[Vision2020] Trinity Festival protest

[Andreas Schou]

> A quick hop over to Amazon reveals that the book "The Fruit of Her Hands" by
> Nancy Wilson has garnered FAR more positive reviews than negative. The same
> applies to "Her Hand in Marriage" as well as "Reforming Marriage."

Gary --

And why don't you post some of those positive and negative reviews?
Could it be because they say things like this?

"For a book with such an empowering title for women, it sure doesn't
give them much credit. This book stresses the message that a woman's
only calling is to produce children and support her husband
relentlessly. Wilson seems very frightened of what might happen if she
so much as disrespects her husband once or isn't there for him enough.
For example, she advises treating your body like your husband's garden
so he may enjoy it whenever he pleases and always having your breasts
available to him because he might be tempted by another woman's
breasts (this gave me a humorous image of a woman thrusting her chest
in her husband's face when he glances at another woman). There seems
to be a note of fear in these words, as though Wilson truly feels a
husband will stray if he's not constantly reminded that he can have
sex with his wife.

If Wilson's so concerned about disrespecting men, maybe she should
consider how disrespectful that presumption of male lust sounds. This
book has such a negative view of women that it harps on and on about
how we need men to take care of us because we apparently can't take
care of ourselves. Both sexes are portrayed badly here; if I couldn't
take care of myself, I certainly wouldn't want to be in the care of a
man who needed a constant view of my breasts to keep from straying!
The book is full of offensive remarks about marriage, particularly the
claim that it's not a partnership. What does two becoming one mean, if
not a partnership and a joining together?

The book also preaches that the husband is head of the wife, though
the usage of the word here is different than the Biblical one.
Constant comments such as, "you must always refer to your head; your
head has the final say" imply that Wilson believes women, upon
marriage, should give up use of their brains and place their husband's
heads literally on their own shoulders. This goes far beyond loving
and respecting a husband in a Godly way. I cannot see how people can
embrace this book, but I'm going to caution women to stay away from
it; try Liz Curtis Higgs instead.

One final note of interest: inspite of Wilson's many different
suggestions of how to sexually please your husband (because he might
get bored if you stick to one way), her own husband, in his book for
men, says quite plainly that he believes sex is a duty and doesn't
need spark in order to be pleasing. I wonder if his wife knows
this?... "

Or, if you prefer a "positive" review, how about this one?

"Its about time someone stood up and told Christian women what being
married to a Christian man ought to look like. It is a life of
service, hard work, piety, and submission. There are a lot of books
written by Christian women out there about marriage that are just weak
coffee. Nancy Wilson is not afraid of offending anyone. She tells the
hard truth. My husband thought I would just feel guilty after reading
this book because Nancy pulls no punches. However, I was totally
inspired to work harder in my home and to love my husband even more. I
read this book a few months ago,so I can't go into content. I just
want to highly recommend this book to any and all Christian women out
there who want strong content and biblical reasoning in their lives."

For "Her Hand in Marriage," I'll give you a selection of reviews:

"Once again, Wilson simply doesn't get it. His book "Federal Husband"
was proof enough of his extreme failure to grasp women, but this book
proves all the more that he's stuck in a time when women and young
girls were property under the authority of their fathers.

At first glance, this book may seem like a compassionate and loving
guide to raising children, but it is truly, horribly out of date.
Parents have the right to control who their children date only as long
as they are children; once they are adults, they should make decisions
on their own. I agree that parents are responsible for raising their
kids in Christian ways, but Wilson's ideas of incredibly controlling
ways to raise daughters actually repulsed me. He harps over and over
that a father is in charge of his daughter's virginity, to the point
where he gave me a mental image of a father guarding his daughter's
bedroom door 24/7. Why not just advise fathers to put their daughters
in chastity belts and call it a day? If fathers were truly this
controlling and actually called themselves the "guards of their
daughter's virginity", they'd be ordered to get psychiatric treatment
by a court of law.

Another pet peeve for me was that, in the book, a woman's virginity is
mentioned far more than a man's, so we're to assume it's worse if a
girl's not a virgin upon marrying; I'm so sick of this! When are
people going to realize that God considers a man's sexual purity just
as important as a woman's? Most offensive, though, was Douglas'
outrageously sexist statements that women cannot and should not make
it on their own in the world. He actually says, "Sons are trained for
independence, whereas daughters are trained to pass from one state of
dependence to another. Sons leave home; daughters are given." I
wouldn't have had a problem with this if Wilson was clearly saying
that this is NOT how it should be, but he was indicating that because
people in Biblical times treated women like this, they should continue
to be treated the same way now. Um, wrong; women have jobs now and for
good reason. One of the reasons I respect my father is that he expects
me to be just as independent when I leave home as a man would be, and
rightly so! All the Christian men I know respect independent women.

I also didn't like Wilson's statement that "a man should not worry
about disrupting a woman's life upon courting her". He went on to say
that a man who is worried about upsetting a woman's life is not truly
masculine. Since when is polite concern about HER life and HER plans
un-masculine? If I were dating a guy and he demanded that I marry him
right away and drop all my plans for college, I'd give him a flat-out
no! So would all the other women I know; concern and respect for a
woman and her ideas are two of the most masculine and mature qualities
a man could have and Wilson is dead-wrong in discouraging them. I
suggest he pull his nose out of Biblical times and look around a bit
at the modern world. The majority of Christians have adapted to the
changes in the world while still remaining devout; it's about time the
Wilsons did the same."

Or, again, if you prefer the positive view of the same thing:

"The casualites of recreational dating have mounted in our generation;
and this book reminds fathers: It is OUR responsibility to lovingly
protect our daughters. Their purity rests with us. I urge every Dad
who loves their little pumpkin the way I love mine to get this
book...Learn the Biblical mandate well, when she is young. She'll love
you, and thank you for it during the teenage years;and especially in
marriage.Peter Hyatt, Copiague, New York."

Or how about you read the goddamn books yourself, like I did, rather
than taking the Cliff's Notes version from someone with an axe to
grind? It's bizarrely deceptive of you to airily claim that "oh, there
were more positive than negative reviews" without mentioning the fact
that the content of those reviews validates pretty much exactly what I
said.

-- ACS