“Of course you’re not as affected, Caryn,” she said. “You’ve read Half the Sky. You've already been wrecked.”

Caryn, I found the same thing recently when I go to trafficking conferences or even lead home-conferences. It's funny to find myself a little startled when people get emotional about all the information they're hearing--until I remind myself they're hearing it for the first time. I think it's useful, though. When we get past being overwhelmed, we can get to work. I haven't had the chance to read or watch "Half the Sky" yet, but I got to hear Carolyn Custis James talk to a roomful of women activists about her book "Half the Church." Her point was beautiful: men and women need to work together as siblings in Christ to get this done. Good stuff.

Half the Sky deals with the mature fruit of deep misogyny. We need to deal with it in the world (education, intervention, medical assistance) and recognize it in ourselves. Again, I am always amazed at the slaves who preferred living on the plantation because the master was kind and they are not smart. There is now no male nor female in Christ. To the women who seek freedom from misogyny, Rahab accuses of self pity! Amazing! Women, like Margaret Thatcher or Indira Ghandi, led countries, women lead state departments like Hilary, teach in colleges yet they can't speak in the pulpit of a church. To say that "women can't lead, that is just the way it is," as Kathi does is outrageous. I would get quite upset if someone, especially in the church, told my brilliant daughter who led her college prep academy, that silliness. Where do you think Half the Sky abusive mindsets start?

How did a discussion that started out about being moved by the plight of suffering people devolve into a self-pity party? Shouldn't we be discussing what we as the Church can/should do about this situation (aside from looking greedily at their children as potential adoptees)? Whom should we be praying for, giving to, encouraging? Is there awareness work we can do? Caryn, you've done the research on this, please post your concrete suggestions for how we can help. Contacts? Links to organizations that are helping? Shirley, realistically if these women were to come to America and go to church, and if they didn't like the tenor and tone of the people there, they would be FREE TO CHOOSE where they worshiped and with whom. They would also be FREE TO CHOOSE how they responded to the offenses they might suffer. And then they would find half a dozen "christian" publishers knocking down their doors to offer them a small fortune for their story, slap a snappy title on it, and send them off on a book tour. All of you would buy it and somebody here would write a blog post about it so we could all tsk briefly over it and then turn it into a sad reflection on our own pet issues. Women, we who are weak in our own strength are strong in Christ Jesus! Surely we can do better than this.

"But Jesus is bigger—as he was and is in the business of setting women free, of restoring our dignity. Of course, the program doesn’t mention him." Actually, if these women were to come to America and go to church they would probably hear that their husbands are to be their leaders and that they must submit to all men in their church (they cannot preach or be a deacon). While their situation is awful, we ourselves live in a church society that tells women that they are inferior to all males. When we cry for them, let us shed a few tears for ourselves. When we become free, then perhaps we can teach them what freedom is.

People responding to male figures more so than to female figures applys to only portions of society. Since women are now full-fledge members of society, from my observation, people are more and more used to seeing them in positions of power and responding as such. As to the situations that Half the Sky talks about, this is exactly why it's so offensive when I hear men in our society complaining about how they're portrayed in sitcoms or commercials. A few jokes are nothing compared to getting acid thrown in your face for attending school, being thrown in jail for being the victim of rape, or any other abuse women all over the world have suffered since the beginning of time.

I think the gender squabbles in the churches are a ploy to distract us from the real work that needs to be done, and also gives fuel to the fire of ridicule of Christians by the world. I do believe - strongly - that men need to lead, as children (male/female) respond to that male strength - it's just how things are. No matter how hard women try, we cannot be men, and we cannot give to children all that they need. To say women can is it stick our fingers in our ears and refuse to hear - this comes from pride and fear that someone will tell us we are not enough. Alone, we are not enough - male and female. Kids need both genders. As far as preaching the gospel. I struggle with what the Bible says about it, and I ponder the scenarios where a man is unavailable - not just any man, but a godly man who knows the Word of God. People need to hear the gospel and not everyone responds well to men, for the sole reason of having been abused by men. If women are not to teach men, what if a man is not around? Can women only teach up to the point of a man having salvation? What about mentorship - a mature Christian mentoring a new Christian? As far as the Southern Baptist denomination, I do think they "shot themselves in the foot" when they issued the statement that "wives must be submissive to their husbands". Of all the things that they could have chosen to announce/remind those who are part of their denomination, they focus on women doing whatever their husbands say. Whatever happened to "love they neighbor as they self" or "consider others better than yourself" or even "husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church... Live with understanding of them... They are co-heirs with you" Instead, we argue about which gender gets to preach the gospel. Those men turning their chairs around - they have not Biblical basis to support their behavior, and they should have not even attended, since I'm sure they knew Ann Graham Holtz was teaching at that event. It is arrogant and lofty behavior

The Foursquare Church Appointed a Woman, Tammy Dunahoo, as General Supervisor in 2011. She has been a great influence. www.christiannewswire.com/news/8200114246.htmlOf the more than 6,000 credentialed Foursquare ministers in the U.S., 36 percent of them are women; 7 percent serve as senior pastors.

Rick, I agree with you... but it's interesting to note that although Amy Semple McPherson launched the Foursquare, today only 2% of their leaders are women and I've heard Foursquare pastors say that leadership is not for women.

What do you call it when Southern Baptist men turn their chairs around in protest that Annie Graham Lotz, an incredibly gifted minister but (horrors) a woman, is addressing them? When women can’t preach to a mixed audience from the platform or teach men? When women pastors are against the law? I find it strange when Muslim women defend their second class status but it is just as strange when Southern Baptist women say they prefer it this way. (just like schools and water fountains that are separate but equal). Yes I used hyperbole to make a point Rahab, the persecution, depravity and death of the 3rd world women is much worse, but they share an underlying gender bias. So I celebrate Amy Semple McPherson, woman evangelist, pastor and teacher who led hundreds of thousands to Christ and launched the Foursquare Church. And I celebrate the woman prophets who speak to the whole church as Joel predicted.