The STOPLight

Volume 11, Number 2
November 2000
© Copyright 2003 Adults Saving Kids

Fish netting for your kids

Between 1962-67 in Papua New Guinea we had about 100 children at our station school. Somehow they had to be fed. They grew their own gardens. Some money came in and we bought a fine-meshed, 50-foot fishnet they could use along the shore. The fish they caught were often very small, and soon they didn't catch many. I realized this was not a good practice. Though legal and initially productive, we needed to allow the fish to grow up; otherwise they would be eliminated with this grossly effective kind of fishing.

In the early 1990's the concern of A-STOP was illegal pimping-how it enslaved young people and caused untold suffering in families. Most people who heard about A-STOP shrugged their shoulders and turned the other way. They thought A-STOP had nothing to do with their lives or their community. Underlying this was people's idea that illegal pimping people would not affect their children.

Today we are faced with a wholly different phenomenon in America: the right to cleverly and legally lead a young person (and older people as well) into traps which will devastate their lives. The pimping today is done so legitimately-through newspaper ads, college bulletin boards, legal business hiring practices, TV shows, movies, computers, fancy clubs, offers of well paying jobs, hiring people to be "escorts."

At A-STOP we call it the SAD MAP, which leads people into harm and degradation they never imagined. SAD (Subtle And Destructive) MAP (Manipulative Astute Practices) is what we have come to in our beloved country. The tragedy of this can hardly be overemphasized. Our young people are being picked off right and left. We now have given any adult in this country the right to legally use fine-meshed fishnets to trap our children, and they are effectively taking full advantage of this.

How is this happening? You might think your daughter will never work in a strip club. Think again. She could be hired as a waitress or disc jockey and then subtly reprogrammed (see cover story). Without even realizing what is happening, she will be manipulated into taking her clothes off and becoming a stripper.

Suppose your child puts an innocent keyword into the Internet to complete a homework assignment, as a 10 year old boy did recently. He found himself in a pornography site and was terrified that his parents would find him there. He began to cry. When he tried to get out of this site he was linked to more pornography. His parents discovered him, accepted his situation, and supported him in his trauma. They had to turn off the computer to divest their home of this invasion.

How could this happen to a child in his own "safe" home? How will this affect his future? Was he not, for all practical and emotional purposes, molested? Will not the images he saw and the emotions he felt have a profound impact on the way he relates to sex, to women, to his friends, to himself in the future? Did not some scheming person contrive to have pornography invade that boy's life? This is legal pimping, an unwanted intrusion into and potentially life-changing transformation of a child's identity and emotional life. Not only are we allowing this is America. We are also silent as though we are denying it is going on. The question is: Are we for the legal pimping people or are we for our children?

People who run the over 56,000 pornographic web sites now have the right to scheme and contrive how they will get their web site to come up on your computer. They have the money and the law on their side to make it happen no matter what harm they cause or addiction they initiate.

You have to find the way to keep them from coming in your front door and molesting your children. You also have to live with the consequences of having your children and others in your family getting hooked on this, spending money on this, and becoming self destructive. No wonder sexual addiction expert Mark Laaser recently testified before the U.S. Congress that an epidemic of sexual addiction is now rampant in America because of Internet pornography.

People discuss legalized prostitution as though it were the issue. It is not even the question. The question is how we can reduce the legalized pimping which can ruin our loved ones and perhaps ourselves. And that is not an easy question to answer.

It is foolish to keep our heads in the sand. We suggest five things you can do:

  1. Get our material into your churches and schools.
  2. Begin to pray.
  3. Make your computer and library's computer safer.
  4. Take legal action. David Sherman can help with this.
  5. Give to A-STOP. Right now more than half our staff time is volunteer.

We are faced with mighty challenges. Your generous gift is going to make a huge difference in the lives of some vulnerable young people. Help us deal with the fishnets entrapping our young people. Put yourself on the line. If you've got it, see it as your opportunity to give it. You will be blessed.

by Rev. Al Erickson, director of A-STOP

Mission

A-STOP stands for Alliance for Speaking Truths On Prostitution. Our mission is to prevent commercial sexual exploitation.

Purpose

The STOP Light is an educational tool that illuminates the realities of prostitution and provides resources, support, and hope to people of all cultures; and openings for action to families, survivors, people in prostitution, people vulnerable to recruitment, communities affected by prostitution, and the organizations that work with these groups.

We reserve the right to select, reject, and edit any material we receive. Submissions must include your name and address; anonymity will be honored when requested. Previously published material will be considered if source name and address is supplied and/or written permission to reprint accompanies the material. Articles published are not necessarily the opinion of the A-STOP Board of Directors or The STOP Light editorial committee. Any references to specific treatments, programs, books or organizations do not constitute endorsement.

To make inquiries or submit material write: The STOP Light, c/CA-S TOP, 1901 Portland Avenue South, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55404. Telephone (612) 872-0684. For a confidential reply, send a self-addressed stamped envelope.

Reprints: If you wish to reprint any articles from The STOP Light in another publication, please contact our office for reprint guidelines.

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STOP the preying
on our youth;
START PRAYING
for our youth

Thank you...

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.