Stop the Demand!

Recently I saw the movie Sound of Freedom, which spotlights the cruelties of child sex trafficking. Like illicit drug trafficking, human trafficking is a multibillion-dollar criminal enterprise. In other words, in addition to illegal drugs, there is a growing market for sexual exploitation and forced labor!

True, many brave souls work to stop illegal trafficking. However, what will stop the demand? What will change the hearts and minds of those who willfully spend money on abusing, exploiting, and oppressing precious human lives, including their own?

“For those who live according to the flesh are concerned with the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit with things of the spirit. The concern of the flesh is death, but the concern of the spirit is life and peace” [Romans 8:5–6]. Imagine our world if those billions of dollars instead were invested in protecting life and peace.

Dignity and Spirit

Human life is sacred and rooted in God’s love. “The human body shares in the dignity of ‘the image of God’: it is a human body precisely because it is animated by a spiritual soul, and it is the whole human person that is intended to become, in the body of Christ, a temple of the Spirit” [CCC 364]. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control [Galatians 5:22–23].

However, many have lost sight of humanity’s God-given dignity and Spirit. What a tragedy! In the United States, the illegal drug trade’s estimated worth is at least $150 billion. The rising cost: More than 106,000 persons in the U.S. died from drug-involved overdose in 2021, including illicit drugs and prescription opioids. More than four times as many people died from drug overdose than from homicide in the first month of 2021.

The U.S. also is one of the top three countries of origin of human trafficking victims. Worldwide, nearly 49.6 million people were living in modern slavery in 2021. Twelve percent of all those in forced labor are children. More than half of these children are in commercial sexual exploitation.

How long before the suffering caused by illegal trafficking opens the eyes of those who perpetuate the suffering? With opened eyes, people will find the dignity and spirit needed to defeat the vices that threaten us all. Stopping the demand heals the wounds. Healing restores life and peace.

True Freedom

Jesus Christ, Son of God made man, came into this world to show us the way to true freedom—freedom from sin. Uniting with Christ, by way of the Holy Spirit, opens our eyes, enlightens our mind, and fills our heart with God’s love. Heaven’s grace and the virtues of faith, hope, and charity empower us for our daily living.

With our God-given dignity we share the fruits of the Spirit, nourishing humanity. However, sin weakens the body, mind, heart, and soul. By succumbing or turning a blind eye to sin, people pull back from God’s blessings of freedom and fall into oppressive darkness. Life and peace become expendable.

The demand for illegal trafficking spotlights the need for more conduits for faith, hope, and love to work in our world, in the Spirit of our Lord. Pray there is enough good sense and virtue to stop the demand, restore dignity, and recover on the path of true freedom. God help us all to protect life and peace in our homes, communities, country, and our world. Amen!