Living and Responding to Heal and Transform
Living and Responding to Heal and Transform
By: CHRIS HEUERTZ
From: Sexually Exploited Children: Working to Protect and Heal. Phyllis Kilbourn and Marjorie McDermid, ed., MARC Publications.
We had decided to show our visiting friends the beautiful side of Calcutta, away from the noise, pollution and poverty that plague the city streets. Monsoon season had brought heavy rain that day. Between showers we saw the Victoria Monument, one of the last reminders of the British Raj and English rule in India. Typical of the streets of Calcutta, people were everywhere.
As we left the monument, a small boy, no more than nine or ten, followed our group. A sweet child, he retained the untarnished look of innocence amid the cruelty and hostility of Calcutta. His big, dark eyes looked up at us as he walked. His tattered red shorts and T-shirt spoke of a hard life on the streets. He wore no shoes, his hair was tousled and his skin was darker than most Bengalis. He went from one person to the next, telling us, in broken English, his sad story and asking for a couple of rupees. His mother and father had died, he said, and he was very hungry. We weren't sure whether to believe him or not. The boy is one of thousands of beggars in India.
The issue of beggars in India has always been a personal dilemma. They all seem to have the same needs, but many of them fabricate stories to prey on the emotions of rich foreigners. Seeing far more of them than we had money to help, the arguments for giving and not giving to beggars constantly tear through our minds. On one hand, giving to a beggar encourages a lifestyle of pathetic dependency. It is a challenge to determine whether the man, woman or child is being forced to beg by the black market. The black market in India is cruel. It has been known to kidnap children and intentionally cripple them, gouge out their eyes or otherwise maim them, placing them in strategic locations to earn money for their handlers.
On the other hand, the man, woman or child begging from you may literally be dying before your eyes. How can you not give? Scripture says, “Give to the one who asks you” (Matt. 5:42). But does that mean giving exactly what they ask? What about our attitude and motivation for giving? Are we performing an act of kindness to get that beggar to leave us alone? Can we give only a handful of change and feel good about it?
What about the lingering question, Will we be held accountable for not giving to that child? The Scriptures also say, “I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat” (Matt. 25:42).
As our group walked on, the little boy followed for almost a mile. A few of us struck up a conversation with him. Sadly, for the most part, we ignored him. Later that afternoon one of our friends told us he had to get something off his chest. He asked if we remembered the child who followed us earlier that afternoon. We did. Then our friend said that this little boy had sexually propositioned him. We listened in disbelief and horror. That boy seemed so innocent and naive. Our friend wept as he told the details of his encounter. Suddenly I was convicted and my heart broken. That boy had asked for a couple of rupees (not even a dime in U.S. currency) for something to eat, and we had walked on by. That night we kept wondering in what dark room that child would be sexually abused so he could earn enough money to buy the food we had refused to give him.
This story illustrates how giving can be a preventive measure in the fight for the purity of children. When we give our resources, our time, our love and ourselves, we contribute to winning the battle to preserve the innocence and purity of children's sexuality.
IDENTIFY THE PROBLEM
All over the world hundreds of thousands of children are forced into lives of sexual slavery, compelled against their will to perform acts that many of us could never imagine. The statistics, because they are more than we can bear, scarcely faze us. But the truth remains–these statistics represent more than numbers. They are boys and girls who want to grow up and live normal lives just like our children. How do they become entangled in this flesh trade?
Economic, cultural, religious, social and emotional reasons all contribute to the crime of child sexual exploitation. Some children are forced into it against their will. Many are promised lucrative jobs that never materialize, and others are actually “married” to middlemen who look for bodies to fill brothels. Some children are born into the sex trade. Others voluntarily drink this bitter cup as a solution to the crippling poverty of their families. Many children are abducted and sold into the commercial sex industry. Those who are forced resist as long as they can, but eventually rapes–including violent gang rapes–forced starvation, threats against the children's families and emotional abuse and manipulation are pressures too great to overcome. The tragedy can happen to anyone, and it has. Primarily, brothels look for the most vulnerable. They find children who are isolated, abused and impoverished, and who need community and identity. Though the commercial sex trade may not be a good identity or community, it is often the only evident option. Children who have been sexually abused deal with tremendous emotional scars and, at times, respond by finding some twisted form of solace in this cursed work force. The desperate poor may even go as far as selling their children into this brutal and abusive profession just to find money to make it through one more day.
WHY SHOULD WE RESPOND?
Why get involved? After all, we reason, we have the care of our families and our own often seemingly unsolvable problems.
We need to be involved because if we, the church, will not stand up for these boys and girls, who will? Our stand will be our message. Here are some reasons for getting involved.
It's not their fault
Most of the boys and girls involved in the commercial sex industry are not there because they volunteered. Nepali village girls do not dream of spending their adolescent years sleeping with seven to ten strange men each day in a foreign land, often incurring per moment internal damage as a consequence. The children used in child prostitution and child pornography have been forced, many times violently, into these cruel and humiliating circumstances. It's not fair that eight-year-old girls all over Asia will be sexually abused tonight while we tuck our children into their beds. It's not fair that nine-year-old boys are forced to perform acts that our children would be punished for if they even described them at their Christian elementary schools. It's not fair, and it's not their fault.
We are responsible for their suffering
This may sound extreme, but we firmly believe the children's suffering is our fault in many ways. In the culture of the kingdom of God, justice has a broader definition in terms of corporate responsibility than many of us are willing to acknowledge. We play a part in their suffering when we sit back and allow the culture of lust to pervade Western entertainment and art. The repercussions of these sensual pleasures are felt on the other side of the world inside the torn and used bodies of sexually exploited children. We permit the media to degrade women in advertisements and movies, and these media have a larger impact than we can begin to imagine. Our apathy and compromise have effects on the rest of the world.
The materialism and consumerism esteemed by the developed world–including many inside the church–also contribute to the suffering of the sexually exploited. People in the developing world learn from their neighbors in the developed world to value things rather than people. If the church does not take a stand against overconsumpt
ion and affluence, it is then responsible for those children who are sold into the flesh trade by parents trying to keep up with the elusive material standards set by the West. God, in Scripture, actively engages in the lives of people. God defends the oppressed and makes provision for those literally dependent on others and on society. We can no longer hide from the wickedness. We must engage it, confront it, stand up to it and show the world a better way.
Love warrants a response
The way we love ourselves and the way we love our neighbors are often very different. We make sure we eat and dress well; we see to it that our basic need for clothing, housing and food are met. But when we see a beggar, do we want all of that for him? We will see to it that our children receive the best education we can afford, but are we burdened because the boys and girls living as slaves in brothels all over Asia are not in school?
This is how we know what love is: Jesus laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?
Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth (1 John 3:16-18).
RESPONDING PREVENTIVELY
It is to be hoped that the vast majority of us will never be sexually propositioned by a child. Many of us may never cross the threshold of a brothel in North America, much less Asia. Many of us may never be confronted by child pornographers. So, how can we respond preventively? How can we live lives that make a difference in the battle to preserve the purity and dignity of the world's children?
Value the child
Our future is in the children, and unless we are good stewards of this precious resource, we will contribute to the downfall of society. We find it hard to imagine a father or mother who willingly and deliberately sells his or her child for a TV, but are we any different? We sell the dignity of our own children to feed our reputations, to hide our insecurities, to excuse our own shortcomings and to indulge our appetites for control. The consequences may be different, but the spirit of the matter is nearly identical.
At times we misplace admiration and praise. We focus on the earned prestige and achievements of our children–the academic successes, the athletic triumphs, the spiritual maturity. We must learn to celebrate our children because they are children and appreciate and enjoy them as a gift from God. We must relearn to value the child. Valuing the child is essential because sexual exploitation is an issue concerning the image of God. Every man, woman and child has been created in the image of our Lord. To degrade that individual in any way is to show contempt for our Maker. Because we are created in God's image, we all possess an intrinsic and essential form of dignity that must be preserved. Boys and girls in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Nepal and India, sold today for television sets, send a message of how an unredeemed world values the image of God.
Protect the family
Much of the sexual exploitation of children today happens because of a breakdown in the family structure. In our preventive response to preserve the purity and dignity of children we must begin at home. The way we protect our families will be a message. The example of a family set apart and dedicated to the Lord will stand as a challenge to those families still searching for meaning and identity.
Eight weeks before Mother Teresa passed away, we had the opportunity to visit with her for a few moments. As we shared with her the details concerning our ministry among children with AIDS, she asked us whether or not we had any children of our own. We replied, “Not yet.”
“When you do,” she said, “you must remember that loving your child will be your most important ministry. If everyone understood that truth, imagine how different our world would be.
Become aware of the crisis
As active and deliberate kingdom persons, we must increase our knowledge and awareness of the needs of the world. Our tendency is to run from the reality of the sexual exploitation of children and other related issues. It depresses us and makes us feel guilty. Exposure demands a response. In our ongoing discipleship we are exposed to the suffering of the world for a redemptive purpose. Embrace the pain and become an agent of healing and transformation. Become informed and get involved. God, who feels the pain and suffers with the afflicted, desires that all be made whole. That healing can happen only through his hands and his feet–the church. If we refuse to embrace God's heart, we fall short of God's calling on each of our lives.
Respond to the poor, the isolated, the abused
The flesh trade exists among children in a large part because of poverty. The Bible is clear–the poor are poor because of our disobedience (Deut. 15:4-11). Scripture is full of references regarding our responsibility to the poor. Nearly 300 verses in the Old Testament and more than 100 verses in the New Testament deal with the poor, the orphaned, the fatherless, the widowed, the oppressed, the alienated and the disadvantaged. God identifies with the poor and the needy (Prov. 19:17, Isa. 3:15, Matt. 25:34-45). The prophet Jeremiah equates knowing God with having compassion for the poor Jeremiah 22:16). How do we measure up?
For too long the church in the West has spiritualized the poor in Scripture, but the Good News is good news because it was preached to the poor. We challenge you to reinterpret your reading of the Bible. Read it as the peasants of first-century Palestine might have read it. You will find answers you never saw before. Preserving the dignity of the poor is also our responsibility. The church of the West has held very negative views of the poor. We have made unjust assumptions as to what causes poverty, and we have judged those on the margins of society, adding to their marginalization. Unless we assume the poor have intrinsic value, they may continue to feel that their daughters are only worth a new TV or can be sold for $200.
As a preventive measure in combating the flesh trade and the trafficking of young boys and girls we must respond to the poor, the isolated and the abused. We must reread Scriptures through new eyes, identify ourselves with the poor and disadvantaged and become a voice for the voiceless.
Reinterpret spirituality in the context of a dying world
Our faith has become very exclusive. If someone does not fit the social and economic mold of our churches, they may have a tough time being accepted by Christians. We must learn new ways to celebrate our faith inclusively so that those on the margins of society will feel welcome in our churches and in our communities. How many of us belong to a congregation that wouldn't stare at a prostitute if he or she walked into the sanctuary on Sunday morning? One that would not wonder why he was there? One that would not judge and criticize her in our hearts and minds? The prostitutes of first-century Palestine felt as if they could spend time with Jesus-why can't they feel the same way with his followers?
If the world did not need redemption, we would not need to discuss the sexual exploitation of children. The cries and moans of children in pain, children begging for rest, children screaming “Stop! You're hurting me!” continue to fall on the deaf ears of a world in urgent need of redemption. Sexual slavery exists on two levels. The first is for those held as slaves in brothels who need to be freed. The second is for the captors, bound in sexual slavery–the brothel owners, the brothel customers, and the lost who find their fulfillment in sensual pleasures and financial gain. The world must be set free from these forms of slavery through redemption in Christ.
Finally, the
answer lies in love
We have been asked to love our neighbors as ourselves. The sacrifice of the King of Kings became the supreme example of love. Ask God for an unstoppable love for the world's children. Pray that God would give you his heart for these boys and girls who have no hope. If you begin to taste the pain our Father feels them for these little ones, there is no telling what you will do to help.
Jeremiah the prophet condemned child sacrifice, yet child sacrifice still happens today. It happens in the dark and sultry brothels all across Asia, in the homes of child pornographers across Europe and the U.S.A., as well as in the hearts of men and women who lust after the purity of boys and girls.
Tonight, a small boy in Asia, desperate for his next meal, will look for an older man who will abuse and sexually defile him. May the church stand up against this injustice and cry “Enough!” May our lives and our faith be made relevant to a world in need, and may we stand and be counted with the boys and girls who are looking for a way out of this cruel and painful life.