Abortion and the War on Women

Bible Study Abortion and the War on Women

Sex-selective abortion has taken 163 million girls. What can we do about it?

uthor Mara Hvistendahl tells the story of a young man, Puneet Bedi, who went to work during the night shift at a hospital maternity ward in India. He hoped to witness aA birth. What he saw instead was horrifying. “Minutes after catching a glimpse of the labor room,” Hvistendahl says, “Bedi was intercepted by a cat with something bloody dangling from its mouth. It wasn’t until he saw a five-month-old fetus discarded on an uncovered tray, lying in a pool of blood, that he realized what the cat had eaten.” The baby was a girl, killed for that reason alone.

Referring to the book Unnatural Selection, by Mara Hvistendahl, Liautaud talks about the war on women that has resulted in the loss of 163 million females in Asia through sex-selective abortion and infanticide because of cultural prejudice against girls and women. Her questions are poignant: “Why, then, if perhaps the largest crime against humanity is happening under our noses, have we heard so little about it? And what, if anything, is the church doing to slow down the holocaust?”

Scripture: Genesis 1:26–28; Psalm 127:3–5; 139:13–16; Luke 10:38–42; Ephesians 5:22–33

Based on: “Genocide in Shades of Pink,” by Marian V. Liautaud, Christianity Today, December 2012

This Bible study can be used for an individual or a group. If you intend to lead a group study, follow these simple suggestions.

Make enough copies of the article for everyone 1 in the group. If you would like your group to have more information, feel free to copy the Leader’s Guide for them as well. Don’t feel that you have to use all the material in the study. Almost all of 2 our studies have more information than you can get through in one session, so feel free to pick and choose the teaching information and questions that will meet the needs of your group. Use the teaching content of the study in any of these ways: for your own background and information; to read aloud (or summarize) to the group; for the group to read silently. Make sure your group agrees to complete confidentiality. This is essential 3 to getting people to open up. When working through the questions, be willing to make yourself 4 vulnerable. It’s important for your group to know that others share their experiences. Make honesty and openness a priority in your group.

5 Begin and end the session in prayer.

Part 1 Identify the Current Issue Note to Leader: Provide for each participant the article “Genocide in Shades of Pink,” from Christianity Today magazine, included at the end of this study.

Reggie Littlejohn, president of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, an organization advocating against forced abortions in China, says the issue of gendercide highlights a fundamental contradiction in the so-called pro-choice movement: “You can’t promote or protect women while at the same time promoting abortion. . . . Gendercide is neither a pro-life nor a pro-choice issue—it’s a human rights issue.” What then is a human being, and, further, what is a female? This study will show why the Bible’s answers to these questions can make all the difference.

Discussion Starters:

[Q] Are you pro-life or pro-choice, or some combination? How did you reach this conclusion?

[Q] Do you believe abortion is a fundamental right for women? Why or why not?

[Q] Have you known anyone facing an unwanted pregnancy? How did you counsel her?

[Q] What cultural or political issues touch upon the dignity of human life? How well- versed are you in these issues?

[Q] In your experience, are boys or girls treated better by our culture? Give examples.

Part 2 Discover the Eternal Principles

Teaching Point One: Male and female are created in the image of God.

“Culturally speaking, boys have always been favored over girls throughout the world—even, until recently, in the United States,” Liautaud notes. “Boys carry on the family name. They become their parents’ retirement plan in many cultures. They cost less to marry off and often have better access to education and political influence. Religious beliefs often bolster the preference: Some Asian communities persist in the deep-seated belief that ancestors are worshiped in the afterlife through the male line.”

The creation account of Adam and Eve helps us clearly see the equal dignity of men and women, boys and girls, in God’s eyes. Read Genesis 1:26–28.

[Q] What does it mean that both men and women are made in God’s image?

[Q] What are men and women expected to do in the world as a consequence of their identity as God’s image-bearers?

[Q] Verse 27 makes explicit what is implied in verse 26—the image of God is to be borne by male and female, without qualification. What does this say about the sanctity of all human life?

[Q] How did the corruption of verse 28 as a result of the Fall lead to the miserable treatment of females in so many parts of the world?

Teaching Point Two: Men and women have intrinsic worth even in the womb.

Liautaud writes about the ongoing gendercide in Asia and parts of Europe: “In Half the Sky, Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn confirm the scope of the problem: More girls have been killed in the past 50 years than men in all the wars of the 20th century. In countries like China and India, hearing ‘It’s a girl’ is not cause for celebration; it’s a death sentence.” Yet God’s Word tells us of our intrinsic worth, even in the womb.

Read Psalm 139:13–16.

[Q] If God knit us together, who owns us? What does this say about abortion and about our intrinsic worth?

[Q] In verse 14, David exults that he is “fearfully and wonderfully made.” Imagine a priceless work of art on the table in front of you. Then imagine taking a knife or a hammer to it. How is abortion like that illustration? How is it different?

[Q] In verses 15–16, David talks about how the Lord saw both his forming and his future (“all the days ordained for me”). How does the fact that God is sovereign over all our days—even those days that no one else sees—speak of our intrinsic worth?

Teaching Point Three: All children are a blessing.

In China every year, the government forces mothers to undergo 1.2 million abortions, not counting untold numbers of voluntary, sex-selective abortions. Much of the carnage is caused by the government’s one-child policy, along with the cultural preference for boys. One China activist says, “Though no one could forget the Tiananmen movement, even more than 20 years later, few people seem to realize that three little words—one-child policy—resulted in what amounts to an hourly Tiananmen massacre, for the past 30 years, in broad daylight,

right under the world’s nose.” The Bible, of course, has a different view of children—male and female.

Read Psalm 127:3–5.

[Q] In verses 3–4, what words does the Psalmist use to describe children? What metaphors would you use to describe the blessing of children?

[Q] Verse 5 lifts up the value of large families, like quivers full of arrows. Why do you think the culture today has other ideas about family size?

[Q] How might people without children experience the blessings of them?

Teaching Point Four: Women are indispensable and vital members of the church.

Changes in attitudes toward children—and especially females—must begin in the church, which is well situated in places such as China to make a difference. Notes Pastor Rick Warren, “The only organization big enough to stop this issue is the church. In 10 million villages, they may have nothing else, but they will always have a church. If we’re going to stop something at the grassroots level, it has to be done through the church. It has the most volunteers, and the local pastor, who’s marrying and burying his people, his beloved. He has more credibility in his community than any ngo or I could ever have.” There is, of course, ample biblical precedent for recognizing the dignity of women. Jesus himself treated women as important and valuable, as worthy of learning God’s Word.

Read Luke 10:38–42.

[Q] Clearly, Jesus had a real friendship, a relationship of respect, with these women. How does Jesus model proper treatment of women in the church?

[Q] Mary was listening to Jesus, acting as a full disciple learning from her Master (v. 39). What does this say about the obligation and privilege of women to be followers of Christ?

[Q] Martha wants Mary to pitch in with traditional “women’s work” (v. 40), and there is nothing wrong with seeking help in our daily tasks. But how are women sometimes pigeonholed into certain kinds of work in our churches today?

[Q] Jesus’ answer in no way denigrates manual labor (vv. 41–42), or even traditional modes of work for women, but he elevates learning from him—even for women. Do our churches treat the spiritual capacity of women as seriously as Jesus does here?

Teaching Point Five: Christian marriage models how men and women ought to relate.

Raaj Mondol, founder of Salt Initiatives, a nonprofit agency advocating cultural change in New Delhi, says we need models to change people’s viewpoints about girls and women—and the church and the Christian home are great places to start: “Our intervention cannot just focus on the issue of female feticide alone without addressing the man-woman relationship in the home, church, and society. The call for the church is to demonstrate a biblical model for these relations.” Ephesians 5 presents a powerful picture of Christian marriage, which in turn illustrates the beautiful relationship of Christ and his church. Read Ephesians 5:22–33.

[Q] Verses 22–24 contain instructions for wives. How do you interpret the meaning of this passage?

[Q] Verses 25–33 focus on a husband’s responsibility. How many times is the word “love” and its iterations used? How does this attitude contrast with contemporary attitudes toward women?

• Who is the husband supposed to model his behavior and attitude after (vv. 25–27)? What should be the husband’s goal (v. 27)?

• What encouragement do husbands receive (vv. 28–30)?

[Q] How would following the instructions in this passage improve the plight of women throughout the world?

Part 3 Apply Your Findings

Asia is missing 163 million girls and women because of cultural prejudice against females and the sinful use of ultrasounds and sex-selective abortions. Unfortunately, in large swathes of the world, the Bible’s embrace of women as full and equal partners in God’s plan of salvation is either not known or, if known, not followed. In fact, the biblical worldview of both male and female as created in the image of God is not honored, leading to the carnage of abortion and other evils in our fallen world.

Christians have the answer in God’s Word. All people are created in God’s image, God knits all of us in our mothers’ wombs, children are desirable, women are worthy disciples of Jesus, and Christian marriage provides a countercultural model of self-giving love for a world that desperately needs a glimpse of Christ and his church. Together, these strands of truth are woven together into a beautiful tapestry of human dignity, for both men and women.

Action Point: Spend a few moments as a group thanking God for all the human beings living in their mothers’ wombs throughout the world. Then ask him to protect them and lead them to knowledge of himself.

Optional Activity: Contact a crisis pregnancy center, ask what is needed to help women and their babies, and consider how you can donate time, money, or materials to meet those needs.

—Stan Guthrie is author of All That Jesus Asks: How His Questions Can Teach and Transform Us (Baker Books), Missions in the Third Millennium (Authentic), and coauthor of The Sacrament of Evangelism (Moody Publishers). A CT editor at large, he writes monthly for BreakPoint.org and Crosswalk.com. Stan blogs at stanguthrie.com.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

¿ For more studies like this, go to ChristianBibleStudies.com. Especially check out The Gift of Life.

¨ Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men, by Mara Hvistendahl (PublicAffairs, 2011). So many parents now select for boys that they have skewed the sex ratio at birth of the entire world. What does this mean for our future? The sex ratio imbalance has already led to a spike in sex trafficking and bride buying across Asia, and it may be linked to a recent rise in crime there as well. More far-reaching problems could be on the horizon.

¨ Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn (Vintage, 2010). Throughout much of the world, the greatest unexploited economic resource is the female half of the population. Countries such as China have prospered precisely because they emancipated women and brought them into the formal economy. Unleashing that process globally is not only the right thing to do; it’s also the best strategy for fighting poverty. Deeply felt, pragmatic, and inspirational, Half the Sky is essential reading for every global citizen.

¨ Nurturing the Nations: Reclaiming the Dignity of Women in Building Healthy Cultures, by Darrow L. Miller, with Stan Guthrie (ivp Books, 2008). One of the greatest causes of worldwide poverty, argues Darrow Miller, is the idea that men are superior to women. This belief leads to practices that impoverish women, men, families, and nations. A biblical alternative is critical! 7 ©2012 Christianity Today ChristianBibleStudies.com Christianity Today Bible Study Abortion and the War on Women Leader’s Guide

¿ Women’s Rights Without Frontiers: “Women’s Rights Without Frontiers is a broad-based, international coalition that opposes forced abortion and sexual slavery in China. Our immediate goal is to raise public awareness regarding the coercive enforcement of China’s One Child Policy, the connection between this coercion and human trafficking in Asia, and the other human rights abuses that arise out of this coercive enforcement. Our long-term goal is to champion freedom, justice and women’s rights, in China and worldwide, by exposing violations of women’s rights, equipping the media and the public to understand these violations, and extending help to the victims themselves, as well as to those who stand up for freedom and justice for women.”

Genocide in Shades of PINK 32 CH RISTIA NITY T O D A Y | December 2012 By Marian V. Liautaud

on his first night of rotation at a Delhi hospital, Puneet Bedi was assigned to the obstetrics ward. A wide-eyed 20-year-old medical student, he was excited by the prospect of becoming a doctor responsible for human life. He hoped to witness a birth that night. Minutes after catching a glimpse of the labor room, Bedi was intercepted by a cat with something bloody dangling from its mouth. It wasn’t until he saw a five-month-old fetus discarded on an uncovered tray, lying in a pool of blood, that he realized what the cat had eaten. As the night wore on, Bedi witnessed more abortions than births. All of them were performed on women who were at least four months pregnant. When he worked up the nerve to ask why so many fetuses were being discarded, and why he had seen a cat eat one, a staff member explained tersely: “Because they are girls.” Three decades later, Bedi, an ob-gyn consultant at a New Delhi hospital, recounted this experience to Mara Hvistendahl, who last year persuasively demonstrated a chilling reality in her Pulitzer-nominated book, Unnatural Selection: There’s a gender-based genocide afoot the world over, and it’s having profound implications—none of them good. For starters, there’s the skewed sex ratio. Demographer Christophe Guilm- ooto has calculated that if Asia’s sex ratio at birth had remained at its natural balance of 105 boys to 100 girls (boys are slightly more vulnerable to childhood What if every female diseases, and this ratio provides for equal numbers at marriageable age) over the ic

v past three decades, the continent would have an additional 163 million females. in America suddenly That’s how many females he estimates have been aborted—the equivalent of every female in America today. disappeared? “No more girls at the mall or in supermarkets, in hospitals, boardrooms, or Gary Gnido Gary classrooms,” says Hvistendahl. “Imagine this, and you come close to picturing It would feel a lot the problem.” like Asia, where In Half the Sky, Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn confirm the scope of the problem: More girls have been killed in the past 50 years than men in all sex-selective abortion the wars of the 20th century. In countries like China and India, hearing “It’s a girl” is not cause for celebration; it’s a death sentence. has taken 163 million girls. Why, then, if one of the largest crimes against humanity is happening under our noses, have we heard so little about it? And what, if anything, is the church How the gospel is doing to slow down the holocaust? slowly turning the tide Bias from Birth on the quiet holocaust. Hvistendahl, a science journalist based in Beijing, says sex-selective abortions have gone underreported largely because of where they are happening the most: Asia and Eastern Europe. “Gender imbalance has been treated as a local problem, as something that Genocide happens to other countries,” says Hvistendahl. But “the gender imbalance is in Shades of PINK DecemberOctober 2012 | CHRISTIANITY TODAy 33 ‘Few people seem to realize that three little words— one child policy—resulted in what amounts to an hourly Tiananmen massacre, for the past 30 years, in broad daylight, right under the world’s nose.’ ~ Chai Ling, president, All Girls Allowed

dowries have been illegal there since 1961, families are still expected

to provide a handsome compensation to future sons-in-laws and Getty /

their families, which creates intense financial pressure. As a result, g er

millions of Indian families choose abortion to ensure they don’t have mb oo

to bear the burden of more than one daughter. The result? Only 914 l / B /

girls for every 1,000 boys under age 6 in India, according to the 2011 g census—the greatest gender imbalance seen in the country of 1.2 billion since its 1947 independence.

But cultural preference alone doesn’t bring about the disparity Behrin ie l in birthrates. For a skewed gender ratio to take hold, sex-selective ata technology—which reveals a baby’s sex before birth—must be widely N available. Ultrasound technology, according to Hvistendahl, is one of the primary reasons why girls have also gone missing from Albania and Azerbaijan, for example, and why millions of girls are missing throughout Asia and parts of Europe. Sex selection, she contends, has grown out of a drive to control population, using technology, primarily ultrasounds, and abortion as our servants. For example, since China instituted its one-child policy in 1980 to control a massive population, couples have increasingly relied a local problem in the way a superpow- Stolen Life: On the night of on the illegal use of ultrasound technology, which moved into mass er’s financial crisis is a local problem. . . . September 7, 2000, Jin Hani production in 1982, to determine the sex of their unborn children. was dragged from her home Sooner or later, it affects you.” by Chinese officials to an Amniocentesis used to be an expensive way for parents to learn In America, sooner or later was this abortion center. This photo the sex of their child. An ultrasound, however, costs about $12 in spring, when House Republicans put was taken after her forced China. People will pay technicians up to $150 in bribes for a black- abortion. She was nine to vote the Prenatal Nondiscrimination months pregnant. market baby scan, which is only one-tenth the fine they would have Act (prenda), a federal law banning sex- to pay for having a child without a birth permit—and far less than the selective abortions. The vote came on the heels of media attention to cost of raising a daughter. Under the one-child policy, each time a census data that suggested that Korean, Indian, and Chinese com- woman wants to try for a baby, she has to apply for ashengyu zheng munities in the United States were importing their cultural prefer- (birth permit). Unmarried women and those who already have a ence for boys, given the skewed sex ratio among their second- and child are typically denied permits unless they’re willing to pay a fine third-born children. The House bill failed in large part because the for an “out of plan” birth. Republicans opted for a voting procedure that all but assured too Daniel Wang, honorary vice mayor of a province in China, explains few votes to move it to the Senate. But it succeeded in one sense: that local family-planning agents are financially incentivized to pre- Americans were now talking about gender-based abortion (dubbed vent “out of plan” births. “If the local official wants the money, they “gendercide” by feminist Mary Anne Warren in the mid-1980s). enforce the policy more strictly,” he told Christianity Today. Agents For girls, the fight to stay alive begins in the womb. Culturally use informants and random searches to find pregnant women and speaking, boys have always been favored over girls throughout the forcibly terminate their pregnancies. world—even, until recently, in the United States. Boys carry on the One lonely voice that’s challenging the one-child policy and its family name. They become their parents’ retirement plan in many attendant injustices is Reggie Littlejohn, president of Women’s Rights cultures. They cost less to marry off and often have better access to Without Frontiers, an organization advocating against forced abor- education and political influence. Religious beliefs often bolster the tions in China. She says, “China’s cruel and barbaric forced abortion preference: Some Asian communities persist in the deep-seated belief policy causes more violence towards women and girls than any other that ancestors are worshiped in the afterlife through the male line. official policy on earth. It is China’s war against women and girls. The deeply held preference for sons persists in India. Although Women are forcibly aborted up to the ninth month of pregnancy. It

34 CH RISTIA NITY T O D A Y | December 2012 Genocide in Shades of PInk

is official government rape.” Margaret Datiles, associate fellow for the Culture of Life Founda- Littlejohn’s description proved to be not so hyperbolic this June, tion, thinks a tighter ban is needed. “Although bans on sex-selection when photos of Feng Jianmei, a Chinese woman, circulated on the abortions are helpful and increase public awareness, they are not the Internet. Feng, 23, who was seven months pregnant, is seen lying real solution. Bans and restrictions on abortion itself are the only way dazed next to her bloody aborted child in a hospital bed. After media to stop gendercide,” says the legal scholar. including the bbc and cnn picked up the story, China’s family-plan- And this is where the pro-choice camp has fallen silent, charge ning commission launched an investigation, concluding that the local Datiles and other cultural commentators. To argue that abortion family-planning agency had forced Feng to have the abortion. itself should be restricted would be to cede ground won since Roe In China, it’s estimated that 1.2 million forced abortions of this v. Wade. In a brief on gendercide, Datiles says, “Now, when we are nature occur each year—not including the sex-selective abortions faced with data showing the severe adverse effects that abortion willingly performed by couples. “Though no one could forget the has had on women worldwide, the feminist movement has failed to Tiananmen movement, even more than 20 years later, few people stand up for these women and continues to ignore the fact that 163 million girls are missing because of sex- selective abortion. “This conflict pinpoints the fundamental error of the feminist and reproductive health rights movement: You can’t promote or protect women while at the same time promoting abortion.” Littlejohn, meanwhile, is trying to find middle ground. “Gendercide is neither a pro-life nor a pro-choice issue—it’s a human rights issue.” Which is where the church may have the most influence: teaching the God- Girls Welcome: A medical seem to realize that three little words—one child policy—resulted in missions group signals bestowed dignity of every human being, what amounts to an hourly Tiananmen massacre, for the past 30 to clients that it won’t do and, in a hopeful and ironic twist, using years, in broad daylight, right under the world’s nose,” says Chai sex-selective abortions— ultrasound technology—along with old- an all-to0-common crime

ic Ling, a Chinese activist twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize fashioned hands-and-feet ministry—to v in India. as a student leader in the Tiananmen Square movement. reinforce that teaching. At its current rate, India’s on track to exceed the 1.2 million number “The issue of female feticide is basically an issue of human dignity, this decade. As Sabu George, a New Delhi activist for unborn girls, not just discrimination against women,” says Raaj Mondol, ceo of Gary Gnido Gary told The Times of India, “We will then have the dubious distinction of Salt Initiatives, a nonprofit promoting the dignity and equality of being the country eliminating the largest number of girls every year.” women in New Delhi. Mondol believes church leaders can effectively According to Kristof, ultrasound technology hasn’t reached transform the mindset on girls. “Our intervention cannot just focus much of rural India and some of the interior states yet, but it will. on the issue of female feticide alone without addressing the man- “If you think the situation is bad now, wait 25 years. It’s going to woman relationship in the home, church, and society. The call for be much worse.” the church is to demonstrate a biblical model for these relations.” In particular, says Mondol, the idea that men and women are created Baby steps equally to serve as partners to rule over creation provides a spiritual Kristof believes that increasingly easy access to ultrasounds may be framework that challenges sex-selective abortion in his country. the biggest challenge in stemming gendercide globally. He warns But farther east, getting Chinese pastors to preach against abor- that India in particular is “going to get worse before it gets better. tion could be a tall order. Since the Chinese church began to blossom It’s a long, slow effort to change culture, while ultrasounds are rising in the two decades following the Tiananmen Square movement, an rapidly in areas”—particularly in rural areas, The New York Times entire generation of Christians has grown up in the shadow of the journalist told ct. “The change in ultrasound access is going to swamp one-child policy. Abortion is commonplace and part of the Chinese the change in valuing daughters.” experience, and the church in China has been virtually silent on Further, Hvistendahl says, legal enforcement against sex-selective the issue. abortions, including police surveillance and punishment by imprison- John Ensor, former executive director for global initiatives at ment, have not yet made a real dent in the sex-ratio imbalances in India Heartbeat International and author of the bookInnocent Blood: Chal- and China. The challenge with imposing such laws, as Hvistendahl lenging the Powers of Death with the Gospel of Life, has seen open- discovered, is that doctors and family-planning agents have financial ness to the gospel on the sanctity of life—a message that is spreading incentives to keep performing illegal abortions. According to Bedi, the organically throughout China. Since 1992, he has been sharing the Indian ob-gyn, “Almost a third of Indian gynecologists’ income comes gospel at pregnancy help centers in the United States, along with from abortion. . . . The doctors are very greedy. They are behind the using visuals—including ultrasound—to show pregnant women the Kmoney. It has become a big business, this business of sex selection.” stages of fetal development. Ironically, though ultrasound has been

December 2012 | CHRISTIANITY TODAy 35 babies are born each year. “We believe that as the decision to keep baby girls becomes normative, these villages will begin to natu- rally produce even at-birth gender ratios,” says Chai. “As gender ratios balance out in these small villages, we expect that other villages, towns, cities, and provinces will FP / Getty / FP

follow suit.” A Chai’s goal has gotten a hefty boost from eier / / eier

Saddleback Church, which committed to l sponsoring 5,000 baby shower gifts in 2012

after Chai shared her testimony at the B Karen Orange County campus early this year. Chai hopes to see more churches do likewise. Saddleback leader Rick Warren explains his support: Girls are “the single-most vulnerable people on the planet. You’re young and female. In most places, this means you a major accomplice in sex-selective abortions, Heartbeat Testify: Chai Ling (far left) and have zero rights.” International and his new organization, PassionLife, are a victim of forced abortion pray Along with supporting the aga baby before a House Foreign Affairs tapping into its redemptive power. Committee meeting on the one- shower program, Saddleback also has “As women and men in China see the tiny images of child policy. Chai drew from Isaiah committed to support families that choose human hands and spine and femur bones, and they hear and the example of William Wil- to adopt—a way to rescue the estimated 1 berforce to exhort Congress. Scripture that describes being fearfully and wonderfully million children, mostly girls, who would made and a God who sees our unformed bodies in our mother’s otherwise be abandoned each year in China alone. “There are 146 womb, they are beginning to grasp the value of life,” says Ensor. million orphans in the world,” Warren told ct. “You can’t build Using Scripture, visuals, and models, Heartbeat International orphanages fast enough to take care of all the orphans.” re cently trained more than 100 Chinese church leaders about God’s Plus, says Warren, “Kids don’t need an institution; they need a love for all life. The majority of the leaders in attendance were women, family. The most natural organization to support those families is and nearly all of them had either had an abortion or assisted a friend the local church. If . . . support is given in, to, and through the local in getting one. The men present had encouraged the practice of abor- church, we can do far more than we could ever do any other way. tion as a form of birth control and obedience to the government. “The only organization big enough to stop this issue is the church. According to Ensor, the response to the teaching was powerful, as In 10 million villages, they may have nothing else, but they will always the church leaders entered a period of sorrow, grieving, and repen- have a church. If we’re going to stop something at the grassroots tance. Following that, they prayed for forgiveness and healing. The level, it has to be done through the church. It has the most volun- word has spread quickly, and as more churches receive this training, teers, and the local pastor, who’s marrying and burying his people, more and more women and men are responding to the gospel his beloved. He has more credibility in his community than anyngo message. or I could ever have.” Kristof agrees. “The rapid rise of Christianity in China is going to Showers of Grace have far-reaching effects. I can see the pro-life attitude gaining more Chai Ling agrees with Ensor: Ultimately gospel transformation is traction,” he said, noting that South Korea, whose widely Christian the only long-term solution to the injustices brought about by the culture has helped balance out its sex ratio at birth, is a hopeful one-child policy. example of a culture headed in the right direction. Chai’s organization, All Girls Allowed (aga), recently initiated a Meanwhile, Saddleback has committed to supporting 500 families baby shower program that financially supports enrolled couples in who opt to adopt domestically, and another 500 who adopt overseas. poor Chinese villages during the first year of their daughter’s life. It’s hard to imagine that gendercide could ever be redeemed by “We give $240 to save a mother and her daughter’s life,” Chai God for his good purposes, but Chai believes ending this atrocity told ct. “The showers encourage them to keep their baby daugh- will be the most effective way to advance the gospel. ter—to help the mothers know their baby girls are valued and worth “We are confident that as the church turns from death toward life, keeping. We’re seeing a remarkable work by God of girls being more and as they witness to others about the abundant life that can be found cherished and welcomed.” in Christ, the kingdom of God will advance all the more.” “When the West supports girl births,” says Chai, “the news spreads 8 throughout the village and becomes a powerful message of value Marian V. Liautaud is editor of church management resources at that the Chinese families begin to grasp.” Christianity Today. Check out War on Women at CTeBooks.com on December 1. At the end of 2011, aga had raised enough money to rescue 1,000 Go to ChristianBibleStudies.com for “Abortion and the War on Women,” unborn babies from being aborted. The baby shower program is a Bible study based on this article. Cbeing implemented in small countryside villages where fewer than 50

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OPINIONS AND PERSPECTIVES ON ISSUES FACING THE CHURCH Dinesh D’Souza, Tim Keller, and many more! en to lay down the curse If we train our childr , preferences, and words of marriage—opinions oversial. rights—early marriage won’t be so contr Adrienne Michelson Rome, Ohio

stopped being a sin? Pop culture has so strengthen marriage until we encour- fanned the flames of our national libido t that we can BOOKS We Thee Wed age each other with the fac that sex is now The on Pr paedictioneerr with air to breathe ’s August cover story, TOP ’s Game 61 Christianity Today n. But who is telling What got the most human need. I Top 5: Advent resist any temptatio ’s Wilson’ 62 iage,” much responses in August as being an undeniables Bookmarks Deep Church “The Case for Early Marr at it’s not too MUSIC 64 INTERVIEW 63 Excerpt:The Meaning Is in the W unmarried Christians th reject Two this minutes utterly, with as any . .Christian . Car should. John Wigger nd and I com- olyn Ar 65 TV V 66 aiting 64 impressed me. My husba definitely? By exten- 10% Creator’s reproduc-ends 67 Holiday albums fr MOVIES The Star of Bethlehem ip at ages 20 and hard to be a virgin in As to “battling our menced a life of hardsh m that a lifelong, om Bob Dylan, Sandi P 66 sion, who is telling the 14% tive designs,” I can’t imagine giving this atty, and others We married because we le? And who 48% 67 QUICK TAKES 18, respectively. faithful marriage is possib e was tempted 68 sed to, and stayed 28% counsel to Joseph when h felt we were suppo ist trumps every (other) often has impor- on. Family is telling them that Chr by Potiphar’s wife. God together for the same reas other need in their lives? Sadly, no one in tant purposes for his ollowersf that may and friends believed our marriage was this cover package does. 1 well run against “reproductive designs.” doomed. The Case for S�� W�� Early Marriage D�� D�� see that all of Mark Regnerus Eight years later, I can �� Contributing Editor Minneola, Florida n the curse our troubles were rooted i Durham, North Carolina , preferences, 2 words of marriage: opinions We Need BOOKS, MOVIES, ildren to lay Health-Care Reform Easing Praise Tension MUSIC, AND and rights. If we train our ch oblem as articu- Chuck Colson rper and THE ARTS e them- Regnerus nailed the pr I much enjoyed Brad Ha But outside We Are suggests these things down and devot lately as anyone I’ve read. (we heir spouses the love 3 Paul Louis Metzger’s “Here are brazenlyrazenly selves to showing t nerosity . . . and Here We Are to . The tragedy of self-interested, of comments like, “Ge Worship to Worship” [August] you on’t be so see, and we had of Christ, early marriage w nger than do high Brad Harper and at neither set of get used to it), better godliness live on far lo Paul Louis Metzger the worship wars is th parts of Bueno controversial. en levels,” he brilliant de Mesquita’s testosterone and estrog tastes precludes the other. The authors mind are still controlledby his A�� M�� s. My proposal: ns as retell- schoolself. If you high- provided few answer characterize traditional hym simplycan’t endure Rome, Ohio ating youth ministries d praise music juvenile another Instead of segreg ings of salvation’s story an takedown of Mother not encourage e soul. Yet should probably Teresa, you from adult ministries, why as intending to transport th skip this Mark Regnerus does agreat job of rain the older rsonal persist, book. But if adult/youth discipleship? T YAY OR NAY theological record and pe you’ll you ng on in Christian both get your money’s describing what’s goi unger into biblical Readers’ response to rtant aspects more worth and men to guide the yo “The Case for Early transformation are impo from these pages. “weddings all Marriage” In fact, I predict culture. But his solution— , and to look for- n regarding any if you do read that manhood (Titus 2:2, 6) of worship. The questio this book, you’ll around, except for the leftover Christian ies as husbands t form does about be thinking ward to their responsibilit worship music is not, “Wha it for weeks ’t correspond to the prob- afterward, reminded women”—doesn 57% t rather, “Does this it every time of and fathers. this represent?” bu you read the newspaper lem. This is because he fails to address the headlines on the or the y. Marriage D�� K�� honor God?” Web. spiritual aspect of unchastit E-mail If the answer is yes, shouldn’t we, Like John Nash, ut it does not make the NobelPrize–winning may make sex okay, b with humility mathematician sobedience okay. young or old, accept whose life was a spiritual posture of di hen people wait ving work, the book the subject Regnerus writes, “[W] 43% all expressions of God’s sa A Beautiful of ismissal, “It Mind and the film That’s why I found his d arry, it is an or a guitar? off from it, Bueno taking [young Chris- until their mid- to late-20s to m whether played on an org de Mesquita is unreasonable to expect ect them to refrain theorist:he is a game unreasonable to exp P�� B�� works with models ” so discourag- eator’s human of complex tians] to refrain from sex, from sex. It’s battling our Cr Abilene, Texas interactions, able act of worship modelsthat assume ing. In fact, our reason gns.” Has fornication interestedbehavior self- reproductive desi 53 (“rational inence. We can’t | parties. choice”) goes far beyond abst October 2009 But he differs by all from Nash in Pondering Our primarilyengaged that he’s in applying negotiations the theory to or potentialnegotiations settings, in many ranging from political conflicts Next Move corporatemergers to Hear from the men and women and litigation. duce and demystify th (To intro- Do even Christians operate from ‘brazen self-interest’ in e strategic thinking at the heartof game theory,he spends interacting with others and with God? firstchapter the entire tellingus how sible deal when buyin to get the best pos- By John Wilson g a new car. Whatever ) the nature of the heh game of “What hand, Bueno problem at Makes Us de Mesquita Human?”—orH weighingalternative conduct and his associates what made possibilities. extensive interviews humanh us pating what By antici- with who are changing our world and might observers, expert at some point in be, we hope—within identifying longlo our modest our the parties with evolutionary sphereof influence—to nificant stake in t a sig- history, Bruce shapewhat he outcome an so the story goes Buenode Mesquita—let is. what they say they wan d clarifying to pprovidero ide —continues that t, what their eentertainment.nter name roll off your prefer- ham’s Richard Wrang- tonguea couple ences are Catching Fire: of times—differs (how they would How Cooking from most various rank Us Human, published Made in that of us possible outcomes), earlier he makes his living and must have this year, doing who among the gladdened many what humans players might whatever a kitchen. typically do in be particularly else we But less systematic a influential are—forkedradishes, fashion. negotiation in the ing Neanderthals, sing- invites He process. political us into his The infor- on—we animals, and workshop in mation thus are also predictioneers, so The Predictioneer’s gathered is fed all of Game: Using a mathematical into a way that distingui us, in the Logic model shes us from ou of Brazen Self-Interest that he has creatures. r fellow refined over the (Prediction to See and Shape years, and based tioneer + engineer = predic- the Future on the results, .) Like chess players, (Random House) he will advise we look ★★★★★. clients his ahead, As (the cia, various the cheesy subtitle ernment other gov- bodies,corporate how to proceed. boards)

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