How To Kick In A Brothel Door.

December 7, 2012January 1, 2015 / Erin Kirk / 2 Comments

Imagine for a second, your 16-year-old daughter is going to a job interview. You’re excited about that until hours pass and she hasn’t returned, nor is she answering her phone. You start to panic and call her friends and they haven’t heard from her either.

What you don’t know is the man she met was a human trafficker, posing as a business owner. He drugged her, threw her in a van and slipped her across an international border. Now, she’s locked in a room, possibly chained to a bed, with no phone or drivers license in a country whose language she doesn’t speak.

And there are a line of 20 men standing outside waiting to rape her.

This is so horrifying, your entire life stops. You host press conferences, social media blasts, work with private investigators and law enforcement, but what if you were poor and had no access to those resources? What if the cops you called were wearing a badge but working for the traffickers?

Wouldn’t you pray that somebody who had money, access to social media and the support of a scrupulous police force would help rescue your daughter? Wouldn’t you pray that some organization like The Exodus Road would kick in the door of just the right brothel and find her?

The Exodus Road is doing this in SE Asia. The A21 campaign is doing it in Greece and Eastern Europe. If you donate to my Exodus Road fund you are doing it from wherever you are. You are not standing by horrified as little girls and boys are bought and sold. You are officially part of the solution.

A21 says it like this: Nobody can do everything, but everyone can do something.

Will you click the link and put $10 into the fund right now? Will you refuse to be paralyzed by the scope of this problem?

We’ve raised 10% of the money we need to fund one raid on a brothel in SE Asia, and I am amazed at that. I don’t even know most of the people who donated and yesterday got our first male supporter – thank you John!

We have two and a half weeks to raise the rest of the money. Will you help me? Giving money is the easiest thing ever and Jesus had this to say about it:

Give, and it will be given unto you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Luke 6:38

Meet World Changer Ali Enright.

December 5, 2012 / Erin Kirk / 1 Comment

Ali Enright is featured today because she was THE VERY FIRST person to donate to my brand-new Exodus Road fund.

In fact, I think my post about counter-trafficking had been up for two minutes when she donated.

By all accounts this is a girl to watch (not in that way single boys, she’s taken). This one could be President of the United States or the next Christiane Amanpour or Madam Secretary.

As you can see, she cares deeply about irrigation, but she is also concerned enough about enslaved women and children that she’s willing to dig some cash out of her college-student hoodie pocket and send it to SE Asia.

Here’s what Ali and I, and now Jennifer too, are doing with Exodus Road:

We are raising $1400 to fund undercover surveillance and ultimately one raid on a brothel in SE Asia that imprisons sex slaves – many of whom are children.

Exodus Road and its teams have rescued 622 people to date and forced 348 prosecutions. Their work focuses on investigation and rescue but they support after care and prevention work as well.

Are you a college student like Ali? Are you an Enright like Ali and me? Want to quit being overwhelmed by the fact sexual slavery is the world’s third largest organized crime after drugs and guns?

To join us, click here. It’s easy peas.

What About The Hypocrites – An Excerpt.

December 2, 2012December 2, 2012 / Erin Kirk / Leave a comment

Here’s an excerpt from Chapter Five of Going To The Sea. It’s called Leroy.

…So maybe it isn’t all my fault, I fashioned a version of God I liked better than the one peddled by guys like Leroy or the cable news hosts who bluster on about America’s Christian heritage and then tell their guests to shut up on tv. By my second month, on the porch with my bible, I discovered, the things I find infuriating about religious hypocrites, infuriated Jesus as well.

For example, many people, even non-Christians, have heard the story of the woman caught in adultery, because it includes the famous scripture:

Lucas Cranach d. Ä. – Christ and the Adulteress – (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”

In John chapter eight, the woman was brought by the Pharisees – the Jewish religious leaders – before a crowd to be stoned to death. It wasn’t a trial, because she’d been caught in the act. Incidentally, no, the man with whom she was caught was not dragged in with her, and yes that’s galling, but welcome to the Nation of Israel in the first century.

The woman, the scripture says, was in that dangerous position because the Pharisees were using her to catch Jesus violating Mosaic Law – something they were convinced his teaching did. Remember Jesus was a Jew, people called him Rabbi and under the law of Moses, adultery was a crime punishable by death.

“What do you say Jesus?” The Pharisees asked him.

Jesus knelt and wrote in the dirt with his finger. When he stood up, he said, “let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” Then he bent down and drew in the dirt again. One by one the crowd dropped their rocks and dispersed until only Jesus and the woman were left. Then Jesus stood up, looked at the woman and said,

“Where are your accusers? Has no one accused you?”

“No one,” she answered.

Then Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go on your way and sin no more.”

Jesus didn’t ignore what the woman had done, he clearly called it sin and told her to knock it off, but he didn’t ball up with a bunch of buddies and throw rocks at her either – even though the law required it. It was the Pharisees who wanted to throw rocks, but they couldn’t because Jesus called them hypocrites and dared them to prove it.

It’s a lucky adulteress who meets Jesus in a crowd.

How many times have I objected to Christianity because “Christians are hypocrites?” But read the story again if you must. Jesus extended mercy when the law required death. He called the Pharisees hypocrites, nobody called him one. Even though the Pharisees were pious and observant, they were merciless and very unlike the God they tried to represent.

Because I never studied the Bible, I didn’t know who the Pharisees were or that they created one of the gospel’s great ironies.

I, like many people, accepted the news peddled by the Pharisees of the 21st century. So each time one of those peddlers got caught stealing money or in a hotel room, I’d gloat and think, “See Christians are hypocrites, therefore Jesus is a fraud.” That is a common but bizarre logical failure, made by people who are clearly not looking at Jesus, but rather at his chronically flawed human followers – even well-intentioned ones like Leroy.

That approach will always deliver cynicism and heartbreak because the Bible doesn’t say a decision to follow Jesus immediately transmutes our bad behavior. In fact, some translations say, once we surrender we are “impregnated” with God’s divine nature. Pregnant women will tell you it takes lots of nausea, bloating and many other things to give birth to a happy baby, but mostly it just takes time.

So are Christians hypocrites? Absolutely. So are Jews and Buddhists and Muslims and Wiccans and Vegetarians and Evolutionists and all the people who call themselves “spiritual not religious.” That’s because hypocrisy is endemic to the human condition. It is a failure, the Bible says, Jesus came specifically to address.