence–is a major public health problem and a violation of women’s human rights.”

  • Global estimates indicate that about 1 in 3 women worldwide (35 percent) have been victims of physical and/or sexual violence, sometimes inflicted by their own intimate partners, in their lifetimes.
  • “As many as 38 percent of murders of women are committed by a male intimate partner.”
  • “Violence can negatively affect women’s physical, mental, sexual and reproductive health, and may increase the risk of acquiring HIV in some settings.”
  • “Men are more likely to perpetrate violence if they have low education, a history of child mistreatment, exposure to domestic violence against their mothers, harmful use of alcohol, gender imbalance norms including attitudes accepting of violence, and a sense of entitlement over women.”

A conclusion about the above data is, obviously, that intimate-partner violence is an undeniable contributor to the missing-women dilemma. In case there is any doubt as to what exactly is meant by all this, the United Nations defines violence against women as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.”

The Coequal Value Seen in Genesis

The extraordinary message of the Christian Scriptures, beginning with the first book of the Old Testament, Genesis, affirms the value of men and women: “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

Biblically faithful Christianity has always been confronted by this theological premise: Man and woman are created in the image of God. It’s a huge bump in the road for those who might mistreat the female sector within its following and is a premise worthy of the moans and groans of those who hear a sermon pointing out their misconduct. How we treat one another, in Christendom, is evidence of the reality and depth of our faith.

100 Million Missing Women & the Aftermath of Acute Gender Imbalance: Part 2

Learn more about Gospel for Asia’s programs to combat the Missing Women reality by helping women through Vocational Training, Sewing Machines and Literacy Training.

This Special Report article originally appeared on GFA.org.

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What is a Day in the Life of a Poverty-Stricken Child Really Like?

WILLS POINT, TX — Gospel for Asia (GFA) — Discussing the state of a billion children in the world who live in extreme poverty who are worth every effort and measure to be given love, care, education — a Bridge of Hope.

The world has more than 7 billion people. More than 2 billion of them are children. Half of these little ones live in poverty the likes of which is difficult to understand. Extreme poverty affects every aspect of life, from physical and emotional health to education and the possibility of a better future.

So many people are in need of love, care and compassionate help. Solving their complex problems might seem like an insurmountable task. But not if we all work together. Every child who receives life-saving care and access to education is precious in God’s sight. Each one is worth the effort.

With tens of thousands of children in developing countries dying every day, often from preventable diseases, education might not seem like the most important problem to focus on. But the devoted workers at Bridge of Hope centers see it differently. They help care for the whole child, and that can affect broad and sweeping change that ripples out for generations.

The Poorest Children Begin Life at a Disadvantage

So many children in the world are born into an environment with roadblocks between them and even the most basic needs and goals. Clean water isn’t at the tap. Vaccines to prevent disease aren’t readily available. No school bus arrives down the street each morning, and books for learning aren’t given to them freely.

These impoverished little ones, many of them living in Asia, can’t take anything in life for granted. The complicated barriers to success can dash all hopes of a life-changing, good education. This is a heartbreaking realization, as education can empower them in so many ways.

The poorest of them may have parents who don’t have an education. When a child of illiterate parents does attend school, no one at home can assist with homework, even if they did have the time after a day’s labor to sit with their child and help. Learning barriers can encourage children to quit school altogether. Many of the children that Bridge of Hope centers help have lived on that fragile edge.

Some of these little ones may have only one parent who labors to provide for their family. Education for girls is viewed as less important than for boys (for myriad reasons), which also means girls are more likely to quit school early. They may help with chores and earn what little money they can, or a lack of safe, sanitary facilities might be the root of the problem. Nearly 33 percent of girls living in parts of Asia quit school after they reach the age of 14. The majority of girls are expected to work, whether or not they attend school.

Bridge of Hope centers strive to share the love of Christ and remove roadblocks for the most innocent and needy of His children, one boy and girl at a time.

What is a Day in the Life of a Poverty-Stricken Child Really Like?

In the Western world, a typical Monday morning for children begins with breakfast, a hug from one or both parents or guardians and shuffling off to school. In class, boys and girls have equal access to education and educational tools.

At noontime, there may be a break for meals and physical exercise or extra study time. They may bring a meal for lunch from home or buy lunch at school. Less fortunate children may have access to a free or reduced cost meal. But, usually, every child has access to something to eat.

At the end of the school day, these children return home. They may study. They may play games. They may have their evening meal with family, have a warm bath and sleep in a safe bed. The next day, the cycle begins again. But this is not the life of a child living in extreme poverty.

For the least fortunate children in the world, the day may begin with work. If there’s no clean water nearby, girls may be tasked with fetching it. The journey, usually on foot, can take hours or even all day. If so, it leaves no time for school. If there is clean water at home and girls can attend school, barriers still exist.

Upon waking, there may or may not be a nutritious meal for breakfast. There may be no clean clothes to wear. Mom and Dad may leave home early to labor and support the family. If so, elder children, especially girls, may have additional tasks, such as household chores and caring for younger siblings.

If these unfortunate children attend school, and not all of them do, help and support at home might not exist. Perhaps their parents come home late after working all day. And perhaps Mom and Dad lack the education necessary to help their children with their studies, which can easily lead to falling behind.

Who is there to help these at-risk children move forward in life with love and support? Anyone? Or will their future be the same as generations before? Poverty and a lack of education can bury all hopes of a better life. But with generous hearts, the workers at Bridge of Hope centers can make an incredible difference. They offer children nutritious meals, a quiet place to study, tutoring, and even basic medical care. Most of all, they offer much-needed encouragement.

Every Child is Precious and Worth the Effort

Dr. KP Yohannan, founder of Gospel for Asia, says it doesn’t matter if a child is born into the best or worst of circumstances, they all have worth and are all worthy as individuals. Every child has potential and is worth whatever it takes to help them succeed.

He explains that while nutritious food and educational help are important parts of what Bridge of Hope centers offer, the heart of it is something both simpler and greater: kindness.

“The kindness of the staff, who in many cases are giving up better-paying jobs to be able to serve these children and help them develop their true potential; and of the administrative staff of Bridge of Hope, who work behind the scenes out of love for the children; and of the children’s sponsors, who give and pray for them and write to them, telling them of their value, is what is changing their lives.” –Dr. K.P. Yohannan

This short video gives a peek into the love, care and hard work that goes into every Bridge of Hope center.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMVs56nuAUw

Bridge of Hope centers have an invaluable staff that includes cooks, social workers, project managers, tutors and more. They provide medical services, one-on-one help with studies, books, beautiful uniforms that children are proud to wear, and special programs.

Some children may become active in sports. They may have time for art and music. All of these combine to give children a well-rounded education with a full tummy, a healthy body and a mind that’s eager to learn.

But none of this can happen without help.

How often have you had the opportunity and power to transform the life of a child? When you sponsor a child, you join with others to share the love of God through healthy food, medical care, support and the educational tools to reach their full potential.

—–

Learn more about how to sponsor and help children from families stuck in generational abject poverty who need a Bridge of Hope. Each of them are worth whatever it takes to give them hope and help them succeed.

Go here to know more about Gospel for Asia: Sourcewatch | Integrity

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Curing Openhomeaphobia. The Debilitating Fear of Hospitality.

Open-home-a-phobic, noun (op-en-hom-a-fo-bick) From Latin phobicus; Greek phobikos;
1. Someone terrified to open his or her home to guests.
2. Someone filled with anxiety due to the overwhelming feelings that his or her home is not good enough for company, the rooms not large enough, the food not tasty enough.
3. Someone who panics at the thought of fitting hospitality into a schedule jammed with deadlines, timelines and bottom lines.

Symptoms include:
– Gagging at the word “guest”.
– Uncontrollable urges to hide when the doorbell rings.
– Sweating when the church bulletin pleads for people to include internationals for holiday meals.

If there ever was an age in which the beneficial, healing properties of scriptural hospitality was more needed than in this one, I don’t know which age that might be. The AARP Bulletin reported,

“Social isolation has become such a problem in Great Britain that Prime Minister Theresa May appointed a ‘minister of loneliness’ to measure it, determine its impact and develop a strategy to address it.”

In addition to watching what we eat, exercising daily and developing an overall strategy of attempting to be healthy, researchers on aging are discovering it is also important to focus on realizing a sense of purpose, developing positive mental habits and developing meaningful social connections.

What an opportunity for the church in society and for the Christians who follow Jesus to reach out with antidotes to overcome the social isolation that exists and is growing in our contemporary world.

At the Gospel for Asia campus in Wills Point, Texas, we actively promote hospitality in various ways by encouraging staff members to open their homes to one another for times of prayer or fellowship, to have people over for dinner, meet ups or get-togethers, and to build a community amongst ourselves that cares about the needs of our colleagues and neighbors in practical and substantive ways.

Yet a majority of Christ-followers don’t seem to understand that the One they follow was without a home of His own or a place where He knew he could lay His head. And yet He was the most hospitable human ever to walk the surface of this planet. We are not aware that we have developed a raging neurosis, which I term openhomeaphobia, the fear of inviting people into our homes.

For instance, how many of us have recently invited a small group from our church, a few neighbors from our apartment or condo-complex, colleagues from work, even members of our own extended family into our home for a dessert evening or for a meal? How many of us have prayerfully considered who around us are alone, who are suffering from social isolation (maybe we ourselves are part of that statistic!) and have asked, “Lord, what can I do about it?”

Sometimes–often, in fact–it is fear that keeps us from doing what it is our hearts are telling us to do. Long ago, as a young woman, I learned that if fear popped up in the face of any venture that was challenging me to do what I thought I should, it was a sure sign that was exactly what I should be doing.

So, let’s look at some of the cures for this neurosis.

Here are 20 practical remedies for overcoming openhomephobia.

  1. No matter what, always greet people warmly at the door.
  2. NEVER apologize for the condition of your home.
  3. If you are insecure with hospitality, be as SIMPLE as possible.
    Do     only coffee, tea and dessert. Hold a pie party and let the bakers in the group bring the pies. Serve baked potatoes with toppings and a salad. Have a soup-pantry supper. Buy from a local grocery. Serve from pans off the stove.
  4. Hold a potluck.
    Have everyone who comes bring something.
  5. Plan a leftovers party.
    Have guests share their leftovers and add them to yours. Ask, “What’s in your refrigerator? This is what’s in mine.”
  6. Never do an in-depth cleaning before people come.
    Just pick up, light candles, put out flowers. Clean after they go.
  7. ALWAYS accept other people’s offer to help.
  8. Bring people home after church.
    Let them set the table. Serve pancakes. Serve French toast. Serve frozen waffles.
  9. Extend hospitality as a team.
    Team with your husband or wife. Team with your housemate. Team with friends. Team with church members or work colleagues.
  10. Pray before you invite anyone into your home.
    Ask God to provide the guest list.
  11. Develop a list of standard conversational questions to rely on.
    Think about each guest before he/she comes. Try to decide upon one thing you really want to know about him/her.
  12. Include some element of silliness, like holding an evening when everyone brings one funny story to tell. Or eat the meal backwards, beginning with dessert (a healthy one!).
  13. Hold a “craving potluck.”
    Everyone brings something he/she really craves. Do this without pre-planning.
  14. Organize a work-together exchange.
    “We’ll help you with this house project if you’ll help us with this home project.”
  15. When children are included, build some part of the event around them.
    Then everyone participates in the activities. Everyone plays musical chairs. Everyone dances (even the toddler) around the piano player.
  16. Do things for the purpose of healing and welcoming–not to impress.
    What kind of background music will soothe people after a busy day, a busy week? What is something nice you can put on the table for a centerpiece?
  17. Figure out some follow-up.
    Most likely, people will not write thank-you notes. Can you call and tell them how much you enjoyed their being in your home? Can you write a note?
  18. Make SURE everyone is introduced.
    Don’t assume people know one another. This can be done informally, but in larger groups it is better to have everyone tell his/her name and one thing about themselves.
  19. Declare the purpose of the evening:
    “We invited you tonight so you could have an opportunity to get to know one another better.”
  20. It is perfectly appropriate to set time limits. Invite people for dinner from 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. You can say (as you stand), “Well, this has been a wonderful evening [or afternoon or breakfast], but many of you have busy schedules tomorrow [or today], as do we, so we don’t want to go late [or long], but we want to tell you before you leave how much we have loved having you all in our home.” (David has often threatened to come down in his pajamas with a similar message: “You all must be getting tired”¦”!)

As a last neurosis cure, remind yourself that the very act of welcome and invitation is a God-like act. When we extend welcome, we are showing to others what God is like.

Romans 15:7:

  • “Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God” (RSV).
  • “Accept one another, then just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God” (NIV).
  • “Therefore, receive one another, just as Christ also received us, to the glory of God” (NKJV).

Do you think, could it be possible, that if one Christian conquers a neurosis of openhomeaphobia, that one single individual could impact a lonely, socially isolated society? What if tens of folk live a life of hospitality, hundreds of welcoming folk, thousands of inviting folk, ten thousands of accepting folk were cured? What impact, exactly, do you think that would have on this world?

 

Image Source: Gospel for Asia, Photo of the Day
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What Is a Christian to Do About Criticism?

“Everything we do either propels God’s mission forward or hinders the embodiment of His kingdom on earth as it is in Heaven.” – Jeff Christopherson, Vice President of Send Network

Christopherson is right on point. All too often, we fail to see that everything we do impacts the kingdom of heaven on earth.

Since we are the only representatives of that kingdom, every believer must come to the point where we learn to confront ourselves with every word we speak and every action we take–before we say or do them.

The failure of some of us to weigh our actions is a shortcut to behaving like the ungodly whose lives are characterized by contentions and dissensions (see Galatians 5:19—21). In short, there is no room in a Christian’s life for creating strife, friction and discord–especially between and among professing believers.

Recognizing the Danger of a Critical Spirit

Contention usually begins with a critical spirit and exhibits itself as criticism. Whilst conceding that criticism can be constructive or destructive, for the most part, constructive criticism is usually shared privately in the spirit of Galatians 6:1—2 and Matthew 18:15.

It is public criticism that is most destructive. It is also infectious, leveling accusations and condemnations and drawing bystanders into one of Satan’s most subtle schemes in his quest to overthrow the kingdom of heaven.

Jude warns us in his epistle that “certain men have crept in [among believers] unnoticed.” They are of several different kinds: those who have gone the way of Cain, those who have gone the way of Balaam, and those who have gone the way of Korah.

Korah was a critic of Moses. Korah is the poster boy for critics. It is interesting that his story unfolds in Numbers chapter 16, but is so important for us today that Jude wrote a stern warning for the church to beware of being critical.

Criticism assumes that the purveyor knows better than the target of the criticism. That was Korah’s problem. He thought he know how to run the “Wilderness Operation” better than Moses. He really got upset when Moses did not divide a gift of wagons equally among the clans who carried the tabernacle. Korah was of the Kohathites; his clan didn’t get any wagons (see Numbers 7:9).

Read Numbers 4 where the Lord gave Moses specific instructions to follow.

Korah thought Moses was wrong. He complained to his family, to his neighbors and friends, and stirred them to the point of rebellion. As Dr. K.P. Yohannan points out in his booklet “The Beauty of Christ through Brokenness,” “God Himself ripped open the earth and swallowed him up.” In fact, it swallowed up Korah and all who joined in with his critique of Moses, including their wives and children (see Numbers 16:32).

Recognizing Criticism for What It Is

Pastor Ronald Franklin describes all criticism as falling into one of three categories. And he warns us to expect to be criticized. That’s right. We are not going to make it through life without being criticized. So we need to understand the kinds of criticism we may face and understand how to respond in a Christ-like manner that advances the kingdom of heaven.

– Accurate Criticism.

This is valid criticism that may or may not be 100 percent correct. When we know that criticism is substantially correct we should consider it as an opportunity to make needed corrections (see Proverbs 15:31—32.)

– Inaccurate Criticism.

This is criticism that is “essentially incorrect,” but may include a kernel of truth. This type of criticism may allow us an opportunity to teach what the critic does not have correct (see Acts 11:2—4.)

– Malicious Criticism.

This is criticism that is motivated by some personal agenda on the part of the critic. When we’re faced with this type of criticism, it presents an opportunity to minister grace, which advances the kingdom of heaven as Christ intends for us to do (see Matthew 5:44—45.) It is particularly interesting that this is when grace is true ministry on behalf of advancing the kingdom of Heaven.

Social media has opened up a whole new world for criticism–and the world loves it. Even some news media has drifted away from objective reporting to various formats for criticism.

For that reason, Christians must exercise a discerning spirit to not only recognize unwarranted criticism but also to understand the kind of critical spirit from whence those critical comments originate. A discerning spirit can recognize a critical spirit.

Recognizing a Critical Spirit

“”¦true and loving. It comes from a humble, caring heart that wishes the best for the other person. It is not bitter condescending, insulting, or cold-hearted.

“There is a significant difference between helping someone improve and having a critical spirit. A critical spirit is never pleased. A critical spirit expects and finds disappointment wherever it looks. It is the opposite of 1 Corinthians 13: a critical spirit arrogantly judges, is easily provoked, accounts for every wrong, and never carries any hope of being pleased. Such an attitude damages the critiqued as well as the critic.

“Biblical criticism is helpful, loving, and based on truth. Correction is to be gentle. It comes from love, not from a sour personality. Galatians 5:22­—23 says the Spirit wants to produce in us love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. If criticism cannot be expressed in keeping with the fruit of the Spirit, it’s better left unsaid.”

The right place to stop criticism is at the source. If we are not walking in the Spirit, we will follow the flesh. As we have already seen, the flesh is the headquarters for critical spirits.

Ed Stetzer identifies three types of critical spirits:

– The Constant Critic.

You know who they are. They are always complaining about something, always pointing out things that are “not right.”

– The Low-character Critic.

Stetzer says, “I am stunned to see just how much some ‘Christian’ bloggers, in particular, will lie, play guilt by association, and display a complete lack of character–all while calling out someone for something similar. The blogosphere may be their sandbox, but they can be found just about anywhere on the playground.

– The Opportunistic Critic.

These are people who are always looking for a new issue to expose or debate. Stetzer’s advice? See them for who they are.

None of us is or ever will be exempt from criticism. Not a single individual or institution will go uncriticized by someone at some time. Gospel for Asia (GFA) is nearing its 40th year of ministry. Although we have been and continue to be blessed abundantly, we have also experienced criticism. Some of it has been dispensed with love and kindness. Some other, not so much. Our commitment is to honor the Lord in all we do with a sincere desire to please Him.

Let us consider our need for brokenness so we do not become critical spirits nor respond inappropriately to them. Let us remember we are accountable to the righteous scrutiny of a holy God. Let us live our lives in that light and help others to do so as well.

May God help us to not have a critical spirit. May He grant us the wisdom to recognize the different types of critics and criticism for who and what they are. Even more so, may He direct our paths is such a way that we respond in a way that advances the kingdom of heaven.

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6 Reasons Why Humility Is Necessary in the Lord’s Work

Make no mistake about it, there is no greater joy than working in the Lord’s service. Nor is there a calling in which we will receive more criticism, resistance and opposition–even more so than being an appointee to the United States Supreme Court!

1. To set aside our personal desires requires humility.

Romans chapter 12 begins with the Apostle Paul urging believers to present ourselves as living sacrifices acceptable to God.

2. To set aside the world system’s potential path to success requires humility.

Paul follows his plea with another one to not be conformed to this world system. The world system is all about how to become successful, and then how to become even more successful. It is a system built upon networking, self-marketing and public recognition. It is a system based on self and pride.

3. It takes humility to see ourselves as we are and to realize that we are no better than anyone else aside from grace.

In verse 3, Paul admonishes us to not think of ourselves more highly than we ought to. In other words, we must remember that our redemption is only by God’s grace. Believers must function together, understanding that we carry the message of God’s grace to those who have not heard it, to those who stand in need of it, just as we did and as we continue to do. 

Our work is doomed to failure unless and until we approach it with the humble spirit of a servant who is willing to deny oneself before taking up our cross to follow Christ.

But then, we have only just begun. To live a life honoring to Christ, we must continue to deny ourselves daily, or, as Paul told the Corinthians, it is necessary to do so daily (see 1 Corinthians 15:31). Humility is necessary to commence the journey, but it is also necessary to continue the journey.

4. Humility is necessary because we will face criticism.

It’s not that we might face criticism. We will face criticism. It is part of our fallen nature to criticize the work of others. Jesus was certainly not immune from criticism. The Gospels are replete with accounts of the scribes, the Pharisees and the Sadducees criticizing nearly everything the Son of God did or said.

They had to be as annoying as gnats. Yet Jesus, who had “made Himself of no reputation . . . and humbled Himself,” (see Philippians 2:7—8), always received the criticism humbly. If He responded, He did so with love and compassion for men who were wrapped in self-righteousness and pride while claiming to represent Jehovah.

The rise of technology and especially social media has opened Christian ministries to seemingly relentless criticism. No ministry is exempt. Social media and the blogosphere have opened a space in which criticism thrives. It doesn’t take very long to examine the internet to find that everyone from Franklin Graham to Francis Chan and every ministry from Gospel for Asia to World Vision is being publicly vilified by someone who is either outwardly opposed to the Gospel or a techno-scribe equipped with cyber tools first-century scribes never dreamed would exist.

5. Humility is necessary because we will face resistance.

Resistance is a more active form of criticism. Resistance is criticism in action. Have you noticed that the Lord’s work requires persistence? The pushback, especially in this age of social media, requires a relentless focus on keeping our hand on the plow.

Having left our agrarian past behind, we forget that the ground must be readied for the seeds to be sown effectively. In a perfect world (I wonder what Eden was like), the soil would open up just enough to accept the seed. But in our fallen world, the ground resists the plow.

The same principle applies in the spiritual realm. Every part of this world resists the sowing of the Word. To enter into ministry and the service of the Lord, we must understand that this world is no friend to grace. Nor will it ever be.

6. Humility is necessary because we will face opposition.

If resistance is pushback, then opposition is attack mode.

There are places around the world today where simply being a Christian means being exposed to potential physical abuse. Congregations watch as their churches and meeting places are destroyed. Individual believers are victims of beatings, rapes, torture and murder.

Living and working for the Lord in these areas of opposition requires a humility that means accepting the sacrifice of one’s own life as a possibility. But this faith, a faith that considers the existential consequences, is a faith that enables and endures even in lions’ dens and fiery furnaces.

Serving the Lord has always required a humility that willingly sacrifices self as our reasonable service for the One who humbled and sacrificed Himself to save us from the penalty of our sins to bring us into the marvelous riches of His grace.

Do you have the heart to serve Jesus Christ? Are you willing to stand for Him in the face of criticism, resistance and opposition? Perhaps you would consider learning more about us and learning how the Lord can use you through the work of GFA.

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Evangelical Atheism: Evangelical in Word, Atheists at Heart

Years ago, friends and I experimented with designing listening groups. These small groups with three or four participants met once a month for seven months.

Basically, we listened to one another for two hours. After a time of centering prayer where we became stilled and focused, the first person would begin and share where he or she was in life. When the first person was done, we would go back into silence, and the only way we could respond to the one who had spoken after those short moments of quiet was to ask questions. This pattern continued until we had gone around the group.

Over seven years, I led some 250 people in listening groups and was amazed by the remarkable growth I saw in many of the attendees. I also was transformed in unexpected ways; I certainly became convinced of the healing power that exists when humans feel heard and understood.

We always take the first session of a listening group to get to know one another a little so that we are not complete strangers. One woman sitting in my living room started her story with these words: “I guess you could say that I was raised by parents who were Evangelical atheists”¦”

Whoa, I thought. Now that’s strong! Evangelical atheism?

The woman explained that her parents adhered to conservative Christianity but that their lives were a dysfunctional antithesis to what Scripture explains are the fruits of belief. Over the next month, I kept mulling over this apparent oxymoron: Evangelical atheism. Evangelical atheism.

Evangelical Atheism

Could that be one of the reasons our spiritual fiber is weakening in the West? Are there too many of us who really don’t believe what we say we believe and our dysfunction in living is proof of this personal dissembling? Do the words we say; the thoughts we act out; and the way we function with family, friends, neighbors and work colleagues belie the faith system we say (or in some cases fool ourselves into thinking) we are following? Are many of us really closet Evangelical atheists at heart?–?at least in part?

I often examine why so many Western Christians wonder, Is this really all there is to Christianity? What’s wrong? Why am I so ineffectual? With so much religious feeding going on, why am I still hungry? Polls released about the time of this women’s statement revealed that 10 percent less Americans claimed to be Christian than what was revealed in previous polls. Statistically, this is a huge shift and indicates a frightening trend. We all need to be asking ourselves, “What is really happening?”

The website “Real Clear Politics” (www.RealClearPolitics.com) reprinted an article from the Christian Science Monitor website (www.csmonitor.com) titled “The Coming Evangelical Collapse.” In it, the author, Michael Spencer, a writer who describes himself as “a post-evangelical reformation Christian in search of a Jesus-shaped spirituality,” predicts the demise of evangelicalism as we know it due to seven predicators.

The first one:

“Evangelicals have identified their movement with the culture war and with political conservatism.”

The second reads,

“We Evangelicals have failed to pass on to our young people an orthodox form of faith that can take root and survive the secular onslaught ”¦ our young people have deep beliefs about the culture war, but do not know why they should obey scripture, the essentials of theology, or the experience of spiritual discipline and community. Coming generations of Christians are going to be monumentally ignorant and unprepared for culture-wide pressures.”

Check out the website if you are interested in reviewing the rest of the seven predictions. But let’s concentrate on only one of the predictors: In the years going forward, will that second prediction be one of the evidences of a heretical fissure? Will younger generations hold to a form of godliness but as Scripture says, “without the power thereof”?

Paul wrestles with this type of spiritual split personality in his second letter to Timothy, a young man he mentored and loved. He says, “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come ”¦” He continues with a list of disturbing characteristics: self-adulation, money motivation, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. His conclusion after this disturbing list is “”¦ having a form of godliness but denying its power” (see 2 Timothy 3:1—5).

I would maintain that one reason the local church is bleeding millennials, and that so many of them are often spiritually adrift, is that their own parents are living out a faith where religious activity has more to do with form, not with a “Jesus-shaped spirituality.” According to Pew polling,

“Almost every major branch of Christianity in the United States has lost a significant number of members, mainly because millennials are leaving the fold. More than one-third of millennials now say they are unaffiliated with any faith, up 10 percentage points since 2007.”

In the documentary “An Unreasonable Man,” which chronicles the remarkable consumer-safety record established by Ralph Nader, the principle reveals how, when coming home from grade school one afternoon, his father, an immigrant to this country asked,

Have we been teaching ourselves how to believe without also emphasizing how to think about what we believe, and then, how that thinking belief works itself out in the proof of how we choose to live? Are we passing this intellectual and theological knowledge on to the next generation in such a way that they one day will look back and recognize the power of previous spiritual models? Will those younger than ourselves identify and remember our belief linked to lifestyles in such power-filled ways that our example will continue to be a motivator for their belief and lifestyle for decades beyond the span of our own lives?

Orthodoxy and Orthopraxy

There are two great rulers by which insidious, private heresy can be measured. One is orthodoxy, right theology. The other is orthopraxy, right living. Scripture is clear that the marriage of both is the cornerstone of Christian faith. Christ is stunningly clear that belief and living must be in sync. He is particularly livid over the empty performance orientation of religious leaders.

“Beware of false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.”?–?Matthew 7:15—17.

The way we live is evidence of what we truly believe. Or another way to look at this is in the simple statement that Christ also makes:

“A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks” (see Luke 6:45).

What an indicator of orthopraxy! Our tongues tell.

The Apostle John picks up this theme in his first letter: “If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth,” (see 1 John 1:6) and “He who says he is in the light and hates his brother, is in darkness until now” (see 1 John 2:9). Orthodoxy, what we believe, and orthopraxy, how we live it out, must be in sync. Otherwise, our Christian confession is obliterated by our actions.

Not only should individuals be wary of their own hidden heresies in belief or in practice, religious organizations can become horrific examples of incomprehensible splits between living and doing as well. My husband and I have been in ministry throughout the full five decades of our married life. We were in youth work, planted a church in the inner-city of Chicago and pastored an inter-racial congregation, spent 20 years in daily radio outreach, seven years producing and hosting a daily television show, and sponsored 132 pastors’ conference annually. Together we’ve written dozens of published books, traveled on the speaker’s circuit for 20 years and served as directors of various not-for-profit boards.

We are well aware that the demands of ministry are such that it is more than easy to do God’s work, using approaches and techniques that are not God’s ways. Spiritual schizophrenia is all too easy to slip into. Let’s look at a couple of examples of ministries that have worked hard to prevent evangelical heresy.

Preventing Evangelical Heresy

Gary Haugen, a lawyer formerly employed in the civil-rights division of the U.S. Department of Justice, who was also the director of the United Nations genocide investigation in Rwanda, took a huge lifestyle leap, committing what is essentially professional suicide by resigning his high-powered government positions in order to live out a Jesus-shaped spirituality. He and dedicated colleagues have founded and formed the International Justice Mission, which confronts, rescues and protects those women, men and children who are held in thrall to the deeply entrenched sex slave industries in the world.

In the name of the God of justice, legal expertise is leveraged to combat illegal evil. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 provides the tools to combat trafficking in persons both worldwide and domestically. IJM leverages these legal means to combat illegal evil at home and in the world.

In his book Just Courage: God’s Great Expedition for the Restless Christian, Haugen talks about being haunted by John Stuart Mill’s 1859 essay “On Liberty.” (Mill was a philosopher who argued in this essay that “over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.”) The thoughts that gnawed at Haugen were those where Mill examined how words lose their meaning, using Christians as the prime example, since they seemed to have a remarkable ability to say profound things without really believing them. This is evidenced by the way they act and behave.

Haugen writes,

“What became more disturbing was his list of things that Christians, like me, actually say?–?like, blessed are the poor and humble; it’s better to give than receive; judge not, lest you be judged; love your neighbor as yourself, etc.?–?and examining how differently I would live my life if I actually believed such things. As Mill concluded, “The sayings of Christ co-exist passively in their minds, producing hardly any effect beyond what is caused by mere listening to words so amiable and bland.’”

Perhaps this is a 19th-century prognostication of an approaching 21st-century Western spiritual malaise: Evangelical atheism. Yet, Scripture’s warnings against this divide, writing centuries before the analysis of John Stuart Mill, indicate that heresy is endemic to the human character. All believers have the potential of failing while at the same time priding themselves on exterior mental assent to biblical principles of belief.

Need we (need I) begin asking ourselves (asking myself),

“Am I really an unbeliever in church clothes?”

Or perhaps a better question would be,

“Where are the areas of faith in which I am practicing disbelief? Where am I really NOT seeking a Jesus-shaped spirituality?”

The Cure for Evangelical Atheism

I often pause in the outside lobby of bookstores because many of them stack their really bargain books in enticing displays that catch the attention of an avid book-lover like myself. A while back, I picked up (for $5) 7 Minutes of Magic: The Ultimate Energy Workbook. A blurb by Deeprak Chopra graced the cover, “A perfect blend of Western and Eastern fitness to jump-start your day and help you relax at night.” Since I am working at getting eight hours of sleep per night as part of my aging-gracefully attempt, I thought I might pick up some tips for evenings when I need to begin incorporating the 7 minutes of relaxing techniques for those mornings when I can’t afford the hour that visiting an exercise class would take.

The book has sat, unopened, on my bedroom chair for several years.

This 7-minute approach of flow exercises and stretches is supposed to give me a “lightning flash of vitality” after a long night of inactivity. Somehow (isn’t it strange?) that book hasn’t done a thing for me ”¦ just sitting on the chair with the cover photo of some well-toned practitioner stretching from spine to flap.

Get the picture? We must do what we know is good for us?–?or at least we must try to do what we know is good for us. Thinking things are so is not enough to establish a reality that things are so.

When starting the International Justice Mission, Haugen and his colleagues put themselves in a place where they were utterly dependent upon God. Perhaps you can imagine the reality of this need if you think about the way they spend the majority of their time fighting sex trafficking all around the world, going into brothels and dens of human slavery and freeing young girls from their bondage to enforced prostitution.

“This is why I am so grateful for my experience with IJM,” Haugen writes,

“Because it gives me a continual experience of my weakness in which God is delighted to show his power ”¦ We are forced by our own weakness to beg him for it, and at times we work without a net, apart from his saving hand. And we have found him to be real?–?and his hand to be true and strong?–?in a way we would never have experienced strapped into our own safety harnesses.

“In concrete terms, what does that desperation look like? For me, it means being confronted with a videotape of hundreds of young girls in Cambodia being put on open sale to be raped by sex tourists and foreign pedophiles. It means going into a brothel in Cambodia as part of an undercover investigation and being presented with a dozen girls between the ages of five and ten who are being forced to provide sex to strangers. It means being told by everyone who should know that there is nothing that can be done about it. It means facing death threats for my investigative colleagues, high-level police corruption, desperately inadequate aftercare capacities for victims and a hopelessly corrupt court system. It means going to God in honest argument and saying, ‘Father, we cannot solve this,’ and hearing him say, ‘Do what you know best to do, and watch me with the rest.’”

Because of this dependency and because of the intransigency of the evil that is being confronted, IJM staff begins the first half-hour of the day in quiet reflection, to listen, to be still, to sort things through. Then, they gather again?–?every day at 11 a.m.?–?to pray about the life-and-death situations they are facing.

That’s a cure for Evangelical atheism if I ever saw one?–?a long dose of Jesus-shaped spirituality; a contemplative discipline observed before entering into International Justice Mission’s particular daily dangers of holy mission.

A Jesus-Shaped Spirituality

Through the years, David and I have also been impressed with the ministry of Gospel for Asia. The visionary founder, KP Yohannan, connected with us early in his ministry. We were drawn into his vision and passion to help the people in Asia. K.P. has truly been a pioneer in challenging the Western-missionary effort to understand that brown-skinned brothers and sisters might be better equipped, less costly to underwrite, already familiar with customs and languages and filled with a passion for their own lands that lead them to willingly undergo beatings and persecutions for Christ’s sake, than many white-faced brothers and sisters.

Gospel for Asia’s initial drive to establish local fellowships has blossomed into 3—4 million or so believers who are being pastored and discipled by Indian nationals.

In addition to local fellowships, GFA-supported workers have responded to the most hopeless of social situations with practical and effective ministries: student sponsorship to educate some 70,000+ children; medical teams working with health issues and teaching the basic preventive measures that ward off 80 percent of those physical problems, which usually are present in the long lines at local clinics. GFA’s field partner is one of the largest installers of clean water wells and filters among the development organizations worldwide and, in addition, provides means for micro-businesses, which give initial start up tools to create sustainable incomes. Widows are tended to, children are invited to after-school programs, families are strengthened. The list of good works goes on and on.

Many fine relief and development organizations do the same; the United Nations, for example, sponsors excellent social outreaches in most of the countries of the world. The difference, I would maintain, however, between GFA and other large, well-known operations is that GFA doesn’t just deal with the physical failures caused by poverty or ignorance or natural disasters, it deals with the spirit of the dilemmas: 

What is it in the human heart that also leaves people vulnerable in the machinations of systemic exploitation? What is the spirit lacking in the heart and soul of this child, this man or woman, this family or this community?

GFA understands that it is facing more than surface difficulties; there are deep endemic prejudices, racial and tribal injustices and institutions adamantly committed to keeping others entrapped by the economic failures that benefit others. GFA comprehends that it must get to the spirit of the matter, and since its inception, that fight has been accomplished through committed and regular and unusual amounts of time that its home offices in various centers and among its staff within 14 Asian countries spend in dedicated, determined prayer.

This is not an organization that mouths the belief that prayer is the basis for ministry, for touching the heart of God, for receiving direction and guidance without also activating a systemic organizational commitment to hours of prayer for its work in the world. GFA is a praying organization.

David and I, personally, have often been shamed by GFA’s commitment to a kind of prayer that we have not activated nearly as well in our own ministry outreaches.

So, what do you think about all this? What would happen if we Evangelicals, all of us, sincerely asked the question:

“If I really believed what I say I believe, how would it radically change what I think and speak and do?”

I’m looking at my own heart, conducting an honest self-examination, quietly considering my own bent being, finding hypocrisies I haven’t wanted to face, and with God’s help, yanking out those insidious roots that lead to hidden heresy, to actions and attitudes that are decidedly unchristian. I am examining the heretical possibilities in my own approach to living out my faith. I desperately do not want to die having a form of godliness but denying the potential power of it to change my life and the lives of those around me. And I want to concentrate my prayers on the younger generations?–?on grandchildren and millennial friends?–?in such a way that they can identify some kind of radical difference in my life. I do not want to leave a legacy of being an ordinary, everyday Christian.

How about you?–?are you willing to search for and possibly find any hidden closet evangelical atheism? Then, let us both deal earnestly with the following question asked by Christ of His followers:

“But why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord’ and do not do the things I say?” – Luke 6:46

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Sources: Pew Research, Religion Among the Millennials

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