My friend Don Shugak recently posted a video that was produced by some young Alaska Native women. Like too many girls in communities all over the world, they live with sexualization, sexual abuse, and shame. As Darrow has pointed out in Nurturing the Nations, these patterns are rooted in the lie that men are superior to women. This lie has caused suffering in many places and some of my Alaska friends, Native and non-Native, have been working to expose it in their northern context. They want to stop sexual abuse in this generation.

Where this lie holds sway, it is considered normal for men to misuse women. But as this video demonstrates, God created the woman and the man in his image and as such, every individual is to be treated with respect. Indeed, Jesus Christ died to atone for sin, reverse the curse, and overwhelm the brokenness of the creation with beauty and wholeness.

These women are bucking an enormous cultural trend, and I say, More power to them!

Remember Michael W. Smith’s song, You Don’t Have to Be Picture Perfect

Gaze in the mirror
You want the glamour
And the grace of a movie star
But I like you the way you are …

You, girl, You don’t have to be picture perfect
To be in my world
Girl, You don’t have to be picture perfect
To fit the frame

Praise belongs to Christ, and kudos to my Alaska native sisters! May God use this effort to bring much healing, and beauty from ashes.

– Gary Brumbelow

[youtube=http://youtu.be/3jwOmZWNA4g&rel=0]

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