March 9, 2011

Column #1,541

Christianity Elevates Females. Asia Aborts Them

By Mike McManus

“There is neither Jew not Greek, slave nor free, male nor female for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28

            A key principle of the Christian Gospel is a respect for women who are regarded as important as men, as the Galatians quote suggests.

That is lacking in other cultures.  This fact became shockingly clear on Tuesday, the 100^th anniversary of International Women’s Day, when a group of Egyptian women gathered to celebrate their supposed new freedom in Cairo, and were attacked by a mob of angry men who beat and sexually assaulted them.

            “Everyone was chased. Some were beaten.  They were touching us everywhere,” Dina Abou Elsoud, 35, a hotel owner told a Washington Post reporter.

            In China, there are three words which every pregnant woman dreads hearing after taking a sonogram: “It’s a girl.”  China has a “one child” policy which allows a couple to have only one child.  In that culture, boys are preferred to girls. So six boys are born for every five girls; 1.1 million more boys are born than girls every year.

            What happens to the other girls?  Most are aborted – often forcibly, or they are murdered after birth.  “Pregnant women are seized on the street and dragged off to abortion chambers,” says David Aikman, a Chinese-speaking former TIME correspondent and author of “Jesus in Beijing: How Christianity is Transforming China and Changing the Global Balance of Power.”

               He asserted, “China’s forced abortions are one of the major human rights violations on the planet.  “There have been 400 million babies aborted since China adopted its “one child” policy.  The attendant social consequences are disastrous.

               “China is one of the emerging wealthiest countries, but has the highest female suicide rate, which is the leading cause of death for women age 18-34.” (In fact, 500 women commit suicide every day!)  

Aikman noted, “There is a surplus of men of marriageable age – 37 million more men in China (and 100+ million surplus men in Asia.)  Many young girls have been kidnapped from their parents by skilled kidnappers, because there is a shortage of women.  They are sold into sexual bondage or to a marriage partner.” Crime rates are also rising sharply.

However, Aikman introduced me to Chai Ling, a brave woman who was a student organizer of the demonstration at Tiananmen Square .that sparked the massacre of thousands in 1989.  She escaped and came to America where she created a successful software business in Boston.

A year ago, Chai Ling converted to Christianity and realized that “God has protected me” for a purpose, to create “All Girls Allowed,” a ministry dedicated to “helping millions of girls, mothers and children.”  How? 

            First, she has developed a passion for the “35,000 forced abortions taking place every day, and for the million baby girls who are abandoned, few of whom are picked up by orphanages.” 

She is also concerned that due to the “one child” policy, that “China is getting old before it is getting rich.” Due to the lack of Social Security, “One couple may support 12 people:” his parents and two sets of grandparents, plus her parents and her two sets of grandparents.

Second, if you go to www.AllGirlsAllowed.org, you will see that Ms. Ling has created a new charity that seeks donations to create a “Baby Shower Package” which has helped 500 women give birth to baby girls. That, in turn, has changed the culture of villages. Neighbors who used to scorn mothers of girls, are envious of the food, clothing and education given by Americans to help them.

The ministry is also reuniting kidnapped women with their biological parents, helped by volunteers in China doing the matching. One volunteer is Ang Zheng, who saved a girl’s life in Tiananmen Square, pushing her away from a tank, but had his legs run over by the tank.

Third, Chai Ling is also trying to overturn China’s “one child” policy. She asserts, “All are made in the image of God. In this ministry, we see God sending angels to China to talk to leaders.” Her work has attracted the attention of our State Department, which invited her to a reception with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton this week.

Hopefully, Sec. Clinton will hear Chai Ling’s story in person, and will decide to speak out about the aching need for China to end its disastrous one child policy.