Human trafficking: A just and biblical response - GotQuestions.org Podcast Episode 14

Welcome to the God Questions Podcast. I'm Kevin Stone. I'm the managing editor of God Questions Ministries, and with me today is

Dax Lewis. Dax is one of our volunteer writers for God Questions. We'll talk a little bit about his writing experience with us, and then he is also a member of law enforcement for a state agency.

We'll talk a little bit about his work combating human trafficking and get some insight there as well in just a few minutes, but Dax, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you. I'm honored to be here. I'm so glad that you could join me today, and let's start with talking about your writing for God Questions.

You're a volunteer writer, which means you help to answer the many questions that come in to God Questions' website.

We send you an email, and then you take that and you answer the question and send that back, and so how long have you been writing for God Questions?

It's just been under three years that I've been participating. We really appreciate your work. How many questions do you answer per week?

I only answer one. Pretty busy schedule with work and a kid still in high school and also doing seminary on the side, so one takes up about as much time as I have to give.

I don't even know how you get it all done with a schedule that you've got, but walk us through the process a little bit with answering a question.

So you get an email, and you know it's from God Questions, so you say, this is my question for the week, and so I'm going to, tell us how that happens.

You go from email to formulating an answer and then getting that back to us. Sure, yeah, I get an email, comes to my phone as most people these days do, and as soon as I get it, as soon as I see it,

I try to look at the question, and I want to be able to read it and then put my phone away and I kind of just try and think about it for the next day or so while I'm working, you know, if I'm on break or when

I'm home in the evening, I try and run that question through my mind and think about what scriptures do

I know off the top of my head that I can bring to that question as part of an answer, or even what's in the question or behind the question that maybe has a flawed category on how they're looking at something, and sometimes just addressing the things that are in the question themselves helps clear things up.

So once I think about it for a day or so, then I get out scripture again and confirm the things that I thought probably the

Bible talked about in a proficient and a good manner, I guess, for the question, and then

I get out some commentaries, study those, make sure I'm tracking right, and then write my answer and submit it back to GotQuestions through email.

And then at that point, the editors at GotQuestions will take your answer that you've sent in and just proofread it very briefly, checking for spelling and whatever else, and then send that on to the questioner, and so the loop is completed, and so the original questioner has an answer, and I appreciate so much you mentioning the fact that you put scripture in your answer.

So one of the things that we always want to do at GotQuestions is provide biblical answers to scriptural questions, and if the

Bible doesn't, you know, directly address something, we try to always mention that and say we can give informed opinions on some things, but there is so much that the

Bible does speak directly to, and we always want to use scripture in our answers. Yeah.

Well, there are other questions that I would like to ask about the writing process. It's fascinating to me, but I do want to get into the other issue today that I brought you on the podcast for, which is human trafficking.

You've, I guess I should ask the question, how long have you been in law enforcement? I've been in law enforcement, this is my 20th year.

Okay, wow, very good. And so you've probably seen a lot of stuff through the years, and I'm sure that, you know, human trafficking has been part of what you've seen through those years as well.

So how big of a problem is it? Well, let me back up because we need to define our terms.

When people hear the term human trafficking, they may not even have a clear idea of what it is.

So give us a definition of human trafficking so we know what we're talking about exactly.

Sure. So human trafficking is forcing somebody to participate in labor or services for the profit of someone else, and that's done by fraud, force, or coercion.

But what we typically think about is when people are smuggled from another country over our borders and come here, or the old guy in the big white van that shows up and snatches people off the streets.

Both of those things happen, but those are not always human trafficking and that is not solely human trafficking.

So when people are smuggled across a border, while it could be human trafficking, it's most certainly human smuggling.

And smuggling is a crime against a nation's sovereignty, and trafficking is a crime against a person.

So when they get smuggled over here, that's typically smuggling, like I said, but the vulnerabilities that that presents showing up in a new country and maybe having to pay somebody could translate into a trafficking situation.

But your typical pimp -prostitute relationship is by definition human trafficking.

The pimp is forcing the prostitute, as we typically use that term, to go provide sexual services to somebody, but the trafficker is the one that's making the money.

So it's a forced servitude, it's a slavery and an oppression.

Modern -day slavery involves more than just the sex trafficking, too.

It involves the, just, you know, labor, people out in the labor force could be...

Yeah, absolutely, and we see that in a couple different ways. And again, it's all about vulnerabilities.

So the Asian massage parlor business is another area where there's a lot of forced labor trafficking and a lot of times that turns into sex trafficking at the same time.

But people are brought here to this country and maybe they don't speak the language very well, they're not given their official documents such as passports or IDs or even their money when they get here and those are held and they have to try and work off their trip here or whatever those traffickers lay out as their terms.

But then they're forced to provide massages all day. Or maybe in the construction company, maybe you get a work crew that is some undocumented illegal aliens, basically.

Well, they're here and they're working, but they're probably working for substandard wages and they're being forced to work.

They're not even making their money. They're out working to pay off their smuggling across the border.

But they don't ever know when that payment ends. And I don't mean that in every ethnicity either.

There are people out there working of all ethnicities, but when people are vulnerable from being smuggled into this country and they're not from here and they don't know people and they're not given their documents, that makes them very vulnerable.

What would you say to somebody who says, well, human trafficking may be a problem, but only in the big cities.

And it doesn't affect me. I'm in a more rural area, suburban area, and I'm sure it's not in my neighborhood.

What would you say to somebody who has that mindset? It is more prevalent in the bigger cities, but it does happen in these smaller communities and the rural areas.

And some of it's happening online. So I'll give you an example. There's a page out there called

OnlyFans, and people can pay a monthly subscription to basically have a peep show at these girls.

So they're not even meeting these people, but let's say they're paying a $25 a month subscription to this one person's page.

Well, every so often, this person puts out new videos or pictures of sexual things going on or just nude photos in general, and the person's paying for that in a subscription.

The problem is those people are often being exploited behind the scenes. You don't see the trafficker in the video, but those people aren't doing that in so many of the instances because they want to.

And so even sitting at home in a little town of 1 ,000 people somewhere, you could be exploiting somebody that's being trafficked for sexual services.

It may not even be physical contact, but it's electronic exploitation.

So it happens everywhere. The market is obviously bigger, and the anonymity of meeting these people in the bigger cities is more prevalent, but it happens.

It happens everywhere. Yeah. What makes a person vulnerable? What do traffickers look for in a victim?

Well, traffickers look for vulnerabilities, and that's what they exploit. So you may have a teenager that's unhappy at home or has a terrible home life and begins seeking a relationship or friendship or some support or a fatherly figure somewhere else.

Well, traffickers are going to morph into what they need to morph into to provide that, at least that's what it appears.

And then once they're caught in that, they're isolated, control starts being exerted. Maybe they lose their cell phone.

They're not allowed to go see family and friends anymore, and they're caught. But any vulnerability makes a person subject to being trafficked.

So sending a nude photo is a perfect way to start the process of being trafficked or at least exploited because once that photo is out there, now they've got you.

You're either going to continue to send them or have to pay a ransom, or they're going to try to expose you and publish it and just absolutely humiliate you.

Yeah, my goodness. Well, let's bring Scripture to bear on this issue of human trafficking.

Dax, if you received a question through the GotQuestions website about human trafficking, wanting to use

Scripture in your answer, how would you bring Scripture into the discussion?

I think I would start with Genesis 127 and that man is made in God's image. I think that is ultimately the most important thing because these people are human beings.

They're not units of production, and they're being victimized by both sides of the equation, especially sexually.

The trafficker thinks of them as a unit of production and their property.

The buyer thinks of them as an object to be used and discarded.

So these people are not being treated with any dignity in any of their contexts while they're in this world.

So I think understanding that they are people, they're made in God's image, they're loved by others in their family, they're not to be oppressed, to be objectified, to be used,

I think that's the first thing because of who they are. They have a soul and that God created them.

Luke 19 .10 says that Jesus came to seek and to save those that were lost. They're lost people, too.

The buyers are lost. We have got to bring the gospel into conflict with this world, including the human trafficking world.

Hearts have got to be regenerated for us to solve this problem. So those are two of the things

I would bring. Also, you know, in Matthew 25, I think it's verses 35 to 45, Jesus talks about, hey, if you've fed the hungry or gave a drink to the thirsty or took in a stranger, you've done that to me.

So many people are disgusted by the lifestyle that a prostitute leads. You know, they're often thought of as kind of just dirty, filthy.

They're in need. They're victims. And we've got to look past that and take them in and love on them.

I think a lot of times about the scriptures, many admonitions to help the helpless, to stand up for the innocent that are being exploited.

And a lot of times it's framed in the Proverbs and the Psalms as, you know, helping the widow and the orphan.

The marginalized, forgotten, and often victimized segments of society.

And the scripture is full of that, how God looks out for those who are vulnerable.

I also think of Jesus' parable of the good Samaritan and the many messages that are there.

But the one that we have to pull out is that we need to help people in need.

You can't just walk by. You can't just ignore them. And there's somebody who's in need, who's been victimized.

It doesn't matter who they are. That's my neighbor. And we must love our neighbors, Jesus taught.

And so we are admonished in scripture over and over to be doing something to help the victims of crime and of exploitation in our world.

So what is being done? I'm talking about in law enforcement, in non -government organizations, nonprofits, in the media, to combat human trafficking.

Well, it's a great question. And this is a crime and a criminal enterprise, even, that has slowly kind of rose to the surface of one of the big needs of our day in law enforcement.

Law enforcement is trying to catch up with what's been going on behind the scenes with the prostitutes.

We're trying to catch up and push training out to people so that they can see these things, that most of the time these people aren't in this lifestyle because they want to be.

Nobody dreamed of growing up to be a prostitute or a sex worker. Undoubtedly, there are people that are in it on their own volition, but the majority of them are not.

And so pushing the training out, Interdiction for the Protection of Children is one of the courses that is being taught across the nation.

It's to help officers on traffic stops or when they're at a house taking a call for service to recognize indicators that somebody is being exploited or trafficked.

And also to recognize people, while there may not be a trafficking situation going on, they are a high -risk threat to a child.

And to research that situation, maybe make contact if they don't live in your area and pass their name on and say, hey, here's what

I came up with and I think they're a high -risk threat to children. Somebody may want to take a look at this person or this situation or try and find some of these people that he's in contact with.

Maybe they're victims. So we're trying to push training out because education and understanding what's going on, because we can all see the prostitution.

We see it in the movies. We see it on TV. You drive down some of the big cities and you see some of these people walking up and down the road that you suspect are involved in it.

What you don't see is who they're taking that money back to and giving it back to after they've performed services.

Frankly, they've been victimized. The non -governmental organizations, the nonprofits, they're a huge help.

There's support to law enforcement. There's support to victims. Some of these entities, Deliver Fund, for example, is a non -governmental organization that was started with some military veterans that were back home and decided to take their battle skills and their military skills to fight against the traffickers that are oppressing

American citizens. And so they provide free intelligence resources on human trafficking situations to law enforcement, free of charge to the law enforcement entity.

You've got victim service coalitions out there that are providing restoration houses for long -term recovery for these people after they get out of the lifestyle.

You've got people that will show up as crisis service providers. And the night that the police bring them into the station to talk to them, they're there to provide food or hygiene or a motel stay or a shelter.

So there's a lot that's being done. And the media has been picking up on this, and there's been a lot of articles or news clips coming out in the last couple of years about major operations and rescue of children especially.

That catches everybody's eye. But it wasn't very long ago that shows like Pimp My Ride were glamorizing the stereotypical pimp lifestyle.

And pimps by definition are human traffickers. They're slave masters.

They're oppressors. They're victimizers. They're predators. That's not a glamorous lifestyle at all.

Yeah. For those of us who are not in law enforcement, what are some of the indicators of human trafficking that we could look for?

Any red flags? Yeah, that's a great question. And so much of this goes on behind the scenes that the average person doesn't see a lot of these things.

But a couple things I would say is, and this goes for retail clerks especially, they would have probably the best view of some of this, would be let's say a couple people show up to rent a hotel room for the night.

And maybe one of them is trying to actually make the transaction but lack of eye contact, and then they don't even have their documents.

Somebody else provides their credit card or their ID. When somebody's holding their documents, that's a red flag that there's some control being exerted there.

This person doesn't even have access to their most basic personal identifying documents or their personal financial capabilities with their cards or cash.

Another thing is tattoos. These people are treated as property by the traffickers.

Well, cattle owners typically brand their cattle. Now, traffickers are branding their trafficking victims.

They're branding them with barcodes. And you and I both know that barcodes are meant for property or for products.

That's how you keep track of your inventory. That's how you describe that this piece of property is yours.

They're also getting tattoos with the trafficker's name on their neck or in a pretty prominent location.

A lot of times you'll see a crown because the pimp is the king of that situation in that person's world.

These are forced tattoos in so many of the occasions. Those are a couple of the main things that people can look for that should be red flags.

They don't always mean that trafficking is going on, but they're red flags. If I suspect that I've met somebody who is being trafficked or if I see a situation that really raises some red flags in my mind, what should

I do? That's a great question. If you're out there and you see something going on presently, you need to call 911.

We've got to get the police involved. If you see something or if you have seen something, maybe it's a few days past even, and you keep thinking about it.

It's bugging you. It's gnawing at you. Maybe you're doing your own research online on what is human trafficking or what are some indicators.

All the puzzle pieces start coming together. Call your non -emergency line for your law enforcement and report it.

There's a non -governmental organization out there called Polaris. They run the National Human Trafficking Hotline. You can reach out to them by text or email or phone call and report it.

They have a list of people that have been put on the list for each state or jurisdiction that they can pass that information to.

Polaris' phone number is 1 -888 -373 -7888.

That is a national hotline for Polaris. That is. One other thing

I would say is citizens and the police should work well together.

If you're a citizen out there, you ought to be making some relationships with your local law enforcement.

You ought to eventually develop a relationship with one of them that you feel you can trust on a personal level that you would feel comfortable sharing information with.

Really, that's crucial in my opinion. If you want to share something that you're not really sure if it is what you think, but you're concerned and you want to report it, you're going to feel better reporting that to somebody that's going to take you serious than just calling some number and talking to an anonymous person on the other end of the phone.

Yeah, makes sense. Dax, you and I both have children and teenage children.

What can we do to help protect them? What preventative measures can we take to help protect our kids from human traffickers?

Well, I would say first and foremost is dads. We've got to be dads. And we've got to step in and fill what so many kids fill a void in is when they were fatherless or had a father that was there but was never present really in their life.

So many people are out there seeking to find that father figure in their life.

So just being there as a father, first of all, helps mitigate some of the vulnerabilities of seeking male attention.

Because it's pretty easy to seek male attention if you know what you're doing. But if you've been brought up as a kid that's confident and knows that your dad loves you and cares about you, that's the standard that they see of what a guy should treat them as.

You know, social media and cell phones, they're great. But they present a lot of traps and snares out there that these kids can step into.

You know, if they send a nude photo to somebody, even if it's a boyfriend or girlfriend to start with.

It could even be a stranger. That's out there and that's there forever. And they can make your life miserable if they want to publish it.

And if they want to play a wicked game, all they've got to do is tell you they're going to and demand more or else.

So have honest conversations with your kids. Talk about the things that are going on in their life and their social media.

Ask them if they've been hit up for nude photos or videos. Things like that.

Try and mitigate anywhere that you see that could be a vulnerability. Because traffickers exploit vulnerabilities.

And what is that, one more time, what is that hotline, that national hotline for Polaris? It's 1 -888 -373 -7888.

Thank you. And I think that is, unfortunately, all the time that we have for today's podcast.

But it's been great to talk about this issue and a very important one.

I'm Kevin Stone with Got Questions Ministries. And with me today has been Dax Lewis. He's one of our volunteer writers for Got Questions.

And he's a member of law enforcement for a statewide agency. He's also a man with a heart for the victims of human trafficking.

Dax, thank you so much for being a part of the podcast today. Again, an honor to do so. Thank you. This has been the

Got Questions podcast. Got questions? The Bible has answers. We will find them for you.