A modern example of how Hosea spoke: Lo-Ammi became Ammi (“Not my people” to “My people”). This story, by Chaya Babu, reveals tenacity and courage:
MUMBAI, India — Hundreds of Indian girls whose names mean “unwanted” in Hindi chose new names Saturday for a fresh start in life.
A central Indian district held a renaming ceremony it hopes will give the girls new dignity and help fight widespread gender discrimination that gives India a skewed gender ratio, with far more boys than girls.
The girls — wearing their best outfits with barrettes, braids and bows in their hair — lined up to receive certificates with their new names along with small flower bouquets from Satara district officials in Maharashtra state.
In shedding names like “Nakusa” or “Nakushi,” which mean “unwanted” in Hindi, some girls chose to name themselves after Bollywood stars like “Aishwarya” or Hindu goddesses like “Savitri.” Some just wanted traditional names with happier meanings, such as “Vaishali” or “prosperous, beautiful and good.”…
“Nakusa is a very negative name as far as female discrimination is concerned,” said Satara district health officer Dr. Bhagwan Pawar, who came up with the idea for the renaming ceremony.
Other incentives, announced by federal or state governments every few years, include free meals and free education to encourage people to take care of their girls, and even cash bonuses for families with girls who graduate from high school.
Activists say the name “unwanted,” which is widely given to girls across India, gives them the feeling they are worthless and a burden.
“When the child thinks about it, you know, ‘My mom, my dad, and all my relatives and society call me unwanted,’ she will feel very bad and depressed,” said Sudha Kankaria of the organization Save the Girl Child. But giving these girls new names is only the beginning, she said.
“We have to take care of the girls, their education and even financial and social security, or again the cycle is going to repeat.”
Is it not an involuntary thing to love your child (boy or girl) unconditionally? I don’t even feel like I have a choice in the matter… with my first glance at my daughter I fell in love. How does this get skewed?
This is a beautiful re-writing of our story, prefiguring how God wants to touch all of us with redeeming love that breathes out more love, regardless of heritage. Regardless of what we name our children, parents or relatives or families of all cultures may speak or act “in the power of the name, unwanted” toward family members. Only confession & repentance name and redeem both the spoken and unspoken.
Sadly, this rejection of girls in favor of boys is all too common in our world. And it is still a big slice of the American evangelical scene. Though we would never dream of giving our girl children such names, don’t we do something similar when we insist that our holy book teaches that women are not equally gifted or called?
I’ve been retired from pastoral ministry for almost one year now and have spent a lot of time perusing blogs in an effort to hone my own writing skills. And it has been distressing and depressing to find so many places where the created partnership of male and female is denied. Though I am so grateful to have been born into the time, family and culture that is mine, I must say that I see vestiges of this kind of behavior, even in the modern church. It is not so blatant, but it is still there.
I agree with Ann F-R above that the ceremony noted here is a beautiful thing and makes a lovely analogy to what happens to ALL of us, male and female, when we say yes to Jesus and the new life he brings. I am glad and grateful to read about the far-sighted people in India who are attempting to address the needs of these young women. And I continue to pray that the church around the world will make room at the table for all of God’s children.
Diane @ #3 – Yep, the preference for maleness over femaleness is indeed alive and well in American evangelical Christianity. That’s why you have probably not heard any evangelical leaders commenting on the recent reports on the decrease of females in Asia. At least I haven’t heard anyone comment on it. It’s also apparently not a top priority given the lack of comments to this post. A post on Calvinism is apparently much more important.
You know, P., I had the exact same thought as I was plowing my way through nearly 60 convoluted, generally esoteric comments on the Calvinism post today. Good grief – long, academic words/names/themes/arguments galore. Sigh.
The one comment that shone for me was from a woman, apologizing for asking for relevance and clarity, and then hitting the nail right on the head with her questions about suffering and its source – because those are the questions people want and need answers to…
Although I’ve done some studying in theology, I am not easily conversant with all the verbiage thrown down over there on that topic and feel hugely intimidated by the dialog. And you are right, the unbalance in comments is indicative of what is valued in so much churchy conversation today. If we spent even half as much of that energy brain-storming about ways to ‘educate the girls’ around this world (and in our own country, too – but this phenom is much more dramatic elsewhere), who knows what kind of kingdom-flourishing we might see?
There are certainly pieces of the Calvinism conversation that are extremely important for us to work through – but wow, I found the comments exhausting in the extreme to read. Lots of heat, lots of verbal skill, and surely some deep intelligence – but sometimes I really wonder – is there heart as well?
Okay. Off the soapbox for tonight – I guess I was just gratified and relieved to see someone else verbalize some of what I felt about the huge differential between these conversations. And what it might signify about our priorities and values.
(BTW, my name has an ‘a’ at the end, not an ‘e’.’ Happens all the time, but I always try to gently correct as my dad debated a long time between the two and chose Diana rather than Diane when I was born, oh-so-many years ago :>)
Diana,
But the post on Calvinism raises a question to discuss. This post provides information and something to ponder. But other than simple acknowledgements or expressions of support or wonder how would this post bring much comment?
RJS – How about discussion on how the church can combat this prejudice that not only wounds the females involved, but could produce violence in the future (overabundance of males with few women for them).
I’m going to dare to post a comment on the Calvinist page. Should be interesting.
Sure P. But the post has to be designed in such a way as to draw a conversation. This post isn’t such a post and that is OK – many posts are just for information.
No teacher or … can simply say “here, this topic is interesting. Talk about it.”
rjs – your question is accurate, of course. As far as it goes. Even a sentence or two acknowledging how painful this is to read might be a good start. But I’m guessing it is particularly painful for females to read and maybe not so much for males. Asking questions about how this kind of thing shows up in other cultures – including our own – seems fairly conversational to me, though. But not to you?
There is lots of energy for ‘answering’ a theological question – and sometimes, that’s great fun. I’ve entered in a couple of times. But really…where is all that arguing/defending positions taking us? I would hope into a more thoughtful response to a troublesome issue. But when a very specific question was asked in a non-academic way – how do I deal with people who insist that God CAUSES suffering – no one really dug into that one. Although I will admit that I have not been back tonight – perhaps someone has tackled it in the spirit with which it was asked. One can hope. :>)