What is the greatest destruction of today’s generation?
The tactics used by the adversary are not new. For endless amounts of time Satan, and his minions have used an unknown number of ploys to shackle God’s children to sin. Heavenly Father’s entire plan of happiness revolves around one fundamental key, agency. Satan will use every trick, deception, fear, longing and addiction in his arsenal to stave off the Atonement and forever bind the children of men to him.
The absolute only hope we have of absolving our imperfections and forever delving into his filth is the light and grace of Jesus Christ’s Atonement.
I read an article last night, “Rescuing Children from Sex Slavery: One Mormon’s Inspired Mission”. It is the story of one former CIA operative, and member of the Mormon faith who has dedicated his life to freeing the children who have been sold into sex trafficking. To date, his organization has rescued over 200 children from around the world.
As I read this article last night, my heart grew heavy. There is so much destruction happening in our world because of the carnal lusts and greed of man. In America our rights to produce public material is protected in the name of free speech. I honor and defend that right in my own life. However, that right that big industry is trumpeting as “art” and “adult material” is actually pornography. Currently this industry produces $100 billion dollars in annual revenue. It is not just a local problem, it is a global pandemic. The sickening thing about pornography is that the appetite for visual pornography is only the iceberg to it’s destruction. For many porn addicts the adult and teen porn is the entry level addiction and child porn is the hard core drug. That addiction on the screen has catapulted the human trafficking industry into record momentum.
When I was a kid, the kind of filth you can access within seconds on your smart phone, had to be purchased by walking into a porn lair. Now that filth can infiltrate our homes, our schools, and our churches without any lag time. According to the site, www.fightthenewdrug.com, “Between 1998 and 2007, the number of pornographic websites grew by 1,800%. According to a 2004 study of Internet traffic in May of that year, porn sites were visited three times more often than Google, Yahoo!, and MSN Search combined.”
Behind the scenes of this porn industry are an estimated 21 million victims of human trafficking. 2 million of those are children. Take into consideration the population of the American people is only 300 million people. If you were to clump that global number into our country, that would be 10% of our country’s population! Can you imagine your church congregation, or your school, and visualizing 10% of them stolen, kidnapped, drugged and then repeatedly beaten, raped, prostituted, video taped and sold? Ackkkk. It just makes me sick. All over the world children are kidnapped and sold into this horrible life.
When Elizabeth Smart was returned to her family, I was naive to this global challenge. I read someone’s troll comments on an article about her, minimizing her experience because of the suffering of so many other children around the world. After all she was just a rich, suburban American white sex slave…. they mocked and belittled. Elizabeth Smart is the face to modern day suburbia to a devastatingly global problem, one that I have not seen in my own life, but that I can feel creeping into the very fiber of our society.
Another startling discovery. Last week I read a news article that came up on my Facebook feed, one therapist who works with victims of sexual trauma, including children, teen and women found one common denominator to their perpetrators. In every situation, the villain of their attack was viewing, and or addicted to pornography. The cost of sexual trauma is in the billions of dollars, from hospitalization, missed time at work and putting the pieces of your life back together through therapy and support.
Here is what I know to be true.
1. God created gifted our bodies to procreate, which we should use in a safe, loving martial relationship.
{Big gifts come with big responsibilities, i.e. raising up children of our own flesh and blood. Big gifts used outside the laws God has given have proven over and over to be fraught with obstacles, i.e., STDs, teen/unwanted pregnancy, economic hardships, abandonment of the mother and child, poverty, sexual trauma, human trafficking, etc. etc.}
2. Satan will use any means necessary to ensnare those of us who have bodies unto our own destruction.
{He likes ensnaring whole communities and national populations at once. It makes his job easier. By the way, that is the ploy he is using now.}
3. There are no victimless pornography views.
{It re-hard wires your brain. It changes your body’s natural function to enjoy intimate relationships, and changes your capacity to nurture, empathize and care for others. It fuels the economy of rape and human trafficking.}
4. As a mother my job is to nurture my children and protect them from worldly destruction.
My mission is to encourage my children to return worthily to our Heavenly Father. Just as if I were protecting my kids from a physical danger, say a pit of venomous snakes, or a voracious disease, my spiritual responsibility to to protect and fortify my children against the dangers associated with pornography. My children are still young, but we are striving daily.
5. Shame is hidden, healing is light.
A dark wound, festering in the filth of nighttime can never heal. Only in the light of community, of love and safety can we help wounds heal. Regularly and consistently I am teaching my kids that if {and when} they see something inappropriate online, they are not to hide in shame, that they need to come and talk about it, bring it out in the open so we can deal with it together.
Last year my oldest daughter scrolled across pornography on Instagram. I am grateful she came to me. I am even more grateful that we had just heard a talk at General Conference about this subject, which described almost identically Sister Reeve’s granddaughter’s experience of seeing pornography. Together the two of us watched this talk, we discussed the role of the Atonement in our lives, and offered a heart felt prayer, that the spirit could come upon my daughter and comfort her. This is a short exerpt from her message, “Brothers and sisters, how do we protect our children and youth? Filters are useful tools, but the greatest filter in the world, the only one that will ultimately work, is the personal internal filter that comes from a deep and abiding testimony of our Heavenly Father’s love and our Savior’s atoning sacrifice for each one of us.” –Protection from Pornography—a Christ-Focused Home, By Linda S. Reeves.
The last thing I want to share comes from Timothy Ballard, founder of Operation Underground Railroad, “The only thing that stands between evil taking over this world is good people who face their fears and take action,” says Mark. “People who do nothing allow evil to flourish. I can’t sit back and allow atrocities to happen. I’m not going to allow my fear to stop me from doing what is right.”
