denise strothers
Editor’s Note: This article was originally written in February of 2020, before COVID-19 systemically changed and challenged the norms of every aspect of our individual and collective lives. This article draws heavily on research Denise Srothers completed in 2019 for her dissertation, focusing on the role of Christian men in addressing human trafficking in the Washington D.C. metro area. These themes are relevant during COVID-19, but note that this article does not specifically take up the question of the impact of COVID-19 on human trafficking survivors and those who support them.
Christian thought has, for hundreds of years, always been heavily involved in the shaping of laws and policies surrounding the sexual exploitation of women and children. Although more and more churches are responding to issues of sexual exploitation, the response must be one that is making a difference. In 2019, I conducted a research study, for my dissertation, of over 200 men, over the age of 18, attending church regularly, and living in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. This survey, which consisted of 30 multiple-choice questions, was called the “Christian Men Speak Up” survey. The survey’s purpose was to bring awareness of the sufferings of sexually exploited women and children in the surroundings. The results from the study suggested that there is a growing awareness by most men that many are being sexually exploited.. Out of 200 men, 93 were very familiar with the issues of sex trafficking, and 77 were somewhat familiar.
A Landscape Analysis: Christian Citizens and Churches’ Understanding and Action with Respect to Human Trafficking
The survey showed a significant awareness of sex trafficking issues, which shifted the project’s focus from awareness to mobilization, as well as interrogating the notion of why such awareness did not automatically translate into action. When one gentleman was approached on taking the “Christian Men Speak Up” survey, his response was that his wife was well-informed about sex trafficking, and that she should be, since she is a woman. This implies that he did not need to be as informed because he is not a woman. This is not an uncommon response, since most men would typically think this is an issue better handled by women. Since research shows that it is primarily men who create the demand for the trafficking of women and children, this has been additionally challenging: the anti-sex trafficking movement has been primarily driven by female feminists, and most men prefer to listen to other men.
Christian men must take their place in the Church and the community and speak to the harmful effects of sex trafficking and why Christian men’s role is necessary to ending sexual exploitation. It is time for the Church, especially Christian men, to bring about a far-reaching cultural change and systemic changes to public policy. Some entrenched attitudes and beliefs have allowed and supported sexual violence for so long. Most men are not abusive, but far too often, they are silent about the abuse committed by other men. Their silence is as much a part of the problem as the abuse. Christian men leading the charge is the key to stopping the sexual exploitation of women and children.
Sacred Sector Communities and People Essential to Holistic Approaches to End Human Trafficking
Public justice requires us, as Christian citizens, to ask: What are God's good purposes for government? And what are God's good purposes for groups — like families, churches and nonprofits — in which their primary purposes are not political? In 2018, I served as a Sacred Sector Fellow with the Center for Public Justice. This ten-week fellowship equips seminarians with skills and experience to be an emerging leader in the faith-based nonprofit sector. The Fellowship focused on preparing seminarians, many of whom will not go into traditional pulpit ministry (and those who do also need to be prepared for the cross-disciplinary nature of modern culture), with the skills they need to navigate how to lead faith communities and organizations to holistically and consistently embody their spiritual values in everything they do.
This Fellowship provided me with a community of other seminarians, as well as leaders in the faith-based nonprofit sector, government and academia, where we could learn a common vocabulary and frameworks for applying this multidisciplinary approach to incarnating our individual vocational callings, as well empowering the groups with which we worked to live into their institutional callings holistically. The animating framework of Sacred Sector, built on the principles of public justice, is called the Three P’s. The Three P’s focus on helping faith-based organizations and their leader to fully incarnate and integrate their sacred missions in the public square: in organizational practices, in public policy engagement and in cultivating positive public positioning.
This experience shaped me deeply, and I found it had direct resonance to my doctoral research on human trafficking. For churches, their leaders and their congregational communities to effectively address human trafficking, they must understand how this deeply important issue connects to their deeply held spiritual beliefs. And more than that, they must be equipped with the knowledge and tools to not just understand these connections, but apply them into their own individual lives and the lives of their congregations. My research reflects a holistic public justice approach because it encourages both individuals and their faith communities to live out their right roles and responsibilities, based on their intrinsically held sacred values. To fully incarnate these roles in advancing justice in ending human trafficking, churches and citizens must look at how they are engaging in practices to serve those facing explotation through providing education and awareness building on why our faith calls us to address human trafficking and through providing person-centered direct support services to those who have faced exploitation. Churches and their community members must do more their serve those in need however, they should recognize how their faith calls them to engage in act of citizenship, advocating for public policy changes and cultural shifts that will end human trafficking.
Human Trafficking: A Holistic Public Justice Approach
A public justice approach recognizes that human trafficking cannot be stopped by government alone. Diverse civil society organizations, including families,worship communities,schools and local businesses, all must draw on their own distinct assets and capacities to contribute to a holistic solution. Therefore, it is essential that faith-based providers, community organizations and government all work together to address this complex social challenge. It is essential for Christian citizens, and I would argue especially men, as well as their churches and leaders, to examine the underlying cultural drivers that impact human trafficking, and consider how public jutice calls them, with their own unique God-given gifts capacities, to address not just the devastating results of human trafficking, but to address the deep-seated roots of this issue. A holistic approach to addressing this issue will take up questions of education, service, citizenship, shifting cultural narratives and changing institutional norms across every segment of society.
The Bible makes it clear that God hears the cries of the oppressed and intervenes on their behalf. Christian men have a unique opportunity to become part of the solution and avoid being part of the problem. Christian men have often been silent on these issues across the board- in educating their families, in engaging their faith communities and in impacting government’s response to human trafficking. There is the need for Christian men to accept the responsibility to be the first men in their family, sports team, or Church to stand up and speak out against violence against women and children by working to end human trafficking through education, direct services and advocacy. The aim is to challenge men’s attitudes and actions towards women in themselves and others. In doing so, Christian citizens, and men in particular, as leaders in so many faith communities and political communties, will be empowered to fully incarnate their image-bearing responsibilities to advance justice for victims of human trafficking. In doing so, they will also be making the God’s word flesh, which says:“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed. Yes, speak up for the poor and helpless, and see that they get justice.” (Proverbs 31:8, 9)
My experience with Sacred Sector continues to shape my approach to my own faith community, my academic research and my own individual acts of citizenship in political community. With respect to human trafficking, Sacred Sector has equipped me with a public justice framework that has impacted how I view the role of Chiristian individuals and institutions in addressing human trafficking. Sacred Sector helps empower ministries to do what God called us to do. Most of our spiritual callings are to serve the people, to pursue restorative justice through God's Spirit. Most of us don't feel as spiritually called to do things like updating our internal policies and practices. But our faith calls us to do these things, and the life of our ministry depends on them, even and especially with respect to educating Christian organizational employees, volunteers and community members to be literate in the prevention, service and advocacy needed to end human trafficking.
Denise Strothers recently received her Doctor of Ministry (DMin) at Howard University School of Divinity. With a concentration in Church & Community, Denise’s project centers on the sexual exploitation of women and children, and how the Church can speak up on their behalf. Denise also serves as the national director of operations for Healing Communities, a non-profit prison reentry organization. Healing Communities challenges congregations to become Stations of Hope: communities that help returning citizens connect to their faith, and equip them with political understanding and advocacy. She coordinates a Station of Hope in the Washington D.C. area. Denise is a 2018 Sacred Sector Fellow with the Center for Public Justice.
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