With a nod to S.Feldhahn, use of the term "radical" is based on the conviction that transformational faith is counter-cultural. The intersection between faith in Jesus and sexuality as well as cultural forces that undermine freedom and power are examined. Vibrancy, vitality, deep meaning and exuberance are found both in authentic faith and connected sexuality. Here we grapple with the paradox that we need simultaneously safety/security and novelty/adventure in both faith and sex.
I
believe it's time glampers everywhere begin to honor the amazing style
of the late 70's! That decade is quite under represented among Sisters
On the Fly. Get a jump on the 70's vintage trend (or start it;) I have a
fully functional '79 19-foot Layton travel trailer available for purchase! Any takers on this "vintage-y" beauty?
Asking $1500 OBO. It's a '78 or '79 19-foot Layton by Skyline. Back
then was rated to sleep 6, BUT comfortably will sleep two adults and two
young children. Everything works! convertible overhead storage/bunk,
drop down dinette, pull-out sofa sleeper. Great starter or hobbyist
camper. SOLD
BASIC MIND CONTROL: This is what pimps use to gain control of girls/women to exploit them for their own gain. Pimps are antisocial/sociopaths the same as Ted Bundy/Ariel Castro/Philip Garrido/Brian David Mitchell. I am alarmed that nearly a quarter of a century posthumously/since death penalty, Ted Bundy can still exploit the naivete of the bride of Christ. She is far more valuable than this. Her purpose is larger than this.
"Appear completely vulnerable, humane, attractive, compassionate and articulate, etc to lure your victim. After you gain her trust, you can get her to do ANYTHING you can conjure. She'll do it in the name of love - even in the name of loving Jesus. She'll follow you to hell if you promise her heaven. It doesn't matter what she believes as long as she pays off in benefits to you. Evangelical nervousness about sex and God-honoring fantasy makes Christ's Bride a very accessible target and useful tool in *our* mission to destroy men and women and keep them captive to our devices."
As believers, we would be well served if we considered how to differentiate violence from sexuality. They are not equal. They deserve to be addressed simultaneously Yes, sociopaths are known to use porn. Yes, porn is toxic, immoral, compulsively captivating and all that. But the two don't necessarily equate. And pro-porn advocates have this one thing right, if porn made TB a serial killer, everyone who uses it would become a serial killer. There is a correlation, but there are limits to causation. Let's stop listening to serial killers as though they were our sex experts. Let's articulate a holistic/wholesome perspective that is simultaneously moral AND sex-positive/male-positive/female positive, and God-affirming. This is much harder than censorship, but so much more tranformative!
Many of my fellow human trafficking activists like to talk about how the sex industry peddles illicit fantasy and imparts sex addiction. It's taken as fact by social conservatives and many in "the movement" that sex vendors, by producing porn, have created a need. It is seen as a need which, by its nature, intensifies in the same way as the chemical addictions process. Due to this intensification, it is argued that sex peddlers are able to stay in a lucrative business. The idea that consumers have no ability to control their use is inadvertently advanced. Sex addictionologists have been the most invested and active in leading the conversation about helping users overcome their compulsions to use porn. Such professionals have much to say that is useful, valuable and thoughtful. Nonetheless, I find the addictions framework with respect to sex to be too reductionistic and unfairly pathologizing of men, in general as base, appetite-driven biological phenomena. I am invested in a more honoring, heroic if you will, paradigm that acknowledges the creative capacity imparted to men as carriers of the Divine image. Maybe we have been wasting our energy over-analyzing "unhealthy" or "sinful" behaviors when we could have been advancing a more balanced and God-affirming, life-giving way to conceptualize our sexuality and eroticism. Let's not loose sight of the fact that sex brings life, and not just with respect to propagation of children. It validates connection, life, intimacy and playfulness to the couple.
Aside from an addiction framework, consider what is the
devastating impetus to damaging sexual fantasies. (*Noteworthy is that not all fantasy is unhealthy or sinful - a point which I may someday discuss further. Fantasy can be the impetus for creative endeavors. For a clinical discussion about the potential of erotic fantasy to heal check out this article by Esther Perel. Still, here I am talking about common illicit fantasies.) It is sometimes argued that men
use power to get sex and that they disempower women through sex. But
sex IS itself powerful. It's not even evil that's inherent in our sexuality but its power that causes us trepidation. Some have argued that porn kills. Yes, that’s true to
some extent. But porn use can feel so exhilarating. It doesn’t feel
like it’s killing. It feels like it’s invigorating and giving power. Is
the driving factor in indulgence of fantasy that users are somehow
already dead or emotionally dismembered? I believe fantasy is a
sometimes a desperate encompassing attempt to enliven, reconnect and
feel powerful when men aren’t supported, persuaded or socialized to
other truly viable options. To such guys sex is a socially acceptable
vehicle for transmuting their deepest longings for significance. When
they don't know significance otherwise - due to castrating experiences -
the fantasy yields immense power even if it is ultimately and knowingly
a counterfeit power.
Psychologist Dr. Ley wrote the following article at the request of the guy who runs the website quitporngetgirls: Article here!
Oh
wow! Discernment. This has a lot of truth mixed in with some sadly
misinformed and familiar-sounding information. The porn industry has
oft said that society benefits from porn through decreased sex crimes as
availability of erotica goes up. Well that doesn't exactly take into
account the staggering statistics regarding sex trafficking and illegal
materials that are produced sort of in conjunction with the legal stuff.
At present some 300,000 children in America alone are at risk for
commercial sexual exploitation. I have met a number of women who've
been involved in making this stuff, and believe me, it's not a
"victimless crime." If it looks like it would be painful - guess what!
That's not Hollywood special effects. It DOES hurt. To claim that as
access to porn goes up violence against women and children goes down is
absolute damnable BS!
However, I agree with Dr. Ley's assertion that sex
addiction is a made-up paradigm. While engaging a twelve-step approach
has helped countless individuals take responsibility for their
compulsions, absent a more comprehensive framework, it is limited in its
broad applicability. I absolutely concur with the author that it's not
pathological to like sex, like frequent sex or high intensity sex. What
porn offers many is permission to plumb the depths of their own sense
of meaning and purpose present in their own (again not pathological)
fantasies mostly free from judgement and shame. Until a more satisfying
and life- affirming, Godly alternative is convincingly advanced, I believe we will
continue to see individuals engaging in problematic and ego-dystonic use of porn. Porn is the
"brave new world" where people can normalize/legitimize their deepest
yearnings and struggles. Christians offer hope by actually listening to
these struggles and lifting burdens, being transparent and real that
life includes suffering but also freedom and redemption. Our task is
not to prematurely shut down the explicit fantasy but to as quickly as
possible help our brothers and sisters move away from engaging
/entertaining thoughts about the compulsive (external flesh and blood)
act and move toward searching out the underlying obsession
(rulers/authorities/powers of this dark world/ spritiual forces in the
heavenly realm). Clearly, staring down the face of evil by wrestling
with the darkness that holds people captive is much more frightening
than just shutting down the external problem moralistically. But we
have a sinless high priest who empathizes with our struggles who permits
us to approach the throne of grace confidently that we can find mercy
and grace in our time of need.
The issue of porn is debated from
polarization and the usual tendency to want to legislate freedom and
morality absent the ability to instigate genuine transformation. I'm
hoping for discourse among my concerned and God-fearing friends and colleagues but at
present, I feel like a voice in the dark. Sex addiction is a misnomer
that doesn't get to the heart of the issue. In all too many cases, it is an excuse or distraction from dealing with the core issues. Many evangelicals will recall that James Dobson met with serial rapist and murderer Ted Bundy on death row in order to highlight the dangers of porn. As though porn, rather than sociopathy - or Ted Bundy himself, was the reason those women were killed! Now the Cleveland kidnapper is trying to pull the same deceptive wool over our eyes. The evangelical position of the last 40 years has defaulted to legislating morality, and has therefore played a role in overplaying an inadequate reference point. It is curious to me that
EVERY well-known activist on the issue of sex trafficking, those that
are changing policy and effectively transforming lives out of sex
slavery are women who profess redemption and faith in Jesus. Furthermore,
they don't always look and sound like the church ladies we have been
accustomed to. They are all survivors of the sex trade in some form themselves and as such reject the silliness of modesty/purity/virginity cults and rather seek radical sexual transformation and (dare I say?) liberation! Women don't bear sole responsibility for evoking lust from men. And their worth as women isn't centered in their virginal qualities anymore than it is in their sexual attributes. Telling women how to dress is as unproductive as telling men not to look at dirty pictures. It just doesn't get to the underlying person in either case.
This is a men’s issue as well as a women’s issue. So I'd really like to know what the guys have to say. Chime in by clicking the words "Comments so far" below.
Ok - so there's another Christian film in recent release. Not Today I am simply mentioning it because I was intrigued that a Quaker church - Yorba Linda Friends produced it. Not having seen it, I'd guess it's an important film just because it deals in some compassionate manner with Sex Trafficking. It exposes the sex trade in India. Video responses to it were that many attendees were unaware that this goes on. So now they are aware that it goes on - in India. I got the sense that the movie didn't quite effectively raise anyone's awareness that it is a global andlocal issue.
My friends at Cherished and I are very keen to help those in the DOMESTIC sex trade. The issue of human trafficking
is one for every locale, including yours. It is not isolated only to foreign girls and women who are sold by family members due to dire, crushing poverty. To be clear, the global issue of human trafficking is
near to my heart. I believe it is time we considered how our daily
decisions impact persons half a world away. The same day the garment
factory in Bangladesh collapsed and killed 622 of the world's poorest
people inside, I had just purchased underwear that bore "made in
Bangladesh" tags. How can I know? I read the news after my purchase.
Sobering. It's not a consideration I wish to easily dismiss.
Yet,
I am
rather more interested in dually serving local women in any area of the
sex trade and in raising awareness about our own attitudes towards
"throwaway" people - those not seen and therefore dismissed in their own
communities than I am about jumping into a movement because its getting
some media buzz. Remember? I didn't see a movie or hear a speech about
the current issue of human trafficking. God laid it on my heart to do a
web search: "How to reach a stripper for Jesus". From there I've
been
schooled about sex trafficking. Awareness is important, but exceedingly difficult to
raise the closer one gets to home. The idea of little girls in literal chains pulls at our
heartstrings. Chains around the mind are just as real. A girl-child on
the street is no more free than a girl in a brothel. Stockholm Syndrome is real.
I've learned that I've been doing
this work since I started in the field of psychology but now
it's with a new awareness. I was blind to the issue of human trafficking
as it occurs here because I've been socialized, as an American, that
girls who are prostitutes here choose it, that they are bad promiscuous
girls who like sex and who prey on ordinary joes or johns. I've bought
into the nonsense that they are "rebellious teens" who need to be
arrested and held responsible for their crime. While I recognized that
many in the sex trade have attachment disorders, what I missed was that
being sold/pimped is not part of a psychiatric constellation of "conduct
disorder." It isn't, as I assumed, an issue of agency. It is an issue of slavery. The issues of poverty and women's rights (yes, I AM using feminist buzz words - more on that one later) are very much at the root of sexual exploitation.
Parenthetically: If you admonish me that sin is, I will have to ultimately agree with you. But then I challenge you with "stewardship." I'm not talking about an Al-Gore-ian ideology of stewardship but a biblical prompting about what you are doing with the talents/gifts God has blessed you with. I'd hope you would be moved with compassion to look beneath the surface where blaming and shaming resides, and begin critically to delve into the ravishes of a world system that aims to rob us all of innocence by employing the enemy's tools of judgement, blindness, hunger, pain, loneliness, trauma, nakedness, homelessness, etc. The gifts and blessings I enjoy are (Thank Jesus!) financial security, community, education, health, security/protection. It is much I have received. Therefore much is to be expected. My role is MUCH less to point out sin in an exploited woman's life and MORE to respond to God's call to welcome the least of these.
Back to my main point: Wherever
you find prostitution, when you look deeper, you find lack of real
opportunity for girls. So much focus is given to trafficking as a foreign issue
that we become blind to what it looks like in our own neighborhoods. It
is too "exciting" and "sexy" to think about rescuing little girls from
Asian brothels so that the issue of our own foster kids (and such) get
pimped and sold. And that while having the double insult of bearing the
shunning and rejection for being prostitutes. Does anyone know a little girl who looks forward to growing up
and being raped and used by men multiple times a day? It is no more a
"choice" for the girls on Sierra Highway or any town's prostitution "track" than it is for a Cambodian
girl. Our girls are enslaved in a system that punishes her for
prostitution - average age of entry here is 12- when she's not even a
legal age to consent to sex. The arbitrary distinction between an underage girl being arrested for prostitution and a man being arrested for statutory rape is whether or not money is exchanged. Injustice. She gets punished for being complicit in her own
rape/exploitation. Pimps and johns literally and figuratively "get
off."
This HAS to change. But maybe it doesn't necessarily change in the big dramatic manor depicted by brothel raids or even prostitution sweeps. Maybe it changes when we make the choice to notice - to see - someone. Maybe it changes when we refuse to dismiss someone or presume to know what their "choice" is. Maybe it changes when rather than going along with the world's system, we submit to Jesus and do the thing that alarms the Pharisees. Just maybe?
Ok this thought hit me as I am listening to Frank Viola today. (Besides my local pastor, my favorites include Allistair Begg and Frank Viola, among others!)
In the creation accounts in Genesis, God repeatedly says "Let. . ." He creates - lets-
and then He rests. It isn't until the Gospels that He says, "It is FINISHED!"
Creation is not complete, that is, finished until it is consummated in Jesus.
God
saw all that he had made. It was good. But it was not good for man to
be alone. And creation isn't finished until Jesus and the church become
one, "that they may be one as I and the Father are one."
I'm reblogging, because I have found this one to be an important discussion. At least it seems to be a continuation of the discussion found here at tenthstreetradicals.
Check out the links embedded below and mull it over. For those who would criticise that I spend too much time in popular philosophy and not enough in the word, that's probably true to a large degree of all of us. However, let me challenge: When we read the Bible, do we notice the role of women or rather, God's appointment and direction of women ? Counter-cultural women? Women who defy man's laws in order to honor God? Women who are courageously first and tenaciously last on the scene? Women who are used by God to change the course of history? Women with whom Jesus speaks, to whom he brings liberation, whom He commissions, restores, promises, meets up? Seems to me Jesus is egalitarian. Jesus is the philosophy I embrace.
Biblical feminism and third wave feminism
"(W)e are in a special position to add egalitarian Christianity. We can
invite another generation to realize that loving God and advancing
feminism are not mutually exclusive goals. For this generation, however,
textual arguments about the ancient Greek connotations of headship and
the convert behavior at Ephesus are less important than our personal
stories of all the different ways God has influenced our identities as
feminists, and how we have struggled toward our feminist commitment to
equality among God’s people."
The theological positions underlying the "Christian" side of this debate are colored by whether one is complementarian vs egalitarian. Each finds support and justification in the Word. The way you lean probably is less determined by your commitment to Jesus, but more by your particular faith community and culture as illustrated by Jenny Rae Armstrong's blog.
Last week I had the opportunity to attend a training by Rachel LLoyd of GEMS in NYC. GEMS is a program that rescues and restores girls who have been trafficked in the domestic sex trade here in the US. Social Workers have come up with an acronym for these minors. They are called CSEC which stands for Commercially Sexually Exploited Children. The term CSEC is new on me, but it turns out that my work with this population is nothing new. I worked with them off and on throughout my career but most intensively from 1995-1999 at the Florence Crittenton Center in Los Angeles. Crittenton was a locked treatment facility for girls in the system who for all intents and purposes had nowhere else to go. I was the vocational counselor and Independent Living Coordinator whose job it was to help the girls prepare for their eventual independence. I was charged with pre-vocational job readiness and some life skills development. Anyway, Rachel Lloyd's training really took me back to a few years.
Below is an excerpt of my response to developments I see taking place in the anti human-trafficking movement. One common excuse consumers of commercial sex use to justify their behavior is "I'm not hurting anyone." That, sadly, is an excuse most of us use in some form or another through denial:
"Disclaimer: The following pertain to my personal and professional philosophy about sexuality and in no way ought to be taken as reflective of our ministy's mission in treating women and girls who have been victimized.
Presently, many programs in existence, including the one in development
at our ministry, focus on crucial/essential case management and life skill
development,
employment, community, support, accountability, relapse prevention,
housing, etc. Such programs tend to be informed - rightly so - by
feminist ideologies in empowerment of young women by creating
opportunity, by addressing self-esteem and trauma. Their essential focus
is on rescue and treatment of victims/survivors ie the "supply" side of
what we recognize as a commercial endeavor.
As an outpatient
provider presently, my objective within "the movement" is treatment of
so-called "adult entertainers" of all ages. My understanding of the
problem of sexual exploitation is holistic. I specialize in helping
folks resolve bad/horrifying memories, including those that involve
sexuality. Most of the time these memories impact their ability to
trust and form enduring bonds with others. That is primarily my
focus/area of expertise/specialization though it applies generally to a
wide range of symptoms and lifestyles. Being a sole proprietor in
private practice affords me the opportunity to keep a broad focus on
intervention, treatment and prevention/awareness/education. I am able
to treat CSEC via VOC funding. I also have access to other avenues of
funding so that I may treat those who've aged out of the system or
who've never been tracked within the system. My work is always very
trauma and attachment informed as well as strengths-based.
Trauma is my area of specialization. My
marketing materials were written to a hypothetical traumatized woman in
her late twenties/early thirties suffering from depression and unstable
relationships including rape and domestic violence. That was my target
audience. Those who responded to that marketing and have subsequently
come through my door were individuals - men and women- trying
to make relationships work
particularly after some form of betrayal. Working with CSEC (though they've only
recently come to be identified as such) early on has lain an unmistakable foundation
for the individual/couples work I now do. High emotional reactivity and hostile engagement are often what
- like CSEC - characterize these people's relational constellations.
My self-directed training program (Continuing education credits) has
consisted of honing up on Couples therapy - specifically with a focus on
helping clients overcome infidelity and sex addiction. I follow professionally
those who are involved in sex therapy, couples' therapy and treatment of compulsive
disorders.
One thing Rachel Lloyd cautioned about was the "movement's" emphasis on rescuing "little girls" and locking up
"bad men." My thoughts below are in process. Yet, I think they might
introduce some things that would be of vital consideration for the task
force and others in the movement.
While I am invested in
providing practical support to victims as mentioned above, I hope I can
begin to illuminate just how far-reaching into our collective psyche the
issue of exploitation is. Below my intent is to expand the question
from specific to more general in hopes of sparking more thought and
dialogue about how to identify and address interconnected/inter-systemic
specifics. Service providers need to address specific needs of
particular populations, but the interconnectedness of these populations
prompts the necessity of dialogue between systems. I hope to ask
questions, raise considerations towards the objective of shifting some
of the collective values we hold. Such is very arduous work, I know,
but nonetheless urgently to be considered.
What I perceive
lacking in the confrontation of sexual exploitation as a problem in our
country is an equally holistic answer to the issue of "demand," that is
to say users/consumers/johns. When something is bought and sold -
commodified - what we are talking about is supply and demand. If
values/consciences tells us that certain things, particularly "things"
like people, girls, innocence, freedom, sexuality, ought never to be
commodified then our task becomes one about undoing a whole lot of
messaging that turns some people into products and other people into
consumers. My awareness/philosophy has been evolving lately to weigh
out the
messages of not only feminism but also masculism, consumerism and a few
other "isms". In my opinion the tendency to over-criticize patriarchy
for bearing the responsibility for injustice leads to having a blind
spot in trying to undo injustice. Consider, in a truly patriarchal society, aren't men as responsible for promoting freedom and justice as they would be for enslaving? Perhaps narcissism
- and messages in the broader culture which disconnect individuals from
responsibility for self and to others - is as much to blame.
Injustice - to men as well as to women occurs due to plethora "archys"
and "isms." Absolutely - 100% in agreement that the consequences of both
supplying and demanding (as in the case of pimps and johns) need to be
tough. Once you've decided to abuse/rape a child - whether you think
you're entitled because you've paid for it, even if she's sending you
strong messages of being willing or not - once you crossed that line, of
course the consequences should chill you to the bone. Nonetheless, we
live in an increasingly marketed to and sexualized world where, as the
feminists are so apt to point out, sex sells. It is hardly a leap to
imagine that if sex sells, then sex itself ought to become commodified
and available for purchase (or download) when I need it or want it. We
live in a world also where marketing has itself turned us, people who
would otherwise be content with having enough, into dissatisfied hungry
impulsive aquirers, consumers. As such we are mostly disconnected from the roots of the products we use in general. In the US in particular, our existences have become defined by convenience, comfort, avoidance of pain and indulgence.
As a whole, we no longer consider the raw materials, the labor, the
process of production, the miles over which good must travel, the
networks or conditions of people who contribute in the production of goods we consume. The reality of sweat shops and fatal factory fires is nothing but a conceptual distant reality. We are concerned only with it being low priced, well-made and looking good on us, or what have you. The disconnect from the humanity of the producers and service providers we use is not unique to the johns/other consumers of sexual exploitations. It is a societal ill we all are more or less infected with. Hedonism is a value encouraged in our world, particularly as it is framed as essential to our commercial well-being even in contributing to a healthy economy. The
powers that be stand to benefit from our dissatisfaction and would thus
not encourage us to learn to "make do." Taking such a radical message
back to the board of supervisors would have broad adverse implications
in our political and social environment. That is because it presents
not only a challenge to the choices of a "handful" of sexually perverse
or criminalized individuals and to those who deal with them, such as law
enforcement and social service providers. This message presents a core
challenge to the American way of life that we have grown accustomed
to. Not to say more people should go without, but it might be
beneficial to begin to help us all examine whether acquisition of more
and more truly leads to greater life satisfaction. Upon closer
examination, it leads to increasing abuses.
While social service
agencies and law enforcement have typically been the ones charged with
rectifying social problems, it occurs to me that some of the ones best
poised currently to address the demand side of the commercial sex trade
are addictionologists, faith based communities and possibly sex/couples'
therapists (so long as the aforementioned can appreciate exploitation
as such.) Spiritual leaders, in particular, have a charge with
challenging the status quo. They also tend to have a large listening
audience. However - for reasons I wont get into here - spiritual
leaders have their own challenges in overcoming a culture of
consumption/consumerism. Nonetheless, I believe well-informed church
leaders stand to have significant impact on persuading and challenging
masses of people to become aware of human exploitation and its direct
relation to consumption. Also, within faith based community, there is
often opportunity for community, housing, employment and other practical
needs. These things are, due to the nature of faith-based
organizations, often provided to victims at significantly lower cost to
the public as well. Hopefully, there are some spirititual leaders in
participation with the task force. I will be staying in close
communication with my pastoral staff as I participate in this endeavor
becuase there is true interest among my friends in faith to help the
poor, to free slaves, and to generally open people's eyes to destructive blind spots."
Spurred on by Chapter 8 of Shaunti's book, For Women Only, my girlfriends and I have had some fairly lively (and not always so friendly) debates about fashion and modesty.
How to dress is an issue I am never fully settled with. As a Quaker at heart, I am very familiar with the concept and intent of "plainness" and "simplicity" in clothing. I am passively bothered by the idea that most of what we wear in current society is manufactured in inhumane conditions, ie that other people frequently literally suffer so I can "look the part." I wonder how much intentionality toward justice motivates me and my daily decisions, including about what I wear.
Still, I want to look good. I am aware that my appearance and attractiveness influence people in ways that go beyond my lack or abundance of sex appeal. Things like credibility, professionalism, hobbies and approachability are also conveyed in my fashion choices.
I subscribe to Q - Ideas for the Common Good and today this video appeared in my inbox. I hope you find it to be of interest.
There are several points of departure I take with her, but her model of intimacy and desire, discussed here, is the best I have encountered in modern psychology.
It's been several months, so I guess an update is in order. The latest in this endeavor to uphold masculinity has taken an interesting turn in that I am now involved in outreach and ongoing counseling to girls who are in or coming out of the Sex Industry. An email I composed to my network of close friends says it best:
"My
friends, I know I said I would update you as things develop. But they
are actually developing quite rapidly so I haven't been able to really
get the word to you unless I've seen you. M and S have seen my
excitement a
little bit.
You
know how I (privately) sent a link about Christians ministering by going into the
sex industry areas where people are trafficked? Well, be aware that
one international activist, Danielle Strickland, who does just that will
be our weekend speaker at the Vineyard on November 17 and 18.
I
was able to get in touch with the local outreach to sex workers ministry here. I was able to
attend their training - as were others from the Vineyard, because God
enabled me to get the word out. Bless him for his faithfulness that he
HAS begun to send workers into the harvest. There are others who
wanted to attend the training but were not able, so we will see what we
can do about publicizing the next one to be held in the spring. I have
had a meeting and loads of encouragement from one of our staff pastors. The local
outreach is called Cherished and is modeled after Treasures. http://iamatreasure.com/
They have an amazingly gracious and restorative approach
to women in the sex
"industry." The local ministry has been looking for a therapist to
co-facilitate their support groups, so I'd appreciate your prayer about
that.
I
have been able to connect with a local man who is spearheading the
prevention/awareness/education aspect of anti-human trafficking here.
He has just arrived from Thailand with this being an area of heartfelt
concern. He has the statistics that some 300 girls in Palmdale are
being trafficked - so this is a big deal here in our community. He is
starting from the ground but seems to be very good at networking.
I am excited and energized about very obvious moves of God that I am seeing.
Nobody
was able to show up that one Monday to close out "For Women Only" -
the main reason we haven't finished the book together. After summer, it
just was impossible to coordinate our
schedules.
My expectation has been that the group would start off with you, women I
feel safe with and accountable to. However, I have only seen that as a
starting point to validate men. I didn't set out to make it a marriage
group or focus exclusively on sex. Oddly - I can't get away from the
intersection of spirituality and sex, but that is not the point. I have
a sensitivity to cultural influences of "castration" ie having a form
of godliness but denying its power. I believe men (surprise!) do too.
(smile) If I as a woman don't like to feel emasculated, I can't imagine
what it's like for the guys. That has been my frame of reference since
starting the group. It has been the basis for my sometimes overbearing
insistence that forms of
worship are not as important as making bridges that draw people into the
heart of worship. Sometimes, that means going back to the drawing
board of how we conceptualize what church is, or who it is. I've been
thinking that becoming a home a haven where you guys can bring your
husbands and just hang out over a drink (whatever your choice and faith
allows) to discuss ideas of culture and faith would be a great adjunct
to participation in the larger organization. We exist as the church at
different levels of organization. Both more and less organized, I
mean. God is challenging me to learn hospitality to a greater extent.
With the holidays fast approaching, Roger and I have been talking about
doing Crazy Love (Francis Chan) after the new year, like on Mondays, but
we can look at
Thursdays, too as time gets closer. We'll let you know when we set a
date.
Love and miss you all!!!"
At this point, I believe we will aim to reconvene group, hospitality, fellowship in the month of March. Stay tuned. . .
God saw all that he had made. It was good. But it was not good for man to be alone. And creation isn't finished until Jesus and the church become one, "that they may be one as I and the Father are one."