Christian Television Network features Blind Eyes Opened writer & produce...

Blind Eyes Opened (2020), Pornography, Sex-Trafficking and Abortion

Friday, January 24, 2020 17:29

“To open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,from the prison those who sit in darkness.” (Isaiah 42:7)

The eyes of much of the general public and most church people are blind to the existence of slavery in the world today. We are blinded to the extent sex-trafficking is occurring right under our noses today in the good ole U.S.A. The fact is that there are 27 million slaves worldwide today, with some being shackled, abused and used right here in America.

Blind Eyes Opened is a 90-minute movie documentary 5 years in the making about sex-trafficking in the U.S.A. It was shown in 800 theaters on Thursday, January 23, 2020 only.

I was disappointed in seeing only a smattering of people attending the Mansfield area theater last night. Sadly, the theater was at most 1/3 full. I guess many were unaware of the movie showing, were apathetic, or had more important things to do such as watching the sham impeachment proceedings on TV. The church was mostly invisible as usual when it comes to the critical social issues of the day. I guess most of us don’t want to think about the unpleasant aspects of reality.

SIX EX-TRAFFICKED WOMEN

This movie revolves around the testimonies of six women who, themselves, were trafficked when they were just girls. Some were sold for sex by their parents, some by relatives, some by boys or men who befriended them and later prostituted them.

Sex-trafficking is, indeed, an ugly reality.

The following are just some of the highlights gleaned from the movie.

·         The fatherless home is a serious problem in America. Children seek out the love denied by absent fathers and look to whoever may provide any affection or concern.

·         Middle School aged children as young as 9, 10, 11- are victims of sex traffickers.

·         11 to 14-year-old girls and boys are both sought by sex-traffickers. The ratio is 15% to 85% boys to girls trafficked.

RECRUITING

The movie identifies three types of traffickers: Romeos, guerillas, and professionals. Most people think it is the guerillas who grab or kidnap victims. But what is more prevalent is the young man or adult who befriends the child and grooms her or him over a period of time, then enslaves them using drugs, physical violence and/or threats to family members. The professional lurks in shopping malls or areas where vulnerable, lone girls may be befriended and/or grabbed.

Social media is increasingly being used to search and stalk vulnerable kids as well. Traffickers may study the friends of a targeted child and try to get to know as much as possible about the victim, then make contact with them, entice them with gifts, befriending them.

RUNAWAYS

Children living in real or perceived abusive homes or in foster home situations who may feel homeless seek escape. Sex-traffickers target these young girls traveling alone on bus, train or plane.

STOCKHOLM SYNDROME

Pitifully, some captives of sex traffickers are so beaten up and beaten down they still look at their pimp in a favorable light. No one else cares.

“Stockholm syndrome is a condition in which hostages develop a psychological alliance with their captors during captivity. Emotional bonds may be formed, between captor and captives, during intimate time together, but these are generally considered irrational in light of the danger or risk endured by the victims.” Source: Wikipedia

Stockholm syndrome is one reason that the victims of traffickers do not run from their masters or even try to protect them when the girl is arrested.

SUICIDE

The life of the captive is often short-lived. Suicide is a way out for many as the only escape form the horrors and the guilt.

CAUSES AND PREVENTION

Pornography

One solution is to clamping down on the widespread availability and use of pornography by men, women, and even younger and younger children. Shockingly, the movie noted that young people are exposed to porn on the average at 11 years of age. Parents should closely monitor social media and use online devices. The Internet, smartphones, tablets and computers can lead be cesspools of material feeding man’s lower nature leading people astray.

Porn is a gateway taking a person from a fantasy world of self-gratification to the real world of exploiting children to fulfill one’s lustful desires.

Fatherless Homes

As stated earlier, fatherless home and lack of a positive role model often causes children to seek that attention, affection, and “love” from other scrupulous sources.

Eliminating no-fault divorce laws would make it harder for families to be torn asunder.

Crime and Punishment

Something that was not discussed in the movie is making males accountable by increasing penalties fathering children and trying to walk away unscathed. Perhaps making the father financially responsible for the child. Giving the father a choice of either providing financially for his child for eighteen years or being incarcerated for that same length of time.

Decreasing the demand for young children for sex is a high priority. Instead of treating the prostituted girl or woman as the criminal. The real punishment should be focused on the pimps, the johns the person who buy and sell their “products.” Can you believe that besides 17 counties in Nevada, where prostitution is legalized, seven states in the Northeast want to legalize prostitution. This would make catching sex-traffickers even more difficult. It would make identifying and freeing the sex slaves even more difficult.  

Interfacing with the Health Care System

88% of all sex-trafficked victims at some point interface with medical system. Either their pimps or the john (customers) hurt them. Therefore, the medical system needs increased training on how to identify, to report, or just what to do when faced with an apparent victim of abuse. A dislocated jaw, a black eye, a broken bone in a young person or a young woman must be better scrutinized.

Education

Schools must include some discussion or track of instruction in the dangers of sex traffickers to make students aware that sex traffickers are after them exists. How to identify, how to report, and what to do when faced with a potential trafficking situation should be included in Middle and High School curriculum. Being fully aware of sex-trafficking is the really bullying that should be emphasized in our public schools.

ABORTION

There is a tie, an unwritten alliance between the sex-traffickers, part of the billion-dollar sex industry and the equally sizable abortion industry.

Some trafficked girls/women have multiple abortions because they are “useless” to the pimp when they are pregnant and having a child would put a crimp on the business, a barrier to overcome. So, the pimp takes, forcefully or otherwise his sex-slave to the abortion mill. In other words, murder the human life growing in the mother, to get rid of the “problem.”

Live Action and other anti-abortion groups have pointed out this grotesque alliance and practice, but it is virtually ignored by the #FakeNews media, dismissed by the politicians and ignored by the clergy, lied about and denied by Planned Parenthood. In other words, it hidden from the general public for the most part.

Part of the abortion industries profits come from illegal sources such as revenues from pimps’ prostitutes. Statutory rapes of under-aged girls are more prevalent than admitted.

CONCLUSION

Most of the six women shown in the movie are now serving in various ministries or organizations helping girls and women who have come out of the same underworld to which they were once condemned.

Churches can address this hugely ignored injustice. How? By getting a copy of the movie’s DVD, which will be available shortly. A 7-week study guide to the movie will also become available for small group study in churches and elsewhere.

Making everyone aware of the problem and providing ways to identify signs of sex trafficking and having the courage to report any suspected abuse would go a long way in stopping this atrocity.

My eyes have been opened to the seriousness and the pervasiveness of this issue. Shared Hope International and other likeminded ministries and groups are worthy of support. I will engage my state and federal congressional representative to sponsor and support laws that will bring about an end to sex trafficking in the U.S.A. and elsewhere.