I Am a Human Being

This is not a personal blog so my desire is that it be semi-professional, devastatingly informative, and not too chatty.  But sometimes my heart gets so wound up into the issue that I just want to burst.  Right now is one of those times.

I am a woman.  And I am sick to my core of women being viewed as objects, as lesser than, as easy prey.  I am a human being.   I have thoughts in my head, desires in my heart, skills in my hands.  I have the intrinsic right to protect my body, as far as I am able, from disease and abuse.  No one - no one, no one, NO ONE - has the intrinsic right to take that from me.  Anyone who desires to use me, manipulate me, physically hurt me, or willingly and unfeelingly subject me to emotional or physical harm or disease for his or her own benefit is acting outside the bounds of his or her rights.  

I am a human being.
It is not okay to use human beings.
It is not okay to misuse human beings.
It is not okay to abuse human beings.
The attitude of these men toward human beings is not okay.
It is not okay,
it is not okay,
it is not okay.

We throw around the word objectification a lot, but that's exactly what people who rape and traffick or knowingly use those who might be trafficked have done.  They have taken a human life - this bottle of experience and creativity and emotion and potential and life - and reduced it to any common object found lying around the house.  And less, even, because I bet every single one of the men interviewed in the article above has a smart phone or a laptop or a car or a favorite beer mug on which he places higher value than he has placed on the prostitute he's shagging.   

How can this be?  
How is it possible to think this way?

Oh God, change the heartbeat of the world, please.

Preparation, Prevention, Restoration: Pray

(Note: if you're non-religious the things I say here may not mean much to you.  But please be kind about it!)

As a Christian, I believe prayer is the most important thing any of us can do ever.  It is in prayer we find peace, though the world rage around us.  It is in prayer we find direction when there are 100 voices telling us what to do.  And it is in prayer that we find a Loving Parent who listens, who loves, and who acts accordingly.  I believe that the work of abolition is ultimately God's.  We are called to contribute where we can, but as Jesus says, "Ask the Lord of the field to send workers into the field..."  We cannot do any of this on our own strength.  We need to ask God to go before us, to change minds, open hearts, break the locks off doors and the chains off feet.  We petition God and He prepares the way.  If you are religious and are interested in abolition work but are not praying about it...then how interested are you in it, really?  Do you believe God is bigger?  If you believe this, then you will be praying about the issue of human trafficking.  Prayer needs to be part of our process from beginning to end - from the time we first start thinking about human trafficking to the moment we're sitting across from a child who's just described the first time he or she was gang-raped.  Prayer prepares our hearts to handle the heaviness we're going to face as we learn more about what really goes on in trafficking circles.  Prayer sustains us when we're in the thick of it.  And prayer restores us when we've reached our own beds again at night, weary beyond words from the battle we've just fought.   Pray, pray, pray.  Prayer is our doorway to peace.

If you haven't had much experience praying, here are a few good books on the subject:

Andrew Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer
Henri Nouwen, The Way of the Heart