Child sexual exploitation can happen quietly and innocently
It happens close to home
What your congregation can do to help prevent child sexual exploitation
T
he voice of child sexual exploitation is oſten the sound of deadening silence. But
Cherish All Children, a decade- old national Lutheran ministry to prevent child sexual exploitation, speaks up for victims and survivors. And it invites ELCA congregations to join its cause by praying for all children. Amy Hartman, a diaconal
minister and founder of the Minneapolis-based organization that raises awareness of childhood exploitation through prayer, education, relationship-building and action, said this crime is oſten mistakenly thought of as a problem only outside the U.S. But child sexual exploitation
happens all over the country, she said, including Minnesota, where a high school cheerleader in the Twin Cities recruited a younger teammate into prostitution in 2013. It can happen quietly and innocently, she said, and affects both girls and boys. Some families even exploit their
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own children for money or drugs. “Tere are so many children
in this world [who] are trafficked, abused and exploited, and we’re at a great moment in history,” Hartman said. “We’re realizing what is going on with trafficking of children, and I believe our church has a role in preventing this. Years ago we might not have understood how it works, but now we do, and it’s an amazing time to be the church and lead change on this issue right now.” Te U.S. Department of Jus-
tice says this exploitation involves crimes of a sexual nature committed against juvenile victims for financial or other economic reasons. It esti- mates that sex trafficking victimizes more than 200,000 children in the U.S. annually, with an additional 244,000 to 360,000 at risk. Children are oſten the victims of brothels, sex trafficking, mail-order bride agencies, sex tourism, pornography, prostitution, stripping, lap dancing and phone sex companies. Traffickers target vulnerable
young people without good support systems—kids who are homeless, in foster care and runaways, Hart- man said. Te criminals frequently use manipulation to gain the young people’s trust, oſten contacting them online. Approximately 90 percent of children who are exploited were sexually abused prior to getting into
… and affects both girls and boys.
By Wendy Healy
prostitution. Fewer than 1 in 5 vic- tims will ever report the crime.
Prayer and action Liz Macris, the parish nurse at St. Timothy Lutheran Church in North Greenbush, N.Y., has worked with Cherish All Children since 2008. She said it takes a village to stop the crimes of childhood exploitation, and parents and adults need to look out for all children. St. Timothy first got involved by
praying for all children. Members now work with community organi- zations like Fostering Hope Founda- tion, a Colorado-based organization that advocates for healthy outcomes for foster children. St. Timothy also adopted a foster family it supports by providing meals, grocery shop- ping and other assistance. Macris does wellness checkups for the children and, with her husband Jim, takes them out for birthday lunches and other activities. Phyllis Morton, a 40-year
member of Zoar Lutheran Church in Perrysburg, Ohio, has worked with Cherish All Children for three years. Te congregation is near a busy interstate highway intersection, an area that’s convenient for traffickers, and has seen a lot of crime recently, she said. Rattling off newspaper
headlines—“Perrysburg Prostitution
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