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3 Tangible Ways to Get Involved in the Fight Against Sex Trafficking

3. Stop soliciting prostitutes.

OK. This one seems kind of like, “duh,” right? But nobody wants to talk about it!

Nobody wants to think about WHO is paying for the sex that drives trafficking right here in our own back yard. Nobody wants to admit that we probably all know people, primarily men, who solicit prostitutes. They work in our offices, they coach our kids, they sit in our churches (hell, they lead our churches), they live in our homes. Sometimes, they share our beds. Sometimes, they marry our daughters. Sometimes, they appear in our mirrors. Don’t believe me? Well, I think you’d be surprised.

Regardless, the issue of supply and demand cannot be ignored. Trafficking exists and is quite lucrative in the U.S. because SO. MANY. PEOPLE. are paying for sex! I know that most of those patrons never consider the service they’re buying may be coming from someone who was enslaved and/or trafficked, but they need to start. The only way to be 100 percent certain you aren’t complicit in contributing to sex trafficking and slavery is to avoid soliciting a prostitute.

In all fairness, it must be noted that not every man and woman working in the American sex industry is doing so under duress. Many bright, drug-free, totally sane people enter the business legally and of their own volition, and they are just as appalled as you and me by the thought of someone being forced into it in any way, shape, or form.

So—I’m not a proponent of sex for sale, like, not at all—but if you are going to engage in sex for cash? For shit’s sake, do it with a conscience. Do your diligence to ensure that you’re buying a free and willing partner (that means he or she must be above the age of consent and able to walk away at any time, if they so choose), and if you can’t be sure? Don’t do it.

That said, I know there are some people who will read this who don’t want to do it, but will do it anyway. They are addicts, and they need our help.

We can’t go on pretending the addiction that drives so much of the porn and sex industry is not also a major factor in the business of sex trafficking. There are so many people around us who are utterly destroyed by sex addiction, engulfed in hopelessness, yet, we sit silent. We are too embarrassed to bring it up, too ashamed to talk about it, too stigmatized to reach out to each other, so we suffocate in our secrets because the risk is too great, the consequences are too dire, and the church is too damn quiet about it all. That’s just not right, and I’m sorry.

My friend, if you’re a sex addict, I pray you will seek help. Today. Right now. I pray your confession will be met by Grace. I pray you will find Peace and know Love. I pray you will experience Redemption. I pray you’ll find that from the God who is perfected in our weakness, we gain strength. And I pray you will never hire a prostitute again.

You are not alone.

The sex slave and the addict need the same thing … Freedom. And the world will be a better place when we can say to them both, “Rescue is coming.”