I am currently trying to get through a few books during my soul searching time. One of those books is called "Living on the Boundaries, Evangelical Women, Feminism, and The Theological Academy," by Nicola Hoggard Creegan and Christine D. Pohl.
A quote in the book has had me thinking and I am wondering what your thoughts are as well...
"Mainstream evangelicalism is at odds with - and is often hostile to - the fullest emotional, spiritual, and psychological development of gifted women. It is, in essence, a dysfunctional world which scapegoats intellectual women as "the other." Women who stay "inside" wind up making tremendous compromises in each of those areas often to the detriment to their own health and life satisfaction." pg. 32
1 comment:
wow that is powerful. we've talked about this at different points previous on your blog.
i try not, more better i should pray that God protects me from and helps me not to lose my essence or/and what is important to who i am in God while still holding my Christian beliefs and faith and personal relationship with God.
i wonder what she means by hostility. is she refering to the counter concern or barrier to women who question the mainstream or the norm and are told to stay within the confines of what is proper or acceptable?
i think a powerful intellectual strong and especially attractive women is a threat and possibily a huge intrigue many men may not know how to handle.
i was just reading education by ellen g. white an prophet in my faith, Seventh-Day Adventist ( a protestant christian denomination that observes the Sabbath like many orthodox Jewish people and attend church on SAturday, we beleive in the Bible and Jesus, etc.)
in the book education she talks about how many usurp power and want to dominate when we need to cultivate and facilitate growth/learning (my summary here) and i think this statement applies here. instead of hostility to gifted women we need to learn, especially men how to appreciate and cultivate gifted women.
i also do not want to assume that all women quote unquote within the church have made compromises to their emotional/spiritual/psychological/intellectual growth.
it would be such a great conversation with women in the church to understand our expereinces and perspectives. maybe some women feel they compromised and maybe others do not and have other perspectives.
either way i don't think God wants us to compromise in a way that is detrimental to our health and life satisfaction. God may call us to obey and/or sacrifice to follow God and grow stronger, which though it may be painful it is sooo fruitful and fulfilling.
what do you think brenda and anyone else?
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