DAY 35 GFA Challenge. Oppressed because they were born women

Looking for a movie to show at church? One that’s filled with all sorts of things that we don’t want to think about or talk about in church? Sounds counter-intuitive, but there are some things that need to be talked about, and things like sex trafficking, bride burnings and girl infanticide are among them. No this isn’t the latest Hollywood movie, it’s been around for a few years so it’s not going to be on the list of Oscar nominations.

             

   I’m talking about Gospel for Asia’s film “Veil of Tears”.  The movie points to a society that oppresses women, oppresses them simply because they’re women.  The horrors described in this film shouldn’t be happening, but they are, and silence on the part of the church is a sign that we don’t care, and to those who are experiencing this oppression and who don’t know about the love of God, our silence is seen not as apathy but as approval.

                We don’t want to hear about this type of crime, and we certainly don’t want to talk about it, but crime against women happens. A family arranges a marriage for their daughter. The dowry is agreed upon and paid, but then instead of ‘happily ever after’ the groom’s family decides that the dowry isn’t enough and demands more. If the demands aren’t met, the bride is abused, tortured, even sold into slavery so that she can make up the difference. And the groom keeps the dowry. Serial engagements and dowry payments are a lucrative way to make a living.

                Girls might be seen as a drain on the family income, and so they can be sold or bartered away. Sometimes they are just left to die, and in this day of modern medicine which allows us to tell the gender of an unborn baby, lots of abortion decisions are made based on that one factor.

                We can ignore what is happening, and shut out the conversation, or we can step up and face the crisis, and in doing so bring hope to millions of women who are suffering because of their crime of being born female.

                Yes, it might seem like an overwhelming problem, and we wonder what one person might be able to do. The good news is that Gospel for Asia is already on the ground, sharing the GOOD NEWS, and there are ways that individuals, families, and faith communities can help.  Start by watching “VEIL OF TEARS, and then go HERE for some suggestions as to how you can help. (And by the way,  you can help even before you’ve seen the movie.)