Sex Trafficking and the Church

Everybody has one or two things that really get to them.  They are the things that grab your heart and don't let go, wringing it out until nothing but anger, sorrow and determination are left.  For some people it is poverty or human rights.  Many people are deeply moved by inequality, whether it is based on race, religion, gender or any other number or qualifiers.  We can all agree that these things are horrible and need to be addressed, but there is always that one thing that really cuts us deep.  For me that thing is sex trafficking.

I have talked about it before in this blog, but when it comes up I can't be still and not pour out the indignation, frustration, anger and helplessness it makes me feel.  There are women and children in our world and in our nation who are being imprisoned into a life of sexual slavery.  They are drugged, repeatedly raped and intimidated into submission before they are sold over and over again to satisfy some of man's darkest urges.  It makes me sick, and it makes me sad when I read articles with statistics like this:

Over the last several years, the U.S. State Department has estimated that traffickers in other countries are selling 17,000 to 18,000 women and children a year and bringing them into the United States for sexual exploitation.  In addition, another report estimates that 100,000 American juveniles (with estimates as high as 300,000) a year are being trafficked annually within our nation for the purposes of sexual exploitation. These numbers are staggering indicators of the number of lives of women and children being destroyed daily by sexual slavery within the United States. They also reveal another sobering reality: There are staggering numbers of men in America who are creating the demand for these sexual services. 

How can this happen in the United States right under our noses?  How can we hear numbers like that and do nothing?  We, the church, must rise up to this challenge.  We must break new ground in helping the victims of these crimes, but the problem is that we don't know how.  We don't know where this is happening in our community.  We don't know the victims or how to reach them.  The church must wake up to this and begin showing the love of God in tangible ways.  But how?

I want to challenge you to read this article and begin asking yourself, "How would God have me help these women and children?"  Ask God to show you how you can be a part of crushing this darkness that exists under the surface of our society, and please share your ideas.  We can all do something...

http://enrichmentjournal.ag.org/201201/201201_088_sextraffic.cfm