Who do you love enough to...?

I had the opportunity to listen to Cassandra Thomas, Houston Area Women's Center, speak to a crowd of hundreds in the opening session of the Annual Texas Association Against Sexual Assault conference. This strong woman has over 30 years of experience advocating for victims of sexual assault and rape, and this morning she reminded the audience that after 30 years of working in this field she sees a dire need for a movement to happen. We have become a field of work that is complacent in trying to end sexual violence and taken on a services agency mentality akin to social services.  This is a far cry from the feminist movement that began to speak out on violence against women in the late-1970s.

While she described how after 30 years our society still blames the victims of sexual violence rather than the perpetrators of violence, Thomas said something that resonated with me, "Who do you love enough to stop sexual assault from ever happening again in our country?" She names her own family members, and the desire to see a safe world for them to live in.

Change doesn't happen because people are "doing a job". Change happens because passionate people get righteously angry about something and become part of a movement. I want to see a world where men are the example their families can follow. Don't get me wrong. I also want equality for women, because when men accept and treat women as our equals, we are able to appreciate our wives the way God intended and not the way we are cursed by the Fall of Man.

Who do you love enough to create a better world for them? How will you make the world a better place for them?