The Liberating Truth

How Jesus Empowers Women

Danielle Strickland

• Publisher: Monarch Books
• Year: 2011
• eBook ISBN: 9780857211064
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

Danielle Strickland contends that women everywhere remain subjugated by cultural norms that tell them to conform, hold back, and turn aside from God's call upon their lives. Consequently many women fail to play a full part in the healing and restoration of society. The church should take the lead. In this prophetic book Danielle observes: -We should be the ones who model an alternative approach to leadership. We are the ones with the Bible and the witness of the Holy Spirit who through Scripture, reason, tradition and experience has shown, over and over again His heart for the release of women to exercise their gifts.-The book covers: The current situation (exploitation or subjugation); the historical situation (feminism and the Christian tradition); key biblical material; justice (the feminization of poverty); what does the future offer, and what should the church do?

A few years ago I read a popular Christian book written for women. It was highly recommended by a friend who told me it had changed her life. I thought it’d be worth a read. I liked the book in many ways. I think I understood what the authors were trying to say, but, to be honest, it really bothered me at the same time.

It troubled me because it contained every possible feminine cliché known to humanity. It bothered me because it assumed that a woman’s longing for a man to complete her was gospel truth instead of an enemy lie. It smothered me in gooey princess talk that made me think I’d been invited to a pyjama party hosted by the Spice Girls.

Its premise was that every little girl longs to be a princess. Now, I know that tons of little girls do long to be princesses. All the more, I’m sure, because we help them along with excessive cultural clues. But it concerned me because I didn’t fit with that norm. I didn’t match the recipe. I couldn’t relate.

I called my mother to ask if I had actually once longed to be a princess but then stuffed my feelings down and repressed them because of something terrible and tragic that had happened that distorted my feminine state. I was starting to think that I might never have had what it takes to be a true woman. After all, in this book my wholeness and salvation were rooted in the fact that I should have a female need to be a princess.

My mother laughed out loud. She said that I had never once even hinted that I had a longing or a need or a desire to be a princess. She was still laughing when she reminded me of the number of times she offered me money to wear a dress and I couldn’t be convinced. She laughed because now, years later, as a wife and mother in full-time ministry, emotionally healthy and strongly independent, I was letting a popular Christian book bother me so much. But it did.

The popular Christian concept of a “good woman” is someone extremely feminine, sensitive, good-looking, and submissive to a handsome husband who keeps his promises. Lovely – if you live in Disneyland. Or, actually, if you live in this male-dominated, externally obsessed Western world.

I think that’s the thing that concerns me the most: the Christian woman looks just like the Oprah one. Glossy magazines, enhanced body parts, and Botox for everyone.

So – teeth whitening and skinny jeans make for a satisfied Christian life?

Where is that in the Bible?

And is God’s plan for me really about squeezing myself into a worldly mode where I’m judged by my external self before my internal self has a chance to breathe? I mean, I’ve even heard of female Christian worship leaders being critiqued on their size and appearance. Whatever happened to talent and gifting and anointing?

N. T. Wright wrote about this stereotyping: “When you look at strip cartoons, B grade movies, and Z grade novels and poems, you pick up a standard view of how ‘everyone imagines’ men and women behave. Men are macho, loud-mouthed, arrogant thugs, always fighting and wanting their own way. Women are simpering, empty-headed creatures with nothing to think about except clothes and jewellery. There are Christian versions of this, too: the men must make the decisions, run the show, always be in the lead, tell everyone what to do; women must stay at home and bring up the children.”¹

In my real world – God’s intended one – it doesn’t line up that every female has the same feelings or desires or hopes or dreams.

We aren’t prototypes.

We are people.

We’re all different. Unique. We have a plethora of dreams and hopes and desires, all rooted in God’s great plan for the world to be changed.

Each of us is invited to be part of this global agenda. We all have a role.

Gender-based restrictions are simply old-fashioned and unhelpful tools that do much more harm than good. They need to be done away with, not simply because they contribute to the dissatisfaction of both men and women, but also because they limit the people of God. In the fullness of God’s kingdom, real relationships should be based on dignity and equality, not on gender and difference.

This isn’t limited to women, of course. The enemy’s strategy of gender-based restrictions also extends to men and to marriage.

One of my most difficult moments as a church leader came when I had to ask a visiting teaching group to leave after their first presentation at a marriage seminar weekend. I simply couldn’t let them continue. Their whole concept of a good marriage was based on gender-specific roles. In other words, women, because they are more inclined towards service, ought to take care of the house; and men, because they are more inclined towards economics, should take care of the finances… This went on for a while. I looked around at the couples who filled the hall in our small town. Even a quick overview of the crowd completely smashed their theory. Across the hall from me was a bloke who was a clean freak; his wife was an accountant.

I know of couples who strive after the “perfect marriage” where the woman does specific things because she’s the woman and the man does certain things because he’s the man – and everyone is so busy and so desperate to fit the grid of a perfect life that they miss the real one. They miss God’s celebration of diversity – the lovely, colour-filled spectrum of people of all shapes and sizes and conditions. Some single, some married, some divorced; some tall, others round; some broken and some not so much. Some are independent and fierce and others are sensitive and caring – and all of them are invited to change the world.

All of them. Yes, even the skinny, perfect-looking, happily married, smiley ones with extra-white teeth!

So this book is a celebration of the diversity of God’s calling to all people. What I know for sure is that nothing is locked in – the invitation is wide open. He wants you to contribute any way you can. You are not limited to gender-based work or children’s work, or emotionally sensitive pastoral work. You are invited to any work you feel called to do and are equipped to undertake. You are invited into a kingdom that knows no distinction between Greek or Jew or black or white or male or female… we are all one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28).

The differences, the divides, the restraints have been removed. We can move forward, in abandoned surrender, in order to bring God’s kingdom to earth as it is in heaven.

I have a hunch that heaven is full of fat, skinny, tall, short, black, brown, white and maybe even blue folks – our perfection comes in our surrender to God and his purposes for us, not in the sameness of identikit lives.

You are not a princess. You are a person. And that is good news.

You can now buy Barbie wearing a burqa.

So, if you’re tired of young women constantly being taught that it’s more important to look good than to be good, and tired of seeing skimpy clothing on disproportionate dolls that make young girls dissatisfied with their own real, healthy bodies – cheer up. You can now buy a doll that’s completely covered, from head to toe, in a different kind of oppression. What a liberated world.

Women can’t seem to catch a break in this culture. On one hand we’re told by some people – neo-feminists who have hijacked equality to mean equal oppression for all – that our best bet is to use our bodies and our sexuality to cash in on economic prosperity. Proponents of this philosophy say it with a straight face. They write about it in magazines and in movie scripts and sing about it at rock concerts. Pop singers like Lady Gaga will have you literally tied up in bondage as you sing about your freedom.

All of this is done in the name of liberation.

On the other hand, some Muslim extremists suggest that wearing a burqa – covering your whole body, from head to toe – is liberating for women.

An interesting symbol of freedom.

The problem is that no matter how you dress up oppression, it will never lead to freedom.

I met a young Muslim girl on a flight from Cape Town, South Africa, to Zambia after an excruciatingly long journey from the other side of the world. When she joined the plane she came in with an entourage of five other Islamic women, all dressed from head to toe in black with only a small eye slit open so that they could see. The rest of the group headed to the back of the plane but the young girl’s seat was next to mine, right at the front. When I get overtired I get a little hyper, so when she sat down and had her seat belt on, I made my move. Most likely it was out of sheer boredom, but before I thought too much about our differences, I leaned way over so I was in her line of sight, waved my hand in a friendly gesture and said “Hello”. As you do.

She was a bit surprised but she said hello back and a conversation began.

All the niceties followed: “Where are you from?”, “Where are you going?”…

It turned out she was just finishing her Islamic studies at a school where her father was the principal. She said she’d had to leave to help take care of her cousins while her brother was on a mission. Feeling a bit awkward about finding out what kind of mission this might be (it was only shortly after the 9/11 attacks), I tried a different line of conversation. “What are your favourite subjects at school?”

She answered, “Evangelism.”

What?

She explained that many of her Christian friends had converted to Islam. Once they understood the realities of her faith they were ready to accept it and join her. She was a gifted evangelist.

I was intrigued and told her to give her evangelism strategy a go on me. She was delighted and took off into a long monologue about the nobility of pursing a holy life, the covering of a burqa, the camaraderie of women in Islam, how good it was to be protected from people viewing her as a sexual object, etc…

I was amazed. I knew enough about the Muslim faith to know that it’s hard work at best, and at worst an oppressive religion that hopes for salvation through works – an impossibility. No matter how good you are, you can never be good enough without Jesus. This is just basic math.

After she had finished, she was kind and polite enough to ask me about my faith. Now I had a chance to tell her all the basic fundamental doctrines, the top ten reasons why I believe Christianity is a better faith than Islam. But for some reason, I sensed the promptings of God to tell her about my relationship with Jesus.

I explained that I had encountered Jesus when I didn’t deserve mercy or love and He had given salvation to me as a gift. I began to follow Him, I said, because I had never known such mercy, grace, and love in my whole life – and I wanted to be like Him. I told her that I was impressed with her presentation of her faith, but, as enticing as it seemed, I could never imagine my life without Jesus.

Silence.

I thought I’d offended her. I thought I’d been too overpowering. I wondered if I’d taken things too far – maybe she’d get into trouble because she’d listened to me? I sat there, and, to stop my fear-based worrying, I just prayed.

And waited.

Finally, she turned to me, looked me in the eye and said some very powerful words. “Would you like to see my face?”

Wow.

I guess the question we all need to hear from women all over the globe is the same. We know that cultural divides are huge. We know that the deep injustices against women across the world and in the church seem almost insurmountable. But the real question – the question Jesus is keen to hear, and the question that has the power to change things – is one of intimacy, relationship, and connection. It has emotional power and a bonding value. It can connect us in ways we can only imagine.

“Would you like to see my face?”

I responded with a resounding “Yes!” As a matter of fact, I felt a holy shiver of privilege and tension and gave a nervous glance over my shoulder in case her entourage was hovering anywhere near our seats. Then I sat there as she pulled back her burqa and showed me who she was.

And my friend Asma was beautiful. Sixteen years old beautiful, with big dimples, mischievous eyes, and a huge smile that lit up her whole face. She was so lovely it’s hard to describe.

And then Asma asked me another question. “Am I what you expected?”

And the answer to that question was “No.” She wasn’t anything like I had imagined her to be. She was beyond all my thoughts. She was different in every good way. She was so lovely. So beautiful. So joyful. Unique.

I’ve found that this is true about women everywhere. I’ve met some amazing women, in brothels and in burqas, in tragic circumstances and under crushing oppression. But they have all been overflowing with potential and life. Their faces are full of beauty, worth, value, dignity, and joy, and this gives me great hope for the future.

I guess the question I’m really hoping to ask you in this book is: Are you willing to look beyond the issues of gender injustice, past prejudices, church politics, and the imbalances of power, and to see their faces? The real faces of women meeting the true heart of God.

This is where true power and beauty lies.

Although Asma told me that wearing her burqa meant she didn’t have to worry about being judged or gawked at because of how she looked, other Islamic women compare wearing the burqa to a jail sentence.

For Faranooz Nazir, the world all but vanished beneath the tent-like covering of her burqa. Its thick mesh panel limited her vision, her movement, and the air she breathed. “I couldn’t hear. I couldn’t see. I couldn’t walk”, she says. “It was as if the world no longer existed to me and I no longer existed to the world.” She now refuses to wear the full veil.

The Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), based in Pakistan, calls being forced to wear a burqa “killing us with cotton”. The group says that forcing women to wear the burqa is one of the ways the Taliban has taken Islamic law – or sharia – to its utmost extreme. Debbie Howlett wrote in USA Today: “While the Taliban has outlawed keeping birds trapped in cages, it has barred Afghan women from leaving their houses. Women cannot work, attend school, or receive treatment from a male doctor. They are forbidden to show an ankle or even make a noise with their shoes – the sound of which is considered too tempting for men to resist. Offenders are beaten, in some cases to death.” ¹

And the burqa has become a much-contested issue in democratic nations with Muslim immigrants, including Canada, where I live. In the Canadian province of Quebec the full-face burqa has been legally banned ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Praise
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Epigraph
• Dedication
• Acknowledgments
• Part One: Brothels and Burqas
• Part Two: What the Bible Says
• Notes