Unificationists Call for National Effort to Combat Human Trafficking

Chief Nicholas Sensley, Head of Truckee California Police Department.

As media coverage of human trafficking and under-age prostitution grows in frequency, Unificationists across the United States are calling upon their brothers and sisters to take action.

Two months after a seminal sermon on the issue given by Rev. In Jin Moon, president and CEO of the Unification Church USA, Unificationists are meeting informally in Las Vegas as well as other cities to gather ideas for a national strategy to combat the scourge of prostitution forced upon teenage girls both within the United States and in other countries.

Ms. Angelike Selle, president of WFWP said Monday, Oct. 24, 2011, “Sex trafficking, pornography, and prostitution, three heads of the same monster, are a growing threat to our culture, and women of the WFWP have a duty to do their part to defeat it. I commend Ms. Sarah Canak and other WFWP activists in Nevada for implementing a model trafficking-awareness conference in Reno on Sept. 28, 2011. We need more events like this one to mobilize public concern. Shining the light of day on the sex industry is like turning on the light in the basement: the vermin scatter.”

Rev. In Jin Moon addressed sex trafficking as a major theme of her sermon heard by 105 congregations nationwide on Aug. 21, 2011. “When we’re talking about brothels or human trafficking becoming extremely profitable at a time when we are suffering severe economic recession, we realize that this is an area of our society that exploits the soul. It destroys the soul of individuals and turns them into empty carcasses, the living dead that we see all around,” she told her audience.

She continued: “When we think about the kind of exploitation that is taking place, we have to ask ourselves a couple of things. We have to ask ourselves, ‘Who are these men, these johns? Who are the people who are giving money to these businesses that allow the businesses not just to exist but to thrive incredibly – so much so that there’s a continual flow of innocent young girls, and boys, being thrown into this kind of life? Their chances for a decent life are ravaged from them at a very young age.

“When we think about how the moral fiber of society has degenerated to such an extent that we look the other way while all of this is taking place, we have to ask ourselves some hard questions. If we really want to change the world, if we really want to build ideal families, if we really want to help people develop moral character – which is really the only way we’re going to solve these problems – how are we going to do that?”

Jenny Williamson, Founder of Courage to Be You, a nonprofit dedicated to defeat sex trafficking.

The problem is nowhere as close to home as to the citizens of Las Vegas, which touts an infamous slogan, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” The city didn’t become known as “Sin City” undeservedly. The Associated Press reported in 2008 that Las Vegas is a “hub” for child sex trafficking and that more than 400 children were found working as prostitutes during a single month in 2007. Government authorities estimate that approximately 20,000 prostitutes work in the state of Nevada. Although prostitution is illegal in the city of Las Vegas proper, it is hidden in plain sight, according to residents.

Sarah Canak reports to Familyfed.org that activists opposed to trafficking gathered at a conference Oct. 21-22, 2011 at the Sparks Christian Fellowship in Sparks, NV to hear from police Chief Nicholas Sensley, who has combated human trafficking around the world and in his own town of Truckee, California. Chief Sensely encouraged the audience to start a “new abolitionist movement,” according to Ms. Canak. He asserted that human trafficking “…is a crime, and an affront to God and humanity” and encouraged the audience to act immediately. Sensely told the conference that traffickers have assaulted every vulnerable group, and abused them in every imaginable way: “If you can think of it, you’re too late,” he warned.

Conferees also heard from Jenny Williamson, founder of the nonprofit, Courage to Be You, a non-profit that builds “Courage Homes” around the country to care for victims of sex trafficking. Ms. Williamson reflected on her own personal journey to becoming the founder of Courage to Be You, telling the conferees that when she first became aware of the problem, she asked God “Why don’t you do something about this?” After realizing God called her to act, Jenny and her organization has built Courage Houses in Tanzania, Africa in Dehli, India, Hawaii and in Northern California.

“People need to realize is that human trafficking is a real problem in the United States,” Sarah Canak tells Familyfed.org. She recommends that ways for concerned women to get involved would include reporting suspicious human trafficking in their communities, hiring trafficking survivors, volunteering their time, and donating funds to nonprofits fighting this problem.