Most of the time, reading and writing is pretty easy for me, but this book, God in a Brothel,<\/a> <\/em>was really hard to read and is even harder to write about.<\/p>\n Sex trafficking\u2013the commercial sexual exploitation of women, girls, and boys by force, fraud, or coercion\u2013is a terrifying reality, and not just \u2018overseas somewhere\u2019 or \u2018a long time ago.\u2019 Thousands\u2013no, millions\u2013of people are enslaved so that their captors can profit by prostituting them. <\/strong>There are more people enslaved today than at any point in human history.<\/em> First,<\/em> I have grown up in (and belong to) a religious tradition that values sexual purity to a very high degree. And with good reason: the New Testament is pretty clear that Jesus\u2019 followers are to be pure. However, the emphasis on safeguarding personal sexual purity<\/em> as a hallmark of Christian faith\u2013perhaps well-intentioned\u2013has also served to demonize <\/em>those who struggle with normal human desires and drives.<\/strong> It has also made talking about sexual problems\u2013like addiction, abuse, and exploitation\u2013very difficult.<\/p>\n Second, <\/em>I think that women and girls have unjustly carried the blame when it comes to the issue of selling sex. More than once, I have heard people say that Bathsheba shouldn\u2019t have been taking a bath on the roof, because in so doing she was tempting<\/em><\/strong><\/em> King David. <\/strong>(And, thus, the ensuing adulterous affair was her<\/em> fault. There are so many reasons why this interpretation is completely ridiculous.) To hear some people talk, you would think that prostitutes picked their job at a Career Fair. In reality, abuse, fraud, force, addiction, illness, and coercion are usually involved.<\/strong> Blaming the women (and girls) is kind of beside the point, not to mention that it wasn\u2019t Jesus\u2019 approach. And yet, talking about prostitution is still kind of uncomfortable.<\/p>\n Third,<\/em> as the author Daniel Walker points out, in many churches, the focus and aim seems to be<\/p>\n \u201ctypically on gaining victory over personal sin, and there is little apparent understanding of the whole gospel as it applies to [\u2026] a creation groaning under the weight of injustice and evil.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Don\u2019t get me wrong. I\u2019m not saying personal morality is not important. But it does seem that, in many Christian circles, there\u2019s maybe 1,000 \u201ccombat personal lust\u201d discussions for every 1 \u201chow can we fight commercial sexual exploitation?\u201d discussion. <\/strong>Maybe, though, if we could get a clear picture of where unbridled lust and greed lead\u2013to girls and women enslaved as prostitutes\u2013we might have a compelling reason to fight against lust, and not just the kind that\u2019s within us.<\/p>\n Daniel Walker,<\/a> a New Zealand cop and the founder of NVader<\/a>, an organization that investigates and helps to prosecute perpetrators of sex trafficking while rescuing and restoring the victims, went into the darkness and the temptation of brothels driven by love, compassion, and the desire to see Jesus in \u201cthe least of these.\u201d This book is a candid telling of how Walker lost his life\u2013his security, his peace, his carefree spirit, and even his beloved wife\u2013for the sake of this mission.<\/strong><\/p>\n I can imagine Walker being judged by other Christians for the failures he so candidly admits in this book, but I sincerely hope he will not be. His is a compelling, vulnerable, and heartbreaking story of one who tries, succeeds, fails, and tries again in the sometimes messy, often ugly, always complicated business of setting captives free\u2013of making possible a world where people are neither owned nor sold.<\/strong><\/p>\n \n<\/p> {Learn about Daniel Walker\u2019s anti-trafficking tour here<\/a>. Click <\/em>here<\/a> where you can read an excerpt, hear an interview with the author and see further discussion on the book<\/em>.}<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" {once again I\u2019m participating in the Patheos book club} Most of the time, reading and writing is pretty easy for me, but this book, God in a Brothel, was really hard to read and is even harder to write about. Sex trafficking\u2013the commercial sexual exploitation of women, girls, and boys by force, fraud, or coercion\u2013is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2070,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,16,19,59],"tags":[653,1052,1691,1758,2031],"class_list":["post-1183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-books","category-brokenness","category-justice","tag-daniel-walker","tag-god-in-a-brothel","tag-nvaders","tag-patheos-book-club","tag-sex-trafficking"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/484\/2011\/10\/god-in-a-brothel.jpg\" "\\"God-in-a-Brothel\\"")
<\/a>I think there are a few reasons why this is such a difficult subject for someone like me.<\/p>\n