‘As the deer pants for streams of water so my soul pants for you, O God’. (Psalm 42:1)This week marked the ‘International Day of the Girl Child’ under the theme of ‘My Voice, Our Equal Future,’ commemorating 25 years since the adoption of the ‘Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action’ – the global agenda for advancing the rights and empowerment of women and girls everywhere. Although girls have been breaking barriers in those 25 years, there is still much to do: 130 million girls around the world do not have access to education, 1 in 5 girls globally has experienced sexual violence, and nearly 80% of new HIV infections in Eastern and Southern Africa are among girls.
As a Christian I believe God’s heart breaks for the injustice girls suffer. The Christian worldview is that humankind, both male and female, was created in God’s image (Genesis 1:7)
, that in living as a Christian there is to be no male/female discrimination (Galatians 3:28)
and that woman have the same glorious future as men (1 Peter 3:7)
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God loves all of humanity and treats men and women as equal. Just think what a difference it would make if our world did the same.
Have an egalitarian week,
Pastor Barry
