Nurturing the Nations Reclaiming the Dignity of Women in Building Healthy Cultures

1. Nurturing the NationsReclaiming the Dignity of Women in Building Healthy Cultures The Reign of Women Nurturers of Nations

2. Part 4THE TRANSFORMING STORY 12 The Big Story 13 Genesis 1: Equal in Being 14 Genesis 2: Corresponding in Function 15 Genesis 3: The Distortion 16 Sexism and the Spirit of Baal 17 The Coming of the Bridegroom 18 The Bride of Christ 19 The Wedding of the Lamb 20 The Reign of Women: Nurturers of Nations

3. “For the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world.” Lawyer & Poet William Ross Wallace

4. Preview • Be Not Conformed to this World • The War Against Motherhood • The Dismissed Passages! • The Nature of Motherhood • The Home: The Nursery of Nations • Infecting the Market Place • Infecting the Public Square

5. Be Not Conformed to This World Romans 12:2

6. Conforming to the World! “At every turn Christian women found that their biological, economic, and social roles were considered worthless. Men’s ministry, men’s money, men’s building and programs – these were the areas that mattered.” Mary Pride The Way Home

7. The War Against Women The War Against Motherhood

8. Maternal Feminist Biblical Worldview Mother world – “care, connectedness, inter-dependence, and the other values necessary for nurturing human beings and building human relationships.” Egalitarian Feminist Secular Worldview Money world – “radical individualism, relentless work, the quest for material success, and speed.” Mother World vs. Money World[1]

9. Motherhood is Time Wasted “The idea that time spent with one’s child is time wasted is embedded in traditional economic thinking.... The extraordinary talents required to do the long-term work of building human character and instilling in young children the ability and desire to learn have no place in the economists’ calculations. Economic theory has nothing to say about the acquisition of skills by those who work with children; presumably there are none.” Ann Crittenden, The Price of Motherhood

10. Disappearing Women “When women’s work of caring is rendered invisible by societal arrangements and structures, a kind of social feminicide is in process.” Professor Ivy George Gordon College

11. “Didn’t you use to be Ann Crittenden?” Ann Crittenden The Price of Motherhood

12. The Poor Exchange “How did we ever come to believe that it was more important for somebody to have a meaningless job than to raise their children well?” Robert Theobald Reworking Success

13. The Death of Motherhood! “Role obliteration is the coming thing in evangelical, and even in fundamentalist, circles. If women can’t be women, by golly they will be men! All because two or more generations have grown up and married without even hearing that the Bible teaches a distinct role for women which is different from that of a man and just as important.” Mary Pride The Way Home

14. The Death of Motherhood – The Death of Nations “Much of what we loosely call the Western world will not survive this century, and much of it will effectively disappear within our lifetimes, including many if not most Western European countries. There'll probably still be a geographical area on the map marked as Italy or the Netherlands—probably…. it's merely a designation for a piece of real estate.” Mark Steyn

15. Global Fertility Leaders Somalia 6.91 Niger 6.83 Afghanistan 6.78 Yemen 6.75. Western Fertility Statistics USA 2.07 Ireland 1.87 New Zealand 1.79 Australia 1.76 Canada 1.5 Germany/ Austria1.3 Russia/ Italy 1.2 Spain 1.1 The Death of Motherhood – The Death of Civilizations

16. The Fault Line in the USA • "Replacement" fertility rate- 2.1 babies/woman • USA 2.07 • Blue States (most secular) lowest birthrates (approaching European) • Red States (most conservative) highest birthrates

17. Consequences! “… many of today’s social ills are the result of abandonment by women of their mothering role.” William Rasberry Reporter and Editorialist

18. The Dismissed Passages!

19. The Dismissed Passages! • Read one of these texts: • Text # 1: 1 Timothy 5:9-10, 14 • Text # 2: Titus 2:3-5 • Questions: • What marks the character of a godly woman? • How are older women to relate to younger women? Why?

20. 1 Timothy 5:9-10, 14 • Older widows – godly characteristics: • faithful to her husband • well known for good deeds • bringing up children • showing hospitality • washing the feet of the saints • helping those in trouble • devoted to doing good deeds

21. 1 Timothy 5:9-10, 14 • Younger widows • marry • have children • manage their homes - oikodespoteo

22. oikodespoteo • Oikodespoteo: "guide the house,” “to rule a household, manage family affairs” • This is the picture of the functions of a godly woman in Proverbs 31 • To be the queen of the manor!

23. Titus 2:3-5 Older women are to mentor younger women to: • be sober minded • love their husbands • love their children • be self-controlled and pure • be busy at home – “caring for the house, working at home” • be kind • be subject to their [own] husband

24. The Nature of Motherhood

25. A Jewish Proverb “God could not be everywhere, and therefore He made mothers.”

26. The Nature of Motherhood • There are millions of things that a woman is free to do • There are only two things she is proscribed from doing • There is one thing that she has been designed, above all else to do: nurture the next generation • Women in the very fiber of their being have been made to nurture and nurse

27. The Meaning of Nurture • Hebrew – kuwl, translated: feed, sustain, nourish, hold • Greek (1st) – trepho, translated: feed, nourish, bring up • entrepho – to nourish in: a person or a thing; metaphorically: to educate, form the mind

28. The Meaning of Nurture • Greek (2nd) paideia – chastening, nurture, instruction, chastisement • The whole training and education of children (which relates to the cultivation of mind and morals…).It also includes the training and care of the body • Instruction which aims at increasing virtue

29. English Meaning of Nurture • To feed and cause to grow; to supply with nutriment. • To support; to maintain by feeding. Genesis 47 • To supply the means of support and increase; to encourage; as, to … nourish the virtues. • To cherish; to comfort. James 5 • To educate; to instruct; to promote growth in attainments. 1 Timothy 4

30. The Meaning of Nurse • Hebrew – yanaq – translated: to suck, to nurse, nursing mother • Greek – trophos: nurse • From the base trepho - nurture

31. The English Meaning of Nurse • To tend, as infants; as, to nurse a child. • To suckle; to nourish at the breast. • To cherish; to foster; to encourage; to promote growth in. We say, to nurse a feeble animal or plant. • To manage with care and economy, with a view to increase; as, to nurse our national resources Webster’s 1828

32. From Transcendent to Physical • To nurture relates to the transcendent nature of being female • To nurse is a physical manifestation of nurture

33. These Words Reflect: • The intimate relationship between the mother and the child • Physical comfort, growth and the reaching of potential • Education that entails both knowledge and the development of virtue

34. “Being There!” “Mothers themselves often refer to the essence of childrearing as simply ‘being there,’ putting one’s time at the disposal of another and signaling that the other’s needs come ahead of one’s own.” Ann Crittenden

35. The Home: The Nursery of Nations

36. “Home-Schooling” Nurturing and Education

37. Nurture and Educate • In the mother’s function of nursing and nurturing, is found the concept of education. • The words for nurse and nurture speak of “promoting growth,” “educate,” “instruct,” and “to build virtue.”

38. Education and Nation Building • When God brought Israel out of bondage in Egypt, he was going to transform an impoverished and enslaved nation into a great nation. • Paideia - chastening, nurture, instruction, chastisement – education was one of his major tools to build this nation.

39. Nation Building Deut. 4:4-8; Matthew 28:18-20 • Questions Set # 1: • What are the parallels in these passages? • For nations to be developed, what must they be taught? • Questions Set # 2: • What does God admonish in relation to His laws? • What will obedience to God’s laws produce in the nation of Israel? What will it reveal to other nations?

40. Wisdom’s InstructionProverbs 8:33-36 “ Listen to my instruction and be wise;do not ignore it. Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway. For whoever finds me finds life and receives favor from the LORD. But whoever fails to find me harms himself; all who hate me love death.”

41. paideia - Education • The noun paideia and the verb form paideuo are found primarily in the Prophets and Wisdom literature of the Old Testament. • In Proverbs, they are found 41 times. • In the Psalms, they are found 18 times.

42. The Paideia Principle • The purpose of paideia is to create a nation that is wise. • Paideia builds a nation: • individual righteousness • economic sufficiency for all • lasting social peace • public justice even for the poorest of the poor

43. Major Components of Education • The bringing up, instruction and formation of manners in a child. • Involves instruction and discipline • The end of which is to: • Enlighten the understanding • Correct the temper • Form the manners and habits • Fit for usefulness in their station – calling

44. Responsibility for Paideia • Read: • Set # 1 Proverbs 1:8; 6:20; 10:1 • Set # 2 Proverbs 15:20; 17:25; 23:22 • Questions: • Where does the responsibility for a child’s education rest? • Where do most societies place the responsibility for education of children?

45. Maternal Feminists • The feminists of the second half of the 19th century were homemakers and nurturers. • They understood that their children would someday inherit the world and that they needed to be prepared for that day. • They also understood that the home was the foundation for the health of the society.

46. Mothers Shape the Eternal Soul “[T]he mothers of a civilized nation … [work], not on frail and perishable matter, but on the immortal mind, moulding and fashioning beings who are to exist for ever…. They work not on the canvas that shall perish or the marble that shall crumble into dust, but upon mind, upon spirit, which is to last for ever, and which is to bear, for good or evil, throughout its duration, the impress of a mother’s … hand.” Daniel Webster

47. Mothering the World “A woman’s place is in the home; and out of it whenever she is called on to guard those she loves and to improve conditions for them.” Nellie McClung Maternal Feminist

48. Lydia Sigourney • American poet and educator • 1852, published a series of Letters To Young Ladies • She reminded women of their maternal calling to nurture and educate the future citizens and leaders of the nations.

49. Sigourney’s Opening Lines “The mind of the present age, acting on the mind of the next, is an object of concern to every being endowed with intellect, or interested, through love or hope, in the welfare of the human race.”

50. Maternal Feminist Interest in ideas Interest in the future Interest in the entire human family Modern Feminist Interest in things Interest in the present Interest in the self Contrasting