The STOPLight

Casting Stones: A book review

Casting Stones: Prostitution and Liberation in Asia and the United States by Rita Nakashima B rock, Professor in the Endowed Chair in the Humanities at Hamline University, St. Paul, and Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, Professor of Theology at Chicago Theological Seminary. Augsburg Fortress Publishers, 1996

When two feminist theologians write a book on prostitution in Asia and the United States, you can expect the unexpected. They do not start with the Bible to look at the U.S. sex industry or the teachings of Buddhism to expose the Asian commercialization of sex. Instead they use an approach they call "liberation theology." The authors got out there and talked to people, traveled widely, felt the pain, read the books, did the research. They looked squarely in the eye all the different ways the sex industry is held in place - the systems, attitudes, and interpretations purported to be true.

The authors show us the historical, cultural, and religious context of the development of the sex industry in Asia. Its rapid spread as both a major business and a kind of cultural substitution for family is scary. One-fourth to one-third of young Thai women work in the sex industry. In the United States powerful forces are at work to remove sex from a relationship and make it into a commodity.

With their wide-ranging awareness of religious doctrines, liberation theology, female theological insights, child abuse, and domestic violence, the authors have shown prostitution in a new light. Casting Stones begins with a systemic analysis of prostitution in Asia and the United States and concludes with "a liberation response." A short appendix addresses male prostitution. Citations - including many STOP Light references - are given in notes at the end of the book.

The authors did not try to oversimplify the issues. The book is a penetrating analysis of the sex industry. It brings the problem close to home with a look at what is happening in the United States. Here you will find what is going on, why it is going on, what are empowering ways to address it, and what is being done now.

I quote from the conclusion: "The sex industry is a phenomenon of such scale that no one could become an expert on every aspect of it, but we know far more now than we thought we would, or ever wanted, to know. We now understand forms of evil that only can be overcome when they are exposed to the light of day, the truth is told, and a movement organizes to stop it."

If you really want to make a difference, read this book. It is a road map of the territory we are attempting to traverse. It brings tremendous clarity and insight to a myriad of subtopics. The book is like a scout coming back and telling us a whole wild area is there to be explored and understood. We need to address it for what it is - and not what we assumed it to be.

We at A-STOP want to offer our profound and heartfelt thanks to Rita and Susan for this pioneering and courageous work. We call on others to follow their example - to speak, write, and preach with boldness; to shed more light and help us all see. People are literally dying while waiting for the truth to be told; for the truth to set them free.

reviewed by Al Erickson

In 2002 our organization changed its name to Adults Saving Kids. Prior to that we were called A-STOP (Alliance for Speaking Truths On Prostitution), STOP (Speaking Truths On Prostitution), or Grassroots Ministry Alliance.