According to Tim Ballard, the US is the #1 consumer of child exploitation material (interview with Daily Signal**). Every one of us must do what we can to prevent and end this bludgeoning evil. Jim Caviezel portrays Tim Ballard of Operation Underground Railroad in the movie The Sound of Freedom, in theaters since yesterday. I recommend it. As you get your tickets, consider the following statistics.
- Trafficking bludgeons*** our children. Our children are vulnerable. According to Saved in America.org, there are more than 365,000 missing children in our country each year. “30% of those missing are being trafficked (approximately 109,000 children).” Over half were approached within 48 hours of running away. Sixty percent of trafficked children are foster youth.
- Trafficking bludgeons our country. When men (and women) are involved in this sin, it affects not only them but their families who they are not making a priority. It is an addiction, taking control of their lives and taking away the potential for good that God created them for. That affects our whole country.
- Trafficking bludgeons our civilization. The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that 6.3 people are in sexual slavery in the world (2021 data). It is the “fastest growing criminal enterprise in the world” (Tim Ballard**). More people are enslaved today than were during the Mid-Atlantic slave trade of the past. Two million children a year are forced into sex trafficking. Nothing good for civilization can come of this.
- Trafficking bludgeons our hearts. These are people made in God’s image. They deserve respect, not enslavement.
Click here for information from Operation Underground Railroad and here from Children’s Mercy Hospital on how to protect your children. Additional general information is here.
Theresa Caldwell Jenkins has written her story of being trafficked by her family from a young age.
*The numbers here are estimates, various numbers are given in various sources because these activities are in darkness.
*** I am using this word “bludgeon” that isn’t often collocated in this way, but I believe is efficient and appropriate here.
Image by Jackson David from Pixabay
