In this month to consider the place of violence in our times, no discussion can be complete without speaking to violence against women (International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Woman – November 25).

In his reaction to sex slavery and the work that IJM is doing to rescue women and young girls from being trafficked, Jim Palmer writes:

Sometimes what happens in our world is absolute evil, unimaginable chaos, and a stunning reversal of God’s intent for creation.

When my heart is broken open by suffering, especially suffering caused by human selfishness and cruelty, I meet a more complex God than I would prefer. Sometimes he is an un-comforting God who does not provide easy, consoling answers to my pleading questions, Why?

At other times he is a dis-comforting God, and his grief is simultaneously a cry for justice that enters creation like a mighty storm, rousing God’s people from their sleep.

While we wait in the darkness and ask God, “Why did you let this happen?” God hurls the question back to us: “Wake up, people, to what is happening. Why do you let this happen in the world I gave you?

What can you do to prevent Violence against Women?

To learn more about how you can get involved in solutions, see “International Justice Mission.”

According to the United Nations, 4 billion people live outside the protection of the law.

That means that their public justice systems – their police, courts, and laws – are so broken, corrupt and dysfunctional, that there is nothing to shield them from violence.

Without Justice there is no Peace

Peacemaking inherently involves justice creation – the rebuilding of justice infrastructures of fairness.

For more see: “The Place of Violence in our Times.”