An open letter signed by 36 religious leaders in today’s New York Times has called on Village Voice Media to shut down a webpage reported to be used to traffic children for sex.

“As moral and religious leaders of many creeds and backgrounds,” said the letter to Jim Larkin, CEO and chair of Village Voice media, “we are united in calling on your publication to shut down the Adult section of Backpage.com.” Arrests of adults selling minors for sex via Backpage.com have been reported in 14 states.

The ad was placed in the Times by Groundswell, the social action initiative of Ney York’s Auburn Seminary.

Signers of the display ad in the Times include National Council of Churches President, the Rev. Peg Chemberlin, and NCC General Secretary, the Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon.

“We share the opinion of the nation’s 51 Attorneys General that the best way to eradicate your company’s connection with the sex trafficking of minors is to shut down the Adult section of your Web site, as Craigslist did,” the leaders said.

“We know there is much more to be done to end the sex trafficking of minors beyond what we ask of you,” the leaders said. “Ending this practice for good requires a groundswell of people in our business, media, and religious communities joining together in partnership.”

“But we can do something right now to help these girls and boys,” the religious leaders told Larkin and members of the board of directors of Village Voice Media. “Please shut down the Adult section of Backpage.com immediately so that no minor is exploited through advertisements on your Web site.”

The estimated annual revenue from the Backpage adult section exceeds $22 million. Village Voice Media said earlier it has increased efforts to screen for ads featuring minors, but the religious leaders said they believe the efforts have been inadequate.

Clergy wishing to add their name to a letter to Village Voice media can do so at Groundswell here. Other citizens may sign here.

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A Christian missionary said recently that 90 percent of prostitutes in Cambodia are sold into this industry by their parents.

Ruth Elliott, a British missionary and head of Daughters of Cambodia, said the young girls feel a need to stay in the sex trade to support their families. Elliott first arrived in Cambodia in 2004, and formed Daughters of Cambodia, which has helped sex trafficking victims for six years, CBN News said.

Elliott says, “They live in the pit of hell. It’s the truth. And they experience horrendous trauma when they come out.” Elliott said God called her to this work when she was only 14 years old, saying, “[God] wanted me to go into the places that were worst and to facilitate healing the broken-hearted and setting the captives free,” CBN News said.

Elliott does her work by entering Cambodia’s brothels and asking the sex victims if they want to change their lives. If they are amenable, she invites them to her day-center which is located within the area, CBN News said.

She said change is possible when the girls learn new ways to earn a living. “We had to start small businesses, which are fair trade businesses, in order for the girls to exit the sex industry. For without another job, it is just impossible for them to leave,” CBN News said.

The girls are also taught important lessons for a healthy domestic life, noting, “Things like domestic violence prevention, conflict resolution skills, budgeting skills, this kind of thing. [Also] drug prevention,” CBN News said.

Daughters of Cambodia can have up to 60 girls at a time per program, who learn new skills to pay for food, rent and other necessities by selling products they make such as fashion accessories, clothes and furnishings locally and for export, CBN News said.

The emotional trauma from having been in the sex industry is also addressed. As a psychologist, Elliott counsels victims and trains counselors for this growing work. She also engages in evangelization, CBN News said.

Her ministry includes brothel owners and pimps noting, “We want everyone in the sex industry to come to our church because we believe in the power of Jesus to change everyone’s life,” CBN News said.

But the girls easily accept Jesus she says, noting, “They have never in their lives experienced love — unconditional love and acceptance. And many of them become Christians as a result of this,” CBN News said.

While the work can be dangerous, Elliott sees God’s protection and faithfulness in that they have never had any problems noting, “I believe the grace of God is on us,” CBN said.

On their website, Daughters of Cambodia posted one girl’s story. She was left by her parents to work as a maid in a wealthy Cambodian family home at the age of 14, but was not paid her salary and was fed twice daily. The husband made sexual advances, forcing her to run away, the website said.

Her parents were working in Thailand so she was left in the streets. A girl she met got her a job in a Karaoke bar, which turned out to be a brothel. In this way, she was coerced into prostitution, the website said.

The girl said, “I had little choice about who I had to have sex with because they were wealthy or threatened me… Customers often made derogatory comments to me; they did not care if I was crying… There was nobody willing to help me and I cried alone every night…I started to think I was crazy. I was often so depressed; I felt I had no worth or value and my life was cheap. I cannot describe the pain,” the website said.

At Daughters she said, “I find comfort and strength, the staff value me, I have close friends and I know many people here love me and care about me. And I can talk to people here if I feel bad. I feel loved,” the website said.

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Human trafficking claims 100,000 girls annually in the U.S. alone. Photo credit: iStockphoto.

Human trafficking: it’s not a fictional plot device created by talented scriptwriters for Hollywood action flicks like Taken and TV dramas like 24.

It is a real, modern-day form of slavery in which individuals (women and young girls in particular) are taken hostage and forced and coerced into performing sexual acts for commercial profit, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

And it’s something more and more filmmakers are addressing.

Since September 2009, the five young directors, writers and producers behind “Sex and Money: A National Search for Human Worth” have traveled across the U.S. to investigate and expose one of the most illegal underground industries in the world.

While the group’s last television series primarily focused on human trafficking in other parts of the world, their new documentary will strictly investigate the U.S. sex slave trade.

Besides conducting research in Washington D.C., they have interviewed porn stars, former prostitutes, political leaders and authors in an effort to raise awareness and encourage social awakening.

Photojournalist Tim Dyk told Christianity Today’s Elissa Cooper that as Christians, “We need to be willing to go to these areas, be willing to have conversations about sex, about prostitution, about helping people who are coming out of prostitution, because even Jesus wants to [reach out to] prostitutes. He recognized that they are needy people just like anyone else, just like we are.”

Although producers are not marketing the documentary as a “Christian” film, many people who working on the project are outspoken believers. In conjunction with photogenX, a ministry of Youth With A Mission, they are striving to expose the hard truths about prostitution in America, including the “the sexual exploitation of children,” according to the film’s official web site.

“There are so many different ways that we can work [against trafficking],” said Dyk. “I just think a lot of this requires the church, as followers of Christ, to walk out in what he’s calling us to do, [and] it can look different for each person. I think people just need to see how the Spirit leads and see how they can use their gifts.”

You can find out more about “Sex + Money: A National Search for Human Worth” at their official web site: www.sexandmoneyfilm.com. You can also watch trailers and webisodes on the group’s YouTube channel at: http://www.youtube.com/user/sexandmoneyglobal.

The documentary is tentatively scheduled for a fall 2010 release date.

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The porn industry would have us believe that pornography is a harmless, victimless crime – and they even go so far as to say pornography “empowers” women (see this previous Underground article). Purveyors of porn title theirs a “Business of Pleasure” as seen in a July 2009 CNBC special, where one female porn star says “I just treat it like any job.” Women are now producing and directing pornographic films.

If porn takes no victims, then we wouldn’t need “Victims of Pornography Month,” which happens in May each year, and we wouldn’t need “White Ribbons Against Pornography Week” (WRAP) – taking place Sunday, October 25 through Sunday, November 1, 2009. WRAP is sponsored by the Morality in Media organization.

For decades, numerous reports and articles have offered real statistics about porn’s victims:
-Ruined marriages from addiction to print and Internet porn;
-Abuse and violence after viewing porn videos;
-Addiction to porn in magazines leading to visiting strip clubs and eventually adultery;
-Adult pornography leading to sexual exploitation of children and sex trafficking;
-Teens and children becoming addicted to porn found on parents’ and friends’ computers or in hidden magazines;
-Roughly 93% of boys and 61% of girls have seen online porn;
-Clergy and youth leaders unable to resist the temptation of porn films in hotel rooms;
-Soft porn working its way toward hard porn in major Hollywood films and TV soap operas (not just “B” videos).
(Visit the Morality in Media website linked above for evidence of these statements. Click on “Effects of Pornography” in the column at right side.)
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One of the latest phenomena is that tweens and teens don’t see the harm in porn because “everyone’s posting nude pictures” on their cell phones. Michael Leahy, author of Porn Nation – Conquering America’s #1 Addiction and himself a one-time porn addict, calls pornography the “crack cocaine of sexual addiction.”

“Porn is protected by free speech” – myth becomes truth
The Supreme Court has ruled often that the First Amendment does not protect obscenity. But because today’s “politically correct” philosophy tells us that there are no absolute truths and nothing is right or wrong, good or bad, the subject of what is obscene has become relative. Laws are thrown out the window in favor of doing what feels good and allowing others to do so because we mustn’t appear judgmental.
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Is all of porn’s harmful evidence falling on deaf ears where laws are concerned? Enforcement of U.S. Federal Obscenity Laws has long been declining in the name of free speech. Despite a 2005 Harris Poll showing 77% of American adults would support efforts to enforce federal obscenity laws, and in 2008 that 75% would support similarly, it still isn’t happening. There is stronger federal willingness to look into sex trafficking since it’s become such a huge, un-ignorable problem; but print and video pornography still isn’t getting much attention.

How can you help?
-Read some of the stories at the Victims of Pornography website.

-Participate in the WRAP campaign as an individual, or enlist your church or any other group to do so (get all instructions at the Morality in Media website under the first right-bar link “Wrap Campaign”).

-PRAY for victims of pornography and their families.
-PRAY for a miraculous downfall to the $100 billion porn industry.
-RESIST temptation and help your family to resist it. Study Matthew 6:13, 26:41; Luke 22:46, 1 Corinthians 10:13, James 1:2-3.

(This writer is not receiving any remuneration or compensation from organizations mentioned in this article.)

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