I wondered last night if we (the universal “we”) managed to stop the toxic global exploitation of women and girls; if all other world problems might be solved as well? Way too simplistic eh? Well, at least it’s relevant today as GFC makes a major shift to include all women and men in every level of leadership.
mcb nicaragua 2007
There may be no more significant measurement and indicator of our global troubles than the state of women and especially girls around the world. Every day, one or another lead stories (like this in the Washington Post) feature over and over again history’s (ongoing history, not just recent) greatest scandal within an evolved [sic] world.
Any nation’s degree of civilization and nobility may be measured by how women and girls are thriving or failing to thrive. And lest you think this thought somehow sexist in its focus, let me refocus for a moment. There remains a peculiar duality in our faith which asserts that at the nearly the same moment in Creation (Gen. 2:18) where woman rescued man from the “not good” of aloneness; she was then made subject in the Fall to the rule of man, because of sin. (Gen. 3:16b). Creation brought whole and healthy relationship: sin brought exploitative dominance and abuse.
To this day, girls disproportionately find themselves subject to the worst offenses of a broken world. Abandoned, sold or stolen; pre-pubescent girls around the world are increasingly found in the role of maid, prostitute, slave, and whipping post, in a staggering volcano of statistical lava that burns through every notion we might have of how great and noble we are. This silent holocaust proceeds without much other than commentary, because we 1. are so very accustomed to it, and 2. have forgotten how to be great and noble.
The International Justice Mission reports…
- The total market value of illicit human trafficking is estimated to be in excess of $32 billion.
- Each year, more than 2 million children are exploited in the global commercial sex trade.
- 27 million men, women and children are held as slaves. Most are female.
- 1 in 5 women is a victim of rape or attempted rape in her lifetime.
Sounds like a holocaust to me…and I do believe the Church must be one of the loudest voices shouting, “Stop!” Over and over again, until it stops. Simply put, no human culture can grow up to be great until its most significant and vulnerable people are embraced, nurtured and ennobled. As long as girls and women are excessively subjected to the greatest of our evil impulses, we will always find ourselves exhausted and defeated as a society. What if we put a stop to it – just because we should? Maybe everything else would fall in line…
I guess this is too simplistic eh?
- Bob
