I don’t think of myself as being naïve, and I know that there are a lot of bad things going on out there in this crazy, mixed-up world, but sometimes even I get blindsided.  I was watching a video on something that was described as being so bad that it needed to have comment made on it.  And they were right.

A video was played showing a piece from a television show depicting an undercover police operation involving children and sex trafficking.  I am, unfortunately, aware of how this takes place, especially in the Americas.  People, usually from the United States, travel to Central America or South America for the sole purpose of having sex with children.  These children are typically abducted from their(usually poor) parents(because they do not have the resources or political clout to take any significant action), moved to another country and then housed to be rented out to anyone who will pay for the privilege of engaging in sexual activity with underage children.  Some of the children(boys and girls) are not even ten years old.

As terrible as the above described is, what I saw was worse.  I must confess that I find it difficult to even write about this.  Having to think about it is gut-wrenchingly horrible.  But silence only helps to allow it to continue.  And it needs to stop.  Now.

This particular phenomenon of human depravity takes place in the Philippines.  Mothers offer their own children to strangers to do what they want(sexually).  It sounds incomprehensible, but apparently not.  It should be, but it is not.

Children are a gift from God(Ps. 127:3).  They are one of His greatest gifts that any of us can hope to receive.  Some do; some do not.  And these gifts are not mere chattel, but rather they are precious souls.  Jesus told His disciples that unless they became like little children, they would never enter the kingdom of heaven(Matt. 18:3).  He wanted His disciples to understand that they needed to become trusting of Him, just as young children trust their parents.  They needed to have an innocence about them(not a sinless innocence, but rather a realization that they really didn’t know anything, so they needed to trust and follow Him).

There are currently efforts to arrest and imprison both the pedophiles who prey on young children, as well as the mothers who “pimp” out there children for cash(in one of the stories in the documentary, the price was $18 and I believe the undercover officer was being offered more than one child for that sum).

In one of the many disturbing aspects of this catastrophe of inhumanity, some psychologists believe that taking the children away from the mothers is more damaging to the children than the sexual predation that the children endure.  I’m not going to suggest that I know just how bad being taken away from an incompetent parent is vs. being sexually molested by a stranger(s), but any child in that situation needs a new parent.  This professional incompetence just makes an unimaginably bad situation worse.

The primary responsibility of any parent to their child is that they raise their children based on God’s instructions(Eph. 6:4).  Parents need to teach their children about God’s love for them(John 3:16; II Cor. 5:15-19).  Unfortunately, most parents do not do this.  There are certainly varying degrees to which parents do not teach their children about God’s love for them.  And no degree of that failure is acceptable.  But actions like what was exposed in this documentary lower the bar further than I thought it could be lowered.

The journalist who prepared the documentary suggested that one of the primary causes of this travesty was poverty.  This is, unfortunately, an excuse some comparatively rich people make for people of lesser means.  It might sound like someone is trying to make excuses, but it seems a little elitest to me.  For example, there are millions of desperately impoverished people who are NOT selling their children to anyone and everyone to make a quick buck.  So clearly poverty is not the driving factor.  If poverty is not the driving factor, what is?  The answer is simple: it is a failure to understand God and His love for people(and yes, children are people).

When Jesus was born into this world, it was for one purpose:  to save us from our sins(John 3:16).  He did not just come to save the “good people,” whoever you might think they are.  Jesus stated that only God is good(Mark 10:18), meaning without sin.  If all people sin(Rom. 3:23), then all people need salvation from sin(II Cor. 5:15-19).  I am not suggesting that young children are guilty of sin and subject to everlasting separation from God.  Since we are saved by God’s grace(Eph. 2:8-9), we do not do anything to earn our salvation(like a bunch of good deeds).  But there are things that He commands that we do.  We have to love God(I John 4:19).  We have to believe that Jesus is the Son of God(Mark 16:16).  We have to repent(i.e. have a change of heart – Acts 17:30).  We have to be baptized for the forgiveness of our sins(Acts 2:38).  We have to keep His commandments, as that is how we demonstrate that we love Him(John 14:15).  This commandment keeping does not save us(pay for our sins), as only Jesus’ sacrifice can do that(I John 2:2).  Instead, it demonstrates our love for Him and our change of heart, as well as a change of actions(Rom. 6:1-11).  Young children clearly cannot understand or do any of this, so their sins would not appear to be held against them, as they are not capable of doing what is necessary to have their sins forgiven.  And someone else(i.e. a proxy) cannot believe for them, be saved for them or change for them, as each of us is responsible for our own sins(Jer. 31:30; Exe. 18:20; Rom. 5:12).

These children who are being horribly abused are NOT being told about God’s love for them.  Even if words are being spoken, actions speak louder than words.  Jesus told His disciples that they would know what people were really like by paying attention to what they did(Matt. 7:16).  Any parent who teaches their child(through their actions) that anything is more important than the love of God is NOT bringing their children up according to the instruction of the Lord(Eph. 6:4).  And that is also sad.

Let’s be cognizant of sin around us.  Let’s be cognizant of our own sin.  Let’s be knowledgeable about sin that is not around us(not in close proximity).  Let’s not make excuses for ourselves, or others.  Let’s help people, to the extent that we can, to avoid sin and to resist temptation, whatever it might be(Matt. 7:3-5).  Let’s be the people God wants us to be.