Treatment of these people has become a tradition, often a defining cornerstone of cultures and ideologies. And the perpetrators usually go free--as if they've done nothing wrong.

Who is this people group and what wrong have they done to deserve such treatment?

They are the girls and women of the world.

Their "sin:" being female.

Gender injustice is a cycle that begins before the child is even born. It festers in the family, incubating the disease of unequal treatment, destroying its members and spawning new generations that favor one sex over the other. The family, designed to teach the laws of love, is the number one training ground--not always for justice and encouragement as intended, but often for injustice and hatred. Many times, the family is no longer a safe place for children to know they are loved and to grow in understanding of themselves or the world.

The family is the first place where we are all trained. From infancy on, children learn from their surroundings and the people who are with them. The family is where we are at our best and our worst. It is a place to be discipled both by parents and through our relationships with each other. Family is governed by the law of love--by being patient and kind, trusting and pursuing the best for another over oneself.

But when love is absent or distorted, the family falls apart. No one can escape unscathed when the home collapses. The family is intended as an expression of love. Love is not to reject someone based on their gender; love does not assign people differing values. Such "love" destroys children. It leaves them with little on which to build their ethics or to make decisions. But love always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Always.