{"id":409,"date":"2013-04-07T11:53:30","date_gmt":"2013-04-07T11:53:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/bge\/?p=409"},"modified":"2013-04-07T11:53:30","modified_gmt":"2013-04-07T11:53:30","slug":"book-review-half-the-sky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/bge\/2013\/04\/07\/book-review-half-the-sky\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review – Half The Sky"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cRachel weeping for her children, and refusing to be comforted, because her children are no more.\u201d <\/em>Matthew referred to this powerful prophecy from Jeremiah 31 as a comment on Herod\u2019s slaughter of all the boys in the region of Bethlehem around the time of Jesus\u2019 birth.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m convinced that Rachel\u2019s weeping has become a bitter wail \u2013 for her female children and for her sisters. \u00a0I\u2019ve recently learned that more girls have been killed in the past fifty years \u2013 precisely because they were girls \u2013 than all the men who died in the wars of the twentieth century. Every year at least two million girls worldwide disappear because of gender discrimination.<\/p>\n

These citations come from the introduction to \u201cHalf The Sky\u201d<\/em> by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, which is a powerful indictment of and for our times. Simply put, this is one powerful book.\u00a0 Yet it\u2019s that rare read that causes you to experience emotionally polar extremes \u2013 despair at the inequities and brutalities experienced by women, yet feeling hopeful for their future.<\/p>\n

Hopeful?\u00a0 The subtitle for their book, \u201cTurning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide\u201d, sums it up perfectly.\u00a0 Kristof and WuDunn, the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist couple, provide powerful documentation of the devastation faced by girls and women due to sex trafficking, honor killings, maternal mortality, rule by rape\u2026.\u00a0 The list is painfully long. Yet each chapter takes a powerfully upward turn towards a new future; numerous courageous women are given a voice to share their vision of changing their culture.<\/p>\n

Reading \u201cHalf the Sky\u201d jarred me.\u00a0 To this point much of my advocacy for women has been at a local or national level \u2013 making place at the leadership table or the pulpit at church, providing support & encouragement to victims of domestic abuse, and serving on the Covenant\u2019s Biblical Gender Equality commission.\u00a0\u00a0 What could I be doing \u2013 should I be doing \u2013 about global needs, which are so much greater than simply assuring equal access and pastoral care?<\/p>\n

Although the authors are not writing from a faith perspective, I recommend this book highly to pastors. We confidently affirm that women bear the image of God.\u00a0 If so, then gendercide and other crimes against women are simply unacceptable. More than simply providing information, \u201cHalf the Sky\u201d has become a significant call to action, with a PBS film series, a game, and most importantly a website, www.halftheskymovement.org<\/a>. Read, inform, contribute, volunteer, visit \u2013 the entire last chapter deftly addresses the question \u201cwhat you can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

To that list of responses I would add the word pray.\u00a0 Is there any doubt that God would want the girls and women of the world to be treated with justice?\u00a0 As more people take up their cause, then we can confidently quote another verse from Jeremiah 31:\u00a0 \u201cSo there is hope for your future, declares the Lord\u201d<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Submitted by:<\/em>
\nBrian Wiele, Commission Member<\/em><\/p>\n

Report This Post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  \u201cRachel weeping for her children, and refusing to be comforted, because her children are no more.\u201d Matthew referred to this powerful prophecy from Jeremiah 31 as a comment on Herod\u2019s slaughter of all the boys in the region of Bethlehem around the time of Jesus\u2019 birth. 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