Dismissed

School has barely started and already three shootings have occurred around the country. In Bailey, CO, an adult gunman entered a high school, barricaded himself in with several girls, and then proceeded to abuse and kill them before taking his own life. Less then a week later on the other side of the country, another adult male entered an Amish classroom, dismissed the boys, and tied up and killed several of the young girls. Both of these acts of violence specifically targeted young girls.

One thing noticeably lacking in all the discussion on school shootings is an analysis on why these shootings targeted women specifically....

Until we view both women and men as intrinsically worthy and able, our culture will continue to foster a view of women as objects of pleasure and men as sexual animals. The Christian community is in no way isolated from this erroneous conceptualization of women. Books like Captivating are so destructive for exactly this reason—they teach young girls that their beauty is what is ravishing, and not any other aspect of the self. As Christians, we need to heal the broken relationship between women and men by redeeming the personhood of each.

[via The CBE Scroll]