There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28

Recently, I've been in correspondence with a fellow who thinks all religions are pretty much alike.

They're not.

That truth was brought home to me by a news story carried recently by CNN. The story told of how 16 Afghan girls were recovering at a hospital after they lost consciousness during school.

Reports agreed that the girls had been poisoned.

It is not an isolated incident. All told 88 students and teachers have been poisoned in numerous incidents in the last months.

The chief culprit in these cases seems to be the Taliban. For those of you who don't know, the Taliban is a fundamentalist Islamic organization which believes, among other things, that girls shouldn't be educated. They appear to have adopted poisoning as their means to discourage girls from any kind of serious learning experience.

Now there are those who say St. Paul was a bit on the chauvinistic side himself. I don't know anything about that. I do know that Paul, under the Holy Spirit's direction, was inspired to write that there are no differences between male and female.

St. Paul, like all Christian leaders who are faithful to Scripture, believed we are all one in Christ Jesus.

We are all sinners; we are all souls for whom the Savior died; we are all able to be called and given faith by the Holy Spirit. No difference.

This is something I'm going to share with my correspondent friend, and it's something we need to share with all our children.

We need to let them know that each of them was loved by Jesus. They were loved enough. They were considered valuable enough that He came to this world to give Himself so they might be saved.

This makes each of them and the Savior, most valuable, indeed.

THE PRAYER: Dear Heavenly Father, male or female, there is no worthiness in us. Even so, You sent Your Son to seek and save the lost. That means lost women as well as lost men. I pray You will give watch over these Afghan girls. Keep them safe physically and spiritually. If it be possible, let them learn to believe, as we believe, that Jesus loves them and has valued them. In the Savior's Name. Amen.

In Christ I remain His servant and yours,

Today's Bible Readings: Song 6-8    Acts 7:22-43

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