Look, I know it's all the rage to be disgusted with women's Bible studies and roll our eyes at whoever the
stupid women are who read them and mope over why SOMEBODY thinks
women are so dumb and doesn't pay US lots and lots of money to write
GOOD women's Bible studies instead. Yes, yes, dears. We're all very
smart.
But get real: I know very few (no?)
women of any intelligence, education, or field of interest who don't
enjoy hearing about other women's lives and judging them. Quit faking,
read some stories about other women, and judge away. You know you'll
like it. You can do it with
this book by
Katie Schuermann.
Careful, though.
Pew Sisters will make
you mad. You will want to know how,
freaking exactly and I'm talking
mechanics here, Marianne forgave. You will trip on how things worked
out for Diedre. You, you Concordian Sister of Perpetual Parturition*, will wonder if Anna could really be that tired if she wasn't
even nursing and how Claire's situation could possibly turn out that
way under those circumstances. You will wonder if Emily's story ever
really happens or if that's just a weird Lutheran fantasy. Your
ongoing Mary/Martha problem still won't be solved by this book,
darnit! Why is Julia OK and Faye not (or are they)? What ended up
happening to Christine, for crying out loud, and what about poor
Laura? Why the easy answer here and the hard one there? What kind of
sick freak wrote this? (A Lutheran, of course. Nobody else ever likes
us. :D )
Here's the other problem with Pew
Sisters: it is not really going to feel sorry for you. It is going to stick
your nose in suffering and say, "What are you going to do about
it, sinner?" So what are you going to do about it? We sin.
That's why rotten things happen, and that's why the message of the
cross is neither baby food nor boring. Hear it again, sinner. You
suffer because you sin. Jesus suffered without sin to end your
suffering. If that message is beneath you, you're above God.
My recommendation: read this with some
sisters. I don't mean your friends from class, because they're not
your sisters (sisters are rarely the same age). Read it with your pew
sisters, the ones who call the same guy pastor and the same church
home. Do what the author says: call that pastor and have him speak
from Scripture to the questions this book is going to bring up**. Judge
and be judged, and be reminded again of real justice, the supreme
beauty of grace, and to whom such things belong.
*Full disclosure is that if you give
someone this book, they might suspect you of ulterior motives when
they get to Gabriella. On the other hand, you're a real person too.
**It will still be a women's Bible study with a pastor there. Do your girl talking first and schedule him to come in 45 minutes after your start time.
