Going Global

by Carolyn Custis James

“On September 11 America joined the world.”

Myopia (nearsightedness) occurs when objects nearby are in focus, but distant objects appear blurred. According to the Optometric Association of America, myopia affects nearly 30% of the U.S. population. Those among the 30% are quick to bring their blurry world into focus with the help of glasses or contact lenses.

Other forms of myopia go unnoticed, however, until something major triggers an awareness that we’re viewing the world through blurry eyes — seeing only part, not the whole. For America, the rest of the world came into jarring focus the day two planes crashed into the Twin Towers. As author/activist Jim Wallis observed, “On September 11 America joined the world.”

Never will I forget those first few images of Afghan women floating across the television screen in their sky-blue burkas like aliens from another planet. Never did I imagine how much those faceless figures would change for me.

Overnight my hunger to know more about women in South Western Asia and the Middle East surged. Suddenly my reading list included such titles as Nine Parts of Desire, Reading Lolita in Tehran, Kite Runner, Three Cups of Tea, and lately Half the Sky. Eye-opening conversations followed with individuals from cultures completely foreign to mine.

And somewhere in the process of reading and learning I crossed a Rubicon of sorts. No longer was my white, middle-class, suburban American world the only reference point. No longer could I close my eyes to these unfamiliar (and sometimes disturbing) realities and convince myself that life as I know it here is or even ought to be considered the norm. No longer could I continue my quest to unearth the Bible’s message for women in a Western bubble. I had reached a point of no return that unleashed a flood of changes. Two stand out.

First, I began to see the Bible differently. Glimpses of life in the Middle East and in other patriarchal societies breathed life into Bible characters (women and men) who since my early childhood had been trapped inside a two dimensional flannel graph world. The stories of women suddenly leaped off the pages of my Bible with an earthshaking potency, depth, and relevance that turned my world upside down. I realized that in the West we study Scripture at a significant disadvantage for our culture is as far removed from the biblical world as you can get. By studying life in other cultures, I have been able, in some degree, to step out of my world and into theirs.

Second, I realized that not only have we been studying God’s word in isolation, our discussion of the Bible’s message for women is isolated too. The prosperity we enjoy shapes both the questions we ask and the answers we embrace. Despite our best efforts, we are raising questions and settling for answers that depend on our prosperity and are unworkable and irrelevant in many regions globally.

“Do I plan to use my college degree or set it aside?” “Should I be a stay-at-home mom or work outside the home?” “Am I captivating?” Women battling poverty do not have the luxury of such questions. Hard work and education are gateways to a better future for themselves, their children, and their communities and a safeguard against traffickers. When survival is the only item on a woman’s to-do list, options are limited.

As leaders, overcoming this kind of myopia isn’t easy for any of us, for we are daughters of our culture. But just like purchasing contact lenses, we need to do whatever it takes to keep the whole world in focus as we study God’s Word. We must listen to those who understand the biblical culture so alien to us and test our theological conclusions — on every subject, including women — with harsh realities arising from other cultures and from the most marginalized, shattered female life.

Only then, can we begin to make progress in understanding God’s message for us.

Adapted from Carolyn’s new book, Half the Church: Recapturing God’s Global Vision for Women (Zondervan, March 2011). Originally published in FullFill e-zine (www.fullfill.org).

Carolyn Custis James is president of WhitbyForum, a ministry dedicated to addressing the deeper issues that confront both women and men as they endeavor to extend God’s kingdom in a messy and complicated world. She is also founder and president of the Synergy Women’s Network, Inc. — a national organization for women emerging or engaged in ministry leadership.

Carolyn has written several books published by Zondervan; When Life and Beliefs Collide, Lost Women of the Bible, The Gospel of Ruth, and Understanding Purpose, published by Nelson. Her newest book, Half the Church: Recapturing God’s Global Vision for Women (Zondervan) was just released.

She and her husband Frank (Provost and Professor of Historical Theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary) live in Massachusetts. Their daughter Allison is an artist and lives in Orlando, Florida.