Conversations with Faith-full Women:

Mercy Hope: Tell us a little about your experience in Yellowstone and how that affected you and started you on your journey…
 
Brandi Swindell: It was the summer of 1997 when I got a job in Yellowstone National Park. After highschool I was kind of on this journey, deciding what was I supposed to do – what did God want me to do? I wasn’t quite sure what college I should go to, or if I should go to college. I’d been going to Yellowstone since I was a little girl with my family. So, I thought “OK, I’ll go hang out in the park for a summer.” I got a job out there at the Roosevelt Lodge. I had two roommates that I lived with in one of the cabins. It was just a really fun time. I was the only Christian there at that lodge. Everybody else was out there to party and do whatever. So, here I am at one of the first times in my life where I was away from all my Christian friends, my home Church, and I was like “OK, I am a little Christian missionary in the park.” I was able to go to Church services out there and that kind of thing.
 
Anyway, one of my roommates was about 21. She was into skateboarding and just had a really fun, outgoing attitude. I was trying to share the message of the gospel with her. About the middle of the summer, I sensed that something was going on with her. I wasn’t exactly sure what it was so I just started praying about it and the LORD actually revealed to me that she was pregnant before she ever told me. It was just one of those things where sometimes God will just show you something. So, I started looking for any kind of clue, just to find out if I was right. Sure enough, she had written down the number of an abortion clinic in Bozeman, Montana.
I ended up gently confronting her about this, and she just burst into tears crying, saying, “You just have no idea…I am just not ready to be a mother…” At one point, in one of our conversations, she even said, “I know it is wrong, but I have to do it.” Of course, she had gotten pregnant from some guy out in the park – they were going out while they were in the park.
I begged and pleaded for the life of this child, I prayed to God. I told her that I would help her – I would help support her, I would help her find a family to adopt the baby. My uncle was an attorney and I said, “I’ll make sure my uncle can represent you if you need help with the legalities of an adoption. I’ll move with you to Nevada. I’ll move with you to Boston, (which is where her boyfriend was from). You can come live with me…” I was just begging and begging for about two weeks, hoping and believing and praying that she would not have this abortion.
I can still remember the day after I had finished working one of the shifts at the Lodge, opening up our cabin door and seeing her laying in the fetal position on her bed. My heart just dropped and I said, “She did it. She had the abortion.” Of course, I just could not believe it. I was very sad; I was very down. I was not doubting God, not questioning Him – it didn’t affect my faith in Him – but I was certainly wondering, “God why did I go through this? And, why did this baby slip through my hands? Why couldn’t we do anything?” Because, I had gotten so attached to the baby -- I had so identified with the baby. I had made that commitment in my heart to even take the baby – my family will take the baby!
 
What was so interesting was that my roommate was not the same girl. She literally had glazed-over eyes. You could see where satan had taken her spirit and you could see where she knew that it did not fix anything to have an abortion. She knew it and I knew it. We were the only ones in that park that knew what was going on, besides, I think, maybe her boyfriend.
I remember just the epiphany of going, “OK, not only is abortion against God’s will for a number of reasons – primarily because it takes the life of an innocent child – but this is completely exploiting women.” Although I had always been pro-life I didn’t necessarily understand the whole issue. I was pro-life from the standpoint that I knew it was against God’s will and I knew that it was harmful to the innocent child but I had never looked at it from this angle before…this woman was crushed.
 
So, I spent the rest of that summer, as I would go on hikes and things like that, just praying to God again. “LORD, why did I go through this?” And, He revealed to me… “Brandi, I allowed you to go through this because I go through this every day. This happens 3,000 or 4,000 times a day. This happens on a daily basis. This is one child of many.” That is when I realized, “There is this whole industry that I never even though about before. Women are being exploited and these innocent children are dying.” It’s one-third of my generation that has been killed since 1973 because of abortion.
 
So, from that point on I just asked God, I said, “Lord, use me. Use this situation. Use me.” I was desperate. I saw firsthand what abortion did. I could also remember when I was out there it just clicked with me how ironic it was in our society that in Yellowstone National Park, which is a preserve designed to conserve God’s creation, to keep this beautiful, wonderful place safe and protected. So, you can’t hunt there. You can’t hurt an elk or a buffalo. Don’t even think about touching a squirrel. You are discouraged from picking flowers. There are fines and penalties for removing things from the park. I mean, don’t even think about taking a chainsaw and getting firewood in the park -- that would be a severe penalty. So it just clicked that here there were so many things that were protected, even the eggs of the birds are protected. Yet this innocent child that was conceived in the park was open prey in its mother’s womb. That makes no sense!! What is that in our society where we are just going on like that is normal? That is so inconsistent. And, of course, we know that human life is so valuable to God, and as believers it has to be so valuable to us. It is like gold. I mean there is just that intrinsic value in human life that when that is destroyed through abortion, it is such an assault on the righteousness of God. It is such an assault on humanity!
 
Mercy Hope: Now, how did you go from that initial understanding to where at this point you are really a recognized national leader in the pro-life movement? What was that process?
 
Brandi Swindell: I tell people, “Be careful what you pray for, be careful when you say, ‘God, use me,’ because it is all done then. God is like, ‘OK, baptism by fire here!’”
I spent the rest of the summer there at Yellowstone. I had a Christian friend out in the park from New York and her name was Heather. She was out there working with a Christian ministry that did the churches on Sundays. We became really good friends because we were pretty much in the same area in the park, so we would hang out all the time. She ended up getting a job lined up to work for a national pro-life leader in New York, when she went back home. This national leader was running for Congress, and he was looking for other people to help him on his campaign. So, she said, “Well, you’ve had a really intense experience on this whole abortion issue. Why don’t you come and work for this national pro-life leader in New York?” So, I said, “OK, sounds like a God-thing! I guess He is opening the door.”
 
So, after I finished working in the park, I went home to Boise, packed up and was off to New York to work on this national pro-life leader’s campaign. Then from that point, I met a number of different national leaders like Rev. Patrick Mahoney, and Judy Brown with American Life League. From there I ended up working with the Christian Defense Coalition and going to Ireland and I worked with Youth Defense over there, which is a pro-life organization. Then, I interned at American Life League in the Rock for Life department for a while. Then I worked with the Christian Defense Coalition again.
After about four years of working with national ministries, I just felt the release from God saying, “Now it is time for you to roll up your shirtsleeves and put to use what I have taught you through these other leaders.” So, I came back home and started Generation Life! I am one of the co-founders.
 
What God put on my heart very clearly was the Scripture in the New Testament that says, “Make the most of every opportunity.” I think as believers we forget that we are TO MAKE THE MOST OF EVERY SITUATION. Because, so many of these situations God has put right in front of us so that His purpose would be fulfilled and we usually kind of like miss it. So, I just started making the most of every opportunity. I got plugged in here to a local church, The Vineyard. They have donated office space. I’ve just had to jump in and learn how to fundraise. I’ve teamed up with some national leaders that have been instrumental in mentoring me spiritually and also just for covering for Generation Life. It is really important – the Bible talks about structure and proper covering. So, I have covering here at The Vineyard; I have some great covering from the Christian Defense Coalition and some other groups. I really watch and learn from the people that have gone before me. There are a lot of people that have been in the pro-life movement a lot longer than we have, obviously for our generation. They have been diligently sort of clearing the path for us, and I really think it’s time for our generation to run through that path they have cleared for us. We have the opportunity to work hand in hand with the leaders that have gone before us in the pro-life movement to really make a difference.
 
Mercy Hope: I’d like you to talk about Generation Life. I know that your vision is to be the “new face of the pro-life movement” so how are you doing that through GenLife?
 
Brandi Swindell:  Well, we use the phrase, that “we are the new face of pro-life America” and what that means basically is that a lot of people perceive in our culture, or in our society, that to be pro-life means that you have to be like a nun or a priest, or as Pat Mahoney always jokes “a middle-aged balding male” because he is a middle-aged balding male – so I am just quoting him. J And really, I can remember seeing that in highschool on the news or in the paper, the types of people they would oftentimes show that were pro-life. It was like “Oh yeah, cool pro-lifers!” (said sarcastically) We want to show that our generation, we’re pro-life. You can be a woman and be pro-life. You can be 15 and be pro-life. You can be 19, you can be 25 and be pro-life. You know, there is a lot of energy and vibrancy that we can bring as Christians, as Believers into different issues and organizations and causes that are based in Scripture, that are based on God’s universal truth. We can add some vibrancy!
 
So the purpose of Generation Life is that we are a youth organization, run by youth. Although I’m not really youth any more, when I started I was – but I’m 28 now! Really, we are to reach out to the post-Roe vs. Wade generation. It is sort of an outlet for those that were born after 1973 that are now living with the reality that we were open prey in our mother’s womb. The government was fighting against our existence. There were organizations like The National Organization of Women, Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union, NARAL, Pro-Choice America…they were all fighting against our existence. They wanted our mothers to have abortions! That is their belief system. They want less children. They don’t want women to have kids. They don’t want families. They don’t like that – they despise that! So, our government devalued our life in the womb. Roe v. Wade was an assault on humanity and on our generation specifically and so we have a different reality than those that were born before 1973. We have in the back of our mind – we were born with this concept that, “Really, does our life have value if our own government says in the womb we don’t have any value? If it is OK to kill us in the womb, what makes us any more special after we’re born?” Of course we know as Christians that of course we have value. We just live in a corrupt society that spreads that lie. But think about that. Maybe that is why we have so many problems with our generation. Maybe that is why this generation deals with so many issues of depression and substance abuse and school shootings and all that kind of stuff, because really at the end of the day is there any value in human life if we could be killed in the womb?
 
So, the idea of Generation Life is to really reach out to that post-Roe vs Wade generation. It is an outlet for us to be a voice for our brothers and sisters that have been killed through abortion, that have not had a voice. We want to be pro-active. We want to assist women who are caught with unplanned pregnancies. We do things like have benefit shows to raise money for crisis pregnancy centers. We are politically and socially active. We try to get pro-life legislation passed. We encourage a lot of things locally and nationally. I organize quite a few national events in Washington DC and different places. I was heavily involved with the Terri Schiavo case. We really want to just get out the consistent life message and do it with humility, but with a boldness that the Scripture allows us to do it with.
 
Mercy Hope: I’d like you to talk a little bit more about what you are doing beyond being a voice for the unborn. You have been out there in the media on several major, major issues in the last several years. I’d like you to talk just briefly about some of the issues you’ve been involved in, including Terri Schiavo.
 
Brandi Swindell: One of the campaigns that Generation Life has is called Engage Culture. It is where we are just encouraging anyone – anybody of any age, any Christian – but primarily this generation to engage in their culture. Just to step out of their comfort zone and engage. Go out into the public square and allow God to use you; allow the Holy Spirit to speak through you!
So, not only are we concerned with the pro-life issue, with innocent children and with women and families, but also we are very concerned with poverty issues. We are very concerned with the chastity message – it is a huge priority for us – we are also concerned, just with a number of different issues. Like you mentioned, I was heavily involved with the Terri Schiavo case. That was number one because it was just the basic, Biblical Principle that if someone needs food and water, you offer it to them. So people from around the nation, from around the world rushed to Florida to stand by this woman’s side, in front of the hospice, to try and do whatever we could to allow this woman to have nutrients and water. We were there with the Schindler family, and it was one of the most horrifying experiences because it really exposed the judicial tyranny and activism in our society, which we know has been around. If you have been in activism, you know that it has been going on. But here it was just so blatant. One of the interesting things was not only that the judge – a state judge – ordered that the feeding tube be removed, the order also included that no one could put anything into Terri’s mouth. They could not give her any water or any food through her mouth. And that order was specifically geared toward Terri’s family – her mother and father, Bob and Mary Schindler. So, here we have a judge issuing a court order that says basically, “you will not meet the needs of your disabled child.” You will be in violation of a court order if you meet the needs of your disabled child. That is evil. That is wicked. And that is the tyranny. What law says a mother and a father can’t meet the needs of their disabled child? There is no law that says that. The judge incorporated that into his order. To remove the feeding tube was completely unethical, but then he went that extra step. So, we have to look at all these different issues.
 
One of the major issues that Generation Life is very passionate about is the systematic eradication of the mention of God in the public square, specifically the removal of Ten Commandments monuments or displays. We are seeing that all around our nation. It is like, “Are we living in Communist China? Are we in Cuba? What is this? What is going on?” I mean, just here in my hometown of Boise, Idaho, we had a Ten Commandments monument, which was in Julia Davis Park for over 40 years. One city council member was able to get it removed. He decided that he wanted it gone, and he brought it to the table. The city council voted to remove it and the Mayor supported it. I mean here in Boise, Idaho, which is considered a Republican state. So, we are seeing this happen. I did go out to Washington DC and listen to the oral arguments of the two cases that the Supreme Court just heard concerning the removal of Ten Commandments monuments. In one situation it was allowed to stay at a public building, and in the other situation it was ordered to be removed. Now listening to the oral arguments, I’m hopeful that we will win one of those cases, specifically the one in Texas – which is interesting, because it is the exact same monument that was in Boise!
 
But, we have to wake up, our society has to wake up, and even more importantly the Church has to wake up. There is a song written by Keith Green about being “Asleep in the Light.” That is totally the Church – we’ve got it – we’ve heard the Word, but we are totally asleep in the light. And that brings up another verse that is so close to my heart, and I can remember memorizing this in sixth grade. I went to a Christian school, so that is a big part of the reason why I do what I do. I have a firm foundation. I went to a wonderful, private, Christian school called Maranatha Christian School for 11 1/2 years, so I had a firm foundation. I was taught in the Word of God in all of my classes whether it was math or science or English, there was the Christian teaching that was being brought forth. I can remember learning the verse, “Be ye not hearers of the Word, but doers of the Word.” (emphasis added) Don’t just hear it! As Christians, we are so good at going to all these Bible studies and Church meetings – which is good, we want to do that – but it is like we can just hear it and hear it and hear it, and then the practical application gets lost somewhere. So, I think that is one of the main things that Generation Life is trying to get across – is engage your culture. Don’t just hear the Word, do the Word. Don’t be afraid to go out in the public square. Don’t be distracted by the fine-sounding arguments that are being brought forth that are basically birthed in the pit of hell. Go out there and refute those because we have the logic and the reason and the power of the Holy Spirit on our side.
 
I was also involved in organizing demonstrations during the 2002 Winter Olympics. For the first time in history, Planned Parenthood and The Red Cross teamed up to distribute – I hate to even say it—these “safe sex” kits. Basically it was distributing condoms and other things that had nothing to do with public health. On the streets of Salt Lake City they had a quarter of a million of these packets made up to distribute. What is so heartbreaking, though is that you know Planned Parenthood is up to no good, but generally, you know people donate money to The Red Cross so that it goes to tsunami aid, so it goes to the family whose house was burnt down, situations like that. But this is what Planned Parenthood wants to do; they want to infiltrate organizations to promote their agenda. If you go on their website and look for what is called “Vision 2025” – it is their vision, what they want to see by the year 2025 – it lists all these things they want to do, one of which is infiltrating youth groups. The other is to go into different non-profit organizations that are already structured so that they can implement their agenda – their death agenda. And here we saw it happen, where Planned Parenthood was able to convince The Red Cross to promote their agenda – their lie of safe sex. So, we’ve got to wake up. The Scripture says, “Do not be unaware of the devil’s schemes” We’ve got to know, “What is going on? What are these organizations doing? How is satan trying to promote his death – you know he wants to kill, steal, and destroy – how is he trying to promote that through different groups?” So Generation Life was able to organize some events out in Salt Lake. We had Survivors join with us. We had about 25 youth out there. We had prayer vigils at Planned Parenthood, we led a demonstration at The Red Cross and we were able to stop it – The Red Cross pulled from their plan to distribute these safe sex kits! So, it is really awesome!
You just make a stand. And you don’t always feel successful. You don’t always see the results you maybe want to see. Obviously such as situations like Terri Schiavo, but God is sitting on His Throne. He is Sovereign, and He calls us to be obedient and faithful, not successful – that’s a quote from Mother Theresa. We are called to be faithful and obedient and God will determine when the success is going to happen.
 
Mercy Hope: One thing that you touched on, but that is so obvious in our Churches and in society as a whole is the incredible apathy. I understand it in the world, but in the Church it is very difficult to understand – just the concept of not wanting to get out there, not wanting to pay the price. I know that you have definitely paid a price. I know that you have been arrested several times and just the negative media attention and coverage and harassment, and all the things that accompany people who take a stand. Yet the Lord has given you such a grace. I’d like you to share a little bit about this – what it takes to become empowered to deal with that. It’s not like you can just go out there and face that. A lot of people will give up, so how do you prepare for that?
 
Brandi Swindell: Sure. Well, I have been arrested about 6 times now – peacefully arrested. There are certain criteria that has to happen for me to feel that it is necessary for me to get arrested, and of course I always pray about it. But, it is when Christians are prevented from doing good by the law or an order, or it forces us to do something evil.
 
Generally, the media coverage has been positive because the media is very intrigued by this “right-wing, conservative, Christian” youth movement. They don’t know what to do with it, because they can’t stereotype us like they want to. It is easy for them to attack Tom DeLay or Pat Robertson or Dr. Dobson, but when they have someone like you or me, in their twenties, or even a teenager out there speaking, it is harder for them to attack that. So, the media coverage has been pretty good. However, there is a portion that is very negative and very harsh, and the purpose of it is to completely stop what we are doing. I mean, there have been some very negative things said about me, even just some name calling things and vulgar things. I can remember the first time I got a really mean e-mail from somebody that saw me on the O’Reilly Factor and it was like, I got a little tear in my eye, because I’ve never had anybody say something so mean to me. But, I remember thinking “Why am I doing this?” I am doing this because I am a servant of Christ, and I am called to serve. I am doing this for the innocent children who have no voice. I can handle people trying to tear me down, but luckily I am not the baby that is being torn apart in the womb. That is the rough one, when you don’t make it out of your mother’s womb alive. So, maybe I can handle this name-calling.
 
As I have gotten more well known – in the past year – it has gotten more intense. Letters to the editor, there are blogs…all sorts of things like that. I just keep trying to remind myself to keep a soft heart but have thick skin. I have a lot of people praying for me. I have a lot of covering, so that has really helped to sustain me. I think we just have to really remember that it is not about us. It is not about us, and we have to get rid of that whole thing of “If we are just really nice then everyone will just love us and it will just all be great.” It doesn’t work that way, and the Bible doesn’t say its going to be that way. Look at the message of Christ and the gospel. “If they persecute Me, surely they are going to persecute you!” What? You think you are going to get off without going through this kind of stuff? Now luckily at this point we’re not communist China…yet. We are not in Cuba with Fidel Castro…yet. We haven’t lived under that so far in our generation because of the way America as was established by our founding fathers. So, we can do so much and we’re not going to get hauled off to concentration camps, we’re not going to get shot. You know what I mean? If you look at the visuals of Tiananmen Square when there were the college students that were speaking out – they were at risk of being shot. In China you can’t speak out against your government. They don’t have religious freedom. They don’t have freedom of speech. They don’t have the Constitution like we have. Really, we have so much in our country where we are allowed to speak out and we are not going to risk death and we should make the most of that.
I remember the visual of the gentleman there on Tiananmen Square and there is a tank driving down the road and there is the one person – the one protester who stands up against the tank. He is standing there and here comes the tank – and he was standing there, a peaceful protestor, was not going to move, willing to get run over. I think the outcome was that people had to come and like push him out of the way. But there he was willing to make this stand based on a conviction. I think here in America we should be willing to make a stand, hold a sign, go to the public square, the Capitol, the City Council, wherever, and let our voice be heard. Because we have an opportunity here – to whom much is given, much is expected – we have an opportunity here and what happens to America affects the entire world. God has given us abundance and blessing so that we can preach the gospel to the nations, so that we can disciple the nations. If we let that go – what God has given us – it will affect the entire world.
I think it is amazing – you know the Barrett’s brought in the speaker from Russia who lives here now – but God called him to be a missionary here in America. That should shame us that foreign countries are now sending missionaries to America. The Church of America is asleep in the light and we have got to wake up. We have absolutely GOT to wake up!
 
Mercy Hope: Amen. What is the Lord speaking to you right now? What do you feel like He is leading you into as your “next level”?
 
Brandi Swindell: One of the things that God has really put on my heart very strongly is that we, the Church, really begin to pray that the purpose of the Saints be fulfilled. That was very specific from God that He has just put on my heart. So, I have been praying and I’ve been incorporating that into my activism. Exactly what does that mean? I think that God is stirring His Church and there is a remnant of people that are starting to wake up and are going “Oh, OK, something is going on…we better do something” because in 30 years it is not going to be the same America. We are going to be prohibited from preaching the Word of God, we are going to be prevented from reaching out to the homeless…
 
I mean, they allow abortion! This is the thing that people don’t want to get. They allow abortion. They allow innocent children to be killed in the womb. What makes us think that when they come to our door and force us to turn over our Bibles and admit that we are Christians and renounce our faith that the Church is going to do anything? Every time we just keep stepping back. Every time we just say, “OK, OK!” We just keep stepping back. So, we need to pray that the purpose of the Saints be fulfilled because I think God has put a call on the Church worldwide and specifically here in our nation. There are those who are getting it, who are staring to get more actively involved. Satan is going to do whatever he can to prevent the purpose of the Saints and I think one of the ways he is doing that is through corrupting justice, through corrupting the judicial system. As a result there are orders that are coming out that are unfair rulings that are discriminatory against Christians. So, we have to pay attention now to who we are getting elected, to what judges are getting elected, what public officials are getting elected that are going to appoint judges. We really have to focus on what is happening to the men in robes, because if you look in the Scripture, mercy and justice are always together-- in the Old Testament and the New Testament, they are always together. So, if we see justice corrupted, how can there be mercy? That is part of the purpose of the Saints, to reach out with mercy and compassion and love, and if the justice is corrupted, then how do you do that?
 
The life of Terri Schiavo has inspired me. God put the eyes of the world on Terri and people started talking about these life issues and about judicial activism. Hopefully it will serve as a wake-up call! Seeing the situation with Terri Schiavo and just seeing how bad it has gotten has certainly it has energized me to do as much as I can for this short time that I am here on earth. I want to make the most of every opportunity. I want to be that true living sacrifice, and its not mine – God doesn’t need us – we talked about this at the Conference! God will use whomever He wants to, whenever He wants to, however He wants to. It is very important that we keep our heart right before God, because He needs to be able to mold us so that His purpose can be fulfilled.
My desire is to see many other people like me, and like you, Mercy, and like Elysse – that are taking a stand in the public square, that are not afraid, that have the heart and desire to make a difference, that want to reach out to our brothers and sisters, and to preach the Word of God. So, we need to make more of us – we need to pass on what God has given us and revealed to us, even though sometimes we don’t want to see how bad the world is. But we need to accept that. We need to take up our cross, and we need to encourage others to do the same thing. What God has revealed to us, we need to spread, we need to preach, we need to tell, and we need to get more and more people involved.
 
Mercy Hope: I’d like you talk a little bit about the issue that you referred to earlier with Keith Green’s song, “Asleep in the Light.” His wife, Melody Green, once said something to the effect of “God is tired of fighting His battles with only half His army,” and what she was talking about is the women. Now, I would alter that a little bit, because I think He is fighting it with about one percent, because I don’t see that many men engaged in the battle either. But, my point is that I think a lot of women feel either lethargic or maybe inadequate. What would you say to those who are struggling with that?
 
Brandi Swindell: I’m so glad you asked that question. That is a really important question. Obviously, being a woman and a Christian, and single it is kind of like, “OK, where do I fit?” Because I know that the biggest promotion we can do is motherhood. When a woman gets married and gets pregnant, I always say, “Oh, you’ve been promoted – that is so cool!” What an amazing thing that God allows women to raise up children and so that is a wonderful thing. But, when we are in a position that we are not having kids, we wonder where do we fit? Generally, God certainly has called men and women to do certain thing and there is a structure set up, which I support wholly, but if you look in the Bible, there is a number of empowered women. What is so great, that I love to think about, is that it is the same Holy Spirit that empowers women that empowers men, so God can work through either gender – even though in Scripture He has set up the differences. And as we embrace the differences in one another, that’s how we make the most of our own gender. To be truly empowered women, we need to understand the strength in men, and to be a truly empowered man, they need to understand the strength in women.
 
If you look in Scripture, you can look at Deborah, you can look at all these different empowered women, but who I like to look at is Zelophehad’s daughters in the Old Testament. Tirzah is the woman (daughter) that I usually identify with most, but what is interesting is that there is 4 or 5 sisters and no brothers and when a landowner passed away in the Old Testament, the property went to the sons, never to the daughters. Well, he had no sons, he only had daughters. So, when he died, the land was going to have to be given away to a man, because men were the landowners. So, Tirzah and her sisters went “Wait a second. That is so not cool…that is totally not fair!” So they go and petition Moses. They said look, “We deserve to be landowners. There is nothing wrong with that. So Moses says, “OK, I’ll go see what God says.” Moses asked God and God just says, “Let them have the land.” For the first time in history, these women became landowners, which was HUGE. That never happened before. And as a result these women were counted as – I don’t know if you would say equals - but they were counted, their heads were counted. Whereas, before only the men were counted. What is interesting about that story is not that women were oppressed by not being able to own land, but that God recognized that the women could be empowered – that they could be landowners. God said, yes, this is OK. You will hear modern-day feminists that have it all backwards. They say that religion, specifically Christianity, oppresses women and suppresses women. If you look throughout history, throughout different religions, Christianity is the one that liberates women the most and where women are treated the best. So, it is like “give me a break.” But even more importantly in that story it reveals God’s heart that He respected and valued the authority and the responsibility that a woman could have. And what was so neat is that those women had to have the confidence and the humility to make this request. So, I use that story as an example for my own life – even though generally you maybe don’t see a woman in leadership, or doing what I am doing now. There is a lot more – look at CWA and some of the others, you can really see where women can make a difference. And sometimes it is a little hard for some of the men to get used to, but I believe God grants us the authority to make a difference while respecting the proper establishment that God has created between a man and a woman. We need to have the courage and humility and the right attitude. You know what else I love about that story is that Tirzah and her sisters? They were like the original feminists – which it’s become like a bad word – and it makes me so mad because even the feminists during the suffragette movement, a lot of them were Christians. You can debate that issue on really where was their heart. However, a lot of them were Christians. Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Stanton Caddy were pro-life. They knew abortion was barbaric.
 
So, if we do things as women with grace and with dignity and with poise, and we accept that God can commission us and that we are empowered only because of the Holy Spirit, then we can make a big difference – we can make a huge difference. I think that God is calling women to dance upon injustice. I think that God is really raising up a generation of women and I think part of that might be because if you look at the situation with Tirzah – there were no men to receive the inheritance. And, I wonder if today, are there not enough men to receive the inheritance of God that now more women are having to be raised up to make a difference?
 

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