Women of Courage: Kairos

In reading and writing about “women of valour” I noticed a group, which I should have known of before, called “Women of Courage.” They are an interdenominational Canadian group helping out women in different parts of the world, calling for female leadership and participation in leadership and decision-making by those most affected, the victimsof violence and rape.

I can’t help but think that they draw their name from the phrase in Hebrewshet eshet chayil, “woman of valour.” We need this kind of rhetoric, we need Bibles with phrases like “woman of courage” and “the peacemakers shall be called the children of God.” This is  about female leadership in peacemaking and protection. How sad that Bibles which do not contain these phrases have so much traction in the evangelical community. We need to keep fighting for inclusive Bibles for everyone, for other countries, to give away, to permeate society, inclusive Bibles for the Gideons, for example. What a thought! Why spread the gospel of the exclusion of women from God’s plans for human leadership?

We should speak up always about inclusive Bibles, and make sure that ministers and preachers who sneak non-inclusive Bibles up onto the screen, are made aware that this is not acceptable to the congregation. I have recently heard of Anglican churches using non-inclusive Bibles on the digital screen, and of churches where the minister has bought and put in the pews non-inclusive Bibles without consulting the congregation. Either Christianity is inclusive or it is not. If not, women need to get out.

Let me put out as a reminder that the Anglo-Saxon Gospels, Wycliffe’s translation, the King James Version, Calvin’s and Luther’s Bibles, and all pew Bibles until the last century, contained the expression in Matt. 5:9, the “children of God.” Anyone who teaches otherwise is distant from the intent of the original language and not connected to the history of interpretation. Get the word out that inclusive Bibles are the only way to go. Women around the world need access to leadership and equality.