One Voice.

even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. Psalm 139:12-16


Back in my college days, when I told my parents I intended to add Women's Studies as a second major I can't be sure, but I imagine the thought, what in the heck for, crossed their minds. I don't even really want to know the parental panic that ensued when I later told them that I had accepted an internship with the ACLU!
 
In high school I remember being told that I was "the most liberal Republican my Economics teacher had ever met." I'm still not sure if that was meant to be a compliment, statement of perplexion, or as a gentle way of saying I must be a very confused girl...
 
I suppose, on the outside looking in, many of the things I have fought or advocated for have seemed beyond the bounds of my faith or mismatched with my fiscally conservative political views.
 
Can a feminist believe in a male god? Can an advocate for women oppose abortion? Do Christians advocate for human & civil rights - even for gay people? How does this all ad up? Where does she really stand and how the heck did she get from one point to the other without denying her God, her politics and her heart?
 
Maybe I am just a misfit?
 
I am a Christian wife and mother. I am a feminist. I believe in people; not issues.
 
I believe that the heart of what I learned (and what drew me to) Women's Studies, was to be an advocate for those who have no voice, or who's voice has been unvalued, unprotected and even silenced.
 
As an advocate for women who have been silenced,
and as the mother of Amelia,
I hear the voiceless, and I am called to action,
called to advocacy.
 
Advocacy for the unborn child.
Advocacy for that child's mother.
Advocacy for that child's father.
 
We live in a fallen world.
A world where people point fingers rather than offer a hand.
A world where whispers of gossip resound
and whispers of Hope and Love remain unspoken.
A world where people suffer alone
and others let them remain, alone.
 
There is much work to be done.
 
I have chosen to start here, with Amelia's blog.
I will be her voice,
but He will be our strength.

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:9-10