On my way back to the Detroit Metro Airport, I passed a number of interesting sights. Various size and shapes of houses, apartment and condo complexes, Islamic temples, majestic churches with beautiful stained glass and steeples. Street and neighborhood signs posting regal sounding names like Sterling Oaks, Walnut Ridge, Bloomfield Heights, and on and on. Lush green lawns neatly kept, freshly watered by the overnight rains. Beautiful gardens rimmed pristine window ledges and patios, surrounded by perfectly shaped hedges.
Then you start passing into the transitional areas. There are a few houses here and there who “keep up with the Jones',” so to speak. They have a shapely house that isn't boarded up, the paint is in good condition, lawns neatly mowed, a few flowers adorning the walkway. But these areas are also marked by vacant houses, storefronts and overgrown weeds and grass that have broken their way through pavement slabs.
Then I started realizing and remembering how many liquor stores I had seen on the streets during my time here. I asked my grandma if Michigan was a “dry state”- if they had a law against selling alcohol in grocery and convenience stores. She said no, they have it in the grocery stores, too.
And then my eyes fell on one of the most discouraging and disgusting signs I had seen while I was there. It was a colorful, pink sign. Enticing, tantalizing. Soft swirls made their way around the words “The finest Gentleman’s Club.” My heart fell, and my stomach sick, wrenched in anger all at once for a brief moment.
It's not like I have never seen signs for gentleman's clubs before, or even the “XXX” Adult Entertainment signs that litter the highways for miles across the United States. But it just hit me differently this time. Maybe because I had time to sit and think about that the word “Gentleman's Club” and how far off that name is from the description of what goes on inside those establishments.
This is Webster's definition of a Gentleman:
-A chivalrous, courteous, or honorable man
-A man of good social position, esp. one of wealth and leisure
-A man of noble birth attached to a royal household
-A polite or formal way of referring to a man
-Used as a polite form of address to a group of men
-Used as a courteous designation for a male fellow member of the US House of Representatives
So then, are these chivalrous, courteous, honorable men that walk into “Gentleman's Clubs?” Men who forsake respect and check reality at the door, trading morality and honor for a few hours of pleasure and lust? Is this noble, polite, courteous? I disagree.
I researched gentleman's clubs a little bit just now, since I have time at the airport. They have strong origins in the United Kingdom, where men would meet and have lunch, play parlor games, do “manly” things. But somewhere along the way, in the United States (because they still have some traditional gentleman's clubs in the UK), they morphed into “luxury” and “high end” strip clubs.
It makes me sick to think of the reality. Men, prompted by loneliness, addiction, lust, and countless other things, go in, and pay (sometimes huge sums) to see women objectify themselves. It grieves my heart to think of what this is doing to both men and women who are involved in this. Because men are digging themselves into a never ending hole- one that will never fully satisfy. Because women are allowing men to treat them like scum, allowing themselves to be put on display, to be disrespected.
And then I wonder…what brought that man into the gentleman's club? What brought that woman to work at that gentleman's club? We all have stories. We all have a reason for why we are where we are. It doesn't excuse behavior, but it allows some understanding. What is at the root?
I think at it's deepest level, it all begins with trying to fill a void that is absolutely impossible to fulfill without God. It is a space that only He can fill, but Satan has worked his ways in this country and enticed thousands upon thousands to try and fill it with pleasure, drugs, alcohol, sex, affairs, pornography, strip clubs, prostitution, victimization, and all of the other evils of this world.
We are called to more. Men are called to be true gentleman. Men of honor, integrity, courage, bravery, to follow the wild heart of God. Women are called to be daughters of the King, royalty, kind, loving, strong. Where have we gone? Why have we believed these lies? Why have we bought into the things that don't satisfy, and think that we are acting honorably and we are justified simply because it is accepted in the culture?
No. We were made for more. We were made for Him, and for His glory.
I know it will break my heart when we go to these countries that are completely overtaken by human trafficking. When I witness first hand the faces and lives of those caught in modern day slavery. Women, children, even men, who are forced and sometimes willingly a part of the international sex industry.
There is incredible darkness shrouding this issue. Even here in the United States. It is dense, overwhelming. Rampant. I can't imagine how much more intensified it will be overseas, where it is openly accepted and common.
I know I will be running head on into a dark, spiritual battle. But my heart yearns to fight against it. To fight for the men and women who are caught in the middle of this. Those men and women who have no hope. I want to make much of God and offer His love and hope, and show a new way to those that do not know it exists.
Pray for the United States. Pray for the world. Pray against this growing darkness and captivity that is gripping millions of people through sexual sin. Darkness. Death. It's so serious, and it's right at our own doorstep. It's something we all face. So let's get on our hands and knees, take up our swords, and fight this for HIS glory. For HIS people. Join me.
