Binding up the brokenhearted (by J. C. Wert)

When I asked Jason Wert to write a guest post for me, he asked, “How hard core can I get with my posting?” Having read Jason’s blog, I knew immediately what the subject matter of his post would be. Jason calls himself an abolitionist. I would agree.

The problem of human trafficking is not something we talk about much during Sunday school parties. Prostitution typically isn’t the topic of conversation during pot luck dinners. But maybe it should be. The following short story may make you a bit uncomfortable, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing…

Becki kept forcing air out her nose hoping that it would eliminate the putrid smell of sex and cigarettes.

Bodily fluids dripped off her skin onto the plaid shag carpet as a trio of men sat laughing and drinking while watching Boxing After Dark on HBO. The men who tricked her into a “modeling job” that turned her into nothing more than a breathing sex toy. The men who split the money given to them by the seven other men who raped her throughout the evening for whatever price Carlos told them they had to pay after replying to an ad on Craigslist.

She couldn’t remember the name of the hotel. Every night a different room in a different place but they all seemed to look and smell the same. She couldn’t even remember how long she’d been gone from her friends and family. She didn’t even know if her family was still looking for her or if they’d just believed she ran away and given up.

She rose to her hands and knees, lifting her head so she wouldn’t throw up. Her face hurt from the last man slapping her repeatedly while he violated her. The pain in her groin felt like the time Carlos hit her with a golf club. She grabbed the edge of the bed and slowly rose to her feet. She watched Carlos as he yelled at the boxers on television for a minute then turned toward the bathroom.

“Where you going, bitch?” Carlos yelled.

“I have to go the bathroom.”

“I didn’t say you could so sit down and shut up.”

“But I have to go bad.”

Carlos slammed his beer on the table causing it to foam and overflow onto the floor and his pants. He jumped from his chair swatting at his pants to wipe off the liquid.

“See what you made me do?” He crossed the room and slapped Becki across the face. The blow almost lifted her completely off the floor. She landed on the bed and tried not to cry because she knew crying meant at least ten lashes from Carlos’ belt. He had a very bad habit of losing count when he reached seven or eight.

“You piss on that bed and you’ll be turning tricks in a gas station bathroom,” Carlos said as he returned to his chair. “But that’d be too good for a ho like you.”

Becki turned her head away from her captor, a single tear running down her cheek to mix with the blood from her lip. She prayed for someone to rescue her and hoped that maybe this time God would hear her.

I’ll be honest…what you just read was a work of fiction in that the names have been changed and they weren’t really watching Boxing After Dark. However, as you read this blog post, there are young girls and women all over the United States who are just like Becki. Women taken by boyfriends or “business managers” who promise the world but end up giving physical and emotional abuse in run down hotel rooms and apartments in cities like Nashville, Los Angeles, New York, Las Vegas…

It’s a problem in the US that goes largely unreported for a number of reasons. They range from people not wanting to admit that America…the land of the free…can be home to slaves in the year 2010 to police arresting underage girls forced to work as prostitutes as the criminals.

It’s also a problem because too many Christians won’t do anything about it.

Sex related issues are so taboo in so many churches that when something like this comes around it’s quickly shuffled to the women’s ministry if it’s addressed at all. The people who can step up and really drive change…the men who control most churches and the purse strings of those churches…don’t want to get involved in such a “controversial” subject. However, didn’t Jesus come to set the captives free?

In Luke 4, Jesus read Isaiah 61:1 and said the Word was fulfilled in the hearing:

“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound” (ESV)

That means Jesus came to do all of those things…including proclaiming liberty to the captives. If we are to follow in Jesus’ footsteps, we need to do that as well no matter how uncomfortable we may get at the idea of strippers and prostitutes sitting in our prayer circles on Sunday morning.

Rise up and join those of us who are modern day abolitionists. You can help by supporting some of these groups who fight trafficking in the USA:

The Home Foundation

Beauty From Ashes

Hookers for Jesus

Not for Sale

When he’s not fighting the urge to eat Swedish Fish, Jason blogs at J. C. Wert – Writer, Speaker, Abolitionish and you can follow him on Twitter @JCWert.

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