The Immigrant Council has produced a report on the state of the slave trade in Ireland. It deals with the trafficking of women, whose bodies are treated as commodities, in a market where the demand is constant.
The majority of women come from overseas and are considered by the government to be illegal immigrants, rather than as victims of crime. Lured into Ireland by the promise of work and motivated by the desire to provide for their families at home they find themselves trapped when the work does not materialise and the facilitator, who had been so helpful, turns nasty. They are unable to access services, accommodation or legal advice. They are slaves of merciless masters.
According to the “Ruhama” website, “prostitution and pornography work as part of our eroticised consumption culture with the aim of normalising the use of and demand for, commercialised sex, through marketing. There is ample evidence around us on a daily basis of the use of sexuality, and in particular female sexuality, as a marketing strategy. The uncomfortable, disturbing reality is that the effect of the sex industry is the increasing normalization of domination, torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment against women”.
From the legislative point of view we can learn from Sweden and Norway, where buying sex has been criminalised and selling sex has been decriminalised. Through this approach, which reverses the current practices, those countries have reduced demand for prostitution and also the incidences of trafficking of human beings for sexual exploitation.
From the personal point of view of our daily struggles the Bible advocates absolute separation from such practices; Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. (Colossians chapter 3 verse 5). These things, says St Paul, characterise the unbeliever and describe his lifestyle before his conversion to Christ.
The amazing thing is that they are some of the very sins which God laid upon Christ on the cross. Christ who never sinned became the impure, the lustful, the adulterer the pimp. St John writes there is no sin so heinous that it is not washed by Christ’s blood. You can never accuse God of providing an inadequate salvation.
The question is, what are you going to do with it? You can say I’ll defer my decision which really means you are refusing Christ’s forgiveness. Alternatively you can bow the knee to Christ, admit your sins and trust him to clean up your life for time and eternity.
You have this choice today there is no guarantee that you will have it tomorrow.