True Freedom for All

By: Steve Huston

Too often people believe that child sex trafficking is something relegated to third world countries, when found in the United States, it’s only in big cities or among the poorest of the poor.

Emma Waters, writer for The Heritage Foundation’s The Daily Signal, recently wrote a piece entitled US Is a Top Destination for Child Sex Trafficking, and It’s Happening in Your Community. One may think that’s a very broad brush she paints with, “Surely not in MY community,” I can almost hear some of my readers say with hushed tones. Yet, during many years of research, the phrase “in your community” is the statement that I run across over and over. We can be grateful that there are many organizations that reach out to help trafficked victims of all ages and both sexes.

Emma begins her compelling and disturbing piece of journalism:

Kara was 11 when her family first sold her body for drugs.

 Sydney was 14 when she met an older man online who promised her financial security and a better life.

 And after another stint in the foster care system, Marcus decided that anything, including homelessness, would be better than the foster family he was living with.

 Each of these stories, from real girls and boys in the United States, reflects the most common entry points for children being pulled into child trafficking. The facts are frightening:

 * On average, a child enters the U.S. sex trade at 12 to 14 years old. Many are runaway girls who were sexually abused as children.

 * Most of the time, victims are trafficked by someone they know, such as a friend, family member, or romantic partner.

 * Predators can rent a child for a single sex act for an average of $90. Often, that child is forced to have sex 20 times per day, six days a week.

 * Trafficking usually occurs in hotels, motels, online websites, and at truck stops in the U.S.

 * About 50,000 people, primarily from Mexico and the Philippines, are trafficked into the U.S. annually.

According to the Federal Human Trafficking Report, “In 2018, over half (51.6%) of the criminal human trafficking cases active in the U.S. were sex trafficking cases involving only children.”

 * Traffickers use social media platforms to recruit and advertise victims of human trafficking, according to anti-trafficking advocates.

 … Studies estimate that 83% of child trafficking victims in the U.S. are Americans.

These facts are not only heartrending, they should bring any Christians to their knees before the Throne of Grace. These are not simply numbers; they are real people with feelings, dreams and aspirations, God-given rights, and a longing for freedom. Each of these individuals forced into exploitation is a living, breathing, soul! These crimes against humanity are sins and oppressions that contribute to the “confusion of face” which is ours as a nation and which only further ripens our nation for God’s divine and holy judgment.

To make matters worse, these crimes are seldom investigated deeply and people of influence are rarely given the penalties they deserve. Take for instance Jeffrey Epstein, as reported by Armstrong Williams, also from The Daily Signal: “Despite a substantial federal investigation revealing enough evidence to put him behind bars for several lifetimes, Epstein was barely punished. Instead of dismantling a major human sex trafficking network that would have likely taken down numerous high-profile celebrities and politicians, Epstein received a minor penalty, serving only 13 months in county jail, with the privilege of leaving for work six days a week.”

There are many questions surrounding Epstein, his being a massive sexual predator of children, and the many powerful, prominent, and political figures with whom he associated – men like Prince Andrew, Bill Gates, and Bill Clinton. According to the McAlvany Intelligence Advisor, Epstein “visited the Clinton White House 17 times, while Clinton rode on Epstein’s private plane at least 26 times.” Why is it when we “connect the dots” we either still do not get a complete picture or one of those dots strangely ends up vanishing?

When a movie comes along like the Sound of Freedom, shouldn’t everyone be on board for creating awareness and a desire to see these heinous criminals brought to justice? Any conservative reading this is likely nodding in agreement. However, the Leftists and their media lapdogs throw stones, attempting to discredit films of this nature and those with journalistic integrity who publish the truth regardless the name-calling and attacks.

Why would those on the Left balk at exposing these criminal deeds and the criminals themselves?

Emma Waters, quoted in another Daily Signal article, states: “The attempts by mainstream media and leftist outlets to discredit … ‘Sound of Freedom’ are less surprising when you consider four of the main areas that aggravate child sexual exploitation: the porous southern border, unaccountable social media platforms, child pornography, and broken families. 

 “What woke ideologues don’t want to admit is that when people mock the traditional family and encourage soft-on-crime policies, it’s children who suffer exploitation and abuse.” (The four main areas she outlines is more fully dealt with in her article referred to at the top of this email.)

With such a monstrous national and global problem what can one person do to make an impact? Very few of us will likely be part of a task force called upon to take down a child sex exploitation ring, but there are things we can individually do to push back against this great evil. I’ll summarize some of those ways from the McAlvany Intelligence Advisor as well as include some of my own.

1. Educate yourself and others by watching Sound of Freedom or one of the “many lone voices [that] have been warning of the evils of child trafficking (and government-facilitated trafficking).” Have conversations with others, just because the movie leaves the box office doesn’t mean it should leave our minds.

2. Work with state legislators to stop government-subsidized child trafficking as well as putting pressure on them to investigate all offenders regardless their prominence or political affiliations.

3. Protect your children and grandchildren from the evils prevalent in both the real and social media worlds. Have conversations about what’s going on with them and be very vigilant regarding their online activities. Listen to what they are telling you, check things out. “Most of the time, abuse and trafficking are carried out by friends and even family members. Strongly consider homeschooling. Guard against the corrupt culture of social media and Hollywood and seek to create a strong home culture that can resist the bad. How much are you willing to sacrifice to protect your children?”

4. “Understand True Freedom – What is the root problem behind trafficking and pedophilia? At its core is the desire to reject God’s standards and be “like God,” defining “good and evil” for ourselves (Gen. 3:5). … To quote Whitaker Chambers, ‘External freedom is only an aspect of interior freedom. Political freedom, as the Western world has known it, is only a political reading of the Bible. Religion and freedom are indivisible…’”

When it comes to other reasons why the Left pushes back against Sound of Freedom with such vigor, The Federalist’s J. Antonio Juarez adds another point of view too often overlooked by many: “…individuals want complete sexual freedom for themselves, but don’t want to think about the negative fallout that happens to those who abuse those freedoms or are victims of those who do.”

“…To admit that child sex trafficking is objectively wrong would mean that certain sexual preferences and activities are only subjectively right or permissible. Once you start that conversation, you will be calling all of the sexual and social freedoms acquired over the years into question. In short, if you start talking about the horrors of child sex trafficking and the need to do something about it, you will inadvertently build a solid case for re-instituting traditional sexual mores and building stronger families.”

His article is also very worth reading; it ends with this: “See the film and spread the word, and let’s get the right conversation going about reclaiming our culture.”

If we hope to “get the right conversation going about reclaiming our culture,” it will start by proclaiming from where our moral compass must come. In other words, what makes right, right and wrong, wrong. It mustn’t be arbitrary, situational, or from somewhere deep inside oneself. Our nation, its laws and its culture, was founded on God’s laws, His morality, and the holiness and glory which exudes from Him and is due to Him.

We need to humble ourselves to Truth, submit ourselves to His way, and repent of the evil which we’ve allowed to take place in our country and in our own lives. Instead of looking the other way – live and let live – we need to realize that when one of these little ones suffer exploitation, abuse, grooming, or training which runs contrary to God’s law, we all suffer. The “re-instituting traditional sexual mores and building stronger families” is not only a way back, it’s God’s way and must be done His way.

 

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