Editor’s Reflections -- By: William David Spencer

Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 25:3 (Summer 2011)
Article: Editor’s Reflections
Author: William David Spencer


Editor’s Reflections

William David Spencer

Christians for Biblical Equality’s founder, Catherine Clark Kroeger, was one of the most amazing people I have ever met. She defined the words “can do.”

She was a pioneer woman, a globally renowned statesperson who made things happen; for Cathie, to think was to do. I have always contended that her contributions in their international impact will be among the most significant to emerge from our generation: she started two absolutely essential organizations that are changing the world—Christians for Biblical Equality (CBE) and Peace and Safety in the Christian Home (PASCH)—both aimed at bettering the lot of whole people groups oppressed for reasons of gender or vulnerability. But her compassion also extended and particularized to individuals. She reared dozens of foster children, along with her own, while enriching every life she touched, including mine. Countless people consider Cathie one of their dearest friends—my wife and me included.

Months would go by as all of us worked intensely in our own spheres of ministry, and then, with one phone call from Cathie, there was instant rapport, as if no time at all had passed. To be in Cathie’s presence was to have one’s vision instantly expanded. She was alive to countless areas of need, and she seemed to have an idea about how to fix everything, because everything seemed to be of interest and importance to her.

I remember once walking with her and a group of Gordon-Conwell faculty, spouses, and children in Ephesus. Looking over at a weather-beaten slab of stone, I muttered, “Hmmm, I think there might be writing on that.” “Let’s see,” Cathie said, peering over an intervening wall. “Why, yes, that’s a funeral inscription for a woman—and, oh, she was a bad girl. Oh, my, look at that …” and she rattled off a translation. Cathie with her trained eye deciphered out the eroded letters and spent the rest of the stroll reading out loud every sign and inscription all the way up the street.

Cathie’s knowledge of Greek was formidable and legendary among those who knew her. Her authoritative work on “head,” her classic book I Suffer Not a Woman, her many other articles and books, each of which is excellent, are but a small sampling of her overall knowledge. Teaching her classes without notes, she seemed to be able to answer any question by pulling information about any New Testament or classical issue out of her memory, which is reported to have been photographic. She not only seemed to know everything about her subject matter, but she also seemed to be everywhere.

One weekend, my wife, Aída, and I came in to do some teaching at her church. Cathie wasn’t there. She flew in that night, bustled down to breakfast, announced, “I have to go,�...

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