BaylyBlog: Out of our minds, too...

The clarity and simplicity of Scripture's doctrine of sexuality...

(Note from Tim Bayly: This message was delivered October 5, 1998 in Riga, Latvia, at a conference titled "Gender Theology: Questions, Problems, Perspectives," held by the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church.)

It is a great joy to be here with you and to think of how impossible this time together would have been just a few years ago. How good it is to be able to cross borders so freely--without even the necessity of a visa--and to be able to join together in fellowship and worship with you, my brothers and sisters in Christ.

But then too, I am particularly pleased to be able to speak to you on the subject of Biblical manhood and womanhood. Here it may be appropriate to insert some biographical information, but first please allow me to clarify my own vocabulary:

• 'Complement': "something that fills up, completes, or makes perfect; one of two mutually completing parts" (Webster's Collegiate Dictionary).
• 'Patriarchy': literally, "father rule."
• 'Egalitarian': "a belief in human equality" (Webster's Collegiate Dictionary).

So, when I refer to the different positions taken by Christians today concerning what Scripture has to say about manhood and womanhood, I will use these terms:

First, the words 'complementarian' or 'patriarchal' will be used to indicate the Church's historical position which calls for a distinction in roles between men and women in the government of the Church and home; and particularly to the necessity of men holding positions of authority.

Second, the word 'egalitarian' will be used to indicate the position held by feminists today when they call for women to hold leadership positions of authority equally with men.

Now for some personal history: Although today I myself believe in the Church's historical, patriarchal position, it was not always so. Back in 1976 when my wife and I were first married, both of us were committed egalitarians...

Why did God make mothers?

(Tim, w/thanks to Kamilla) Here's a cute compilation of answers given by young children to various questions concerning their mothers.

Happy Mother's Day!

(Tim) Tomorrow is Mother's Day, so here are pictures of David's and my mother, Mary Louise Bayly, and my father and mother-in-law, Ken and Margaret Taylor (Dad Taylor is deceased).

And honoring God Who gave us motherhood, here's a sermon on a wonderful Mother's Day text--Isaiah 60:10-14. This was the funeral sermon given several years ago on the occasion of the death of Bloomington's mother-in-Israel, Rita Cuffey...

Just down the street from our church-houses...

"For from the least of them even to the greatest of them, Everyone is greedy for gain, And from the prophet even to the priest Everyone deals falsely. They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, Saying, 'Peace, peace,' But there is no peace. Were they ashamed because of the abomination they have done? They were not even ashamed at all; They did not even know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; At the time that I punish them, They shall be cast down," says the LORD. (Jeremiah 6:13-15)

(Tim) A few years after Yale was founded, a student spoke critically of one of Yale's tutors saying, "He has no more grace than this chair." Yale's response was swift: The student was expelled and, despite his apology (contra Wikipedia), Yale refused to reinstate him. Centuries later, Yale named one of her Divinity School buildings for this student. It's the only building ever named for a student who was expelled.

One of this student's contemporaries also attended Yale a few years earlier when Yale was just being chartered. At that time, Jonathan Edwards himself was caught up in the discipline of Yale's tutors. Their infraction?

They were promoting Arminian theology. Yale had been founded because of Harvard's betrayal of Christian doctrine, so no one involved in Yale's founding was about to let it happen again.

What does Yale discipline today?

This past year, a Yale art student regularly impregnated herself (artificially, with a syringe), then killed the babies she never knew by taking oral abortifacients--all of which she carefully documented with a video camera for display at a Yale art exhibition. Yale's administration was quite embarrassed and released a statement...

Counting our blessings...

Thus says the LORD, ‘I will return to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts will be called the Holy Mountain.’ Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘Old men and old women will again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each man with his staff in his hand because of age.

And the streets of the city will be filled with boys and girls playing in its streets.’ (Zechariah 8:3-5)

(Tim) When David and I speak privately, it's a rare conversation we don't speak of our gratitude to the Lord for the wonderful churches He has blessed us with. And this isn't the one-upmanship of two brothers who are both pastors. Trust us, we know about that. Rather, it's the true joy of men for whom the lines have fallen in pleasant places recognizing it's all of God.

My Scripture reading today reminds me of one of our principal joys--our congregations' great fruitfulness physically and spiritually. Physically?

Well, between Christ the Word in Toledo and Church of the Good Shephed here in Bloomington, Indiana, I'd estimate between thirty and forty children will be born or adopted by a Covenant family this year. And this happens year after year--fruit, fruit, and more fruit! Our aisles and nurseries and gym and hallways and cars and homes and fellowship halls are filled with boys and girls playing together...

A Maundy Thursday tribute to Rita Cuffey, mother in Israel...

There's much talk today about women needing recognition and, wanting to do something about it, it seemed a good day of the year--Maundy Thursday, when we celebrate our Lord's command that we follow his pattern in serving one another--to honor the woman who, more than anyone other than my own family members, revealed to me the glory of womanhood, femininity, and the humble service of motherhood. Would you please take the time to listen to this sermon preached at Mrs. James (Rita) Cuffey's funeral?

For eleven years Rita Cuffey was, other than my wife, my closest friend and wisest counselor. We met weekly and what a help those meetings were. Each time as she left, Rita would ask me what she could pray for me for? And since one of my most frequent prayer requests was that I would be faithful in my private devotional life, when she arrived one week, right out of the gate she asked if I'd had devotions, yet? One weeks the answer was "no," she'd cheerfully announce, "Well, I'll wait. You go ahead and have devotions and then we'll talk." I did while she patiently waited...

Wombs for rent

(David) This article in the New York Times on Indian women renting their wombs as surrogate mothers is a window into the biological/sociological world of tomorrow. For $25,000, homosexual lovers from Israel buy an egg from an Indian woman, have it inseminated and surgically placed in an Indian woman's womb. She carries the baby to term--the child is never conceived from a surrogate mother's own egg lest she grow attached to it--gives birth, and immediately gives the baby over to the rent paying "parents." Homosexual couples from Israel are doing this--and also soccer moms from Orange County, who've learned that a surrogate mother can be hired in India for one-third the cost of an American surrogate. Slavery has many forms, and this is slavery on every side.

"They love to be pregnant..."

(Tim, again w/thanks to Kamilla) Anyone sinful and naive enough to think liberals are well-intentioned but misdirected should have his nose shoved into this piece, "Outsourced Wombs," from the New York Times about rich women paying poor women for the use of their womb to carry a baby to term. I write "a baby" rather than "her baby" because I deny that motherhood and surrogate motherhood are fungible.

Really, the hypocrisy and naked self-interest of these women and their significant other is almost beyond belief. If Jeremy Taylor wrote an essay on the Christian duty of mothers to breastfeed their own young (rather than hiring a wet-nurse), what ought we to be writing today?

If the article doesn't depress you, the comments will. So very sad.

Now, I wouldn't want that for my own daughters...

(Tim) Robert Egan, owner of Hackensack, New Jersey's, barbecue restaurant, Chubby's, has appointed himself peacemaker-in-chief between North Korea and these United States. The latest (10/8/07) New Yorker has a profile of Egan and his particular brand of chef-and-shuttle diplomacy. The piece ends with Egan comparing North Korea and these United States:

This is what I like--the North Koreans ...are very family-oriented. And they have a better take on a man's role and a woman's role than we do. I think a lot of women in this country are trying to be men, and I think that could be the downfall of the family structure of this society. But, in North Korea, the man goes to work and the woman raises the family. Now, I wouldn't want that for my own daughters--I want them to be career girls, not dependent on any man but me--but in my own life I like the fact that a guy's a guy and a girl's a girl. You feel like a man when you are in North Korea. (p. 69)

Egan sounds pretty much like today's run-of-the-mill conservative Christian father who likes his own male perquisites alright, but at the same time wants his daughter to be impervious to the failures of any husband she may marry. So off she goes to college, graduate school, and her career. For himself, he wants a real wife and a real mother for his children. But for his daughters, he wants success, security, and independence.

Is this the life of faith?

Look at whatever alumni magazines you get--we're on the lists of Covenant College, Taylor University, Westmont College, and Wheaton College--and note...

Notes from a mother...

We were reading rhymes this morning and figuring out missing rhyming words. I read,

What are little boys made of, made of?
What are little boys made of?
Frogs and snails
And puppy-dogs' tails,
That's what little boys are made of.

What are little girls made of, made of?
What are little girls made of?
Sugar and spice
And all things nice,
That's what little girls are made of.

Jonathan laughed after both verses and said, "Noo! That's not right at all!" Then he thought for a minute and decided, "Well, it's right for girls but not for boys." I asked him to explain...

"Where the women are strong..."

Check out this letter to a daughter by a mother of nine at Church of the Good Shepherd. It's wonderful and wonderfully true.

Dear Kara, You asked me the other day why a guy would ever want to marry a strong woman when he could choose instead a sweet and naturally submissive woman. I gave you a few answers, but since I have been thinking about this more, I wanted to write more in depth....

I remain convinced that the strongest women on earth fill churches like CTW and CGS. The blonde commuting in the Lexus hasn't got anything on the woman steering the child-filled Safari or Econoline from either of these churches.

Cool dudes or a pregnant mother of four: evangelicals, take your pick...

-posted by Tim Bayly

So, twice in three days, I was depressed hearing about the influence of a certain cool dude's ear-scratching book telling everyone how wise he is at meeting the culture where it's at, and how unutterably stupid the Church is. Oh, how weary I grow of these Bible-betraying fools and their sycophants. They sell out to the world and call it thinking biblically. They betray the Lord and call it God's new thing. They are cowards and call it tact--sometimes even evangelism! But do they bear one iota of resemblance to the Apostle Paul? No, the thought of them being lashed or stoned is laughable. The world wouldn't bother. Well, God just reminded me that there are still many who have not bowed the knee to Baal. He has promised that the gates of Hell will not prevail against His Church and He's always faithful to His promises. How was I reminded? I came across this most excellent comment by one of Mom Taylor's granddaughters under my tribute to Mom on her 90th birthday. May God give us many more mothers like Leslie Taylor. But more, may He fill His Church with Titus 2 women who WILL teach the younger women of the church to be godly women, and therefore godly wives and mothers. If Leslie is the kind of woman evangelical feminists are trying to push into the pulpit, I say "You go, girl!" Here's Leslie's comment:

It is tragic that home economics has largely disappeared because I am convinced that being a mother requires more education and training than any other occupation. One of the most noticeable effects of feminism is how unprepared and clueless many of today's mothers are (and I was one of them). I know that there have always been spoiled children and clueless mothers all throughout history, but what is going on in America today is an epidemic of enormous proportions, and the church is no haven. When Christopher [her husband] and I left the park with the kids yesterday...

Happy 90th birthday, Mom Taylor!

Mom Taylor (in blue on left),surrounded by her children, grandchildren, and great-
grandchildren immediately following her husband, Ken's, funeral almost one year ago.

Note from Tim Bayly: Today is the ninetieth birthday of my dear mother-in-law, Margaret Louise Taylor. It would be hard to overstate the blessing she has been in my life, not only indirectly through her influence on the development of the character of my dear wife, Mary Lee (and through Mary Lee, our daughters, Heather, Michal, and Hannah); but also directly as I've been a part of her extended family for thirty-seven years, now, and have received only good, and never evil, from her hands. A few years ago, thinking about Mom Taylor and my own mother, Mary Louise Bayly, I wrote this article as a tribute to them both. Now I reproduce it here, as a ninetieth birthday tribute to Mom, but also as a reminder to our readers of the true nature of biblical femininity, womanhood, motherhood. * * * Mom Taylor studied for her degree in Home Economics during the late '30s and early '40s, graduating summa cum laude from Oregon State University. After marrying her childhood sweetheart, she gave birth to 10 children in 14 years. Her husband, engaged for most of the years when the family was young as editorial director of a religious publishing house, brought home low wages, so frugality was a necessity and the degree served this young mother and her family well. Food preservation, hygiene, cooking, sewing, and home budgeting were part of the Home Economics curriculum and, along with the liberal arts training which came with every bachelor's degree at the time, these young women graduated with specialized training for their profession of choice -- motherhood. Other women took similarly helpful majors in Elementary Education, Bible, Christian Education (my own mother's major), and Nursing. Then came the frontal assault on housewifery and motherhood carried out largely by a new and powerful aristocracy, the "Information Class." (Footnote 1) During the late '60s and early '70s this assault reached fever pitch and the academy was ground zero. College and university students were assigned propagandistic tracts such as Ibsen's, A Doll's House, and joined the ranks of those determined to liberate the "Noras" of the world. (Footnote 2)   Oxford historian Paul Johnson provides interesting historical details on A Doll's House, noting that both Karl Marx's youngest daughter, Eleanor, and George Bernard Shaw took part in its first private reading in London, Eleanor playing the title role of Nora. Johnson writes, the "clear message" of A Doll's House was that "marriage is not sacrosanct, the husband's authority is open to challenge, [and] self-discovery matters more than anything else." Johnson concludes, "[Ibsen] really started the women's movement." (Footnote 3) The discipline of Home Economics (also known as "household arts") was an early casualty. Traditionally, Home Economics had enjoyed a comfortably apolitical niche in the world of higher education, and the guardians of this discipline had every reason to trust their academic peers would continue to be favorably disposed toward a curriculum so integrally tied to domestic tranquility. It was taken for granted that a dignified and competent wife and mother, devoted to her family, was a desirable constant in American culture. To the feminists, Home Economics was anything but apolitical, so they attacked...

Woman's glorious vulnerability...

In response to my earlier post, "Marriage, Student Debt, and Motherhood," Elizabeth wrote:

Tim... you can't realistically recommend that one group of people (young women) unilaterally forswear economic self-help. ...Still less can you put this recommendation in terms that suggest it is overwhelmingly a matter of a woman's personal character...

Actually, I didn't recommend that young women resign themselves to financial vulnerability, but just the opposite. I warned against young women making themselves financially vulnerable and selling themselves into many years of economic servitude by taking out large student loans for academic and professional training that will require them to postpone marriage and childbearing, and to give over the rearing of their children to others.

Does each generation really need to be surprised by their desire to marry, followed by another desire to make fruitful love and pray to God for the blessing of children?

And just because it happens to some, does every Christian woman need to prepare for singleness or for her husband's abandonment of her and their children? Chesterton rightly warned against "the modern and morbid weakness of always sacrificing the normal to the abnormal." And when it comes to marriage, fatherhood, and motherhood, we must be more sophisticated in counting the cost to young Christian men and women of giving in to the abnormal.

It's a plain fact that's easily observable to those of us who live in the middle of academe that, for women, preparing for a career and preparing for motherhood are often incompatible. I've outlined this argument in the article but let me try to put some meat on the bones.

A few years ago Michal--our fifteen-year-old middle child--was invited to spend a week at the Pennsylvania Supreme Court with her godfather who, at the time, had been clerking for a number of years for the court's chief justice...

Chesterton on the gigantic task of motherhood...

Again, on this Mother's Day, David and I dedicate to our mother, Mary Lou Bayly; and to our wives, Cheryl and Mary Lee, this and the previous excerpts from Chesterton's, What's Wrong with the World.

From "The Emancipation of Domesticity"

Supposing it to be conceded that humanity has acted at least not unnaturally in dividing itself into two halves, respectively typifying the ideals of special talent and of general sanity (since they are genuinely difficult to combine completely in one mind), it is not difficult to see why the line of cleavage has followed the line of sex, or why the female became the emblem of the universal and the male of the special and superior. Two gigantic facts of nature fixed it thus: first, that the woman who frequently fulfilled her functions literally could not be specially prominent in experiment and adventure; and second, that the same natural operation surrounded her with very young children, who require to be taught not so much anything as everything. Babies need not to be taught a trade, but to be introduced to a world. To put the matter shortly, woman is generally shut up in a house with a human being at the time when he asks all the questions that there are, and some that there aren't. It would be odd if she retained any of the narrowness of a specialist.

Now if anyone says that this duty of general enlightenment (even when freed from modern rules and hours, and exercised more spontaneously by a more protected person) is in itself too exacting and oppressive, I can understand the view. I can only answer that our race has thought it worth while to cast this burden on women in order to keep common-sense in the world. But when people begin to talk about this domestic duty as not merely difficult but trivial and dreary, I simply give up the question. For I cannot with the utmost energy of imagination conceive what they mean. When domesticity, for instance, is called drudgery, all the difficulty arises from a double meaning in the word. If drudgery only means dreadfully hard work, I admit the woman drudges in the home, as a man might drudge at the Cathedral of Amiens or drudge behind a gun at Trafalgar. But if it means that the hard work is more heavy because it is trifling, colorless and of small import to the soul, then as I say, I give it up; I do not know what the words mean.

Chesterton on the timeless battle between man and woman...

On this Mother's Day, David and I dedicate to our mother, Mary Lou Bayly; and to our wives, Cheryl and Mary Lee, this and the following excerpts from Chesterton's, What's Wrong with the World.

From "The Pedant and the Savage"

Some impatient trader, some superficial missionary, walks across an island and sees the squaw digging in the fields while the man is playing a flute; and immediately says that the man is a mere lord of creation and the woman a mere serf. He does not remember that he might see the same thing in half the back gardens in Brixton, merely because women are at once more conscientious and more impatient, while men are at once more quiescent and more greedy for pleasure. It may often be in Hawaii simply as it is in Hoxton. That is, the woman does not work because the man tells her to work and she obeys.

On the contrary, the woman works because she has told the man to work and he hasn't obeyed. I do not affirm that this is the whole truth, but I do affirm that we have too little comprehension of the souls of savages to know how far it is untrue. It is the same with the relations of our hasty and surface science, with the problem of sexual dignity and modesty. Professors find all over the world fragmentary ceremonies in which the bride affects some sort of reluctance, hides from her husband, or runs away from him.

The professor then pompously proclaims that this is a survival of Marriage by Capture. I wonder he never says that the veil thrown over the bride is really a net. I gravely doubt whether women ever were married by capture I think they pretended to be; as they do still.

It is equally obvious that these two necessary sanctities of thrift and dignity are bound to come into collision with the wordiness, the wastefulness, and the perpetual pleasure-seeking of masculine companionship. Wise women allow for the thing; foolish women try to crush it; but all women try to counteract it, and they do well.

In many a home all round us at this moment, we know that the nursery rhyme is reversed. The queen is in the counting-house, counting out the money. The king is in the parlor, eating bread and honey. But it must be strictly understood that the king has captured the honey in some heroic wars.

Carolyn Custis James, Covenant College, and the Kaleo Center...

Just now we've added a new category to our index titled, "Frank/Carolyn Custis James." Having received a request earlier this evening for a compilation of everything written on this subject, we're happy to oblige. Clicking on this link will take our readers to a page that contains all the posts related to the James' time speaking at Covenant College on "Gender and the Church." Or, go to the left column, about halfway down, and click on the index entry, "Frank/Carolyn Custis James." (Pay particular attention to the more than 180 comments buried in these initial posts since much of the best content was contributed by our good readers and will be missed if readers coming lately to this subject skip the comments.)

Also, here is a statement, Responding to Gender Issues at Covenant College, written by President Niel Nielson and his wife, Dr. Kathleen Nielson, in response to criticisms of Mrs. James' teaching on sexuality given at Covenant and elsewhere.

One woman's theological confession of faith...

Our readers may remember two wise comments contributed by Rebecca Jones under this blog's posts concerning Covenant College's hosting of Carolyn Custis James a week or so ago. I've had the privilege of working alongside Rebecca and her husband, Peter, in the past opposing the feminist heresy and I commend this credo, this personal confession of faith. It's obvious here that being a mother and wife is no hindrance to being a theologian. Rather, as Rebecca would put it, being a wife and a mother is, for most women, how she must be a theologian. Note particularly Rebecca's explanatory statement at the end, in italics.

It would be good for Covenant College to require any future women being considered for speaking engagements on the subject of the meaning and purpose of sexuality to read and sign Mrs. Jones' Credo before the invitation is final. After all, we're a confessional community and asking women being considered for positions of authority at Covenant College should be expected to be confessional on this issue, and not simply the issues from centuries back.

My Credo as a Christian Woman

by Rebecca Jones

I believe God created me, a woman, in His image.

I believe God has the authority, as my Creator to define my whole person; body, soul, mind, and emotions.

I believe God has chosen to reveal Himself through the world in which I live and through the incarnation of His Son, Jesus Christ. I learn of both these revelations through His Word, the Bible, which becomes clear to me by the power of Jesus Christ, whose Spirit works in my heart and my understanding.

I believe that God exists as one God, in three equal persons and that these persons have Scripturally revealed relationships and functions within the trinity.

I believe that all human fellowship is a reflection of that perfect fellowship defined and experienced from all eternity by God Himself in the trinity.

I believe that God made both men and women in His image.

I believe that God gave the man a representative role in humanity in general (as seen in both Adam and Christ) and that He also gave each man a representative and authoritative role as head of his wife and of his family...

Covenant's Kaleo Center and the James: lessons learned...

As the dialogue on this blog concerning Covenant's College's Kaleo Center's conference on gender and the church comes to an end, a few observations are in order.

It is a great disadvantage to do the work of professing and fathering at a distance and by E-mail. Covenant students need on-site professors who will profess the biblical doctrine of sexuality with joyful abandon--not parsimoniously with a defensive attitude saying more what that doctrine doesn't mean than what it does mean.

These professors are physically present, and therefore in the perfect position to answer the question, "What is submission?"

Their answer should not come only in a classroom, but also in their homes around the dining room table. It's there in the hurlyburly of life that submission will become clear to Matthew, Heather, Stephanie, and hundreds of others who arrived at college thinking that feminism has questions that only twenty or thirty year olds hear.

When Covenant's Kaleo Center invites the James to campus to deal with the much-controverted question of authority and submission in marriage, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to read the signs and know where the Kaleo Center is trying to lead the campus. The headliner is a woman and she is approved of and promoted by the main evangelical feminist organization? Well now, let me see: I wonder what that means?

Not to put too fine a point on it, I think it means that she ought not to speak at Covenant since every confessional commitment of Covenant's ecclesiastical authority is opposed to the teaching of this evangelical feminist organization on the meaning and purpose of sexuality. Yes, to me it's that simple: Carolyn Custis James' books are sold by the organization and they use her to speak at their national conference so we cannot trust Mrs. James to teach our students the meaning and purpose of Christian marriage, sexuality, submission, authority, etc.

But some point out that while she was at Covenant Mrs. James took a second to affirm that she was willing to submit to Scripture's teaching concerning men alone being called to serve as pastors and elders, so she's obviously orthodox in her doctrine of sexuality.

Maybe an analogy will help make my point.

Let's say by some perverse error I was invited by the administration to be the keynote speaker at a conference on gender and the church at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Fuller Theological Seminary, or Wheaton College where the community ethos is overwhelmingly feminist. And it was clear by the administration's invitation which direction they wanted to move their institution although, of course, nothing was ever said directly to me about their goal.

An appeal to the shepherds of the PCA...

Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God. Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.

I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears.

And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. (Acts 20:26-32)

From the beginning, Christian faith is controversial. Not in a tight and rigid way, but in a way that demonstrates God's sovereignty and the loving affirmation of His sovereignty by those who are born again by His Spirit. Repentance is not simply the negative duty every Christian must walk through at the beginning of his spiritual life, after the completion of which he may breath a sigh of relief thinking "Thank God that's over."

Rather, as the first of Luther's ninety-five theses reminds us, "the life of a Christian is a life of repentance." It never ends. We must repent each year, each day, each hour. All Jesus' teaching, mirrored by the Apostles throughout the New Testament, emphasizes that the Christian life is a battle against principalities and powers, and that no growth, no sanctification will come to those who choose a life of peace. The life of repentance means we are to "take up our cross," to "endure hardship," to "fill up the cup of Christ's sufferings," to "wrestle," to "contend," to "guard, to "crucify our flesh," and always to keep in mind that "a man's enemies will be the members of his own family."

Few of us doubt the existence of this battle on a personal level since believers are well aware of the "law of sin and death" that wages war within us. With considerable relief (and even joy), we join in the prayer of confession near the beginning of our corporate worship services knowing that here, at least, among the people of God at worship we may rest secure that we are known as we really are, not as Robert Schuller or Dr. Laura thinks we should be.

But when faced with this battle on a corporate level, many of us revolt against it because here Christian faith is in direct opposition to the last value, the last moral or absolute left in these United States--namely, "Can't we all just get along?" We don't want to be in conflict with unbelievers because such conflict seems to be counterproductive to evangelism.

And beyond our squeamishness at the hatred the world showers upon Jesus Christ, His Truth, and His followers, conflict within the Church is the most grievous of all. After all, Jesus said that our love for one another will be the basis of unbelievers' judgments concerning the truth of our claim that we are Christ's disciples. "By this shall all men know that you are my disciples..." How can we honor Christ Who prayed that we might be one when we are fighting with each other?

This is where we must toughen up and think with our Bibles rather than our cultural prejudices and emotions. Scripture teaches that we'll always have the poor with us. Scripture also teaches we'll always have false shepherds and false doctrine with us and it is those false shepherds promoting false doctrines that are the instruments of schism and division with the Body of Christ. How is the peace and unity of that Body to be restored?

By exposing both false shepherds and their false doctrine. By fighting against the wolves who seek to devour the flock...

Carolyn Custis James and evangelical feminists are in harmony...

Carolyn Custis James' association with evangelical feminists opposed to the teaching of Scripture goes back several years, at least. She was one of the principal speakers at the Christians for Biblical Equality conference held in Orlando in 2003. Here is the list of speakers and representative topics:

Find out why the devil hates women in ministry, how to be a wild-hearted woman, and what the Bible says about God's gender at the 2003 conference in Orlando. An all-star cast of speakers awaits you, such as David Hamilton, Kevin Giles, Linda Belleville, Lee Grady, Funmi Para-Mallam, Carolyn Custis James, and John Kohlenberger. Our conference will explore the theme, "The Priesthood of All Believers: Serving Christ as a Global Community.

Anyone who doubts that Christians for Biblical Equality is an organization in principle opposed to the teaching of God's Word concerning sexuality has only to go here and read their confession of faith to know who Carolyn Custis James is making common cause with.

It is impossible to support Christians for Biblical Equality's confession of faith and the Westminster Standards. It is impossible to be an adherent to CBE's false doctrine and to Scripture's true doctrine of sexuality. It is impossible for a woman or man to subscribe to the plenary verbal inspiration of Scripture and to the doctrines of Christians for Biblical Equality. To illustrate, here are a couple excerpts from CBE's confession of faith...

What do they know that we don't?

The oft-repeated suggestion in comments on this site that the teaching of Carolyn Custis James remains firmly grounded in PCA teaching and Biblical orthodoxy runs headlong into this powerful counter-argument....

The best-known Evangelical feminist/egalitarian organization, Christians for Biblical Equality (CBE), also claims Mrs. James's teachings in support of their own agenda.

Not only are two books and an audio tape by Ms James sold on CBE's web-based bookstore, Mrs. James's argument for translating ezer "warrior" are reproduced and footnoted as "an especially good recent study of this word" in an article critiquing "Complementarian Interpretations" of Scripture on CBE's site.

In fact, it would seem Mrs. James's etymological argument against the traditional interpretation of ezer ("helpmeet") amounts to little more than a stock egalitarian/feminist interpretation to which Mrs. James adds the interpretive gloss "warrior." CBE's egalitarian manifesto (Statement on Men, Women and Biblical Equality) says of ezer...

2. The Bible teaches that woman and man were created for full and equal partnership. The word "helper" (ezer), used to designate woman in Genesis 2:18, refers to God in most instances of Old Testament usage (e.g. 1Sam 7:12; Ps 121:1-2). Consequently the word conveys no implication whatsoever of female subordination or inferiority.

It's possible Mrs. James's books could appear on CBE's web site without her knowledge or permission. It's much less likely that an audio tape of Mrs. James would be sold in CBE's web store against her knowledge or will. Finally, similarities between Mrs. James's arguments and stock egalitarian fare are so far-reaching that CBE plainly views Mrs. James as an ally. At this point it's hard to conceive of anything other than willful credulity or dissembling standing behind a continued claim by her apologists that Mrs. James's teaching hews faithfully to Biblical doctrine or PCA practice.

What's the flap over Carolyn Custis James all about...

One of our good readers finds it impossible to understand what all the fuss is about with Carolyn Custis James's article and words? Why are women and men opposing the quite-reasonable complaints Mrs. James makes concering the evangelical church's abuse of highly educated female theologians? Why are we opposed to women being theologians? Isn't that a good thing that every man should support?

Well of course. Where did anyone here ever say or even intimate that women shouldn't be theologians. But let's not allow this red herring to throw us off the real issue...

Not a kitchen wife...

Note: Those clicking into this particular post from some other blog need to be aware that this is only one in a long line of posts on the subject of the particular theological commitments of Carolyn Custis James concerning the nature and meaning of sexuality. The other posts may be found on this blog's main page. It would be helpful to read them all.

Jack the Pipe points us to the following quote taken from Mrs. James' own blogger information page, found here.

Carolyn Custis James

Speaker, Author and Consultant

Author of When Life and Beliefs Collide: How Knowing God Makes a Difference

Author of Lost Women of the Bible: Finding Strength and Significance Through Their Stories (forthcoming September 2005).

Consulting editor for Zondervan's Exegetical Commentary Series on the New Testament

Consultant for the Jesus Film for women.

BA in Sociology, Westmont College, Santa Barbara, CA
MA in Biblical Studies, Dallas Theological Seminary

www.whitbyforum.com

Carolyn is her husband's favorite theologian. She is not a kitchen wife. She does not keep house, cook, clean or sew, but she reads an awful lot and often talks to women (and sometimes men) from all over the world about women's struggles within the evangelical church. Lately, she has been reading a lot on the plight of women in the Middle East. She helped establish Synergy Conferences for women seminarians and women in vocational ministries, which is sponsored by her ministry organization, Whitby Forum, in alliance with Campus Crusade for Christ International and RTS/Orlando.

Three comments from my precious wife...

Just now as my dear wife MaryLee was heading for bed, I read the paragraph below out loud to her. She's a veteran but repentant feminist, so I knew she'd miss nothing. Sadly, she spoke epigrammatically, limiting her comments to a scant six words. You'll find them inserted in the text below, in bold.

Carolyn Custis James:
One of the most theologically profound moments in the ministry of Jesus was when Mary of Bethany anointed Him for His burial as He braced for the agonies of the passion. Jesus' commendation of her anointing is unequaled and drops significant clues regarding how much her ministry meant to Him. Her actions were theologically driven, not blithely done in ignorance. [What about love?] As His rabbinical student, she knew His teachings. In the death of her brother Lazarus (John 11), she learned the hard way that Jesus can be trusted no matter how bad things get and that He is the resurrection and the life. She had been well trained by her seminary professor, Rabbi Jesus, and at a crucial moment made a definitive theological statement by openly affirming the gospel and boldly encouraging Jesus to obey His Father. [Whoa!] Jesus knew exactly what she was doing. He not only defended her against her critics, He interpreted her actions. "When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial." If she acted in ignorance, this was an appalling display of unbelief. But Jesus linked her actions to the gospel and said, "She has done a beautiful thing to me" (Matthew 26:6-13; John 12:1-8). So far as we know, she was the first of His disciples to understand the Resurrection--one of the key benchmarks for any Reformed theologian. [Go Mary!]

Aren't mothers theologians?

Carolyn Custis James:
It is not overstating things to say that becoming a good theologian is how a woman fulfills her highest destiny--her calling to know and be like Jesus. This is truly the essence of a woman's calling.

Scripture:
Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored. (Titus 2:3-5)

John Calvin (on the above text):
In short, he wishes women to be restrained, by conjugal love and affection for their children, from giving themselves up to licentious attachments, he wishes them to rule their own house in a sober and orderly manner, forbids them to wander about in public places, bids them be chaste, and at the same time modest, so as to be subject to the dominion of their husbands; for those who excel in other virtues sometimes take occasion from them to act haughtily, so as to be disobedient to their husbands.

Tim Bayly:
If all through her article, Carolyn Custis James is using the word "theologian" simply as a placeholder for someone who seeks to know Christ and to make Him known, who would argue with her? But she equivocates, using 'theologian' also in opposition to nursery workers, those practicing hospitality, those decorating and setting tables, and so on...

Martha, a domestic; Mary, a rabbinical student...

Carolyn Custis James:
The Bible has a lot to say about women theologians... (Jesus) constantly stunned His male followers by openly teaching theology to women. Luke makes it clear that Mary of Bethany became a rabbinical student when she sat at the feet of Rabbi Jesus.

Scripture:
Now as they were traveling along, He entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord's feet, listening to His word. But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, "Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me."

But the Lord answered and said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her." (Luke 10:38-42)

John Calvin (on the above text):
As this passage has been basely distorted into the commendation of what is called a Contemplative life, we must inquire into its true meaning, from which it will appear, that nothing was farther from the design of Christ, than to encourage his disciples to indulge in indolence, or in useless speculations. It is, no doubt, an old error, that those who withdraw from business, and devote themselves entirely to a contemplative, lead an Angelical life...

Highly educated and well-paid women...

Carolyn Custis James:
With the educational and professional advancement of women today, many women come to our churches and wonder why the secular workplace values what they bring to the table, but the church shows so little interest.

Scripture:
For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God.
(1 Corinthians 1:26-29)

John Calvin (on the above text):
By the choosing of the poor, and the foolish, and the ignoble, he means, that God has preferred them before the great, and the wise, and the noble. For it would not have sufficed, for beating down the arrogance of the flesh, if God had placed them all upon a level. Hence, those who appeared to excel he put in the background, in order that he might thoroughly abase them.

Theologians above houswives and mothers...

Carolyn Custis James:
How can we be faithful stewards of the rich ministry resources God has entrusted to us in the gifted female theologians in our pews? As vital and important as hospitality and nursery ministries are, these theologically informed women want to do more [than wash the feet of the saints and care for babies and young children] in their local churches, both vocationally and as volunteers. As Christians grow deeper in their knowledge of God, they sense a greater responsibility and desire to serve Him in increasing levels of ministry and leadership [above washing the feet of the saints and caring for babies and young children].

Scripture:
A widow is to be put on the list only if she... (has) a reputation for good works; and if she has brought up children, if she has shown hospitality to strangers, if she has washed the saints' feet, if she has assisted those in distress, and if she has devoted herself to every good work. (1 Timothy 5:9,10)

John Calvin (on above text):
...Paul does not wish that any should be admitted... but those who had excellent attestations of the whole of their past life. Besides, they were not appointed in order to lazy and indolent inactivity, but to minister to the poor and the sick, until, being completely worn out, they should be allowed honorably to retire. Accordingly, that they may be better prepared for the discharge of their office, he wishes them to have had long practice and experience in all the duties which belong to it; such as -- labor and diligence in bringing up children, hospitality, ministering to the poor, and other charitable works.

If it be now asked, Shall all that are barren be rejected, because they have never borne any children? We must reply, that Paul does not here condemn barrenness, but the daintiness of mothers, who, by refusing to endure the weariness of bringing up their children, sufficiently show that they will be very unkind to strangers. And at the same time he holds out this as an honorable reward to godly matrons, who have not spared themselves, that they, in their turn, shall be received into the bosom of the Church in their old age.

By a figure of speech, in which a part is taken for the whole, he means by the washing of the feet all the services which are commonly rendered to the saints; for at that time it was customary to "wash the feet." An employment of this nature might have the appearance of being mean and almost servile; and therefore he makes use of this mark for describing females who were industrious, and far from being fastidious or dainty.

Woe to those who call good evil...

In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives, as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior. Your adornment must not be merely external--braiding the hair, and wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses; but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God. For in this way in former times the holy women also, who hoped in God, used to adorn themselves, being submissive to their own husbands; just as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, and you have become her children if you do what is right without being frightened by any fear. (1Peter 3:1-6)

David and I have mentioned our interest in the proceedings of the "Gender and the Church" conference going on this weekend at our denominational college, Covenant College. Sponsored by Covenant's Kaleo Center, the keynote speakers are Carolyn Custis James and her husband, Frank. The conference web site provides the following credentials for Mrs. James:

Carolyn Custis James is an international conference speaker for churches, colleges, seminaries and other Christian organizations. She is a new voice in Christian publishing with a strong, affirming message for women... Carolyn is President of Whitby Forum, a ministry organization dedicated to helping women go deeper in their relationship with God and to serve Him alongside their brothers in the faith... She is a founder and sponsor (along with Reformed Theological Seminary and Campus Crusade for Christ International) of Synergy conferences--a national gathering of women in seminary and in vocational ministries... During the years between seminary and her present ministries, she had her own business as a computer software developer in Oxford, England. She and her husband Frank (President of Reformed Theological Seminary-- Orlando ) live in Orlando, Florida. They have one college-age daughter.

What "strong, affirming message for women" does Mrs. James provide that is "dedicated to helping women go deeper in their relationship with God... to serve Him alongside their brothers in the faith?" Here's an excerpt from last night's Bible message by Mrs. James...

What's in a name?

The wife of Dr. Frank A. James III, current president of Reformed Theological Seminary (Orlando), ordinarily would be known as Mrs. Frank James. Or, if one were on friendly terms with her, some variation of "Carolyn," "Carol," or "Custis" may be used. For some reason, though, Mrs. James is known as "Carolyn Custis James."

Now you may resent my pointing out the obvious, but no one thinks of her husband, Frank, when people say "Carolyn Custis James." Is that a problem?

Well, no. We all know who she is.

Speaking of which, my mother always preferred to receive letters addressed to "Mrs. Joseph T. Bayly." That was the title of honor back in the old days before women became warriors.

Speaking of helpmates and mothers...

Phil Henry, a Presbyterian Church in America pastor serving in Tucson, Arizona, has a good post critiquing an article in the latest issue of our denominational magazine, byFaith. Written by Carolyn Custis James, the piece is titled, "A CHALLENGE FACING THE PCA IS HOW TO PROFIT FROM THE GROWING POPULATION OF FEMALE THEOLOGIANS: Women Theologians: A SPIRITUAL GOLDMINE FOR THE CHURCH." And yes, that's a long and loud title, but without the use of small caps, that's about what it looks like.

There's a ton that could be said about this (and other) pieces in this issue of byFaith, but I grow weary. Pastor Henry is a younger man, though, and so you might want to watch him tilt at windmills.

Helpmate and mother are just roles...

A cartoon from the latest New Yorker:

Two women in their thirties are talking. One has her arms extended, palms upward, looking exasperated, and she says to the other:

It just seems like all the good roles for women are being taken by all the good female actresses.

That's about it. Sex is gender and gender is a continuum--endless in its possibilities. It's all about roles and roles are only social constructs--things we make up and take on and off like hats. And if it's all about makeup, actresses are so much better at it, aren't they?

Preparing for motherhood...

Note from Tim Bayly: Back on August of 2004 I posted this article. Since then we've gained many readers and, because of the good discussion going on in the comment section under my brother's post, "And sometimes a word is worth a thousand pictures...," I thought I'd repost it now.

My mother-in-law studied for her degree in Home Economics during the late '30s and early '40s, graduating summa cum laude from Oregon State University. After marrying her childhood sweetheart, she gave birth to 10 children in 14 years. Her husband, engaged for most of the years when the family was young as editorial director of a religious publishing house, brought home low wages, so frugality was a necessity and the degree served this young mother and her family well.

Food preservation, hygiene, cooking, sewing, and home budgeting were part of the home ec curriculum and, along with the liberal arts training which came with every bachelor's degree at the time, these young women graduated with specialized training for their profession of choice--motherhood. Other women took similarly helpful majors in Elementary Education, Bible, Christian Education (my own mother's major), and Nursing.

Then came the frontal assault on housewifery and motherhood carried out largely by a new and powerful aristocracy, the "Information Class." (Footnote 1) During the late '60s and early '70s this assault reached fever pitch and the academy was ground zero. College and university students were assigned propagandistic tracts such as Ibsen's, A Doll's House, and joined the ranks of those determined to liberate the "Noras" of the world. (Footnote 2) Oxford historian Paul Johnson provides interesting historical details on A Doll's House, noting that both Karl Marx's youngest daughter, Eleanor, and George Bernard Shaw took part in its first private reading in London, Eleanor playing the title role of Nora. Johnson writes, the "clear message" of A Doll's House was that "marriage is not sacrosanct, the husband's authority is open to challenge, [and] self-discovery matters more than anything else." Johnson concludes, "[Ibsen] really started the women's movement." (Footnote 3)

The discipline of home economics (also known as "household arts") was an early casualty...

Diaper free before one...

Yet another supporting document for my mother's contention that it's possible to potty train children younger than one. Mud claims she had all her children potty-trained before one. My wife Sarah (oh, I mean Cheryl;-) laughs in her tent when she hears it. Judge for yourselves whether Mud might be right.

Mary Lee's surprise birthday party...

Standing, left to right: Tim Bayly, Joseph Bayly, Mary Lee Bayly, Doug Ummel, Ben Crum, Heidi (Staveness) Bayly (Joseph's wife), Heather (Bayly) Ummel (Doug's wife), and Jonathan Ummel (Doug/Heather's eldest); Sitting: Taylor Bayly, Hannah Bayly, Michal (Bayly) Crum (Ben's wife), and Nathan Ummel (Doug/Heather's youngest).

The Bloomington Baylys just returned from a surprise birthday party for my wife, Mary Lee, held near Danville, Kentucky at a rental house. How we managed to pull off the surprise part is beyond me, but it did depend upon lots of work by our daughters and daughter-in-law, and cloak and dagger stuff by the church family (thanks, everyone). The last thing we did as we drove away was take this picture, so I thought I'd share it with you, our good readers. How wonderful to be a family with Jesus holding the center!

Potty Trained by Three Weeks

Tim's and my mother adamantly maintains that all her children were potty-trained before the age of one. To which my dear wife Cheryl, like Sarah before her, snorts unbelievingly in the tent.

I have read that the widespread availability of disposable diapers significantly delayed the average age of potty training in America. But when I suggest this explanation to Cheryl, she still snorts.

Now this. Our cloth-diaper mothers weren't making it up.

I suspect I know what Cheryl will say, though... She'll say that the mother gets potty trained, not the baby.

Thanks to Shaun Nolan.

Happy Mother's Day, Mud...

Tim and I praise God for our Mother (Mud) who remains a vital, godly influence in our lives even now, halfway through her eighties.

Happy Mother's Day, Mud. We love you.

Your grateful sons,

Timothy and David

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day, Cheryl and Maryl. We love you.

Your husbands, David and Tim
Your children, Heather, Joseph, Michal, Hannah, Nathan, Elizabeth, Taylor, Benjamin, Tessa and Isaiah.

Augustine's mother Monica...

Speaking of Christian motherhood, if you have not read Augustine's Confessions, buy it and read it, and mark it up. No book in my library has as many markings and Post-It notes sticking out its side. Here is an autobiography whose ordering principle is the author's confession of sin--not exactly what Billy Graham or Bill Clinton filled theirs with.

But of all the things readers will remember, surely the godly character of Augustine's mother, Monica, and his love for her will be at the top. And here's a taste:

But I will omit not a word that my mind can bring to birth concerning your servant, my mother. In the flesh she brought me to birth in this world; in her heart she brought me to birth in your eternal light.

-Saint Augustine, Confessions, translated by R.S. Pine-Coffin, p. 192.

What a blessing that David and I have this same testimony concerning our own mother, Mary Louise Bayly; and that this is also the testimony of my wife, Mary Lee, about her mother, Margaret Louise Taylor.

Who killed motherhood...

David wrote a piece asking where the slippery slope began that led us into our present culture of death. I'd like to add to the suggestions he and others have made.

If I'm remembering correctly, back in the early Seventies the journal of the California Medical Association published an editorial titled something like, "A New Ethic for Medicine." Years after it was published, Dad gave me a copy indicating it was right in what it said--namely, that medicine had turned a corner from love and compassion toward quality of life and utilitarianism. The editorial was brief and ended saying this change had the gravest of implications for the future of our nation.

Here we are, then, twenty to thirty years later wondering what has brought us to the point where unborn babies, defective newborns, the handicapped, the frail, and the elderly are all endangered by utilitarian judgements based on determinations of the person's quality of life. Baby Doe is mentally handicapped so Baby Doe is starved to death.

How did we get here?

Those outside Terri's hospice in Pinellas Park remarked to one another that Terri would not be being starved to death if motherhood were still honored in our nation. If men still worked for a family wage and their wives were able to give their lives serving their children, parents, church, and community, might not love and compassion still be the core of our nation's heart, as well as the heart of her physicians?

But instead, full time housewives have been deemed expendable and the demise of the calling of motherhood has been one of the leading factors contributing to our nation's increasing poverty of spirit. Compassion has become an entitlement doled out by the government's bureaucracy. It no longer comes from the hands and heart of a loving woman who serves others by leave of, and in solidarity with, her husband. Compassion has been professionalized and has died.

But beyond this decline is another deeper one: women no longer give themselves to motherhood and mercy because the weaker sex no longer glories in femininity. Instead, woman competes with man. Beyond Baby Doe and Terri Schiavo, femininity and motherhood have also died and all of us are the poorer for it.

It's not wombs but mothers who give the gift of life.

Sexuality: Scripture's Clarity and Simplicity...

(Note from Tim Bayly: This paper was delivered on October 5, 1998 in Riga, Latvia, at a conference titled "Gender Theology: Questions, Problems, Perspectives," held by the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church.)

It is a great joy to be here with you and to think of how impossible this time together would have been just a few years ago. How good it is to be able to cross borders so freely--without even the necessity of a visa--and to be able to join together in fellowship and worship with you, my brothers and sisters in Christ.

But then too, I am particularly pleased to be able to speak to you on the subject of Biblical manhood and womanhood. Here it may be appropriate to insert some biographical information, but first please allow me to clarify my own vocabulary:

• 'Complement': "something that fills up, completes, or makes perfect; one of two mutually completing parts" (Webster's Collegiate Dictionary).
• 'Patriarchy': literally, "father rule."
• 'Egalitarian': "a belief in human equality" (Webster's Collegiate Dictionary).

So, when I refer to the different positions taken by Christians today concerning what Scripture has to say about manhood and womanhood, I will use these terms:

First, the words 'complementarian' or 'patriarchal' will be used to indicate the Church's historical position which calls for a distinction in roles between men and women in the government of the Church and home; and particularly to the necessity of men holding positions of authority.

Second, the word 'egalitarian' will be used to indicate the position held by feminists today when they call for women to hold leadership positions of authority equally with men.

Now for some personal history: Although today I myself believe in the Church's historical, patriarchal position, it was not always so. Back in 1976 when my wife and I were first married, both of us were committed egalitarians...

An inspiring comment...

If you want to be encouraged in godliness, read "Karen's" comment under the blog entry below, "The Just Shall Die by Faith."

What style mother suits you...

Ever wondered how couples choose a mother for their child? Well wonder no longer. Again the NYT's "Sunday Styles" section obliges us with the answer in the form of a prominently placed ad with the following copy:

DONOR EGG

IMMEDIATE AVAILABILITY

The internationally renowned donor egg program at Genetics & IVF Institute, based in suburban Washington, DC, has long met the high expectations of sophisticated patients and medical specialists from around the world. We offer approximately 100 fully prescreened donors immediately available for matching and utilization by our patients. These donors include many Doctoral Donors in advanced degree programs (sic), and numerous other egg donors with special accomplishments, talents, or ethnicity...

Life begins at the Genetics & IVF Institute!

-ad from September 26, 2004 New York Times (emphases in the original)

Presented a choice between an egg donated by a Brown University PhD candidate and a Nashville belle working in a church day care center, which would it be? And between a graduate of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and the daughter of a baptist minister in western Nebraska who, since graduating from high school, has clerked at Walmart? And between a cheerful coal miner's daughter who lives in eastern Kentucky's Letcher County, and an oceanographer from La Jolla who works at Scripps?

Well, with all due respect for these honored representatives of the "Doctoral Donor" class, as far as I'm concerned it ain't even close. Let's hear it for church day care, Walmart, and Letcher County coal mines.

Preparing for motherhood...

My mother-in-law studied for her degree in Home Economics during the late '30s and early '40s, graduating summa cum laude from Oregon State University. After marrying her childhood sweetheart, she gave birth to 10 children in 14 years. Her husband, engaged for most of the years when the family was young as editorial director of a religious publishing house, brought home low wages, so frugality was a necessity and the degree served this young mother and her family well.

Food preservation, hygiene, cooking, sewing, and home budgeting were part of the home ec curriculum and, along with the liberal arts training which came with every bachelor's degree at the time, these young women graduated with specialized training for their profession of choice--motherhood. Other women took similarly helpful majors in Elementary Education, Bible, Christian Education (my own mother's major), and Nursing.

Then came the frontal assault on housewifery and motherhood carried out largely by a new and powerful aristocracy, the "Information Class." (Footnote 1) During the late '60s and early '70s this assault reached fever pitch and the academy was ground zero. College and university students were assigned propagandistic tracts such as Ibsen's, A Doll's House, and joined the ranks of those determined to liberate the "Noras" of the world. (Footnote 2) Oxford historian Paul Johnson provides interesting historical details on A Doll's House, noting that both Karl Marx's youngest daughter, Eleanor, and George Bernard Shaw took part in its first private reading in London, Eleanor playing the title role of Nora. Johnson writes, the "clear message" of A Doll's House was that "marriage is not sacrosanct, the husband's authority is open to challenge, [and] self-discovery matters more than anything else." Johnson concludes, "[Ibsen] really started the women's movement." (Footnote 3)

The discipline of home economics (also known as "household arts") was an early casualty. Traditionally, home ec had enjoyed a comfortably apolitical niche in the world of higher education, and the guardians of this discipline had every reason to trust their academic peers would continue to be favorably disposed toward a curriculum so integrally tied to domestic tranquility. It was taken for granted that a dignified and competent wife and mother, devoted to her home and family, was a highly desirable constant in American culture.

To the feminists, home ec was anything but apolitical, so they attacked...

Postponing motherhood: eggs in the fridge...

So now Slate runs a piece informing us that professional women who are hesitant to derail their high-octane careers for the sake of motherhood will be able to pay to have good eggs from their young ovaries set aside in the freezer, to be used later when they decide it's safe to take a break for (sort of) motherhood.

Well here's an idea: God created our bodies with a view to ordering our work (including pregnancy, childbearing, and child-rearing) in a way that fits our age, and those who seek to overrule that order by means of technological fixes will learn something of God's wisdom and man's foolishness. I mean, let me put it this way: although I know children are a blessing--one of the principal sources of joy in our lives--I do feel a tinge of sympathy for the many older women I see here in this university community who are out and about with their toddlers makng what seems evident as their first foray into motherhood.

Think about getting broken into pregnancy and delivery and nursing and diapers and all that STUFF when you're forty-four and you've spent the previous two decades of your life in the antiseptic corporate world, getting breakfast from the Starbucks drive-in, lunch from your company cafeteria, and dinner at Romano's Macaroni Grill.

Might it not be that God our Creator has made us in such a way that the best time to have and raise babies is when our bodies are most fertile, not when we need fertility assistance?

How many children should we have?

...if she has brought up children... 1 Timothy 5:10

Pastors, elders, and older women are often asked for counsel concerning birth control and the place of fertility in the Christian home and marriage. Whether in premarital counseling, home visitation, or women's Bible studies, questions are raised concerning God's will in the timing and frequency of childbirth. Such questions are spiritual in nature and present church leaders with a wonderful opportunity to lead Christian husbands and wives into a deeper understanding of the Biblical meaning and purpose of womanhood, manhood, sex, and marriage.

Some time ago my wife, Mary Lee, and I had the pleasure of announcing that Mary Lee was "with child" for the fifth time. The little one then nestling in his mother's womb whom today we know as Taylor Isaiah Bayly was a wonderful gift from God and, along with our other four children, we are grateful to God for His good gift. When we announced this pregnancy, though, undoubtedly there were some who wondered, "Why another one? Aren't four enough? How many are you going to have?"

I am the resurrection and the life...

Here on Easter Eve, as I prepare for Easter morning worship, a call comes from Africa to tell us that Mpaulo, the little boy our daughter, Michal, spent much of the past three months cuddling and loving, just died. (Here's a picture of the two of them posted by my son, Joseph, on his Worldmag blog.)

Two days ago, Michal and her dear friend, Annie Walker, left Ndola, Zambia, for London, where they will spend a short time before returning home. Michal had set her heart on having her elder sister and her husband, Heather and Archie Ummel, adopt Mpaulo, and some of you may have received an email from Heather and Archie, or me, asking if you might be able to help us with information concerning the five other Zambian children adopted by US citizens in the past year.

Many of you gave of your time and prayers to this end, and despite considerable setbacks, as Michal and Annie left Ndola we were all hopeful for the eventual adoption of Mpaulo and his reunion with Michal, Annie, and the rest of his new Covenant family.

But God is gracious, and saw fit to answer our prayers in another way.

My dear brother in Christ, David Wegener, called to tell us of Mpaulo's death and will see to the funeral arrangements and service. (In fact, it's likely that beyond two of the women from the orphanage, David, his wife, Terri, and their children Elizabeth, Mary, Sarah, and Jonathan will be the only ones present to mourn Mpaulo's passing.)

Yes, I know Mpaulo is one among millions of little orphans with no father and mother to comfort and care for them, but God placed this little boy in our hearts and we are grieving his death.

When I called Michal just now, I told her I was searching for the verse that says God takes the lives of some to protect them from coming evil. I said I thought it was somewhere in Isaiah. Through her tears she responded, "Isaiah 57:1."

Sure enough:

The righteous man perishes, and no man takes it to heart; And devout men are taken away, while no one understands. For the righteous man is taken away from evil, He enters into peace; They rest in their beds, Each one who walked in his upright way.

If Augustine could ask his readers to pray for his mother, may I follow him in asking for prayer for our daughter, Michal, as well as the others who loved and cared for Mpaulo--the Wegeners, Annie Walker, the women of Ndola's Transient Home for Children, and Doug and Heather Ummel?

May the Lord be pleased to add an orphanage in Africa, filled with the love of Jesus Christ and called, "Mpaulo's Home." And may He be pleased, also, to give many of His people the grace to follow Him in being a father to the fatherless.

I am so grateful our Lord allowed Mpaulo to spend the last few weeks of his life being carried around in a chitenga on the backs of women and girls who loved Jesus, and therefore loved him.