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 100th
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.
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