She is Worth Protecting by Harvey Carey, youth pastor Salem Baptist Church

“We are not predators, we are protectors.” —Jonathan Welton

A strip club opened near my church in Chicago that was illegally allowing in minors. So I went to the owner of this strip club and confronted him about what he was allowing.

He responded, “Man, who are you anyway?”

I said, “I am Pastor Harvey Carey, the youth pastor of Salem Baptist church”

“Let me tell you something,” he replied. “This is about the money, and what are you and a bunch of kids going to do about it anyway!”

So I went and got together with my youth group that night, which was about 900 students. My leadership and I dressed in our casual clothes so as to not look “churchy” and away we went. We lined up about 20 buses filled with students from our youth group. They parked around the corner from the strip club where they couldn’t be seen.

My leadership and I approached the front door of the club and read the posted rules: “You must wear a shirt. You must wear shoes, and no hats allowed.” Since we met the regulations we proceeded to enter the club.

I know some of you are thinking: “Oh my God pastor, that’s not where Christians go!”

You idiot! Have you read the Bible! That is where Christians go! We go to change the world! Yes, light in darkness, not just light hanging out with light.

I called my leadership on the buses and said, “It is time!” The students poured off of the buses and surrounded the building on their knees in prayer.

[I] and the other youth group leaders with me inside the club approached the stage and bowed our knees in prayer. We began to cry out, “In the name of Jesus!”

Security approached us and said, “Sir, you cannot do that in here!”

I said, “Show me the sign! I am wearing a shirt. I am wearing shoes, and I don’t have a hat on. I paid my $25 at the door and I can talk to God if I want to!”

The presence of God so filled that club as we prayed that the dancers were convicted and gathered up their belongings and left the building. All around the outside of the building, my youth group intercepted those precious former dancers and ministered to their hearts.

That night the club closed down and never reopened.1

I have made the point previously that men are called as rescuers and protectors of women. We are not predators; we are protectors. Here is a snapshot of the world’s current situation. Reversing these numbers is our mission, our calling, our assignment:

▪ 1.4 million victims [women and children] are in servitude in the commercial sex industry.

▪ Less than 2 percent of these victims are rescued.

▪ One in 100,000 traffickers in Europe are convicted in court.2

▪ The U.N. reported in 2009 that up to 40 percent of women throughout Latin America have been victims of physical violence.

▪ In Asia, 60 million girls are “missing” due to prenatal sex selection, infanticide, or neglect. In China, young couples are allowed to have only one child, and boys are preferred. Baby girls are orphaned, thrown into rivers, left on doorsteps, or abandoned in forests.

▪ In many Islamic countries women die from “honor killings.” Women who dare to disagree with their husbands or show a hint of disrespect, will be buried up to the waist by their husbands and other male relatives, and then stoned publically. This practice is illegal, yet it’s estimated that 5,000 such killings take place every year.

▪ Female genital mutilation affects an estimated 130 million women and girls, mostly in Africa. Each year, 2 million more undergo the barbaric practice.3

▪ “Author George Gilder in Sexual Suicide reported that men commit more than 90 percent of major crimes of violence, 100 percent of the rapes, and 95 percent of the burglaries. Men comprise 94 percent of our drunken drivers, 70 percent of suicides, 91 percent of offenders against family and children.”4

Men, our sisters need us. They are literally crying out for our help. We cannot continue to play around with sin; we must become who God has called us to be and change what is happening in this world. Many of us want to see these atrocities end, and the first step is to get out of bondage to the evil spirits behind this industry. We must not allow our minds to view women the way that the devil tells us to. As former porn-star turned Christian anti-porn activist, Shelley Lubben states in her book, our sisters need us!

The real truth is we porn actresses want to end the shame and trauma of our box office lives but we can’t do it alone. We need you men to fight for our freedom and give us back our honor. We need you to hold us in your strong arms while we sob tears over our deep wounds and begin to heal. We want you to throw out our movies and help piece together the shattered fragments of our lives. We need you to pray for us so God will hear and repair our ruined lives. Don’t believe the big top fantasy. Porn is nothing more than fake sex, bruises and lies on video. Trust me, I know.5

It is time that we become like Christ. We have already discussed how we are called to treat women as our sisters, with dignity and respect. But being like Christ goes beyond not mistreating and lusting after our sisters. It is not enough to stop looking at them as objects of pleasure; it is time that we aggressively rise up and become rescuers, protectors, and Christlike heroes.

Most men who have struggled with sexual bondage continue to endure guilt and shame. They feel powerless and wonder if they will ever be free. If they have reached out for help from a therapist or read most of the current books on the subject, they are slapped with the label of addict and the promise “once an addict, always an addict.” Unfortunately, these men will continue to struggle from one methodology to another, looking only for their own freedom.

We must break out of this cycle. The millions of women who are being used, abused, and thrown away every day are crying out in their hearts asking, “Will anyone ever truly love me and help me?”

God is not setting us free just so that we can be happy and not covered in shame. He does want us free, but for a purpose. We are freed to bring freedom to others. As Jesus said in Matthew 10:8: “…Freely you have received; freely give.”

You are either going to be a protector and rescuer, or you are going to be a user and abuser; there is no middle ground. Perhaps you have reasoned that you just look at a little bit of pornography and that you don’t actually view and treat women as disposable objects of pleasure. Consider what you do when you are done viewing pornography. If you are like most men, you clear the history out of your computer’s browser, you throw the magazine or DVD in the garbage, or you take the computer images and videos and place them into the trashcan icon of your desktop.

Clearly you should remove this material from your life, yet the individual who downloads video clips each day and then throws them into the computer’s trash can is implanting a powerful message into his brain: Women can be used, abused, and thrown away. Women have no value and are completely disposable!

We must become aggressive and stay on the offensive. If we become neutral or defensive in this fight, we will lose ground. As someone once said, “The reason that evil triumphs is because good men do nothing.” Nobody is better prepared to respond to the evil atrocities occurring against women than the men who have been set free from this system of bondage. It is time for the 82 percent of Christian men who have been in captivity to get free, to rise up, and to bring freedom to women around the world.

Shouldn’t the Church be leading the way in rescuing women caught in oppression? We have hidden our involvement in this sin long enough. It is time to own up, to get out of bondage, and to go back to rescue others.

Brother, wipe that shame off your face. You have a job to do. You may fall down a few more times while you are walking out of your life of bondage, but I have given you all of the tools to get free and stay free. The lynchpin to this whole issue is that you are not focused on your personal freedom as the end goal. You are getting free so that you can be like Christ and bring freedom to those who need it most. Once you are free from the grip of sexual bondage, don’t leave your sisters imprisoned.

God is calling for spiritual warriors to rise up! We must hear the call, and become prayer warriors and rescuers. Our sisters and daughters need us; it is time for men to rise to the rescue!

Tool

Get a men’s group at your church to read through this book. You are not meeting to struggle for personal freedom together. You are coming together as a rescue squad. Pray the crafted prayer together and ask the Lord to give you wisdom and insight regarding how you can reach out to the women trapped in a sexual-bondage lifestyle. Here are a few ideas:

1. Meet across the street from a strip club and pray for those women to come to know the perfect love of their heavenly Father.

2. Write to a porn star telling him/her of the true freedom and shame-free life they can have in Christ. Tell him/her how God loves and yearns for them.

3. Write to ministries that are working with women in the sex slave trade and encourage them in their mission. Their work is lonely, and your support will bless them tremendously.

4. Visit the street(s) in your city where prostitution takes place. Hit the streets two by two and give out roses to the women you meet. Share with them how God sees them as His rose and how He loves them.

5. Have a men’s breakfast periodically to encourage men to rise up, not only for personal freedom, but also as the heroes that women need in this world.