The STOPLight

Volume 8, Number 2
December 1997
© Copyright 2003 Adults Saving Kids

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Prevention curriculum developed

Editor's note: This issue of The STOP Light highlights a confirmation curriculum called Wise as Serpents being developed by A-STOP and Grassroots Ministry Alliance. A challenge grant of $50,000 has been offered by Aid Association for Lutherans to write, test, and publish this curriculum to prevent youth from being exploited by the sex industry. On page 8, Al Erickson, founder and director of A-STOP and Grassroots Ministry Alliance, writes about how young men can get deceived by the sex industry. Several advisory board members and the writer of the curriculum have been interviewed. This lead article introduces Wise as Serpents.

What do all these young people have in common? They are "wise as serpents and harmless as doves." (Matthew 10:16) They are wise to the treachery and recruitment of commercial sexual exploitation. They make choices out of knowledge rather than ignorance. They realize how their actions can hurt others and themselves, and they choose to be harmless as doves.

Having young people live their lives in this way is a vision of A-STOP. Wise as Serpents is a tool that will help us achieve that vision. The confirmation curriculum will be used with junior high youth who are at an age in which they are very vulnerable to peer pressure or to being recruited and exploited by the sex industry.

The curriculum has six sessions, each with a Bible passage, group and individual activities, discussion outlines, and stories about boys and girls who are faced with the realities of commercial sexual exploitation. There is also a one hour video with 10-minute segments showing a survivor of prostitution talking about her life and what young people need to know so they don't get deceived by the sex industry.

Wise as Serpents covers the following topics: being created in God's image; God is present in the midst of pain; having personal boundaries; who can and cannot be trusted; the effects of a desire for money; who is hurt by sexual exploitation, and what can be done to end exploitation.

Since receiving notice of the AAL challenge grant, we have been working diligently to raise the matching money. (See insert for the update on this fundraising effort.) We heartily thank AAL and all our donors for their encouraging support of this project both spiritual and financial.

As you read more about Wise as Serpents in this issue, please consider helping us by:

Thank you for your continued encouragement and support.

Amy Hartman, Wise as Serpents project manager

Curriculum advisor becomes learner again

Audrey Duensing, director of Christian education at Cross View Lutheran Church, Edina, Minnesota

While working at a church in Michigan, three girls from the congregation got into prostitution. I didn't know much about prostitution at the time; didn't have any kind of support system for dealing with what was going on in their lives. I was never sure whether or not I dealt with the situations well. I struggled with how to get them out and how to prevent this from happening to others. I learned that getting into prostitution can happen very fast to anybody.

I became a Wise as Serpents Advisory Board member because I was intrigued by the topic. At the time I was trying to help these girls, I didn't know much about how kids get involved in prostitution. This is an opportunity for me to learn about the issue and how to prevent young people from getting involved.

For the first time in a long time, I am not a leader but a learner. I used to think that Jesus was the end-all and cure-all for the pain in a person's life. From conversations with a survivor of prostitution, I learned that some people never feel completely cleansed from their past. They will deal with their pain every day of their lives and may not feel the completeness of baptismal cleansing until heaven.

I see now that we all have stories of where we have been in our lives. I can never know or assume what others have been through. People in churches are often not comfortable talking about our lives to each other. I've been thinking a lot about how the church could be a more open, confessional, and loving place. How can I be there for a person who has been or is involved in prostitution?

Perspective of theology sought for curriculum

Curriculum writer brings perspective of pastor, husband, and father of six

David Fredrickson, PhD, associate professor of New Testament, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota

I had a student who connected what she was learning in my class on the Pauline epistles with what she had learned about commercial sexual exploitation from Al Erickson. The connection she made was that Paul does not treat issues of sex in isolation from issues such as violence and power. This kind of thinking goes hand-in-hand with looking at the issue of prostitution not in terms of personal moral failure, but as power and socio-economic issues.

From the reading I've done, I've been aware of how sex has been a vehicle for domination. This project is actually real life -- people's experiences. The curriculum views prostitution in terms of a system that people find themselves in. You see how people become objects. The issue of power or dominance is raised in such a way that shows sex being used as a medium for power.

What I knew about commercial sexual exploitation before was mostly from newspapers and television. I've followed some of the work of Rita Nakashima Brock and read parts of her book Casting Stones.* I've seen some interesting programs on TV about prostitution in foreign countries. But I'm not so naive as to think sexual exploitation is just a foreign problem. When I used to see young women on the streets, I would hope they weren't involved in prostitution. Now I assume they are.

I've learned that it's a good idea to start educating children when they are fairly young; to have a positive focus--like where kids can go, who they can trust. I've learned that once someone gets into prostitution, how difficult it is to get out. I now see how important prevention is.

* See The STOP Light, vol 8, 110 1, pg 6.

Rev. John Bucka, PhD, senior pastor, House of Hope Lutheran, New Hope, Minnesota and writer, Wise as Serpents

I'm committed to helping youth examine their lives and relate their faith to their lives; letting faith change them and influence their decision-making. As the father of six kids, my wife and I are very concerned about the society in which they live; how it devalues human beings and turns them into objects to be abused or misused. I'm concerned that youth of today at times aren't as sensitive to these issues as they could be. I see the Wise as Serpents confirmation resource as an opportunity to raise their consciousness level, lead them to think about how they relate to others and how they behave--to confirm or affirm and strengthen their identity as God's children. They need to be aware of the dangers out there but also of the strength and hope the gospel gives to live as a child of God.

Before writing this curriculum, I knew something about commercial sexual exploitation from having worked with sexually addicted people. But I had no idea about their background and lives, the manipulation and vulnerability that girls as well as boys who enter prostitution encounter and experience.

Writing this curriculum has changed me drastically. I now see the lies more clearly. I've become sensitive to television which exploits us in many respects. I'm offended by radio hosts who think they're clever in how they describe the world and talk about women. I have little tolerance for it. I used to listen and kind of ignore it as meaningless babble but can no longer.

I've learned about the large number of youth who are hurting and at risk, and how we as the church need to embrace them, partner with them, and offer them hope in the pain they experience. Their pain can lead them down horrific avenues where they are greatly harmed. I've become more compassionate toward a segment of society I formerly knew nothing about. I'm committed to see what I can do in the parish I serve to address the needs of the people. People need permission, to feel safe, before they will talk about friends or relatives, sons or daughters, fathers or mothers who might be involved in commercial sexual exploitation. It's more than the folks actively involved who are affected by it.

The sex industry loses some of its power each time we speak out against it. The more we keep it to ourselves, the more power we give that industry. I'm convinced the church is ready to address the issue-that awarding the grant for confirmation materials is an attempt by the church to begin talking about this. We've always said that our youth are the church of tomorrow. That's wrong-they are the church of today. We can't go on thinking that somehow tomorrow is going to be okay. Things aren't okay. We as the church can be caring and concerned about youth who are at risk in families that may be hurting.

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.