Awakening Desire before it is Season: Reading Biblical Texts in Response to the Sexual Exploitation of Children

Abstract

On international, national, and local levels, the crime of sex trafficking has grown to epic proportions. While several non-profit organizations have begun to tackle the issue, the Christian church's actions have remained minimal. This paper proposes a three-fold strategy to help local congregations struggle with this phenomenon. First, churches must be willing to face statistical data that indicts our culture for the sexual exploitation of children. Second, congregations must be willing to talk openly about human sexuality without retreating into a simplistic pseudo-morality that simply categorizes certain sexual behaviors as right and others as wrong. The primary resources for this discussion are the oft-neglected passages of Scripture that speak explicitly of sexual matters. Third, as a result of this conversation, churches can finally claim the victims of sex trafficking as their sons and daughters, embodying true love to these children in a world that has abandoned them.