This book which was written in 1975, a time in the churches of Christ when ultra legalism and extreme restrictions on all females in general were the rule, examines the rights of girls to express their prayers in the presence of boys in the youth devotional, family devotional, and other informal meetings and challenges the traditional thought and practices related to teenage girls in the youth devotional. James Casey was an elder in the Church of Christ, who maintained his fairly traditional Church of Christ views regarding women in leadership and silence in the worship, yet stepped out of that traditional thinking to defend the right of girls to lead prayer in the presence of teenage boys in the home, youth devotionals, and informal meetings. It is a book that has an overall theme of gender inclusiveness in the youth programs at a time when gender inclusiveness was just not talked about. At the time of publication, Casey was at least 25 years ahead of current thought on this subject. Open discussion has increased over the years since the book was published but there are still huge restrictions on the teenage girls of today being able to audibly pray or lead a prayer in the presence of a boy who has been baptized. Bro. Casey takes a thorough look at this problem from 1975 and the principles are still applicable today. This book should be a must read for parents, elders, preachers, youth ministers, deacons and teens. Jim Hackney, the present minister for the Heritage Church of Christ, located in Ft. Worth, Texas, wrote the forward for this book when it was published.
At the present time, this book is out of print. A limited number of remaining new copies will be offered for sale through this web site in the near future by Bro. Casey's wife, June. The proceeds of the sale will go to the Casey family in their entirety. However, in order to make it available in the future after the present remaining copies have been sold, June has given me permission to make it available free of charge in pdf to anyone who would like to download and read it. If you would like an original copy for your library, the information on how to order the book should be available on this page sometime in the next month. For anyone who is interested in gender inclusiveness in the Church of Christ, especially regarding teenage females, this little book is a piece of history that belongs in your library.
by James Casey