Being a slave is a reality to more than 27 MILLION people in the world today. The words "human trafficking" are becoming known world wide. When I first heard about The A21 Campaign, my heart was tortured by the thought that girls my age and younger were being bought and sold for sex. At that time, I chose to take an interest in what this organization was doing to fight human trafficking on the front lines. My heart in ministry at the time was for young women-teens to early 20s. It was about fighting for girls that should be in school, but instead were being brutalized each and every day. Recently, I've grown more and more passionate about this cause because as more facts and information surfaced, I discovered that sex trafficking affects girls as young as 4. My daughter is 6. This issue now has a face for me. It has a voice.
Last month I received a beautiful bouquet of pink roses and lilies from my parents after a minor surgery. Each day I watched as they grew and changed. The bouquet tripled in size after the first week. All of the roses and lilies just continued to burst forth with life. All but one lily. It remained just a small bud, unopened, not growing, not flourishing. After a couple weeks, this small bud started to turn brown. I knew it would die. After some time, I found the dead bloom, broken off the stem, and laying on my kitchen counter. Call me sentimental, but this little bloom that had broken off its stem and died reminded me of all the victims of sex trafficking. The other flowers had all grown, opened up fully, and become beautiful. But the dead one never had a chance to grow into what it was meant to be. It never had a chance to open up and flourish. I couldn't help but think of all the beautiful little girls that never get to grow up into young women the way they were meant to be. Instead, they are beaten, broken, and some even die-whether spiritually or literally. They never even get that chance.
Edmund Burke said, "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing". I was reading a book called "Terrify No More" by the president of International Justice Missions, and he discussed the reasons why he thought good men and women do nothing. He said people choose not to act because of 3 deep sources of poverty: a poverty of compassion, a poverty of purpose, and a poverty of hope.
Good men and women do nothing because we have a poverty of compassion. Christine Caine, the founder of The A21 Campaign says "there is a difference between emotion and compassion". She talks about how we think we have compassion when we see a commercial for World Vision or Compassion International and we get emotional-we cry or we feel bad. She says that is not having compassion. Compassion leads to ACTION! We have compassion when we see the injustices in the world and we choose to ACT upon them. Aleksander Solzhenitsyn said there are two standards by which we judge events in the world: near or far. Generally, if an event happens close to us, then we feel affected and are concerned. If it is far from us, on the other side of the world sometimes, then we aren't as compassionate. Gary Haughen said this:
It's how overwhelming tragedies such as Rwanda become tolerable disasters of bearable proportions. It's how little girls in Cambodia who have been robbed of their childhood innocence can suffer without the Westen world taking notice.
Jesus said in Luke 10, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself" We then have to ask ourselves, "who is my neighbor?" Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan that urges us to ask ourselves, which way are the borders of my heart heading, inward or outward? Are we touched by the stories of suffering on the other side of the world? Do we well up with tears when we see the orphans in Africa or hear stories of young girls raped up to 40 times a day, but then go on with our days and forget about them completely? The better question is probably, do we ACT when we hear about these tragedies?
The second reason good men and women do nothing is because of a poverty of purpose. Gary Haughen outlines this better than I ever could:
I marvel at the way forces conspire to bend the purpose of my life toward increasingly petty things and away from the grander purposes outside myself for which I sense I was truly fashioned by my Maker. I am amazed at my capacity to be distracted by small and unworthy things...I am equally amazed at my capacity to wage scorched-earth war over the petty things--battles that diminish others even as they diminish me. Jesus rebuked the leaders of his day, especially the religious leaders, for neglecting the weightier matters of the law--justice, mercy, and the love of God...This leads me back to a self-audit of small and unworthy things. What might it mean to our country if the readers of this book resolved to abandon every petty, small, and unworthy battle this year? What if they resolved to give themselves fully to larger things that matter, to things of God and his kingdom?
A third reason good men and women do nothing in their time of history's testing is a poverty of hope. Again, Haughen says it best:
In the face of overwhelming evil and injustice, we often feel powerless. And that powerlessness paralyzes us and steals our hope. When the problems are so big and so bad, can we really make a difference anyway? ... We are paralyzed in a poverty of hope because, first, we underestimate the value of what God has given us to transform lives. Second, we underestimate the value of a single life. And third, we underestimate God's determination to rescue us from unworthy distractions and apply them to matters that make a difference in someone else's life.
Later in his book he goes on to say:
Some people see only the hardships of the intervention action and lose heart largely because they have not been forced to watch the torture the children endure behind closed doors every day. I think if they had to watch it, they couldn't possibly fail to act.
It's easy to look away, ignore the news, drown out the voices crying out for help. It's much, much more difficult to look at the faces, listen to the cries, and choose to act.
In one of the final chapters of "Terrify No More" Haughen discusses an important question that many of us are tempted to ask: Where is God? When we hear about violent oppression, crime, and slavery around the world, many wonder, How can God allow that? Where is God in the suffering? Be assured, God is always there. He is in the dark alleys where pimps and brothel owners hide girls away and exploit them for sex. He is there and He is hurting as much as they are. We need to ask the question, Where are God's people? Haughen says, "The great tragedies of abuse and oppression in our world are so clearly man-made disasters that I find it difficult to keep blaming God." Though it is men and women, not God, that perpetrate the abuses, it is God that has so clearly given men and women the power to stop the abuses. He goes on to say, "Given all the power and resources that God has placed in the hands of humankind, I have yet to see any injustice of humankind that could not also be stopped by humankind." We miss out on the invitation from God to help because we just insist that God do the work for us, without us. But we were created for good works. Drawing near to the problem, the clouds seem dark and the shadows long, and the challenge enormous. We lose heart and faith. We doubt the joy and fear the risks. Wanting the good thing done we ask, "Where is God?"
So how does this affect us? How are we connected to human trafficking? I think we all fall into one of these three categories: We act, we ignore, or we contribute to the problem. Usually, if we are contributing to the problem, we are also refusing to believe our actions do matter, and therefore are ignoring the problem as well. Proverbs 21:13 says, "those who shut their ears to the cries of the poor will be ignored in their own time of need."
As long as there continues to be a demand for sex and pornography, they will continue to supply it. It's the simple idea of supply and demand. If the demand goes up, the supply goes up. If there is no demand, there will be no supply. Don't be fooled into thinking the sex industry is about anything other than making money. You might think, "I don't go out and buy girls for sex, so how am I playing a role in all of this?" In 2006, the porn industry produced over $96 BILLION worldwide. Seventy percent of men ages 18-34 view internet pornography once per month. Think it's not happening in the Church? Think again. A study found that 60% of men in church had looked at porn recently. Still don't see the connection? Where there is a demand, there will be supply. Young girls across the globe are being forced into posing for photos and making videos that men in our very own churches view on the internet. The excuse of "my relationship with porn doesn't affect anyone but me" just isn't valid any more. We need more brave men to stand firm together and say, "real men don't buy girls!" We are turning low-life thugs and pimps into real businessmen. Your private addiction is having a very public effect. More men need to realize that when they give in to sexual temptation, it not only affects their wives and their families, but it now affects the young girls held captive all around the world.
How do you help? What is your part? Proverbs 24:11-12 says, "Rescue those who are unjustly sentenced to death; don't stand back and let them die. Don't try to avoid responsibility by saying you didn't know about it. For God knows all hearts, and he sees you. He keeps watch over your soul, and he knows you knew! And he will judge all people according to what they have done." The first step is just to educate yourself. Search out the facts. Then, share those facts with others. Knowledge really is power. Raising awareness is crucial in fighting injustice! Want practical ways to help fight human trafficking? 21 Ways to Help
Last month I received a beautiful bouquet of pink roses and lilies from my parents after a minor surgery. Each day I watched as they grew and changed. The bouquet tripled in size after the first week. All of the roses and lilies just continued to burst forth with life. All but one lily. It remained just a small bud, unopened, not growing, not flourishing. After a couple weeks, this small bud started to turn brown. I knew it would die. After some time, I found the dead bloom, broken off the stem, and laying on my kitchen counter. Call me sentimental, but this little bloom that had broken off its stem and died reminded me of all the victims of sex trafficking. The other flowers had all grown, opened up fully, and become beautiful. But the dead one never had a chance to grow into what it was meant to be. It never had a chance to open up and flourish. I couldn't help but think of all the beautiful little girls that never get to grow up into young women the way they were meant to be. Instead, they are beaten, broken, and some even die-whether spiritually or literally. They never even get that chance.
Edmund Burke said, "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing". I was reading a book called "Terrify No More" by the president of International Justice Missions, and he discussed the reasons why he thought good men and women do nothing. He said people choose not to act because of 3 deep sources of poverty: a poverty of compassion, a poverty of purpose, and a poverty of hope.
Good men and women do nothing because we have a poverty of compassion. Christine Caine, the founder of The A21 Campaign says "there is a difference between emotion and compassion". She talks about how we think we have compassion when we see a commercial for World Vision or Compassion International and we get emotional-we cry or we feel bad. She says that is not having compassion. Compassion leads to ACTION! We have compassion when we see the injustices in the world and we choose to ACT upon them. Aleksander Solzhenitsyn said there are two standards by which we judge events in the world: near or far. Generally, if an event happens close to us, then we feel affected and are concerned. If it is far from us, on the other side of the world sometimes, then we aren't as compassionate. Gary Haughen said this:
It's how overwhelming tragedies such as Rwanda become tolerable disasters of bearable proportions. It's how little girls in Cambodia who have been robbed of their childhood innocence can suffer without the Westen world taking notice.
Jesus said in Luke 10, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself" We then have to ask ourselves, "who is my neighbor?" Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan that urges us to ask ourselves, which way are the borders of my heart heading, inward or outward? Are we touched by the stories of suffering on the other side of the world? Do we well up with tears when we see the orphans in Africa or hear stories of young girls raped up to 40 times a day, but then go on with our days and forget about them completely? The better question is probably, do we ACT when we hear about these tragedies?
The second reason good men and women do nothing is because of a poverty of purpose. Gary Haughen outlines this better than I ever could:
I marvel at the way forces conspire to bend the purpose of my life toward increasingly petty things and away from the grander purposes outside myself for which I sense I was truly fashioned by my Maker. I am amazed at my capacity to be distracted by small and unworthy things...I am equally amazed at my capacity to wage scorched-earth war over the petty things--battles that diminish others even as they diminish me. Jesus rebuked the leaders of his day, especially the religious leaders, for neglecting the weightier matters of the law--justice, mercy, and the love of God...This leads me back to a self-audit of small and unworthy things. What might it mean to our country if the readers of this book resolved to abandon every petty, small, and unworthy battle this year? What if they resolved to give themselves fully to larger things that matter, to things of God and his kingdom?
A third reason good men and women do nothing in their time of history's testing is a poverty of hope. Again, Haughen says it best:
In the face of overwhelming evil and injustice, we often feel powerless. And that powerlessness paralyzes us and steals our hope. When the problems are so big and so bad, can we really make a difference anyway? ... We are paralyzed in a poverty of hope because, first, we underestimate the value of what God has given us to transform lives. Second, we underestimate the value of a single life. And third, we underestimate God's determination to rescue us from unworthy distractions and apply them to matters that make a difference in someone else's life.
Later in his book he goes on to say:
Some people see only the hardships of the intervention action and lose heart largely because they have not been forced to watch the torture the children endure behind closed doors every day. I think if they had to watch it, they couldn't possibly fail to act.
It's easy to look away, ignore the news, drown out the voices crying out for help. It's much, much more difficult to look at the faces, listen to the cries, and choose to act.
In one of the final chapters of "Terrify No More" Haughen discusses an important question that many of us are tempted to ask: Where is God? When we hear about violent oppression, crime, and slavery around the world, many wonder, How can God allow that? Where is God in the suffering? Be assured, God is always there. He is in the dark alleys where pimps and brothel owners hide girls away and exploit them for sex. He is there and He is hurting as much as they are. We need to ask the question, Where are God's people? Haughen says, "The great tragedies of abuse and oppression in our world are so clearly man-made disasters that I find it difficult to keep blaming God." Though it is men and women, not God, that perpetrate the abuses, it is God that has so clearly given men and women the power to stop the abuses. He goes on to say, "Given all the power and resources that God has placed in the hands of humankind, I have yet to see any injustice of humankind that could not also be stopped by humankind." We miss out on the invitation from God to help because we just insist that God do the work for us, without us. But we were created for good works. Drawing near to the problem, the clouds seem dark and the shadows long, and the challenge enormous. We lose heart and faith. We doubt the joy and fear the risks. Wanting the good thing done we ask, "Where is God?"
So how does this affect us? How are we connected to human trafficking? I think we all fall into one of these three categories: We act, we ignore, or we contribute to the problem. Usually, if we are contributing to the problem, we are also refusing to believe our actions do matter, and therefore are ignoring the problem as well. Proverbs 21:13 says, "those who shut their ears to the cries of the poor will be ignored in their own time of need."
As long as there continues to be a demand for sex and pornography, they will continue to supply it. It's the simple idea of supply and demand. If the demand goes up, the supply goes up. If there is no demand, there will be no supply. Don't be fooled into thinking the sex industry is about anything other than making money. You might think, "I don't go out and buy girls for sex, so how am I playing a role in all of this?" In 2006, the porn industry produced over $96 BILLION worldwide. Seventy percent of men ages 18-34 view internet pornography once per month. Think it's not happening in the Church? Think again. A study found that 60% of men in church had looked at porn recently. Still don't see the connection? Where there is a demand, there will be supply. Young girls across the globe are being forced into posing for photos and making videos that men in our very own churches view on the internet. The excuse of "my relationship with porn doesn't affect anyone but me" just isn't valid any more. We need more brave men to stand firm together and say, "real men don't buy girls!" We are turning low-life thugs and pimps into real businessmen. Your private addiction is having a very public effect. More men need to realize that when they give in to sexual temptation, it not only affects their wives and their families, but it now affects the young girls held captive all around the world.
How do you help? What is your part? Proverbs 24:11-12 says, "Rescue those who are unjustly sentenced to death; don't stand back and let them die. Don't try to avoid responsibility by saying you didn't know about it. For God knows all hearts, and he sees you. He keeps watch over your soul, and he knows you knew! And he will judge all people according to what they have done." The first step is just to educate yourself. Search out the facts. Then, share those facts with others. Knowledge really is power. Raising awareness is crucial in fighting injustice! Want practical ways to help fight human trafficking? 21 Ways to Help
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