Women on the Threshold: Voices of Salvadoran Baptist Women.

Wright, James A., Jr.

By Kathleen Hayes. Macon: Smyth and Helwys Publishing, Inc., 1996. 134 pp.

Women on the Threshold describes the developing feminist movement in El Salvador, particularly among Baptist women. Everything in the book is presented from the perspective of a North American woman totally committed to the feminist movement in its North American manifestation. In chapter 2, Hayes says, "I do not mean to exclude other women's realities or to impose my white, middle-class values on Latin American women" (p. 8), but she proceeds to do exactly that. She has little patience with Salvadoran women who think differently than she does, who do not see themselves as oppressed, or who voluntarily submit to the authority of their husbands or other males.

She ridicules those who go along with traditional patterns. "But look at what a self-sacrificing, stupid mother she is" (p. 33). The word "stupid" (Spanish estupida) is much stronger in Spanish than in English, and in Central America is considered too offensive to be used in polite conversation. Any Salvadoran reading the book would be offended by the use of that word.

Hayes oversimplifies complex issues of Salvadoran culture and society because of her limited understanding as an outsider. Whether writing about assassinations during the civil war or the internal problems of churches or the denomination, she assumes all problems are the result of the failure of someone to recognize the claims of feminists.

Hayes embraces without questioning the theology of liberation and seems to disdain Baptists who do not also embrace it wholeheartedly. Many Latin American Christians believe that liberation theology is a thinly-disguised effort to present Marxist ideology by using a Christian vocabulary to make it more palatable to Christians who would otherwise oppose communism or to make the Roman Catholic Church appear to be the liberator rather than the oppressor

She seems especially upset that in Latin America God is thought of in strictly masculine terms, a fact that she ascribes in part to the grammar of the Spanish language. She says a lot about "the feminine side of God" (p. 95). She seems at times to assert that God is neither male nor female and at others that He is both male and female.

The book is an oversimplification of its subject that shows only a superficial understanding of all the issues involved. The author is intolerant of any other points of view, but does offer insight into her own thinking. Her understanding of her subject is limited by her being an outsider to the culture of El Salvador in spite of her obvious knowledge of the Spanish language.--Reviewed by James A. Wright Jr., pastor, Primera Iglesia Bautista, Sanford, North Carolina.