I often pick up copies of the complimentary magazine, Central Minnesota Women to see what is new in our area. The October/November 2012 raised my eyebrows a bit. I would like to share a few statistics from the cover story, "Trendsetters Boutique: Battling the Oldest Oppression". First note the title words: "oppression", not,"profession", indicating that prostitution is not really a profession of choice. That is certainly a change from the attitude most of us have held about prostitution in the past. Then look at the statistic on the following page that says 95% of prostitutes use drugs or alcohol, because they are more easily controlled by their pimps if they are addicted. Hardly a matter of choice. Further down you see the estimate that a girl entering into prostitution at the age of 13 will probably only live five to seven more years. According to the article, the FBI says Minnesota sells about 10,000 women and girls into sex slavery every year, with the metropolitan area accounting for the 13th largest center for child prostitution in the country. Further yet, a 16 year old woman had been prostituting out of an unnamed St. Cloud hotel 80 times in one year. That's St. Cloud, folks.
The article hit home with me as the mother of a foster child who attempted to run away. Said child had been sexually abused in her birth home. Her counselor revealed that she had undergone "grooming" with one of birth mom's boyfriends. At the time that she reappeared at our door after running (Looked like she had made a path in the snow out to the road, then retreated to hide in a car in the garage) the police officer at our home warned her of the dangers that await girls out on the street. After three disrupted adoptions, at the age of 18 this young woman moved into her own apartment. Within days she had moved out of the apartment and in with a young man. When she broke up with him she immediately moved in with another man who had a prison record and a pornographic photography business. She is a mother now, but sees pornography and exotic dancing as perfectly acceptable occupations. Last we heard her three youngest children had all been removed from her home. She had already surrendered her first child. How does one begin to penetrate the years of abuse to re-educate her on what a real relationship, and a real family, look like?
Stop the johns, and prostitution necessarily stops. But how does a person convince men that prostitution is immoral? The same can be said for pornography. If no one bought it, no one would produce it.
The sexual revolution and the Pill have done nothing to diminish the problems of sexual abuse and prostitution, not even replacing them with masterbation, homosexuality (We'll not even address homosexual prostitution here!), adultery, or fornication, which one might assume would happen now that anything goes. Why not? Could it be that feeding the appetite really makes it stronger and more difficult to control, rather than easier to manage?
Dear Lord, help us to know You, love You, and serve You. St. Michael, pray for us.
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