Considering the Unthinkable

Tomorrow I will be helping out with the Stop Child Trafficking Now fundraising walk in Chapel Hill. Stop Child Trafficking Now was formed to attack the problem of child sex trafficking in America by going after the demand side. Stop Child Trafficking Now believes that by building cases against men who purchase sex w/ minors they can make a large dent in the sex trafficking of minors in the US.

It is interesting that everyone I talk to about child trafficking agrees that it is an incredible evil. This issue has absolutely no political divide. Everyone is for doing everything that can be done to rescue children (both boys and girls) who are trafficked in the sex industry. The problem comes because too many people after their initial expression of disgust and agreement will say something like "that' is so evil that I'd really rather not think about it" and they don't.

I'd like to challenge you to think about it. Think about the fact that the Justice Department says at least 200,000 young children and teens are trafficked during any one year in the US. Think about the fact that the statistics show that most runaways are picked up by traffickers within 24 hours of running away. Think about all of the children trafficked by their own relatives - the ultimate betrayal. Think about the young men in high schools paid by traffickers to convince young teens to leave home with them. Think about the fact that all over the world children are trapped in trafficking and that many of these children will die of disease, drugs, alcohol and violence all because there is a market for their services by the demand side, the men who do not believe they will suffer any consequences for buying a 10 year old girl and raping her. If these men were prowling our neighborhoods, attacking our children we would do anything and everything in our power to have them captured and put in jail for a very long time. For some reason since we can compartmentalize trafficking to something that happens to someone else, somewhere else and not to our children and not in our neighborhoods it is also easy to push it to the back of our minds and demonize only the traffickers while disregarding the depravity of a man who would purchase a child for his own pleasure.

After you have thought about trafficking please do something to help stop it. There are several excellent organizations working tirelessly all over the world to bring child trafficking to an end. This weekend Stop Child Trafficking Now is holding walks all over the United States. It may not be too late to join the one near you. Beyond this weekend; talk to your pastor about what your church could do to educate church members, read some books on the issue, check out the web links to the right of my post and pray for those who are in the trenches combating this issue and the children they rescue.