God

Loves Girls and Women

By Jane Gilgun

od loves girls and women. God loves girls and women who are think they are bad and unworthy of care and respect. God loves girls and women who do not have the same opportunities as boys and men, such as becoming presidents of countries, heads of schools, corporate executives, and priests, deacons, and popes. God loves girls and women whose parents have died, abandoned them, and who have done hurtful things to them. God loves girls and women who are survivors of child sexual abuse and rape, girls and women who survive physical, emotional, and verbal abuse, girls and women who dont have access to the same opportunities as boys and men, girls and women who do not have boyfriends or husbands, girls and women who bleed every month, women who do not have children, girls who have children, girls and women who are lame, deaf, blind, and physically disfigured, poor girls and women, girls and women who cant afford new clothes, women who drive battered old cars, women and girls who live in poor crime-ridden neighborhoods. God loves girls and women some people call niggers and whores. God loves girls and women some people call chinks, Japs, and dagos. God loves us all. God is not social customs and institutions that allow boys and men more opportunities than women and girls. God is not social customs that see men and not women as presidents of countries, heads of schools and corporations, and do not permit women to be priests, deacons, and pope. God is not social customs that allow men to rape, molest, beat, verbally and emotionally abuse girls and women, and to control their reproductive health choices. God is not social customs that view menstruation and womens bodies in general as dirty and disgusting. Social customs that hurt women are not Gods doing. They are man made. How do we know God loves us? Think of the feelings and desires that you experience inside yourself. Do you feel pulled toward things that make you feel good? A sunrise? A sunset? A full moon? Birds in flight? Playful kittens? Cute

puppies? Newborn foals? Music? Paintings? A good movie? The presence of someone you love? How about something you enjoy doing? Do you seek opportunities to do things you like? Photography? Dancing? Learning a new skill? Do you feel good when you do something for someone else? When someone does something for you? When you take good care of yourself? Enjoy the company of people you love? This is God. God appears in so many different ways its probably impossible to catalogue them all. God is bigger than our ideas about God, but when we experience God we have a sense of who and what God is. Did you ever feel a yearning for something? Do you ever feel as if something is missing in your life? Then, sometimes suddenly, you feel a sense of well-being, that everything is all right? That is God. God seeks us out. We seek God. Mostly we find God in concrete things, such as those I listed above. Sometimes we experience God or a sense of well-being through yoga, meditation, prayer, and after a good sleep. We are drawn toward God whether we realize it or not. We are like plants that grow toward the light. God is the light. God is life. God is good. God is love. God loves all living beings. God is in all living beings because all living beings have life. Some girls and women have trouble believing God loves them. That is because man- made institutions like religious and social customs have told them they are unworthy and thus unlovable. They believe that God does not like girls and women. They may not realize they believe this, but if they dig deep enough they may find that they do believe this. Fortunately, God does not pay any attention to these beliefs. God keeps on loving girls and women. We keep on responding, sometimes imperfectly, but we do respond. God is life and light and love. We respond to life and light and love. That is how we are made. God is goodness. God is in us. We are good. God loves girls and women. Girls and women love God. P.S. God loves boys and men, too. Some of them have trouble believing God loves them, usually because they have not lived up to man-made expectations of what men are supposed to be. Men and boys require their own article that focuses on them. Girls require their own article because in important ways social customs treat us differently from boys and men. Girls and women benefit when the focus is on issues that are specific to them. Girls and women have lots of reasons to believe that God does not love them because they are girls and women. They start believing this when they are too young to sort out the differences between Gods love and the lack

of love they often experience from social customs and beliefs about women and girls. About the Author Jane F. Gilgun, PhD, LICSW, is a professor and writer. I recently realized that at seven years old I began to believe that God did not love me after a nun told my religious instruction class that there are seven sacraments: seven are for boys and six are for girls. I was too young to sort out that church polices are not Gods policies. That I could not be a priest meant I as a girl was unworthy. Many subsequent experiences confirmed my sense that the church doesnt like girls and women. I now know that God loves girls and women no matter their status. That includes me.