The story of 17-year-old Christian (formerly Muslim) convert Fathima Rifqa Bary is far from over according to the Orlando Sentinel, as she is getting surgery for cancer and will need several rounds of chemotherapy afterwards.

Rifqa Bary

Last year Bary converted to Christianity, then fled to Florida because she was afraid her parents or people from their mosque would kill her.

Now she is back in Ohio due to a court order, but lives with a foster family.

Even as her parents continue the court battle over how she should be raised, Bary has had two surgeries for cancer, and will undergo a third operation on Thursday, the Orlando Sentinel said.

While she was in the hospital, Bary’s estranged Muslim parents Mohamed and Aysha Bary were allowed to go to her hospital room without her permission, according to OneNewsNow.

“I don’t know if it was her attorney, her case worker, [but] somebody made the decision to bring her parents into the room to see her without her permission,” said Jamal Jivanjee, director of the Florida-based ministry, Illuminate, “and that caused her a lot of emotional turmoil and stress, and she objected to that and they had to get them out of there,” according to OneNewsNow.

In August last year Bary said, “If I had stayed in Ohio, I wouldn’t be alive. In 150 generations in my family, no one has known Jesus.  I am the first — imagine the honor in killing me,” FoxNews.com reported.

Bary fled to Florida on a bus last July after her parents learned that she was baptized in early 2009 without their knowledge. Weeks later, using cell phone and computer records, police tracked her to the home of Rev. Blake Lorenz, pastor of the Orlando-based Global Revolution Church, and his wife Beverly.  An Orange-Osceola judge ordered Bary back to Ohio in October last year, according to FoxNews.com.

Bary suffers from an aggressive form of uterine cancer.  Her doctors initially considered a complete hysterectomy, but are hoping that won’t be necessary.  The full extent of her condition will be known after her operation on Thursday, FoxNews.com said.

Fathima said that she would like to continue to stay with her foster family in Columbus.  She turns 18 on August 10 and as an adult, her court battles with her father should end, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

However, when she turns 18 she will lose her health care and may face problems with her immigration status for being in the United States illegally.  She may be deported back to Sri Lanka, FoxNews.com said.

Jivanjee said, “We’re praying that somehow she’ll be granted asylum.”  He added that with Bary’s immigration status still up in the air, and the prospect of extensive medical treatment, she is obviously scared right now, OneNewsNow reported.

Human trafficking. Sex slaves. Child slavery.

It’s something Americans associate with a few European or third world countries. But the U.S. State Department’s 2009 “Trafficking in Humans” Report documents problems in 175 nations.

Girls, women, children and even teen boys are being deceived, kidnapped, trapped and shipped everywhere from America to Africa.

And it could be happening at our neighborhood mini-market.

The wholesale trafficking of humans

From California to New England, the problem is spreading within the United States. It’s becoming as uncontrollable as the drug war that has raged for decades, despite the government’s best efforts.

The estimated FBI numbers from sources as varied as ABC Primetime in 2006 to Christianity Today in 2010 show 100,000-300,000 teens and children under the age of 18 have been trafficked within the states per year.

It is harder to obtain statistics for adult victims, because of a finer line between “voluntary” and forced prostitution or sexual slavery.

In April 2010, the U.S. Attorney’s office brought sex trafficking charges against the Gambino family, notoriously reputed to be part of the elusive “mob” in America.

With the arrest of 14 people, the charges include trapping girls to sell for sex at high stakes poker games in the middle of busy Manhattan.

Engaging in human trafficking is a new low even for the mob, U.S. Attorney’s office representatives stated in a press conference covered by MSNBC.

Also in April, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement reported that human trafficking has become the biggest “invisible” crime in the state. Florida House Bill 633 and Senate Bill 966 are currently being proposed to help law enforcement push back against the sex slavery trade.

How can this happen in America?
The massive amounts of money to be made through human trafficking is a powerful aphrodisiac that has enticed more people, even women, to deal in such crimes. In the Gambino case, one of the people arrested was a woman known to be involved in luring the victims.

The process of obtaining victims for human trafficking:
For most teen girls and women, if they are not outright kidnapped, they’re being enticed by the possibility of modeling or acting jobs. The Hollywood dream of obtaining fame and fortune at a young age through television and movies has become an obsession.

When they get to their destination, they are thrown into vehicles or locked in back bedrooms and sold to countless customers for sex acts, sexual abuse, and to appear in pornographic movies against their will.

They may be starved, drugged, verbally abused to the point of having no self-esteem, and threatened with death if they attempt to escape.

For girls and boys who do run away from home, criminals recognize their vulnerability, hunger and brokenness and are able to entice them into prostitution and porn films with the promise of money. The victim may receive tiny payments to keep them involved.

For children, it often starts with simple nabbing from neighborhoods.

A U.S. Government grant helped reveal the child trafficking problem:
In 2008, an organization called Shared Hope International (SHI) applied for and received a government grant to study the suspected nationwide crisis of child trafficking between states. Their resulting survey revealed that many of the children were often being misidentified as delinquents, and  punished for crimes when they were actually victims.

Since then, the FBI and agencies such as the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children & Families have started training personnel to recognize when a person is a human trafficking victim instead of a runaway or criminal themselves (HHS Fact Sheet here).

See the Underground’s previous report, “Sex + Money,” about the ongoing production of a new movie aimed at exposing the U.S. sex slave industry.

Mississippi has become the most recent state to join 13 others in pursuing a “Personhood Amendment.”

A press release by Personhood Mississippi states they already have enough votes to put their measure on the 2011 election ballot as an Amendment to the Mississippi Constitution.

Fetal sonogram

What is a Personhood Amendment?
“Personhood” amendments are pro-life measures being proposed at state-level legislatures.

The goal is to recognize, within the states’ constitutions, that every unborn child has the same inherent rights, dignity and value as every living human from the beginning of their biological development.

Another aspect being pursued in some states is to assure dignity and human rights to every physically or mentally disabled or elderly person; to prevent the notion of involuntary euthanasia.

The “Personhood Movement” is an official nationwide pro-life movement.This  website clarifies that Personhood Amendments can also be called Human Life Amendments.

A list of participating states and where they are at in the process can be seen here at Personhood.Net – a subsidiary of the Georgia Right to Life Committee. Georgia was the first state with such a proposal in 2007. It hasn’t resulted in being placed on a voters’ ballot.

Joining those states that have already constructed or proposed Personhood Amendments between 2007 and April 2010, approximately 26 other state legislatures are taking action to draft similar wording.

Additionally, Personhood.Net carries information regarding ongoing attempts to get enough petition signatures to file a Federal Personhood Amendment to the United States Constitution.

In September 2009, The Underground reported on Florida’s “Personhood Amendment” movement .

Update: The Florida movement continues to press forward. The proposed Personhood Amendment, if enough votes are collected, would be placed on the next Florida election ballot for citizens’ votes.

A Methodist Church in Loxahatchee, Fla. incorporated recently the stretching movements of yoga and Pilates with Christian prayer and meditation, through a class called Praisemoves, according to the Sun Sentinel.

The class is forwarded by the Community of Hope which always opens in prayer and then ends with a New Testament bible verse such as 2 Corinthians 12:9: “And he said unto me, ‘My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me,’” as their ending meditation, the Sun Sentinel said.

Credit: k_vohsen/sxc.hu

Despite criticisms from many Christians who believe that yoga invites demonic spirits into the body, others join the class precisely because of its Christian orientation.

Some prefer its low-impact workout, while others enjoy the chance to dwell on God in a peaceful setting, the report said.

Praisemoves is different from a similarly named group, PraiseMoves which was started by Laurette Willis, who goes to Calvary church in Tahlequah, Okla.

Willis designed PraiseMoves as a way to get fit without compromise, according to their website. PraiseMoves describes itself as the Christian alternative to yoga.

In her website Willis explains in great detail the dangers of yoga and shares her own journey.

She talks of yoga’s Hindu roots and how the different yoga postures are actually offerings to 330 million Hindu gods. She also expressed concern about yoga being taught in public schools to grade school children.

PraiseMoves, Willis says, is not Christian Yoga which she calls an oxymoron, like Christian Buddhism.

Instead, PraiseMoves involves stretching exercises for physical flexibility for one’s body as a temple of God. It is so called because praise moves God. With the movements, the mind focuses on New Testament verses that praise Jesus.

Amy Julia Becker, in her article “Yoga: An Exercise in Discernment” at her.meneutics said, “I’ve started my personal prayer time by integrating God’s Word with breathing techniques I learned in yoga. Breathe in: “Be still.” Hold the breath: “and know.” Exhale: “that I am God.”

Santa Rosa County, FL – This past Thursday, two Christian school employees were cleared of all criminal contempt charges that arose after they prayed over a meal. See the Underground’s original article on this case, “Arrested for Praying in Public.”

Pace High School Principal Frank Lay and Athletic Director Robert Freeman of the Santa Rosa County School District in Florida had been held in contempt of an earlier ACLU/ Santa Rosa County School District “Consent Order” which demanded that no Santa Rosa school employees attempt to influence anyone to their faith or exercise their faith in public. Although the luncheon honored people who had donated to a school-associated athletic project, the defense claimed there were no students at the luncheon (the ACLU claimed there were); the two educators were on their own time and felt no one in attendance objected to the meal blessing.

The ACLU website article interpreting this case holds that the men were not “arrested for praying” but because they had previously presented religious materials to students, and knowingly signed the Consent Order not to engage in the above activities again.

However, the court decided the men were not in contempt in the instance of praying at the luncheon. According to the Liberty Counsel’s Press Release (Liberty Counsel defended the two men), there were many supporters in the courtroom and on the streets, wearing t-shirts specialized for the occasion and chanting in the defendants’ favor. An enthusiastic wave of relief went through the crowd when the court decision was announced.

Case was heard on a significant day – Constitution Day
That the full day-long case took place on September 17 was ironic and significant, as it was Constitution Day for the United States of America – the U.S. Constitution was signed 222 years ago on this date. To complete the irony, a copy of the famous painting which depicts the signing of the Declaration of Independence hangs in that very courtroom.

The Liberty Counsel’s next step will most likely be to get the Consent Order itself declared unconstitutional, as it could still set precedence for cases of this type around the country. There is a huge misunderstanding that the mythical phrase “separation of church and state” means people of faith must not be seen praying anywhere in public. This phrase is not even in the First Amendment or anywhere else in the Constitution, and its implications are untrue. Yet the ACLU brings many cases against Bible believers all over the country in the name of “free speech.”

In this writer’s assessment, the Constitution does not say that people have freedom from hearing someone else’s religious free speech; especially if it is peacefully delivered and unforceful.