Marching For What?
All that remains from last week’s marching women (and men) are their discarded signs. The streets and parks were left littered as the protesters returned back home to their secure lives in the suburbs and cities of America.
After participating many gave testimonials of empowerment on social media. Last Saturday’s “Women’s Marches” across the USA and in several other western countries were seen by militant feminists and anti-Trump demonstrators as a huge achievement. They declared: “We want to send a message!” It was a loud message of defiance against the new administration and what they feared to be its agenda. It was a confusing collection of protests against assumed assaults of our human rights at best and in many cases intentionally crude.
Poking out from the soft pink sea of hats I read some of the brow-raising signs that were more appropriate for a reproductive biology class than a civil demonstration. As I followed the scenes of crowds from our cities to around the world, I wondered if I had missed something? What motivated such resentment against a one-day-old, newly inaugurated president?
These disoriented and emotional faces were joined by the crème de la crème of Hollywood: Madonna, Ashley Judd and Chelsea Handler. They and others added their voices to the vilification of President Trump. Taking turns at the mic, they did their best to whip the crowds into a new level of emotional excitement and rage. There were slurs and chants. There were declarations of violence. I wondered if these actors were performing a part or if they actually believed the rhetoric they were spitting out? After all, these self-identified “nasty women” had prospered and achieved personal success due to the freedoms and rights we equally enjoy in America.
Where were the marchers after April 15, 2014 when nearly 300 school girls were kidnapped in Nigeria by an Islamist terror group Boko Haram? Why wasn’t there national outrage and solidarity after December 2, 2015 when a ‘very religious’ Muslim shot up his coworkers’ Christmas party with his wife, leaving fourteen Americans dead in California? Why weren’t there protests against Islamic extremists when forty-nine people at a gay nightclub in Florida were massacred on June 13, 2016? Why no call for global “Women’s Marches” after the attack that left 86 people dead and over 400 injured on July 14, 2016 in Nice, France? There have been causes to champion and injustices to decry, but the “Women’s March” waited to stomp out the day after Trump became president.
In our media-fueled and emotional delusion of losing our rights here in the USA under a Republican president, we have forgotten about the millions of women who do live under constant threat of female genital mutilation, are forced into being child brides, suffer death from honor-killings, are stoned to death as rape victims, and endure mass sexual assault (Cologne, Germany on December 31, 2015). Last Saturday, I saw a woman, surrounded by other western women in Berlin, chanting that infamous Muslim cry of “Allahu Akbar” into a bull horn. What are we, in the West, fighting for? There are zero rights for women who live daily under Sharia Law! Those that need real liberation didn’t dare march on Saturday or any day. Doing so would invite a death sentence.
Why such anger in America and other Western countries where women already have equal rights under the law? Women and girls are encouraged and enabled to go to school, to get a job and achieve personal success even at the high cost of delaying marriage or having a family of their own. If “women’s rights” were the issue, then the criticism should be directed towards the greatest offenders. You can’t call Trump’s Access Hollywood, off-mic conversation any more lewd or disrespectful than the lyrics to Beyoncé’s or Jay Z’s popular music that was blasted on stage during Hillary Clinton’s campaign stops. Crudeness bleeds into both political parties.
The answer is simple. This movement is a direct response to Hillary losing the election on November 8th of last year. Many women voted. Individually, we made our voices heard inside the voting booth. The women who choose to march on Saturday, demonstrate an incredible lack of understanding about how American government works and they seem to have forgotten about the principles our nation was built on. Getting together to march might make for a satisfying photo-op or political hash-tag, but understanding how to bring about change involves real understanding and timely action.
I am so thankful to live in the United States of America. Our nation was founded on the principal of individual liberty and freedom. Collectively, we understood that the author of our individual liberties is God, our Creator. It’s unfortunate that most liberals today have forgotten the God-Liberty connection. Our nation’s 2nd President, John Adams said: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
Even with an elementary school level working knowledge of our history, we can be confident and assured that America is the safest place to live for any woman. I was grateful for the privilege of living in America under president Obama’s administration. Today, I’m still grateful to live here under President Trump’s administration.
The Declaration of Independence (1776) states clearly: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” The Constitution of the United States (1787) holds to principles that include checks and balances, individual rights, liberty and limited government. The Bill of Rights (1791) and the I Amendment clearly guarantee freedoms concerning religion, expression, peaceable assembly, and the right to petition. These freedoms don’t promise your candidate will win. We have freedom, the question is, will we deserve to keep it?
As a Christian, U.S. citizen, wife and mother, who has lived outside of America for 14 years, the Bible gives me comfort when anxiety and uncertainties arise. We aren’t promised a trouble-free life. I didn’t vote for president Obama yet I survived eight years. I didn’t agree with Obama’s way of governing or how my country changed, but I didn’t find hope in a protest march or a vulgar rant. My hopes were and are securely grounded in the promises of my Savior’s own words: These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world (John 16:33).
Our ultimate purpose in life has never been to change the political systems of the world. No candidate will save us; our champion doesn’t live in the White House.
We are called strangers and pilgrims in Hebrews 11:13. Last week we witnessed what Paul talked about in Ephesians 4:18–19 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. We are not called to change this world; it’s marching to hell and to eternal destruction. We are called, out of the world, in order to point to the One who can change the hearts and eternal destinies of souls. May we run the race with endurance, hope and grateful hearts looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2a)!
This article was written by Karin (Ruhkala) Sicoli, an alumni of The Master’s University (’98). If you have a story to share and would like to write for Master’s U, contact Sabrina Michael at smichael@masters.edu.
