Both Sides of Liberty in Albania

This is something I did not see in Albania when I visited last month. The New York Times reports today (for some reason presenting it as "world news"):

Pashe Keqi recalled the day nearly 60 years ago when she decided to become a man. She chopped off her long black curls, traded in her dress for her father’s baggy trousers, armed herself with a hunting rifle and vowed to forsake marriage, children and sex.

What's the fuss? Women do this all the time in America. Ironically, it's called "feminism." (There! I've said it!) Hold on, There's more.

For centuries, in the closed-off and conservative society of rural northern Albania, swapping genders was considered a practical solution for a family with a shortage of men. Her father was killed in a blood feud, and there was no male heir. By custom, Ms. Keqi, now 78, took a vow of lifetime virginity. She lived as a man, the new patriarch, with all the swagger and trappings of male authority — including the obligation to avenge her father’s death.

So this custom represents not a confusion of the respective roles of men and women in the natural order of things, but a recognition and affirmation of them. Of course, like all things, the particular cultural expression of that natural order is twisted and perverted by sin. “Back then," says Keqi, "it was better to be a man because, before, a woman and an animal were considered the same thing.”

In the Bible itself, we see this twisting of the created order between Genesis 2 and Genesis 3. Eve is given to Adam as his "suitable helper" (Gen. 2:20 NIV) or "help meet" (KJV). Adam was to govern his home with a righteousness that mirrored the character of God himself (Gen. 1:26) in the larger enterprise of governing the creation (Gen. 1:28). Sin changed that beautiful moral economy. When announcing the curses on the serpent, then on Eve, and then on Adam (last, on account of his ultimate responsibility), God said, "Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you." God here announces the effect that sin will have on those previously godly relationships between the sexes.

By "desire," he does not refer to romantic attraction. In the next chapter, God uses the same Hebrew word when he warns Cain against sin that wishes to dominate him: "If you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it" (Gen. 4:7). Wives will want to dominate their husbands, and husbands, in their own particular perversity, will want to rule their wives brutally.

Again Miss Keqi: “Now, Albanian women have equal rights with men, and are even more powerful."

It seems that the Albanians, so eager to embrace American liberty, are following us also in exchanging one perversion for another in the relations between the sexes.

(To see the pictures of these female patriarchs, you have to go to the NYT story, "Albanian Custom Fades: Woman as Family Man.")

Liberty Growing In Albania

I am writing from Albania. I am here with Albania Venture 2008, a group of students from The King's College debating with students from the University of New York Tirana on the subjects on political, economic and spiritual liberty. Actually there has been no controversy on the first two topics. We are all in agreement. Ho hum, but good news for the future and liberty of Albania. On the the religious topics, there was heated debate, because they are all so spiritually indifferent.

The people here love America, they love freedom and want to see it institutionalized here. President Bush received a wildly enthusiastic reception here last summer. Monday, I addressed the small University of New York Tirana audience on the difference between politicians and statesmen. On Wednesday, I addressed a packed and hot auditorium on "Liberty and Moral Responsibility." (Dr. Alex Tokaraev also spoke on economic liberty.) This was a University of Tirana event sponsored by The Forum for Democracy and Ethics, an inter-party group that promotes integrity among the nation's political leaders. That night, I spoke at the New Life Institute, an Evangelical Christian group, on "The Problem and Promise of Religion in a Democracy." I presented the thesis that Christianity, as a faith, supports political liberty, whereas Islam, as a law, is hostile to liberty. As there were Muslims in the audience, that stirred up a lot of debate, but no one threatened me with death. This is Albania. (Dr. Harry Bleattler also spoke of the separation of church and state from a historical perspective.) Albania is 70% Muslim but the Islam here is almost entirely nominal and politically harmless.

It would be a mistake to think that the love for liberty and love for America in Albania translates into a healthy political system. The dominant political concern among the people with whom I have spoken is corruption in the government. When communism fell in 1991, The old guard simply abandoned their old colors and joined the Socialist Party and the Democratic Party. Hence, the penchant for corruption among those in power. There appears to be great hope in the younger generation, but only if they are not tempted by the old ways of corruption. Bret Schundler, the former mayor of Jersey City who successfully fought corruption in that city, is addressing that issue in various forums this week and is meeting with the mayor of Tirana, Edi Rama, this morning.