“IN THE 19TH CENTURY, the paramount moral challenge was slavery. In the 20th century, it was totalitarianism. In this century, it is the brutality inflicted on so many women and girls around the globe: sex trafficking, acid attacks, bride burnings and mass rape.”

So begins an excerpt from the soon-to-be-released book entitled Half the Sky by New York Times Columnist Nicholas Kristof and his wife, Sheryl WuDunn, a former Times correspondent who now works in finance and philanthropy.

This excerpt was included in the New York Times Sunday magazine just last week, part of a thematic issue based upon the idea: “How changing the lives of women and girls in the developing world can change everything.”

The authors paint a sobering and thought-provoking picture of the suffering of women globally, citing numerous examples including these two from India:

• “In India, a “bride burning” takes place approximately once every two hours, to punish a woman for an inadequate dowry or to eliminate her so a man can remarry — but these rarely constitute news. When a prominent dissident was arrested in China, we would write a front-page article; when 100,000 girls were kidnapped and trafficked into brothels, we didn’t even consider it news.”

• “In India, for example, girls are less likely to be vaccinated than boys and are taken to the hospital only when they are sicker. A result is that girls in India from 1 to 5 years of age are 50 percent more likely to die than boys their age.”

At the same time, they pinpoint something radical and biblical (although they wouldn’t describe it that way) about development: That educating women and girls is key to fighting injustice and raising people out of poverty

The Times article relates the story of a Pakistani man who beat his wife and treated her badly until she was given a microfinance loan, and then turned into the “village business mogul” after opening an embroidery shop. Now, the woman is happy, confident, her family is provided for and her husband no longer abuses her.

Christian writer Carolyn McCulley (author of an excellent new book entitled Radical Womanhood: Faith in a Feminist World, put out by Moody Publishers and including a forward by Dr. Wayne Grudem) reflected on this story in her latest blog post, and made a perceptive comment on the article’s message:

“Economic parity can’t be the ultimate solution because it can’t address the heart issues. And this brings me back to why I think Christians need to be involved. If we preach equality because it’s found on page one of the Bible, then we should be leading the charge in this area. But our solutions will be different because our end goals are different. Yes, we want to empower women. Yes, we want women to be educated. Yes, we want families to be healthier and more prosperous. But we don’t want to do this by lifting up one person in the family at the expense of another. We have to help men change, too, by preaching the gospel and teaching them to truly apply the Ephesians 5 mandate to love their wives as Christ loved the church – without concern for cultural practices or restrictions. They must fear God and His word more than the opinions of other men and the way things are currently done in their culture.

“As Christians, we have an opportunity here to help families around the world by both standing against incredible injustice against women and by preaching the gospel of reconciliation. Let’s not lose any ground to lesser solutions.”

It thrills me to know that today, one of our staff members – Patricia Niednagel – along with a team of four other women are providing much-needed education and encouragement to pastor’s wives and women leaders in Chandigargh and Roorkee, India.

Join with us in praying for a deeply meaningful and refreshing time for these women, and that they would come away with biblical tools for addressing the issues of injustice and poverty they face every day in their unique positions of influence – in their families, in their communities, and in their nations.

Another GTN staff member, Arlene Meeds, will be training pastors’ wives and Christian women in Cambodia in just a few weeks.

Next week, I’ll share more about this topic as I relate the ministry efforts of GTN staff members Dr. Steve and Celestia Tracy, Peggy Bilsten, and Tom Bilsten, Jr. to female victims of sexual violence in the Congo. God is at work in some incredible ways around the world and it is a privilege for GTN to be involved in what He is doing! Thanks for taking your precious time to read this update and for your prayers for our ministry! We always need them and we appreciate them!