Chewymom

Over on Molly’s blog I found an excerpt from an essay written by Mark L. Strauss. And it made me think. The man spoke exactly what has been churning deep within my heart and mind for months now. Read this:

The women’s movement—both in secular society and in the church—did not arise in a vacuum. It arose in contexts where women’s voices were not heard or respected. It arose in churches where gifts and callings were ignored or demeaned. It arose in places where women who were gifted in leadership and teaching were told to sit down, shut up, and defer to their (sometimes much less gifted) male counterparts. We need to address these issues first, before we start telling women what they can and cannot do.

See, that’s the irony. I don’t think it would have ever crossed my mind to wonder if the PCA has gender roles correct if I didn’t feel devalued based on my anatomy.

I used to serve on our WIC (Women in the Church) council. The entire time I was really frustrated. I served in a position I had created–Missions Liaison. My heart was to serve missionaries and to get the women more involved in the support of missionaries. I also served on the Missions Committee. I went to WIC meetings, expecting to work through women’s issues, and I was surprised to learn that in fact, my main job was to help plan a luncheon. We met monthly, working out details like what color dots would be drawn on the paper table clothes to pretty them up, and whether to use balloons or flowers for centerpieces, and who would provide the vases, and what food to have catered. I went home with the assignment to call two pages of women to encourage them to sign up for the luncheon. I helped sell tickets and brought my dishes to compete with the other women set up a table. The frenzied planning went on for several months and finally the luncheon came off as a great success!

I relaxed and anticipated the next WIC meeting when we could get down to business. And get down to business, we did. The business of planning the Valentine’s Banquet. More of the same–decorating tables, calling women, planning the menu, selling tickets. When that was finished, we organized sending care packages to college students, and then we planned a slate of names for the next year for WIC officers and sat back, satisfied with our work for the previous year.

After two years on WIC, I felt completely and utterly useless and drained. I am not a decorator. I despise making sales calls. This was not my game and it did not tap into a single one of my strengths. I rotated off of WIC and was told that my position really wasn’t necessary anyway, so it would be dissolved. I was offended at the time, but the person who told me that was right. We were party planners, and it was not necessary to have a missions person who was party-planning-impaired on the committee.

And as I puzzle over the women in our church, I see a pattern. Women who are strong in areas like party planning, decorating, and working with children are valued. They are given jobs, and they feel satisfied with their church experience. But woe to the woman who has organizational skills and planning abilities. Heaven forbid that a woman be a deep thinker. Or worse yet, have teaching gifts. Those are a man’s job, and women had best not try to work their way into that kind of role. Best to stay on the fringes. Plan parties. Ask light, simple questions and make funny little comments in Sunday school. But don’t think. Don’t ask deep questions. Don’t discuss theology. Don’t try to teach things that you have learned.

Unfortunately there is a whole host of women who think and question. There are women gifted in organizing and leading and teaching. And I think almost every single one of them is at a point of feeling frustrated and insignificant within our church. Many of them have no desire to reconsider the PCA’s view of women. In fact, I’m not even sure if they are making a connection that their struggles may be related to their roles, or lack of roles, as women. They just know they do not feel needed or wanted as part of our body of Christ. And so they shrivel up and die inside. Many move on to other areas of involvement like the PTA or a job outside of the home, or homeschooling their children. They have retreated to the back rows of the church where they can dart out the instant church is over and not have to interact with others. Or worse, they just quit coming at all.

The involvement in other activities is not a bad thing, nor is women using their gifts outside of the local church–in fact that is good. The last thing we need is a church full of navel-gazers who never venture outside of the four walls of their church building. But it also is not a good thing to have an entire people-group within the body feeling so devalued that they can barely stand to walk through the doors, let alone to get their hearts and minds ready to worship the Creator!

Mark Strauss is a complementarian. I am not sure where I fall on the issue–I am still studying. But I do know that the essay written by Mr. Strauss resonated very deeply with me. If you are a man or woman in a church that takes a more Complementarian position on the roles of men and women, I urge you to read the essay and consider whether the church–your church even, is in sin against women. Consider how the prevailing attitude Mark addresses is fueling the fire of a radical women’s movement and agenda within our society. Consider how your church may be keeping society in general–those who may never have heard the gospel–from seeing the real Jesus. And consider how far away so many churches are from the picture Jesus gives us of men and women together being necessary parts of the body. And not just if they know how to decorate. All men and all women have value, and should be free to use the gifts God has given them both within the church and outside of it.

Have you ever heard the argument that the reason God wants women to submit and men to lead is because women are just too emotional? I hear that all the time. We would never get a thing done, because we’d be getting all weepy and trying to please everyone and such.

As though emotions are a bad thing.

Why are we so afraid of emotions? Jesus showed emotions! He became angry and overturned the tables in the temple. He wept when Lazarus died. Scripture is full of metaphors about God that involve emotion. In fact, Scripture is full of metaphors about God as a woman, but let’s not go there.

I think we fear emotions because often we cannot control them. They come upon us and wash over us! Sure, we might be able to choke back tears, or clench our jaw and count to 10 and keep the expression of our emotions in check. But underneath it all, we still feel. Now logic–there’s something we can control! We can mull it over in our mind, think it through, and decide which way we want to act or believe. Logic and thought are safe. Beware of those dangerous emotions!

If women’s emotionalism is the reason God doesn’t put them in leadership, what does he do with a couple like me and Chewydad? He is the feeler, I am the thinker. As evidenced by this picture of us, walking up the aisle just after we said, “I do.” Who’s crying??

Does the fact that Chewydad is emotional and I’m not mean that it is okay for our family to be lead by emotions? Does that mean I need to take over the lead? Does it mean that he could never serve as a church officer? Does that make me qualified?

I think we tread on dangerous ground when we disparage a human quality. God has created us! Not only did he create all humans to have emotions, but he knit each of us together in our mother’s wombs! He made some of us to feel more deeply. He allowed for variation among us–no two are alike. Not even identical triplets, like Chewydad and his brothers! They are so very different. We do not need to fear emotions. And women, we do not need to put ourselves down because in general we are more emotional than men. That is a gift! Our emotions often show the tender heart of God. Our nurturing is an image of the way God nurtures us. We are image bearers just like men! Don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise or make you feel “less than” because of your gender.

For more reading on the subject of women’s emotions, read Molly’s post here.

Can I be frank for a minute? Chewydad and I are struggling. There are plenty of minor things that are piling up, but really those are so trivial they are almost laughable. We also have some weighty things on our hearts.

Do we still believe theologically what we have believed for almost twenty years of marriage? Does that theology really matter in the grand scheme of things? Are we still reformed? Do we hold to limited atonement? What do we think about women’s issues? Should women be allowed to preach? Teach Sunday school? Serve in any way?

All of these issues make for interesting talk with leaders within our church. Chewydad and I are fairly open people. A trait that makes nice southern people…uncomfortable. People are pulling us aside and wanting to meet with us. Women are sidling up to us after church and expressing concern that we are having trouble. In short, we are making people uncomfortable. They don’t know what to make of us or what to do with us.

And that has me thinking. How do we as Christians handle struggling? What do we do with people who struggle?

Chewydad and I have several friends who are struggling as well. We each have our own issues, and as Chewydad and I have grown deeper and deeper in relationship with these friends, we are learning that sometimes when a friend is struggling, you just can’t fix it! As Southerners, our tendency is to want to fix everything–package it up and tie it with a pretty bow and be done. But it is okay to just be. To just sit. To offer no answers, no nice Bible verses, no admonitions. Just to offer safety. I am learning to do that with my close friends, and they are doing that with me.

I think that verse that says, “Be still and know that I am God,” really sums it up. At the end of the day, I am not losing my faith. I love Jesus more than ever. My passion for Him runs deeper and wider every day, and His love is a salve to my hurting heart. My church friends worry about the theology I question, and they fret because I am having a hard time. They want to fix the problem, or better yet to fix me. And all I want is to be still and know that God is God!

If they want to befriend me, I want them to come and sit with me. Participate in my struggle. Hear me think out loud. Let me air my distress. And then just be still with me. Marvel that I can question, just as David questioned. I can say, “Jesus, this is so hard!” It is not too much for God. I am not fearful, I am not losing my faith, I am not throwing in the towel. So just sit with me through this. Believe with me. Heck, when I am too tired to think, believe for me.

This is what I believe Jesus would do. In fact, it is what he does through my friends who are also struggling and who have learned how to suffer. They wait patiently for the Lord. They sit.

Here’s a thought I was mulling over this morning. Is it possible that because abortion is legal in our country, it allows for a greater testimony of God’s goodness and grace when a person chooses life?

I know a young girl who has learned that she is pregnant. I was thinking about the agony of discovering her pregnancy. And then the fear she must have felt in telling her parents. I know of the distress they felt, wondering even if her father might lose his job, because he is in Christian ministry. (He didn’t.) At so many turns, it must have been tempting to let her mind turn to the “what if” of abortion. Or maybe even the “if only.” What would her life be like if she just quietly aborted the baby and never told anyone?

In so many ways this girl’s life has changed. She gave up life in a college town to move home and go to a community college. Not only that, but she will continue her classes this year, and then she will take a break for at least a semester, and maybe for an entire year. Eventually she plans to go back to school locally and get her degree while her parents help her raise her child. She is not planning to marry the father right away–she is a believer, he is not. She will be a single mom at least for the short-term, and possibly forever. Gone are her dreams of being a collegiate girl, of getting the degree she planned in four years, of finding a mate, enjoying time getting to know him before kids, and then settling down and starting a family. Her life is turned upside-down. Dreams are dashed. If she aborted, life could go on as planned. But she has chosen life.

As her life progresses, she has a testimony. She will be able to tell women who follow after her that even though she could have aborted and had an easier life for herself, she made a choice. She kept a baby who rocked her world and turned things upside down. She chose a hard path. And even if that path proves difficult over and over and over again, there is a little soul who can live and love and learn of Jesus. She will have a story to tell others.

If this girl lived in a country where abortion was illegal, she would never have made a choice. There would have been no choice to make. Her story would simply be, “I had the baby because I had no choice. I had to.” Granted she could choose adoption, but still. The testimony of her journey, of her making the difficult decision would be gone.

There is beauty in having a choice. There is risk, yes. Think of what God risked by allowing Eve to make a choice. Why did he allow there to be tempting fruit in the first place? Without that fruit, without that decision on the part of Eve, we would never know badness and sin and evil. And yet, without knowing sin, would we really know God, completely and fully? Could we get the goodness of God without knowing our own badness?

And in the same way, could we know the goodness of choosing life if we never knew the badness of choosing abortion? Would the sacrifice have meaning if there was no other option?

I found this article by Frank Schaeffer in the Huffington Post Online.

I am an Obama supporter. I am also pro-life. In fact, without my family’s involvement in the pro-life movement it would not exist as we know it. Evangelicals weren’t politicized until after my late father and evangelical leader Francis Schaeffer, Dr. Koop (Reagan’s soon-to-be Surgeon General) and I stirred them up over the issue of abortion in the mid-1970s. Our Whatever Happened to the Human Race? book, movie series and seminars brought the evangelicals into the pro-life movement.

(Dad’s political influence persists. Last week one of my father’s followers — Mike Huckabee — was interviewed by Katie Couric, along with all the other presidential candidates. Couric asked the candidates if they were to be sent to a desert island and could only take one book besides the Bible, what would that that book be? Huckabee answered that he’d take my father’s book Whatever Happened To The Human Race?)

Fast forward…

In 2000, we elected a president who claimed he believed God created the earth and who, as president, put car manufacturers and oil company’s interests ahead of caring for that creation. We elected a pro-life Republican Congress that did nothing to actually care for pregnant women and babies. And they took their sincere evangelical followers for granted, and played them for suckers.

The so-called evangelical leadership — Dobson, Robertson et al. also played the pro-life community for suckers. While thousands of men and women in the crisis pregnancy movement gave of themselves to help women and babies, their evangelical “leaders” did little more than cash in on fundraising opportunities and represent themselves as power-brokers to the craven politicians willing to kowtow to them.

Fast forward…

Today when I listen to Obama speak (and to his remarkable wife, Michelle) what I hear is a world view that actually nurtures life. Obama is trying to lead this country to a place where the intrinsic worth of each individual is celebrated. A leader who believes in hope, the future, trying to save our planet and providing a just and good life for everyone is someone who is actually pro-life.

Conversely the “pro-life” ethic of George W. Bush manifested itself in a series of squandered opportunities to call us to our better natures. After 9/11, Bush told most Americans to go shopping while saddling the few who volunteered for military service with endless tours of duty (something I know a little about since my son was a Marine and deployed several times). The Bush doctrine of life was expressed by starting an unnecessary war in Iraq that has killed thousands of Americans and wounded tens of thousands more.

The society that Obama is calling us to sacrifice for is a place wherein life would be valued not just talked about. As he said in his speech delivered on February 6 in New Orleans, “Too often, we lose our sense of common destiny; that understanding that we are all tied together; that when a woman has less than nothing in this country, that makes us all poorer.” Obama was talking about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, but his words also apply to our overall view of ourselves.

Regardless of the official position of the Supreme Court on abortion, a country in which all Americans are offered some sort of dignity and hopeful future would be a place conducive to the kind of optimism each of us must hold in our hearts if we are to welcome children into this world. But if our highest aspiration is to be a consumer with no thought or care for our neighbor, we will remain a culture in which abortion is not only inevitable but logical.

What we need in America is a spiritual rebirth, a turning away from the false value of consumerism and utilitarianism that have trumped every aspect of human life. To implement this vision we need leaders that inspire but to do so they have to be what they say they are. It’s not about policy it’s about character.

Obama’s rivals for the nomination — the Clintons — do not inspire. When the Clintons were in the White House they talked about humane values while Bill Clinton betrayed every single person who voted for him by carrying on an unseemly sexual dalliance in the Oval Office with a young woman barely out of her teens. Since that time the Clintons have enriched themselves through their connections to a point where they’re able to make a $5 million personal loan to their campaign.

For someone who says she has spent “the last 35 years of my life as an advocate for children” and/or “fighting for healthcare” that’s a lot of money to have collected through doing good works. Presidential Mother Teresa wannabes shouldn’t be doing deals with uranium mining outfits in Kazakhstan while schmoozing with the likes of President Nursultan Nazarbayev and wealthy mining magnates — not if they want the moral authority to lead.

Similarly the Republicans have also been hypocrites while talking big, for instance about their pro-life ethic. But what have they achieved? First, through their puritanical war on sex education they’ve hindered our country from actually preventing unwanted pregnancy. Second, through the Republican Party’s marriage to the greediest and most polluting earth-destroying corporations they’ve created a climate (both moral and physical) that has scorched the earth for-profit, with no regard to future generations whatsoever. The Republicans are to the pro-life movement what the Clintons are to selfless public service.

The real solution to abortion is to change the heart of America, not the law. We need to stop seeing ourselves as consumers. We need to stop seeing ourselves as me and begin to think of we. Our country needs someone to show us a better way, a president who is what he seems, someone with actual moral authority that our diverse population can believe in who has the qualities that make us want to follow him. Obama is that person.

Frank Schaeffer is a writer and author of “CRAZY FOR GOD — How I Grew Up As One Of The Elect, Helped Found The Religious Right, And Lived To Take All (Or Almost All) Of It Back”

As Chewydad and I have begun to walk run sprint away from what feels like legalism, there is a word that keeps popping up.

Antinomian.

As in, “We’re not sure we can trust you to teach our kids, because you are an antinomian.” Or, “You could never be an elder because you’re antinomian.” Or, “We won’t have you leading a Sunday school class or a Bible study, because of your antinomian leanings.” Or “We’re worried about your salvation because of your antinomian views.”

The definition of “antinomian” is a person who maintains that Christians are freed from the moral law by virtue of grace as set forth in the gospel. Simply put, it means “anti” “law.”

And there’s a sense in which that is true of Chewydad and me. Over the course of our Christian, married life (which encompasses almost 20 years, five cities, and seven churches), we’ve grown tired of being told how to uphold the Sabbath–Don’t drive through KFC! Don’t mow the grass! Be sure you attend Sunday School, morning worship, and evening worship, all three!

We’re tired of being told what to believe about women. Women cannot be elders. Or deacons. Or hand out the bulletin or collect the offering! They must be silent. They cannot hold an opinion unless their husband tells them to. Always wear makeup in public! And the reason women have these restrictions is that they are too emotional and can’t be trusted to think.

The church has become downright Pharisaical in many instances, adding to the law and making Christianity a noose around the believer’s neck. Don’t have a tattoo! Don’t listen to rock music! Always give 10% of your money to your local church! Thou shalt not vote for a Democrat. Keep your finances perfectly! Don’t drive a clunker car to church, or it might make us look bad.

Folks, I’m not opposed to the law. Without it, I would not understand my need for Jesus! If not for the law, how could Jesus have lived a perfect life in my place? And without it, how would my heart know what to do with my love for Jesus–what to strive for and long for? I am thankful that the law has shown me my sin, and that it can give my passion a place to go and a thing to do with my desire to show my love for God.

So instead of being labeled an “antinomian,” can I be called a “pro-grace?” Rather than emphasize the law, or rather AFTER I have emphasized the law (the REAL law–not that which is made up by well-meaning Christians) and seen how I cannot fulfill it, I am driven to the doctrine of grace.

Grace says, “I’m messed up. I can’t find God. I find all kinds of other things to fill the needs I feel–perfection, money, sex, possessions, family. They never satisfy, and I always want more. Jesus is more. He fulfills the law, He fulfills my desires, and He did it when I couldn’t.” That’s grace. And when I get that, I want to show that grace to others.

Here is “Grace,” in the words of U2:

Grace
She takes the blame
She covers the shame
Removes the stain
It could be her name

Grace
It’s a name for a girl
It’s also a thought that
Changed the world

And when she walks on the street
You can hear the strings
Grace finds goodness
In everything

Grace
She’s got the walk
Not on a ramp or on chalk
She’s got the time to talk

She travels outside
Of karma, karma
She travels outside
Of karma

When she goes to work
You can hear the strings
Grace finds beauty
In everything

Grace
She carries a world on her hips
No champagne flute for her lips
No twirls or skips
Between her fingertips

She carries a pearl
In perfect condition
What once was hurt
What once was friction
What left a mark
No longer stings

Because grace makes beauty
Out of ugly things

Grace finds beauty
In everything

Grace finds goodness
In everything

The problem (the “elephant in the room” as Craig Schwarze would put it) is that the pro-life movement has failed - completely and spectacularly. Despite 30 years of protests, political action and even violence (albeit from a militant minority), western society has embraced abortion. Despite the efforts of the pro-life movement, support for abortion has increased since the early 1970s. While pro-life people argue and agitate to make abortion illegal, a considerable majority of people wish to keep it legal. Moreover, voting for politicians who support the pro-life camp has resulted in absolutely no change at all in abortion laws. For example, from 1994 until 2006, the US congress was controlled by conservative Republicans who had been voted in by the American people to enact conservative legislation - which included support from pro-life groups. Despite 12 years of congressional control (of which 6 years were spent under a conservative president who would not veto conservative legislation), Roe vs Wade was never repealed, abortions were not reduced and public opinion of abortion did not swing enough towards the pro-life position (if it swung at all).

One Salient Oversight argues (much more eloquently than I have attempted to do on here) that having a pro-life political stance may not be the best way to reduce abortions. He points out an interesting study that shows that countries where abortion is legal actually have lower rates of abortions than those countries where abortion is illegal. If you truly consider yourself to be in the pro-life camp, this is a must read post.

You all know the phrase, “knowledge is power.” Most of the time I agree with that. But sometimes that just doesn’t ring true.

Apparently Festus agreed with me. In Acts 26:24 it says, “That was too much for Festus. He interrupted with a shout: ‘Paul, you’re crazy! You’ve read too many books, spent too much time staring off into space! Get a grip on yourself, get back in the real world!’” Or in another translation, “Your great learning is driving you insane!”

I’m a member of a PCA church. When I first began attending a “reformed” church, my knowledge grew like gangbusters! It was refreshing and exciting for me, a young college girl who had been hungry to understand more about my faith that was growing in my heart. I soaked up knowledge like a sponge!

And yet, as my husband, who has a degree from Westminster Theological Seminary, would say, “We need to repent of our knowledge.” We in the PCA are SO PROUD of our theology!! There was a group of people in Jesus’ day who were known and exalted for their knowledge. They were the Pharisees. They had all kinds of facts rolling around in their whitewashed heads, but their hearts remained unengaged. How much better it would have been for them to be poor, ignorant tax collectors who were passionate about Jesus in their hearts!

Most people within the PCA absolutely adore their Presbyterian theology. And I can understand that! I understand many of their backgrounds, and I know they were starving for understanding! But now, that knowledge can come out as a dry list of rules and expectations, and the heart is squashed and ultimately stops beating altogether. Not just their hearts, but the hearts of those to whom they spit out this head-knowledge. As it turns out, this knowledge is power–just the wrong kind of power. It is the kind that puffs up, not the kind that empowers others to live joyful lives in Christ!

I am not advocating a life of sticking our heads in the sand and refusing to learn theology. Goodness knows, my theological understanding of God’s sovereignty has gotten me through many rough times, from receiving the diagnosis that Brig has Down syndrome to the every day challenges of managing a busy household with five children. But if you find yourself getting excited about the knowledge you carry in your head, you need to examine your heart. Is it warm or cold? Are you soft and tender toward Jesus? toward sinners? Do you recognize that you are in the exact same position as those “tax collectors” (or drunks or financially irresponsible people or promiscuous teens or fill-in-the-blank)? Do you really understand the message that you are just as needy as others and that Jesus is just as compassionate and tender-hearted toward them?

If you can answer that yes, you are soft and tender toward God, and that your heart beats for him, then your knowledge is not taking you out of the real world or driving you insane. In fact, it is probably the firm foundation that your heart stands upon in times of need. But if you know and recognize that your faith is all about godly discipline, rules, and head-knowledge, then I would say knowledge isn’t power for you. Knowledge is killing you. Or at the least making you out of touch with the real world, or as Festus would say, “insane.”

About a year ago I made a bold move. I admitted to a small adult group from my church that I had [gasp] voted for a candidate who was not pro-life in the previous presidential election! This was quite a shock within this group. I’m not sure that anybody in our church has ever voted for someone who was not pro-life. Almost every car (er rather large SUV) in our church parking lot has a “W-The President” sticker on the back. If not that, then they have “S-The Coach.” As in Saban. University of Alabama.

One of my friends was quite alarmed at my statement, and said, “Wait! Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water!!”

So anyway, I clarified to this group that I am adamantly pro-life. I have a son with Down syndrome, and 90% or more of all prenatal diagnoses of Down syndrome end in an early termination. That offends me. And I want it to stop. But I no longer think it is a reality that a presidential candidate is going to overturn Roe vs. Wade. Yes, he (or she) may be able to appoint pro-life judges. But what then? If they overturn Roe v Wade, do you not think the congress will turn right around and re-overturn it? Or that the backlash in the next election will result in a president and representatives who will set into place a more permanent proclamation of this “women’s right?”

In my opinion, the most likely way to change opinions on abortion is one person at a time. My son hopefully does that all the time. He is a testimony to the fact that people with Down syndrome can have meaningful, fulfilling lives. That as children and teenagers, they are not a burden. I mean, sure there are struggles. Hard ones! It’s a pain in the butt to juggle the therapies when they are young. It is challenging to manage behavioral issues when they have limited communication abilities. It is a headache to fight with the IEP teams. But believe me when I say that my oldest son is not the only child who has presented me with parenting challenges. My middle child has spent significantly more time at the hospital than my oldest, what with his chronic ear infections, bacteremia, multiple broken bones, and concussions. My youngest has thrown far more temper tantrums and been much more of a discipline challenge than my oldest. Etcetera.

But back to the topic. Babies. Abortion. And elections. I am almost sick of hearing about Iowa, but I have to admit that I was tickled to hear about Obama’s big win in the Caucus last night. I really, really like this guy!! I find myself nodding and grinning and agreeing wholeheartedly when he speaks. And yet, I’m not sure my acquaintances in my little southern town with their “W” stickers are ready to hear that. And I’m not sure I am ready to defend it yet. And that’s where I hope you can help out.

And by you, I mean the two of you who are still checking in here, what with my lack of blogging for the last several months.

Those of you who are personally opposed to abortion, but who are inclined to vote for a non-pro-life candidate…how do you reconcile the two? How do you intelligently discuss your views with people who are single-issue voters? I’d love some ammunition input.

Here’s a version of Jesus’ birth that you likely won’t find in most church services. It is more raw, more violent, more real than most of the passive nativity scenes lovingly placed upon our mantles. But it is the story, nonetheless. Read this account taken from Revelation 12:1-5a

A great Sign appeared in Heaven: a Woman dressed all in sunlight, standing on the moon, and crowned with Twelve Stars. She was giving birth to a Child and cried out in the pain of childbirth. And then another Sign alongside the first: a huge and fiery Dragon! …With one flick of its tail it knocked a third of the Stars from the sky and dumped them on earth. The Dragon crouched before the Woman in childbirth, poised to eat up the Child when it came. The Woman gave birth to a Son who will shepherd all nations with an iron rod. Her Son was seized and placed safely before God on his Throne.