June 28 2017 – Click here to listen
Last Saturday I spoke at a sex trafficking, (child rape for profit), symposium in Tallahassee. The event was well attended and the attendees seemed to be enthusiastic about finding ways to combat this horrific evil.
After I spoke, a young lady came up to me and remarked about something I’d said. It was my contention that child rape for profit was the worst evil on the planet. I mentioned some other evils such as war, famine, cancer, terrorism, and so on, but nothing compares to torturing little children as sex slaves.
The lady told me that she knew of something worse, and it was when people are in a position that would enable them to do something to stop it and don’t.
Hmmm . . . Edmund Burke said: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Albert Einstein took it a step further: “The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.”
The young lady with whom I was speaking was primarily referring to legislators, law enforcement, D.A.’s, and judges that sometimes let perpetrators off with a slap on the wrist, but don’t you think it applies to those of us in the church too?
I have long admired Dietrich Bonhoeffer; if there was ever a Christian who practiced what he preached, it was him. The church cowered and catered to Hitler’s every wish and stood by as the Nazis rewrote the Bible, murdered millions, and martyred Bonhoeffer. To the end he ridiculed the “cheap grace” the German church espoused, and insisted that “costly grace” – a grace that might cost a Christian his or her very life – is what was needed.
My approach is to go after the root cause of this problem. To go after the “Johns;” those individuals who buy sex with children. Bonhoeffer stated: “We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.”
If there is no demand for victims there will be no victims. Every day I watch gruesome stories of children ravaged by predators. I received a call from an officer with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, FDLE, and we discussed the problem at length. He detailed how registry of sex offenders is done in Florida and gave me valuable information about the federal registry. He is as determined as anyone I’ve met to put a stop to it, but it is a big problem. He agreed with me that the way to stop child rape for profit is to eliminate the demand.
The Jesus Alliance was founded to try to get believers to work together to fight evil through the love of Christ. It seems logical that we should be able to equip believers by educating them on issues and then motivate them to take some action. We are daily trying to unite followers of Christ and others to combat this problem, but it is painstakingly slow and very expensive. I pray that it is not met with the same result that Dietrich Bonhoeffer faced as he tried to arouse the church in the early days of Hitler.
Just imagine how the world would have changed for the better if the church had boldly taken a stand against Hitler . . .
Innocent children are being ravaged daily. Can we change the situation? Will you do something about it? Go to the Jesus Alliance website today, like and share a video or two on this subject, or donate whatever you can afford, or sign up for our worldwide prayer call. Don’t idly stand by and allow this evil to intensify without doing anything.
Laws need to be strengthened, police, D.A.s, judges, legislators need training as do parents. We need to cry out in prayer to God for intercession. Victims and perpetrators need prayer. We need to create awareness and get enraged mothers to demand that something be done about it!
Dietrich Bonhoeffer said: “We must finally stop appealing to theology to justify our reserved silence about what the state is doing – for that is nothing but fear. ‘Open your mouth for the one who is voiceless’ – for who in the church today still remembers that that is the least of the Bible’s demands in times such as these?”
The Bible tells us repeatedly in His Word how all children are a gift from God. Every single life, every single child, is a reward and blessing. Children are a gift from God and a source for the growth of His Kingdom here on Earth! God knows that children can bring us closer to Him and help grow our Christian character. Help save the children today!
Psalm 127:3
Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth.