“Bring Back Our Girls” is the cry that has gone up since the Nigerian girls were kidnapped. These girls and the more than 65 million girls worldwide who are denied an education are our girls, they are the neighbors that Jesus calls us to love.
As participants in Women of the ELCA, we agree, among other things, to support one another in our callings and work for healing and wholeness in the church, society and the world.
Sisters, we must use every means at our disposal to bring back our girls, beginning with prayer. While we can and should join campaigns (like on change.org and Facebook) and encourage our government to help, we must also bring back our girls in our own communities. We need look no further than our own neighborhoods to find girls who need our support, girls who are beaten and abused, starved for food or love, trafficked or left for dead. We are called to bring back those girls, our girls. Jesus would have us do nothing less.
This message is adapted from “‘You should be home in the kitchen’ And other lies told to us,’” written by Linda Post Bushkofsky, for the Women of the ELCA blog, on May 12, 2014.