In the first part of this blog I talked about why getting involved in human trafficking was important in general. Another reaction, or question I get, (and initially asked myself) is why, as a male, get involved with this issue that mainly affects women. 27 million people worldwide, and 80% of those are women…why should I get involved? Here’s a few reasons that God has shown me over the past couple months:
-I think all a man has to do is think about his wife, or his daughter, or his niece being trafficked, and that should be enough to want to get involved, to end the atrocity. I don’t have either of these, but all I have to do is imagine it, and it’s enough to make me want to get involved.
-20% of 27 million, is still 5.4 million people–a huge and significant number of males being affected. Also, when we decide support of an issue is important, based on how many people are affected by it, we reduce that person to a statistic and not as a human being. Let’s not see people as numbers on a page, but PEOPLE, with hearts, and emotions, and pain, and souls…..if just one person was being trafficked, should it still matter? Absolutely.
-For some girls the only, and i mean the ONLY, idea they have of a man, is one who is a rapist, an abuser, and an exploiter. This is how they come to view all men. We have to be godly examples of men for these women, showing them, we are capable of love, and respect, if we ever hope for them to trust in Christ.
-we can’t forget that human trafficking is not just sex trafficking. Men are exploited mostly in labor sectors, sex trafficking is obviously terrible, and I have gained a huge passion for that, don’t get me wrong, but we can’t overlook the fact that there are men (and women) also enslaved in other parts of society other than prostitution.
-We simply need to step up as men of God, and say we will not stand for this.
-Men can’t say this is a women’s problem, and women need to fix it, that is ridiculous.
-I don’t know the statistics, but I can assume that, even though 80% of people being trafficked are women, at least 80% (if not more) of the people, in power in the human trafficking industry are men.
-The solution to ending human trafficking, is one of supply and demand. If we end the demand for sex trafficking, (again the demand is mostly from men) there will be no profit, forcing those in control to close the industry. We have to minister to those who control the demand, if we hope to put an end to it. There are always millions of other girls at risk to being trafficked to replace those that are rescued.
-If more men bucked up, and took a stand, we probably wouldn’t need so many women to step up to council the massive number of girls being rescued, because not as many would be in the industry in the first place.
-Lastly, this isn’t a woman’s problem, because women didn’t create it. Our gender created the problem, our gender allows it to exist, and if we as men of God don’t step up, because it doesn’t “effect” us as much, then we aren’t part of the solution…and we aren’t part of the problem either….we ARE the problem.
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been thinking a lot about the men involved in especially the sex trafficking industry. The pimps as well as the johns. I’ve thought about how I’ll react to them. My initial emotion towards them, like I think most people’s is one of hate. But God has changed my heart towards these men. Obviously, yes I hate what they’re doing, but the emotion I feel the most towards these men is pity. I was sharing with a friend the other day, how I pity the men that allow this industry to exist, as much as the women. The girls and guys trapped in this industry, are living in a world of immense darkness, loneliness, fear, and a number of other emotions. But they’re there against their will. The men who profit from the industry, or are consumers of this industry, are there by choice. They willingly, day in, and day out enter this darkness, because they think it will bring them joy….and in this way, their slaves as well, to their own desires and misconceptions of what a successful and satisfying life is. What better example of someone who needs the love of Christ, and the message of the Gospel, then someone who willingly enters and stays in a world of darkness, because they’re too blind to leave it?
And this is what I hope to be a part of ending early next year. I hope to be a part of ending human trafficking, and I hope to be a light in the darkness, so those trapped there, for whatever reason, might see there’s more to this world than this, that there’s a greater joy, and a greater love, than they ever could have imagined, in Christ.
