Is trafficking really this bad in the US?

[Edward]

Is this being over-hyped,

Yes.

Similar organizations pulled the same stunt in Dallas last year. The reporters who dug beyond the press releases debunked the bulk of the scare stories.

I won't link to the weekly paper that did most of the work, since there is much that is unwholesome in it, but it does excellent investigative reporting, and I'll trust them over organizations with agenda$.

 

[J. Dean]

This doesn't seem to be an area that permits of too much variety in your feelings about it.

Forgive me if I sound like I'm being overly-reluctant, but I've too often seen well-intentioned movements turn into substitutes for the gospel instead of the results of gospel living. I've seen churches take good causes-legitamately good ones, to be sure-and make them the center of church, and the gospel is set aside as "something to include once in a while," while the social causes become the be-all-end-all of Christianity a la social gospel. I just don't want to see the church turn into merely another activist group is all, and the temptation to fall into this is easier than some people think. The Flint area in Michigan is full of churches like this, and not all of them are necessarily theologically liberal ones.

What are you supposed to do? Well you can start by doing as much as in you lies to make sure that someone who has a problem can ask for help without being silenced by shame. That a girl could be blackmailed into prostitution for fear of her parents' reaction, for fear of her priest's reaction, is a terrible thing. Obviously anyone experiencing such things will feel shame; but they should know that those around would help rather than excoriate. Cases of child abuse in Reformed and conservative circles have not always been well handled. According to our callings and stations, we should be vigilant to prevent any further such miscarriages.

The Great Commission is the ultimate answer to this problem: we don't have to choose.

And insofar as I can directly affect that, I completely agree. If I ever found out that something like this was happening, you bet that I'd be giving the cops a call on it. As a teacher, I'm on the lookout for it, and am required by law (not to mention my duty to God as a Christian) to report anything to my superiors. As a Christian, I know to be ready to minister to anyone hurting in any way I can. I pray that God may grant me that opportunity on a regular basis.

---------- Post added at 09:05 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:03 PM ----------

If this is really so truly bad in the US, then there should be plenty of US-Christians who have no plans of going overseas who can tackle these problems without any loss of personnel from foreign fields.

And as I said to py3ak, insofar as that comes across my life directly I am more than ready and willing to act accordingly.

 

[Weston Stoler]

The point of the matter is, their is sex trafficking. No matter if it is hyped up or not it should be stopped. I don't see it being a substitution for evangelism considering you should be witnessing to people regardless of what causes you are for. It isn't the cause or the passion for a cause that stops evangelism, it is the person themselves.

 

[Hamalas]

Wichita is a huge center for this (because of our central location) so it's something that I've been aware of for awhile.

Two things that Christians can do:

1) Thoughtfully and persistently urge and encourage the civil magistrate to crack down on this problem.

&

2) Be faithful in the work of the church particularly to those in these types of situations. Be fervent in prayer and bold in evangelism. The "authorities" may be able to curb some of the symptoms of this problem but it will take the Holy Spirit working through the church to truly produce change.

 

[John Bunyan]

In my country poor persons are promissed jobs in the USA/EU and, arriving there as illegals, are enslaved by their companions. This is not really as widespread as one may think (I mean, there are 27 million slaves and 7 billiong humans in this planet) but it does happen sometimes, especially in the poorest places of our northeast and on the south (where there is the largest percentage of white women, whom americans and european prefer).

On another thought, however, I must say: although those slaves are usually from poor countries, their traffickers (or their abusers) are not - as is the case with drugs, which are made in Mexico, Afghanistan, Colombia and Bolivia but mostly bought in rich countries. - by the way, is really sad that only the US and Colombia seem to really fight against drugs.

 

[Pergamum]

In my country poor persons are promissed jobs in the USA/EU and, arriving there as illegals, are enslaved by their companions. This is not really as widespread as one may think (I mean, there are 27 million slaves and 7 billiong humans in this planet) but it does happen sometimes, especially in the poorest places of our northeast and on the south (where there is the largest percentage of white women, whom americans and european prefer).

On another thought, however, I must say: although those slaves are usually from poor countries, their traffickers (or their abusers) are not - as is the case with drugs, which are made in Mexico, Afghanistan, Colombia and Bolivia but mostly bought in rich countries. - by the way, is really sad that only the US and Colombia seem to really fight against drugs.

What can churches do to help this situation, especially in areas where there are lots of immigrants?

 

[Miss Marple]

It occurs to me that one way to think of this terrible phenomenon is to realize that, without customers, there is no profit in keeping these women/children/boys? in this type of slavery.

So the preaching of the gospel and holding men (? I assume the customers are men) would be, from my perspective, a very effective effort.

How to find these men? How to approach them? How to hold them accountable? How to discourage them from this evil?

It seems a combination of gospel preaching, witnessing, intervention, public awareness-type campaigns, and civil government involvement would all be called for.

 

[John Bunyan]

In my country poor persons are promissed jobs in the USA/EU and, arriving there as illegals, are enslaved by their companions. This is not really as widespread as one may think (I mean, there are 27 million slaves and 7 billiong humans in this planet) but it does happen sometimes, especially in the poorest places of our northeast and on the south (where there is the largest percentage of white women, whom americans and european prefer).

On another thought, however, I must say: although those slaves are usually from poor countries, their traffickers (or their abusers) are not - as is the case with drugs, which are made in Mexico, Afghanistan, Colombia and Bolivia but mostly bought in rich countries. - by the way, is really sad that only the US and Colombia seem to really fight against drugs.

What can churches do to help this situation, especially in areas where there are lots of immigrants?

Well, I think they may denounce these evil actions to raise public awareness. Concern should also be shown to the government, wich should be harder on that crime, punishing both traffickers and 'consumers'. Churches could also confront the traffickers directly, looking for them in such events and calling the police.

But the most simple answer would be to offer support for these arriving immigrants and trying to give them opportunities of living, by teaching them english, law and all that stuff - but without breaking the law by giving to much support for the occurrance of illegal immigration.

Well, sorry. I just saw that I wrote a lot but said nothing.

 

[Pergamum]

John,

So if churches reached out to new immigrants more, we could identify and stop some of this trafficking, right? Welcome immigrants into services, have Spanish-language services, emergency food-pantries, etc, for the poor?

 

[Scottish Lass]

But, at least in our area, the women are hidden away.

 

[Brother John]

You know their are more than 27 Million slaves (including sex and Child slaves) around the world. Sex slavery can start as early as 4 years old. In the US it mostly manifests its self in prostitution. Women being taken off the street and told that if they don't work for you then you will kill them and their family. This stuff is real. Their are more slaves today then the entire history of man.

Weston I am not trying to minimize or blow off the issue but are you sure about that last statistic in your statement, do you have a source for those numbers. Considering that slavery was very common world wide throughout history I find it hard to believe there are more slaves living today than all slaves in history combined. I am not attacking your passion for working to eradicate this evil, its evil no matter what the numbers are.

 

[Scottish Lass]

You know their are more than 27 Million slaves (including sex and Child slaves) around the world. Sex slavery can start as early as 4 years old. In the US it mostly manifests its self in prostitution. Women being taken off the street and told that if they don't work for you then you will kill them and their family. This stuff is real. Their are more slaves today then the entire history of man.

Weston I am not trying to minimize or blow off the issue but are you sure about that last statistic in your statement, do you have a source for those numbers. Considering that slavery was very common world wide throughout history I find it hard to believe there are more slaves living today than all slaves in history combined. I am not attacking your passion for working to eradicate this evil, its evil no matter what the numbers are.

The formatting below is odd, but the bolded appears in Wiki's history of slavery article but is footnoted as attributed to the link below.

By E. Benjamin Skinner Monday, 18 Jan. 2010 (2010-01-18). "sex trafficking in South Africa: World Cup slavery fear". Time. Retrieved 2010-08-29 as Footnote 7 History of slavery - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Miss Marple]

I don't know. It's hard for me to imagine that the women/boys who are sex slaves are just running around free to go to church, go to English classes, visit an emergency food pantry.

I imagine them being sequestered and not given any liberty.

So I don't know how you would get access to them, except for maybe an isolated opportunity here and there. I don't know much about what goes on.

The customers, however, are free men. It seems to me they'd be easier to intercept.

 

[Pergamum]

I don't know. It's hard for me to imagine that the women/boys who are sex slaves are just running around free to go to church, go to English classes, visit an emergency food pantry.

I imagine them being sequestered and not given any liberty.

So I don't know how you would get access to them, except for maybe an isolated opportunity here and there. I don't know much about what goes on.

The customers, however, are free men. It seems to me they'd be easier to intercept.

Good points.

If this is true, it sounds like the church can only get involved after law enforcement takes back these women. However, if these women/kids are illegals, are they merely returned back to their home nation (without receiving any sort of aid or counseling)?

 

[Dwimble]

This is a subject very important to our family. We've been supporting International Justice Mission (IJM) for awhile now. It is an excellent organization that is fighting slavery and human trafficking around the world.

 

[Scottish Lass]

I don't know. It's hard for me to imagine that the women/boys who are sex slaves are just running around free to go to church, go to English classes, visit an emergency food pantry.

I imagine them being sequestered and not given any liberty.

So I don't know how you would get access to them, except for maybe an isolated opportunity here and there. I don't know much about what goes on.

The customers, however, are free men. It seems to me they'd be easier to intercept.

Good points.

If this is true, it sounds like the church can only get involved after law enforcement takes back these women. However, if these women/kids are illegals, are they merely returned back to their home nation (without receiving any sort of aid or counseling)?

In the case I mentioned, that wasn't possible, either. No documents/ID means no way to verify where they should go or to make another country take them. By the time one adds in the time and effort trying to determine any of that, I imagine it was easier to let them stay here for the time being. I honestly don't know how all of it was resolved.

 

[Brother John]

You know their are more than 27 Million slaves (including sex and Child slaves) around the world. Sex slavery can start as early as 4 years old. In the US it mostly manifests its self in prostitution. Women being taken off the street and told that if they don't work for you then you will kill them and their family. This stuff is real. Their are more slaves today then the entire history of man.

Weston I am not trying to minimize or blow off the issue but are you sure about that last statistic in your statement, do you have a source for those numbers. Considering that slavery was very common world wide throughout history I find it hard to believe there are more slaves living today than all slaves in history combined. I am not attacking your passion for working to eradicate this evil, its evil no matter what the numbers are.

The formatting below is odd, but the bolded appears in Wiki's history of slavery article but is footnoted as attributed to the link below.

By E. Benjamin Skinner Monday, 18 Jan. 2010 (2010-01-18). "sex trafficking in South Africa: World Cup slavery fear". Time. Retrieved 2010-08-29 as Footnote 7 History of slavery - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Anna thanks for the link. I did read it and this is the portion of the Time article that speaks to the numbers:

Despite more than a dozen international conventions banning slavery in the past 150 years, there are more slaves today than at any point in human history. Slaves are those forced to perform services for no pay beyond subsistence and for the profit of others who hold them through fraud and violence.

Read more: Sex Trafficking in South Africa: World Cup Slavery Fear - TIME

Only problem is there are no citations to where the author got the numbers from. As I said earlier I do not discount the evil of this activity I would just like to read the statistics that verify that today there are more living slaves than all slaves in history combined. Thanks again for the link

 

[Scottish Lass]

I agree--the Time author has no citation, but that's not unusual. I found all that with less than thirty seconds of searching. I imagine five minutes would get you hard data. I've seen the claim in reputable sources.

 

[jogri17]

Yes, sadly. I know a Canadian girl who thought that she was supposed to be doing a semester abroad while in college at 18 or 19 in South America through a small company in Montréal and was held captive for about 1.5 years there untill her home Church got her out. Out of shame she never went to the police and she just moved to a different city.

 

[Miss Marple]

How horrid. Ministry to her leaps to mind. Like I said in my previous post, I think it is hard to find these women/boys, but when one pops up there you are, there is someone to help.

Makes me want to take out an ad in Soldier of Fortune and send a team down to the South American location! Can nothing be done?

 

[Pilgrim]

With the end of the worldwide economic crisis nowhere in sight, it is to be feared that this problem is only going to worsen with desperate parents either selling or abandoning their children. This article about children being abandoned by their parents in Greece is one example, and the juxtaposition of the story with the typical fixation on celebrity culture is telling.