Can I be honest here? I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with the Bible. On the one hand, it is full of hope, salvation and the love of God. In its pages I find strength and the courage to endure life’s challenges. I love that. I also love that there are women in the Bible who share the heritage of my ancient ancestors. On the other hand, as a Black woman, I am frustrated with the treatment of women in the Bible, especially women of color. Women such as Hagar, whose story is told in Genesis 16 and 21, and who’s referenced in Galatians 4. Though Hagar is a picture of strength and courage, her story is a tale of enslavement, rape, abandonment and degradation. I especially hate that the story of Hagar, and other biblical women, ends abruptly leaving me to ask what happened to her.
These are questions posed too often of Black women and girls of today. This inquiry occurs in the Black community so regularly that earlier this year, the Minnesota House passed a bill to create a new government body.1 The Office of Missing and Murdered Black Women and Girls is set to be the first such office in the country.2 This development should be shouted from the rooftops, but you likely didn’t know about it before now. It’s okay; that is exactly why this office is needed.
In a recent sermon, I shared the statistic that despite that fact the Black females make up less than 14% of the U.S. population, they are among more than one third of the nation’s missing women and girls. That is a startling fact. What’s more alarming is that as a society, we are not familiar with the names, faces or characteristics of these missing. Not many of us could recall the name of a missing Black woman or girl, who whether locally or nationally, has gone missing in the U.S. since the COVID-19 pandemic. However, if I were to mention the name Gabby Petito, I’m certain that most of us instantly remember her name, face, hair, case and the tragedy of her death. We recall that in the Summer of 2021, the entire nation’s attention was drawn toward asking what happened to her after watching police video of her plea for help in the Moab, Utah sun. For days, we saw Gabby’s picture and sought any information on the missing 22-year-old, young, white woman. Tragically, her body was found days later in Grand Teton National Forest, Teton County, Wyoming. Gabby’s story has since become a 2022 Lifetime movie3 and documentary,4 a 2023 Tubi documentary,5 as well as numerous television news stories and exposés.
However, if I were to mention the names Heaven Brown, Qadr Williamson or Tajah West, would these names similarly evoke any photos, faces or familiarity for you? If I informed you that these three juveniles first went missing in 2021, would that make you remember them? No. Of course, not. Because you don’t know them, and you haven’t seen them. Their pictures and descriptions have not been widely publicized or nationally posted. Their stories have not been broadly told. The nation wasn’t forced to empathize with their parents and guardians or encouraged to look for them. Even though these young girls were all under the age of 18 when first discovered missing, nothing about them has been raised to the public. Heaven, Qadr and Tajah all went missing from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, not Moab, Utah. Heaven, Qadr and Tajah are Black, and the status of their cases remains unclear.
I wish that I did not have to mention the race of any of these missing young girls, but their racial distinction is necessary because it is, alarmingly, the key reason why we know about Gabby but are unfamiliar with Heaven, Qadr and Tajah. More upsetting, race is the reason no one has provided clear information about the whereabouts of the latter three young women and girls. The reality is that when Black women and girls go missing, the nation doesn’t miss them. Even though the case of Carlee Russell, the 25-year-old, young, Black woman who fabricated a tale of being abducted in the Summer of 2023 after a nationwide alert,6 the fact remains that missing Black women and girls are seldom the subject of well-publicized, national searches or investigations. This includes Heaven, Qadr and Tajah.
As a Christian, I am outraged when I think about this because Heaven, Qadr and Tajah could be my daughters. The thought of no one franticly looking for my lost and missing baby girl is horrifying. I’m horrified to think that because, as a Black woman, I am her mother and thus she carries my genes, no one cares about whether she is missing, dead or alive. And if, God forbid, she is dead, her death does not prompt a Gabby Petito-style investigation until her killer is found and brought to justice. It is in times like this that my soul must look to my faith to afford me comfort. Faith stories and the theology that God cares for and avenges me against my foes is the anchor to my belief of my place in the world. It is the reassurance that my mere existence is important to the God who created me fearfully and wonderfully, and who knows every hair on my head.
Until I realize that faith doesn’t right the wrong of inequity for missing Black women and girls. When I open my Bible and start reading, I’m quickly confronted with the stories of far too many biblical women who have gone missing and are certainly now dead. Sometimes we don’t even learn their names. Other times we learn that her name is Hagar. Or her name might be Keturah, Asenath, or Zipporah. The biblical accounts of these women pointedly mention that they are from Egypt, Cush and Midian – nations of people with dark skin who follow other gods. Their bodies are given to Hebrew men to whom these women and girls bear children. Then their lives serve no further biblical purpose. Their stories are not concluded. They are sent into the wilderness, Egypt or simply never mentioned again. We never learn what happens to them. Unlike Sarah, Rebekah and Rachel, who were also given to prophetic Hebrew men, we are never told when Hagar, Keturah, Asenath, or Zipporah died, the nature of their deaths or where they are buried. They are simply no more and no one. Today’s Bible reader neither looks for them or launches an investigation into the cold case of their disappearance. Biblical commentaries, theological writings and sermons steer the Bible student to show no concern for these women who are mothers of nations and peoples. Only because they are not women and girls of the chosen people. They are not women and girls of “promise,” thus we don’t care or inquire about them.
It is any wonder why their daughters, the missing Black women and girls of today are suffering the same fate?
1. Minnesota House Bill HF55, https://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/bills/Info/HF55/93/2023/0.
2. Jayla Whitfield-Anderson, “Minnesota bill would create nation’s 1st office investigating missing Black women, girls,” Yahoo! News, March 1, 2023, https://news.yahoo.com/minnesota-bill-would-create-nations-1st-office-investigating-missing-black-women-girls-230008267.html.
3. The Gabby Petito Story, directed by Thora Birch, (Lifetime, 2022), https://www.mylifetime.com/movies/the-gabby-petito-story.
4. Beyond the Headlines:The Gabby Petito Story, (Lifetime, 2022), https://www.mylifetime.com/specials/beyond-the-headlines-the-gabby-petito-story.
5. Love You to Death: Gabby Petito, directed by Victoria Duley, (Tubi, 2023), https://tubitv.com/movies/100005846/love-you-to-death-the-gabby-petito-story.
6. Taylor Lang, ”Interactive Timeline: The Disappearance of Carlee Russell,“ WVTM Birmingham, Alabama, July 27, 2023, https://www.wvtm13.com/article/carlee-russell-update-timeline/44603489#
Photo by Tinashe Mwaniki on Unsplash
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