Every year, over a quarter of a million American kids fall victim to commercial sexual exploitation. This outnumbers international kids in the U.S. 11 to 1.

Today we speak with Steve Wagner, President of the Renewal Forum and former Director of the Human Trafficking Program at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (from 2003 to 2006). Mr. Wagner started the “Rescue and Restore Victims of Human Trafficking” public awareness campaign, designed to increase the identification and rescue of victims of trafficking. This campaign received the prestigious Silver Anvil Award of the Public Relations Society of America.

In the interview Mr. Wagner speaks about:

• Sex trafficking of minors as an “economic crime,” driven by supply and demand
• How faith communities can get involved in stopping sex trafficking
• How parents can protect their kids from being trafficked

Joining me in today’s interview is William Payne, intern for the pureJUSTICE program at pureHOPE.

Music for today’s podcast is “Fragile” by Ten Shekel Shirt.

Listen to more Covenant Eyes Radio on iTunes.

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For more information about this issue see the new documentary Abolition. In this documentary on human trafficking in Georgia’s capital, the anti-child sex trafficking campaign Innocence Atlanta lifts the veil on this issue. Abolition features interviews with leaders in the anti-trafficking movement, including Steve Wagner, as well as survivors of child commercial sexual exploitation. (WARNING: As noted at the beginning of the film, it is “graphic and not for children.” Please use discretion.)

“America the Obese” in the May issue of The Atlantic reminds us of the weight-gain epidemic in the United States and the rest of the West. It is indeed widespread, deleterious, and unhealthy—which is why it is so frequently remarked on, and an object of such universal public concern.

Bad habits turn unwitting kids into unhappy adults, but there is another epidemic that is far more likely to make their future lives miserable than carrying those extra pounds? That would be the emerging social phenomenon of what can appropriately be called “sexual obesity:” the widespread gorging on pornographic imagery that is also deleterious and unhealthy, though it is far less remarked on than that other epidemic—and nowhere near an object of universal public concern.

That complacency may now be changing. The term sexual obesity comes from Mary Ann Layden, a psychiatrist who runs the Sexual Trauma and Psychopathology Program at the University of Pennsylvania. She sees the victims of Internet-pornography consumption in her practice, day in and day out. She also knows what most do not: Quietly, patiently, and irrefutably, an empirical record of the harms of sexual obesity is being assembled piecemeal via the combined efforts of psychologists, sociologists, addiction specialists, psychiatrists, and other authorities.

Read Mary Eberstadt’s whole article on FirstThings.com…

The title of this post is a bit controversial. There are many who would react to it with a strong “no.” Porn, they claim, is just an expression of free speech. It doesn’t hurt anybody. It’s just a bit of “adult” fun. They argue that the suggestion that porn production and sex trafficking are one and the same is nothing more than a distraction from the problem of sexual slavery.

But do those positions stand up to scrutiny? Is the production of pornography just a business like any other? That is, of course, what the pornography industry would like us to believe for the sake of its own financial interests – a belief pornographers have spent millions of dollar

s to foster over the past decades. Is it rational to subscribe to that belief?

The word “pornography” derives from the Greek pornographos, which means “writing about prostitutes.” Pornography is inherently tied to prostitution. In fact, it is prostitution. Former FBI agent Roger Young said, “What happened to common sense? The fact that there is a camera filming the prostitution doesn’t change the fact of the prostitution.” What also doesn’t make much of a difference is whether prostituted women are being paid by a morally-deficient man or a pornography production studio (though you’ll find plenty of the former in the latter). It’s still payment for a commercial sex act, and therefore still prostitution, which is why porn production is illegal in most of the country outside of California.

But porn production isn’t just prostitution. Just take a look at the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), which is a federal law first signed by President Clinton in 2000 and reauthorized by President Bush in 2003, 2005, and 2008. According to the TVPA, sex trafficking is “the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act.” If any of these elements are present in the production of pornography, then it’s sex trafficking. Is that a controversial idea? Perhaps. But that’s what the law says.

Certainly, most porn production that doesn’t involve minors probably will not be prosecuted under the TVPA, unless the presence of “force, fraud, or coercion” can be demonstrated. If they can, then what has occurred is considered a “severe form” of sex trafficking. And despite a lack of many prosecutions of porn producers, those elements are far from unheard of in the pornography industry. Just ask former porn performer Shelley Lubben. She says that “women are lured in, coerced and forced to do sex acts they never agreed to do… [and given] drugs and alcohol to help [them] get through hardcore scenes…The porn industry is modern-day slavery.”

So in short, porn production is prostitution is sex trafficking. Consuming porn is consuming commercial sex performed by “trafficked” individuals, however you slice it. To protect women and children from commercial sexual exploitation, and to avoid the damage to ourselves that porn consumption creates (plenty of research available on that these days), we must refuse to consume, and certainly refuse to purchase, the products of the commercial sex industry.

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This post is by William Payne. William served as an intern for pureJUSTICE this summer. He is a senior at Pittsburg State University where he is studying communications and advertising. He has also studied at Georgetown University’s Institute on Philanthropy and Voluntary Service.

According to a letter from 17 state Attorneys General to Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster and founder Craig Newmark,

“We recognize that Craigslist may lose the considerable revenue generated by the Adult Services ads. No amount of money, however, can justify the scourge of illegal prostitution, and the suffering of the women and children who will continue to be victimized, in the market and trafficking provided by Craigslist.”

In the 21st Century, the sad reality is that for the buyers of commercial sex, the new “double click” is violent porn with the first click and a live woman or child with the second.

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Watch CNN Correspondent Amber Lyon’s investigation of Craiglist’s adult services. In 2008 Craiglist agreed to report any suspicious ads to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Two years later, the Center says Craigslist has reported fewer than 100. Please note: the video contains some sensual and sexually exploitative images. Viewer discretion is advised.

“Sex trafficking comprises a smaller but still significant portion of overall human trafficking. When an adult is coerced, forced, or deceived into prostitution – or maintained in prostitution through coercion – that person is a victim of trafficking.” – TIP Report, 2010

Visit the State Department’s website to read the report.

“A true pursuit of justice necessarily starts
with a pursuit of personal purity” – Noel Bouché

Today I am interviewing Noel Bouché, Vice President of pureHOPE (formerly known as the National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families). Noel oversees the development of educational materials, campaigns, and partnerships to promote justice for the victims of sex trafficking.

Noel also runs the pureJUSTICE summer internship program, an initiative aimed at properly connecting the exploitation that is pornography to the evil of sex trafficking, a form of modern-day slavery. Today Noel will talk about why this internship was created and how the interns are furthering the cause of promoting justice and purity in a pornified culture.

Noel is the author of Exploited: Sex Trafficking, Porn Culture, and the Call to a Lifestyle of Justice (pdf). In this booklet Noel lays out the connection between the pornography industry and sex trafficking. This booklet demonstrates not only that pornography drives demand for sex trafficking, but that it actually constitutes a form of sex trafficking deserving of opposition and condemnation. Exploited also calls for the church to live out a lifestyle of justice according to Scripture.

Music for today’s podcast is “Fragile” by Ten Shekel Shirt.

Listen to more Covenant Eyes Radio on iTunes.

Sex sells—it’s not merely a marketing slogan. Sex not only helps advertisers sell a product—in today’s market sex is a product.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, sex trafficking is a modern-day form of slavery in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act is under the age of 18. This crime has been called the human rights issue of the 21st century.

Like all economic crimes, this one is driven by supply and demand. On the supply side, pimps and human traffickers coerce or kidnap women and children into some sort of sex business (prostitution, the making of pornography, “massage parlors,” stripping, live-sex shows, mail-order brides, military prostitution, sex tourism, etc.). On the demand side, men are driven by lust to seek out commercial sex.

The question is: What drives this demand?

While this is a multi-layered problem, there is no doubt that pornography plays a significant role why people buy sex.

All this week on Breaking Free we will be exploring the intersection between pornography and modern day sex trafficking. To help us explore this difficult subject my friends at pureHOPE have helped me put together a fantastic lineup of podcasts, articles, videos, and interesting links.

pureHOPE has started an initiative, pureJUSTICE, to call the church to a lifestyle of justice, speaking out against commercial sexual exploitation. pureJUSTICE calls men and women to a life of personal sexual integrity and communal accountability.

Stay tuned all this week to learn more.

Normal hours for our Customer Support line will return Tuesday. Covenant Eyes provides free customer support from 8 a.m. to midnight Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays.

We hope all our friends in the U.S. enjoy a much deserved break!

Now, let me state outright that I have not read Criag’s book Jesus Loves You This I Know. I have followed, with great interest, the mission of XXXchurch. After watching a video like this I am left with a deep conviction and an important question.

1. I pray Ron Jeremy and others in the porn industry do come to repentance and fall in love with Christ.

I deeply admire the friendship Craig has with Ron Jeremy. I hope one day Craig can one day present Ron as his offering to God (Romans 15:16), the fruit from his years of faithful and Christ-centered friendship with him.

When I look at the ministries of XXXchurch, or others like The Pink Cross Foundation, I am cut to the heart. Do I long for the salvation of others? Do I want to reach out to those who have felt, rightly or wrongly, shunned by the church at large? Do I show unrelenting love to those I disagree with? I pray I do.

2. I want to get the gospel right when I talk to others.

In the video Ron is troubled by the sign-waving fanatics who say Jesus doesn’t like porn and that He hates porn stars. He labels this approach as judgmental. He much prefers Craig’s approach: Jesus loves porn stars. Craig believes Jesus’ message does not divide people; it unites.

I don’t mean to unnecessarily rattle anyone’s cage, but this video provokes a question in me that needs answering.

There is a reductionist tendency in the church today that wants to highlight only some, not all, of what the Scriptures say about a specific subject. When we look at the breadth of Scripture, what does “Jesus loves you” mean? When God uses the word “love” what does He mean?

What we find is we cannot disconnect God’s love from His wrath.

“God is Love”

One of the great maxims of Scripture is the oft-quoted phrase coined by the apostle John: “God is love” (1 John 4:8). Reading further we find out how he defined God’s love: “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:9-10). This is important, so catch this:  to understand love, we must understand this thing John calls “propitiation.”

“Propitiation” was a term used in ancient circles which refers to appeasing a god, using some sort of sacrifices to turn away the wrath and anger of that god, and thus winning that god’s favor and good will. John uses this word knowing his readers already have a firm grasp of what this means. Jesus’ death on the cross is our propitiation. To the original readers it was well-understood that God was angry at sin, that God was their Judge, and in John’s mind, understanding this was in some way foundational to understanding God’s love.

In other words, when we downplay God’s anger at sin, we redefine love and we  empty the cross of its power.

Wrath and Love Meet

I completely understand that subjects like the wrath of God and hell are uncomfortable topics…but that’s sort of the point, isn’t it? Isn’t the prospect of hell supposed to jolt us, make us uneasy, even frighten us? We are meant to look at the awful reality of hell, and think, “What must sin be that it would justify such a horrendous punishment? How amazing must God be that sinning against Him warrants such extreme penalties?” The Jesus who loves us, ironically, speaks about hell more than anyone else in the Bible.

Is it wrong to say God hates sinners? No, it is not. Time and time again Scripture proclaims the jarring truth that God not only hates sin, he also hates sinners (Psalm 5:5; 11:5; Hosea 9:15; Malachi 1:3). He calls those who live lives of unrighteousness “abominations” to Him (Deuteronomy 18:12; 22:5; 25:16; Proverbs 3:32; 16:5; 29:27).

Is it wrong to say God loves sinners? No, it is not. Jesus, who is the very image of God, showed incredible love toward people who lived lives of open, shameless sin. Despite the opposition around Him, Jesus insisted on eating with notorious sinners (Matthew 9:9-13; Luke 7:36-50; 15:1-32).

So how do God’s wrath and His love intersect?

First, they intersect in His patience. God has a very long wick. He’s hatred of sin is absolute, but so is His patience with sinners. He does not immediately punish us. One of the great creeds of the Old Testament proclaims this: “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin” (Exodus 34:6-7).

Second, they intersect at the cross of Christ. The thing that makes the cross such a marvelous expression of divine love is that Jesus bore His Father’s wrath against sin that was due us (Isaiah 53; Matthew 27:46; Galatians 3:13; 1 Peter 2:24). God placed our sins on His body, and on the cross He felt the hell of being God-forsaken.

Jesus’ love for sinners was expressed not just in His willingness to associate with them, but His unwillingness to ignore their sin. He treated sinners as soul-sick people, lost sons and daughters, calling them to repentance and proclaiming forgiveness to those who repented (Matthew 9:12-13; Luke 7:48). His heart’s desire was to see sinners reconciled to God.

In fact, in one of Jesus’ most controversial parables, the hero of the story is a tax collector who is so broken over his sin that he cries out to God, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” The word translated “have mercy” is actually better translated, “make propitiation.” This is why Jesus befriended sinners: He wanted them to be gripped with the seriousness of their sin and cry out to God to turn away His wrath.

At the climax of Jesus’ mission, He answered the tax collector’s prayer by becoming the perfect sacrifice, becoming our propitiation.

God in the Dock

Some read this and say, “Yes, yes, we get all of that wrath-of-God stuff. But since His anger at sin has been appeased by Jesus’ sacrifice, there is no more need to speak of it in such vivid terms. Mention it if you must, but I don’t want to scare people into salvation with threats of hell. I want to woo them to Christ with the promise of His love.”

The problem with this attitude is that the disciples of Jesus didn’t see things this way. They did not believe the cross automatically removed God’s disposition of wrath from the world at large, but that it only provided salvation to those who would be united to Christ. Even on this side of the cross, the wrath of God still rests on all who suppress the truth about God, all who live lives of disobedience (Romans 1:18; Ephesians 5:6; Colossians 3:6). Central to the apostles’ preaching is the startling proclamation that the wrath of God against sin will come in fullest fury one day, and that we who are united to Christ will be safe from His wrath (Romans 5:9; 1 Thessalonians 1:10; 5:9; Revelation 19:15).

In his famous essay, “God in the Dock,” C.S. Lewis said one of the main differences between modern man and ancient man is that ancient man believed that God or the gods were his judges, and that he was at their mercy. Modern man, rather, believes that he is God’s judge. God is on trial. This is one reason why “sin” is a lost word in our culture today: man simply doesn’t believe he will stand before a Judge.

Missing this crucial point means we miss what God’s love really signifies. If God’s wrath is not real, the cross is neutered of its power.

Speaking the Truth in Love

Like I said, I don’t know if Craig’s message to Ron Jeremy has this well-rounded gospel flavor. It’s probably impossible to tell from one 3-minute video.

Preaching to porn stars is, unfortunately, not a common activity in the church. Regardless, when we share the story of God’s love to anyone (porn stars included), it must include the frightful proclamation of God’s anger at sin.

Of course, we must still understand how God wishes to communicate this startling message. How do we speak the truth in love? In this video, pastor John Piper begins to unravel this question.

What do you think?