PARKER: If you don't know what a woman is, here's somebody to ask

When Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson took her seat in the U.S. Senate hearing chamber on March 22nd, 2022, it’s doubtful she had any idea that she was about to participate in one of the most revealing exchanges of the past 500 years. It began with a question from Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn. “Can you provide a definition for the word ‘woman?" Blackburn asked. It seems fair to say that listeners were shocked by Jackson’s answer. “I can’t,” Jackson replied. “You can’t?” Blackburn queried. “Not in this context,” Jackson said, “I’m not a biologist.”We know why Senator Blackburn asked the question. The week before Brown’s hearing a biological male calling himself Lia Thomas had been allowed to compete against women in the NCAA swimming championships, and people around the world, including Canadians, were wondering how such a thing could happen.Now, in a clear example of the classic expression, “Cometh the hour, cometh the man,” native Indian Christian philosopher Vishal Mangalwadi has stepped forward to explain. Mangalwadi, author of more than 20 books, including The Book that Made Your World, and The Book that Changed Everything, discovered in university that the Bible, not the Renaissance, had inspired the rise of the West above all other cultures in history. He also discovered that beginning in the early 19th century, the Bible had brought vast benefits to India.Interestingly enough, Mangalwadi thinks he understands why Jackson couldn’t define “woman.” She no longer believed in God or His word, and therefore no longer understood her own existence. In one of his earliest books, Mangalwadi made the claim that until the Bible arrived in India, “The plight of the Indian woman (or for that matter, the predicament of an untouchable man) was rooted in a lack of understanding of what a human being is — whether male or female... for the Indian mind-set (formed by notions of reincarnation) makes us no more valuable than animals.”If the implications of this statement aren’t obvious, then let me follow with this quote, also from Mangalwadi: “For the sake of the future of human civilization it is immensely important to recover, in our day, the truth that an objective physical and moral universe exists (independently of our perception; that God is its Author; that He, ultimately, defines it and gives it value and meaning; and that we have to abide by His Word irrespective of how we feel.” In other words, we are male or female because God has made us one or the other as expressed by our physical makeup. Feels have nothing to do with it.By now you are probably asking yourself, “Why am I being plied with sample quotes from the oeuvre of a Christian/Indian thinker I’ve never heard of before?” And I reply, “Because this man you’ve never heard of, but who has earned the moniker, “Christianity’s most able global thinker,” is coming to Calgary this year—twice! And when he arrives to speak on June 2, 6:30 p.m. at the Glenmore Inn, admission will be free to anyone who clicks here to register for the limited seating still available. Mangalwadi will return this October 17, 2024 as the keynote speaker for the 56th Annual Calgary Leadership Prayer Breakfast, to be held this year at the Telus Convention Centre.This man, who along with his wife Ruth, has laboured at great risk among India’s poorest, and who has not been afraid to get personally involved in India’s chaotic political world, has a word for those who constantly declare their love for democracy while spurning the Word of God. First, he demonstrates from history that going all the way back to pre-Christian Greece, every attempt at democratic government failed. Within decades they descended into mob rule and were eventually replaced with various forms of tyranny.But something changed with the Reformation, (usually dated from 1517.) “The biblical tradition rediscovered during the Reformation viewed theocracy and democracy as necessary complements,” Mangalwadi writes, “human rule flowed from God’s rule.” He goes on to say, “In a radical overturning of the notion of the divine rights of kings or popes, [the Reformation] affirmed the supremacy of the ‘voice of the people’ rooted in the Word of God. People could hear, understand, and articulate God’s voice because they now had God’s Word in their hands, in their own language. The Bible thus transformed medieval theocracy into modern democracy in a manner that served the people, served justice, and was eminently practical.”It goes without saying, but I’m going to say it anyway. Unless Canada and the West return to the Bible, and the God of the Bible, all protestations of love for democracy are mere pretexts for the inevitable return of despotism—probably faster than anyone can imagine.