In 1525-1866, a period of 341yrs, it is estimated that there were 12.5 million slaves ripped from their homeland, Africa, and shipped out like cargo to the Americas. That is a heartbreaking figure and an embarrassing fact; a fact that has not left our current generation untouched. It is a wound that many people are still recovering from. And while the abolition of slavery in the United States was a massive and monumental step the right direction, today, there are currently 40million people enslaved globally. Friends, our fight is far from over.
I hope and pray that we don’t turn a blind eye to the battle before us.
July 30th is World Day Against Trafficking in Persons. Last summer, I was home on that day, and I remember my Papa reading to us articles relaying information, statistics, and stories in regards to human trafficking, specifically child trafficking. I remember being stunned, heartbroken, and disgusted. I needed to know more and make some kind of difference. The last six months have been very informative to say the least.
Now as I write, I wonder, where do I begin?
There are so many avenues to go down. It’s like a giant web. The more I learn about it, the more I see the complexity of this issue. But to start, let’s breakdown some statistics.
– At any given time there are estimated to be 40 million slaves in the world today. 1 in ever 4 is a child.
– 16 million enter into forced marriages.
– 24 million enter into forced labor. I.e. construction, agriculture, mining, domestic work.
– 4 million enter into state-enforced labor.
– 4.8 million enter into sex labor.
– Human trafficking is a 150 billion dollar industry.
– Sex trafficking makes 99 billion of that 150 billion.
Anything, peculiar stand out to you? Maybe the fact that only 19% of human trafficking, sex trafficking, generates 66% of the the revenue? When I found this out during my research for this post, I couldn’t say I was surprised. After listening to countless podcast and interviews, watching documentaries, reading research papers, and following different activists (all of which I will link to later) my heart broke all the more for the sexually exploited. Sexual abuse is something that has always broken my heart in a way few things can. I’ve seen the toll it’s taken on people very close to me. I’ve seen the way it’s destroyed lives, families. It has twisted our perception of love. I believe to abuse someone sexually is one of the most horrid things you can do to a human. And the worst part, is we have figured out how to monetize that. It may seem like something very far off, in a distant, poor land. But it is much closer to home than we realize.
I did a quick google search and found out that the USA is the number one consumer of sex.
With a just the logic of supply and demand, you can see where this is going. Geoff Rogers, co-founder of the United States Institute Against Human Trafficking (USIAHT), said “The United States is the number one consumer of sex worldwide. So we are driving the demand as a society.” The TIP Report reported that 199,000 kids are trafficked every year within the United States.
The United Nations Office on Drug and Crime did a report on Human trafficking. Here is the map. Let it sink in.
To drive this point home, I want to bring up another topic. Porn. Please keep reading, I know it’s a touchy subject. I’m not here to shame anyone, just hang in there. We’re in this together.
It’s almost impossible to talk about sex trafficking without talking about Pornography. Thanks to the very helpful tools of Fight the New Drug and TraffickingHub I started to become aware of the detrimental effects it is having on our society. Not only are we monetizing the objectification of human beings, most of whom have been coerced, deceived or forced into the sex industry, but also we are take on a skewed vision of what sexuality is. Sexuality is no longer seen as a beautiful, secret, priceless part of our humanity created by God with immaculate design and purpose. No, we treat it as a consumable good, a service on demand, one that costs the consumer nothing and the victim everything. Could it be, that in our hyper sexual culture, where sex is shoved down your throat every minute of the day via music, movie, ads, jokes, etc, that we have forgotten the purpose and beauty of our sexuality? Have we traded in selfless love for selfish lust?
One day a couple months ago, I came across this insane story in the Bible. It is covered in Judges 19-21 if you want to read it yourself. However just to recap, this is basically what happened: a man and his concubine (problem number one) were traveling and decided to spend the night in a certain town in the tribe of Benjamin. In the evening some men came to where the man was staying and wanted to rape him, so he gave them his concubine! She was gang raped and dead by morning. When the man found her dead, he sent word to all the tribes of Israel. When they heard of the atrocities that had taken place they rallied together to go fight those who had allowed these things to happen. 40,000 men ended up laying down their lives to bring justice to this one concubine and ensure that something like this would never happen in Israel again.
There was a lot messed up to begin with in this story: like having a concubine. Unfortunately as history shows, women have never been honored and held equal to men in ways that they should have been, but when these tribes heard this news their hearts were moved. They asked God, should we go fight? And God says, Go! I was so encouraged by this action. I couldn’t help but think, at least things aren’t like that now.
The next day it came up on my IG feed that PornHub (a site with more than 120million daily users) had been accused of criminal activity. In response to this accusation they took down 10 million videos of women and children who were being abused and raped. That was 75% of their content- content that people were paying to watch! Maybe things haven’t changed as much as I thought…?
Human trafficking is a big and very complex mess. Sex trafficking is a big part of that mess. And on top of that we are all a little broken and a little guilty. I may not struggle with a Porn addiction, but I sure like shopping cheap. Im slowly learning that it may come at the price of a beautiful human life half way across the globe. But tell you what, we can keep each other accountable and encourage one another to do better! How does that sound? And I know, we can’t all do everything, but we can definitely all do something. Find your something(s) and go for it!
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to misunderstand God’s heart for humanity the way the Israelites did. Right after their epic battle they fell right into another dumb decision and the chapter ends saying,
“In those days Israel had no king; all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.”Judges 21:25 NLT
I want to know God’s heart, what is right in His eyes, and pursue that.
“Those who oppress the poor insult their Maker, but helping the poor honors Him.”
Proverbs 14:31 NLT
“We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person? Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions.”
1 John 3:16-18 NLT
I hope and pray that this very simple and short article, educates, challenges, and inspires you to make a difference in your circles. Whether it be just spreading the word, shining the light, donating, or making some changes in your life it all helps immensely!
And just to end on a positive note. Here are some encouraging stats!
-“In partnership with local law enforcement, we have rescued more than 1,300 children and women from sex trafficking in the Philippines. Sex trafficking has plummeted between 75% and 86% in the cities we have worked.” – International Justice Mission
-Founded in 2011, our trained operatives are ordinary heroes with a proven track record of over 1,431 rescues and 739 trafficker arrests.” –The Exodus Road
-helped 4,240 people caught in sex trafficking in 12 different countries. –Exodus Cry
To Learn More:
- Report of human trafficking done by United Nations on Drug and Crime
- Report done by the International Labor Organization
- Trafficking in Persons done by the US government
- https://www.ijm.org/
- https://theexodusroad.com/
- https://exoduscry.com/
- https://fightthenewdrug.org/
Check out these podcasts:
Videos:
I highly recommend to follow these sights on their Fb and IG accounts to provide a steady flow of helpful information into your feed.
Soul Food 