Marisol Valles Garcia is a 20-year-old mother of one child. In November of 2010, she became the police chief of Praxedis G. Geurrero, a small town near Ciudad Juarez which is Mexico’s most violent city. Marisol is a criminology student who says she loves the town of Guerrero where she’s lived for ten years. She was offered the chief’s job a year after her predecessor was murdered. This quiet farming community has turned into a “lawless no man’s land” into which, it appears, no man is willing to step.
Two rival gangs, Juarez and Sinaloa drug cartels, battle for control of a drug trafficking route along the Texas border. Marisol, described as tiny but energetic, finds herself in the midst of this war. She says she plans to hire more women, but “will leave most of the decisions about weapons and tactics to the town mayor, Jose Luis Guerrero.” Marisol has two body guards, but chooses not to carry a gun of her own.
About the same time Marisol took the job of police chief in her Mexican border town, another woman “top cop” was murdered. The CNN report on her death read, “One of a small number of women who have filled a void by becoming police chiefs in violence-torn Mexico was gunned down” in November 2010. Hermila Garcia, 38, was not a mother. She was a lawyer and willing to serve the people of Meoqui. “Was she courageous or foolhardy?” asked CNN.
Several reports on these two women read the same. The situation in the Juarez Valley along the Mexico and U.S. border has become so desperate that women are filling the void.
I am reminded of Deborah. She was a prophetess and judge filling a void during a desperate time in Israel’s history. She sent for Barak, the son of Abinoam, and said to him, “Has not the Lord, the God of Israel, commanded you, ‘Go, gather your men at Mount Tabor . . . and I will draw out Sisera, the general of Jabin’s army, to meet you by the river Kishon with his chariots and his troops, and I will give him into your hand’?” But, Barak replied, “If you will go with me, I will go, but if you will not go with me, I will not go.” (Judges 4:4-16)
Deborah said, “I will surely go with you. Nevertheless, the road on which you are going will not lead to your glory, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.” Deborah went with Barak, but only as far as Mount Tabor. She did not go down into battle. She fulfilled her role by encouraging Barak and his troops with the words and promises of God. The woman into whose hand the enemy general, Sisera, was “delivered” was Jael. When Sisera was being pursued by the Israelite army, he fled to the tent of Jael. Jael, the wife of Heber, killed the enemy general not with a sword or military weapon, but with a tent peg which was a common household item. (Judges 4:17-22).
Marisol is a mother living in the midst of a Mexican drug corridor. In a desperate situation, with no men stepping forward, Marisol is filling a void. In doing that, she is a target for enemy fire. No biological children of Deborah are mentioned in the passages from Judges. However, in a desperate situation with no men stepping forward, Deborah filled a void. In filling that void, she did not position herself as a target for enemy fire but, instead, played a motherly role by encouraging and strengthening her people.
The question posed by Marisol and Deborah is this: When the enemy threatens a family or nation, a woman can step up to face him, but should she?
A long time ago, life in another quiet farming community was threatened. Eve was tempted to engage the enemy. Adam did nothing. God’s order for His beloved creation was ignored. What were the consequences?
Ezerwoman's Blog 
Men and Worship
Posted in Biblical manhood & womanhood, Commentaries of others, Culture Shifts, Faith & Practice, Identity, Vocation, tagged divine worship, feminization of church, holy, masculine, music, opinions, spiritual warfare, worship on December 22, 2010| 2 Comments »
The Barna Research Group reports that American churches are two-thirds female and one-third male. There is strong evidence to support that music may be one explanation. Instead of asking, “What music do people want to hear?,” we should be asking, “What music is appropriate and pleasing to God?”
Men like my pastor, Rev. Paul Beisel; Rev. Todd Wilken (host of Issues, Etc.); author Douglas Bond (Fathers and Sons Stand Fast in the Way of Truth); and author David Murrow (Why Men Hate Going to Church) have articulated what I am discovering to be true. Contemporary worship leans toward the emotions and perceived needs of women and, perhaps, some “sensitive” men. But, what about men who tend to think and act like, well, like men? Do they have to put their masculinity aside in order to “meet Jesus”?
In contemporary worship, women may comfortably sway with the music, close eyes or be “moved” to tears, and show other visible signs of emotion. But, what does God tell us about men? He created male and female to be equal, but different. God did not create man and woman at the same time, in the same way, or for the same purpose. Non-Christian therapists might not phrase it the way I just did (using Genesis), but years ago, I read a helpful secular book entitled Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus in which the author repeatedly illustrated that men and women do not communicate, think, love, feel or respond in the same way. It makes sense, then, that contemporary worship and music might be one reason why our churches are filled with two-thirds women but only one-third men.
Church growth folks say we need to appeal to a contemporary public. This public flocks (like sheep) to loud, energized, and high-tech amusements where celebrities say things that make us “feel good.” Rather than being different, are Christian churches shapeshifting as if to say, “See! We’re as good as the world”? Is it a good idea to imitate “the nations” around us (2 Kings 17:15) in order to be evangelical? I’m aware that I ask this question a lot but, really, does Jesus wrap Himself around the ways of the world?
I have been told by other Christians that any kind of music — loud, rock, rap or polka — can become gospel. But, in his book Stand Fast, Douglas Bond reminds me of two things. In the Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis describes heaven as a region of music and silence. The demon Screwtape is frustrated by this reality: ‘Music and silence — how I detest them both!'” Screwtape, the diabolical demon, boasts: “We will make the whole universe a noise in the end.” Later, Bond writes, “Beware. If entertainment-evangelism advocates can convince you that music is amoral, merely a matter of taste, then the discussion ends — and so does discernment. Wise young men, however, will be suspicious of conclusions that sweep away moral judgment.” He also writes, “. . . [L]oud entertainment music . . . conveys its own message. Certainly it makes people clap and feel exhilarated, but it’s not conducive to careful thinking about the whole counsel of God.”
Some Christians say, “Traditional (liturgical) worship is too difficult,” but, what other important things in life are difficult?
Bond continues, “Though the Bible is clear that Christ is ‘a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense’ (1 Peter 2:8 NKJV, quoting Isaiah 8:14), we’re still afraid to offend the world. The Spirit of God removes the offense only through the objective truths of the Word of God — the very thing that postmodern Christians are watering down in their music. Little wonder, then, that the church looks and sounds and acts like the world — instead of the reverse.”
Until recently I, too, believed I needed a little more contemporary music albeit in a traditional worship environment. But, as a mother of sons and grandmother of grandsons, I’m being re-directed away from my “feelings” to understand what the Divine Service really is and why I need it. Why my family needs it.
So, here’s where I stand. The Creator of male and female gives us not what we want, but what He knows we need. We may want to “feel good” singing love songs to Jesus, but we need to be equipped for battle against powers and principalities. The Psalmist and other great male hymn writers knew this. In his hymn, “A Mighty Fortress,” Luther wrote,
My grandsons are spellbound by the battles between good and evil in C.S. Lewis’ land of Narnia. In this present culture war, my grandsons need the armor for battle — and the songs that inspire them to fight the good fight.
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