I’ve been in Orlando since Sunday afternoon with my assistant editor, Julie. We’re attending the national meeting of the Evangelical Press Association. Monday I taught a workshop on editing. Tuesday I taught on storytelling for fiction writers and learned that Kindred Spirit won an award in three categories: poetry, interview (of Dr. Dwight Pentecost by Karen Giesen), and “photo in a controlled setting.”

As members of the press, we got free passes to Disney World for the few hours of free time we had. Julie had never been, and it was a blast to hang out with her. We rode the monorail over, caught a 3-D show, did Space Mountain, It’s a Small World, the Haunted Mansion, and a crazy “Stitch” show. We checked out the gorgeous mosaic in Cinderella’s Castle, rode the mini-monorail over Tomorrowland, and watched the fireworks. Then we caught the boat back. In the five hours we had, we danced in the streets, sang “When You Wish Upon a Star,” and had the kind of time everyone should have in a kingdom called “Magic.”

Today I was elected to the board of the EPA. And tonight we had front row seats to hear Carolyn Custis James. Carolyn wrote several of my favorite books including Lost Women of the Bible. Her husband is the president of Reformed Theological Seminary. Afterward they stood out in the hall with Julie and me and talked for a long time. Dr. Frank James, who holds a D. Phil. from Oxford University (Church History), mentioned that until about the 1600s much of the church did not view woman as made in God’s image. He said we have made some big mistakes in the past and “we need to confess them. Christians are people of truth.” I suspect Dan Brown’s fabrication of the Jesus-was-married-to-Mary-M myth would have a lot less appeal if we would admit, “You know what? The church should have always viewed women as image bearers” and equal partners in what Carolyn refers to as “the blessed alliance.”

God made mankind in his image—male and female He created them (Gen. 1:26–27), and “It is not good for man to be alone” (2:18).