Last weekend Richard and I were able to see the second year performance from the Penumbra Summer Institute. I love living so close to Penumbra, we have seen great shows there. Here’s how the program is described on Penumbra’s page: Summer Institute is a three …
Back in February I introduced the Imagine No Malaria Campaign. Here’s what I wrote We kicked off our Imagine No Malaria campaign at church today, with the goal of saving 2500 lives in the next three years. Through education, bed nets, medicine, draining stagnant water and communication …
Galatians What are We Saved Into
Atonement is essentially reconciliation with God, but Christ’s work on the cross also saves us into the community of God. Galatians 3:28 gives a great description of our reality as a reconciled people, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” . Stanley Grenz and Denise Muir Kjesbo point out that this verse may have been a subversion of a popular prayer at the time, “Thank you that I am not a Gentile, a slave or a woman.” Paul, who is consistently concerned with the unity between Jewish and gentile believers, sees a connection between the divide between Jews and Gentiles and the divide between male and female. Just as gentiles are not required to become Jews to become a member of the church, neither are women required to become male, nor be attached to a particular male, before becoming a full member of the church. In Christ, the dissonance between male and female, the curse of the garden is brought back into harmony and unity. Accordingly, relationships between men and women must change.[1]
An example of this change in the dynamics between the genders is the narrative of Mary and Martha when Jesus visits the house. While Martha prepares the meal, Mary sits in the position that a disciple of a rabbi would take at Jesus’ feet. This is a cultural signal, that Mary was an equal with the other disciples under the teaching of Jesus.[2]
What then should be our practices in youth ministry? Given the research on self-esteem and young adolescent girls, and the dynamics of sin and atonement for women and girls, what are effective ways to both help girls develop a healthy sense of self, as well as to present the truth of the good news of Jesus Christ. Here are my suggestions:
Teaching on Self-Esteem in Christian Education:
Christian parents do not want their children to grow up to be self-centered and prideful. However, we do a disservice to children and parents when we equate healthy self-esteem with hubris. We must teach parents as well as our youth that a Godly self-esteem comes from knowing our worth as children of God, created in his image, but also that we have faults, sins, and failures; none the less, in Christ we are a new creation. Therefore, lessons on Godly healthy self-esteem ought to be a part of the curriculum in children’s, youth and adult education. Furthermore, Christian education leaders ought to receive training on the confidence gap and the hidden curriculum.
Christian Unity
The teachings of Galatians 3:28, must become an ongoing rally cry of our ministries. Multi-cultural churches and racial reconciliation are popular movements in the Evangelical church today. Our teaching must include the cultural and racial dynamics of our unity, but must also highlight the economic and gender dimensions as well. A common error that is made in working towards Christian unity is to think of it as a goal for its own sake. However by looking closely at the passage, we can see that there is more to what Paul is writing, Galatians 3:29 says: “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” As a heirs of the promise of Abraham, our role is to be a blessing to the entire world (Gen 12 and 22).
Rosemary Reuther argues that ministry must be seen as mutual empowerment.[1] “Clericalism…disempowers the people and turns them into ‘laity’ dependent on the clergy…people have no direct access to the divine.” As heirs of Abraham we must encourage our youth to take a role in the blessing of all the nations and expect them to grow. It is true that as adults in the church we may have more wisdom or experience, and therefore ought to be the ones to teach or lead, but we must as Reuther says, “teach to overcome the gap between those who know and those who do not…gradually [creating] fellow teachers who can teach others.[2]
Bring Boys and Men into the Conversation
It was the man and the woman who were corrupted by the fall. The man was corrupted by becoming the master, the woman by becoming the servant. Man made himself Lord, woman allowed first the serpent and then the man to be Lord. If our work to bring the good news to girls and correct the injustice to women focuses only on girls, we will never see the change that we hope for. Orenstein rightly points out that the hidden curriculum teaches boys to be self-centered (rather than having a healthy self-esteem) as well as teaching them not to respect women or their female classmates.[3]
In order to see change for girls and women, we must teach both boys and girls what it means to treat one another with respect. Unfortunately even the definitions of respect and disrespect need to be taught. Akon and David Guetta’s song caught my ear last year. “I’m trying to find the words to describe this girl without being disrespectful.” So far, sounds good, parents, teachers, pastors, all desire respectful descriptions of women and girls. This song reached number five in the United States, and received considerable air time in the Twin Cities. My delight in a song trying to describe a beautiful woman respectfully though was short lived as I heard more of the lyrics:
She’s nothing like a girl you’ve ever seen before / Nothing you can compare to your neighborhood whore/ Damn Girl / You’se a sexy bitch / damn girl
Middle School boys and girls need to be taught explicitly that even though Akon is claiming to not be disrespectful, setting up a comparison to prostitutes (even if the woman in question comes out ahead of the prostitute), saying “damn girl,” and calling someone a “sexy bitch” are not respectful ways to talk to people.
Our young men and young women still are not sure if being a girl or a woman is a good thing. As leaders and teachers that believe each girl and each boy is made in the image of God, we have an awesome responsibility to teach, to empower and to call out the nonsense.
[1] Grenz and Kjesbo 106
Grenz and Kjesbo: Women in the Church: A Biblical Theology of Women in Ministry
[2] Clifford 77
I’ve been home sick today, so I didn’t write and so I’m posting the third part of my youth development series today instead of waiting for Saturday. *Note* This series comes from an integrative theology paper that I wrote on the intersection of …
Still feeling crummy – so here’s part 4, ahead of schedule. *Note* This series comes from an integrative theology paper that I wrote on the intersection of the doctrine of sin and identity development in young adolescent girls. You can read part one here and part two here and …
*Note* This series comes from an integrative theology paper that I wrote on the intersection of the doctrine of sin and identity development in young adolescent girls. You can read part one here
Research on Young Adolescent Girls and Self Esteem Development
Peggy Orenstein’s book, Schoolgirls explores self esteem and what she calls the “Confidence Gap” in young women. In response to the American Association of University Women’s 1992 report on the achievement gap in schools between boys and girls “How Schools Shortchange Girls”, Orenstein spent a year observing in two Jr. High Schools, one urban and one suburban, and argues that the achievement gap is driven by a confidence gap.
Self esteem is something spoken of quite often in Education and Youth Development fields. Orenstein describes self esteem as a result of two beliefs a young person holds, first how well she thinks she does at things that are important to her, and second what she believes other important people in her life think about her abilities in those areas.[1]
Many religious leaders worry that too much emphasis on self esteem hurts the spiritual development of youth,[2] this is a mistake. Healthy self-esteem is not the same as selfishness or pride. While there are some who have a much inflated sense of self-esteem that is prideful or selfish, many others have a very deflated sense of self-esteem. Women tend to evaluate themselves more poorly and have a lower self-esteem. Healthy self-esteem is not irrationally high nor low. It is not denying our sinful nature, nor our bearing of the imago dei. Healthy self-esteem is to accept and love the person that God created[3].
According to Orenstein, girls regardless of race or ethnicity experience a drop in self esteem and confidence in early adolescence. When asked to agree or disagree with the stamen, “I am happy the way I am.” Fewer girls agreed at age fifteen than at age nine. The drop was largest in Latina girls and smallest in African American girls.
| Race/Ethnicity | Drop in percentage points between ages 9 and 15 of girls who say, “I am happy the way I am.” |
|
African American |
7 |
|
Latino |
38 |
|
White |
33 |
Another dynamic of self-esteem in these early adolescent women is their perception of what it would be like to be a boy, and their male classmates’ views on what it would be like to be a girl. When asked to describe what life would be like if they were born the opposite gender, Orenstein observed the boys’ responses were largely “have to”s, while the girl’s responses were mostly “get to”s, for example:
| What boys said | What girls said | |
| If I were the other gender[4] |
|
|
Orenstein’s research is almost two decades old. The American Association of University Women’s latest report “Wher the Girls Are,” published in 2008, shows that the achievement gap in middle school, and in college entrance exams has closed significantly. However the themes of Orenstein’s research are reflected in pop culture and In 2008, Beyoncé’s song, “If I Were a Boy” climbed to number one on the billboard charts. This song echoes the discussion in Orenstein’s book.
If I were a boy even just for a day/ I’d roll out of bed in the morning/ And throw on what I wanted
And go drink beer with the guys / And chase after girls / I’d kick it with who I wanted/ And I’d never get confronted for it/ ‘Cause they stick up for me[5]
Schoolgirls: Young Women, Self Esteem, and the Confidence Gap
Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls
I Am…Sasha Fierce[1] Orenstein xxiii
[2] See for example: What The Bible Says About Parenting Biblical Principle For Raising Godly Children by John MacArthur. “Self-esteem is based on an unbiblical perspective that denies original sin and the doctrine of total depravity” (41).
[3] Eckert 100
[4] Orenstein xxxii and xxxiii
[5] Beyoncé “If I were a boy” I am…Sasha Fierce 2008
Middle School Development Week 1 *Note* This series comes from an integrative theology paper that I wrote on the intersection of the doctrine of sin and identity development in young adolescent girls. Traditionally, both theology and adolescent development are fields dominated by men. There has …
