LUTHERANS NOT EXEMPT FROM LURE OF PROSTITUTION

Ten years ago Al Erickson started working to stop commercial sexual exploitation of teens. Now the ELCA pastor's effort is expanding.

Resolutions formulated by A-STOP ( Alliance for Speaking Truths on Prostitution) were passed by overwhelming margins at the joint assembly of the Minneapolis and Saint Paul area synods in May and sent to the national office of the ELCA for consideration and action.

The resolutions call on the ELCA's Division for Church in Society "to produce a message encouraging learning and moral discourse on the victimization of our church's youth and other youth by the 'sex industry...'"

Erickson, founder and director of A-STOP, said he expects the ELCA to produce a six-page paper on the subject for national circulation within a year.

Meanwhile, A-STOP and Seraphim Communications of St. Paul are readying a second video in two years for release to churches and schools by mid-summer. It will feature former prostitute Heidi Somerset talking to , and answering questions from, a group of youths.

The organization's first video, "Wise as Serpents," targeted at church youth in grades 7-9, is being used in 225 churches nationwide, including 32 in the Minneapolis Area Synod. It features blunt descriptions by a former prostitute from Pine City, Minnesota, and a former pimp from Des Moines of the degradation into which they sank after being trapped into the sex industry at young ages.

This topic has not been openly discussed in homes, from pulpits or in confirmation-age classes, Erickson says, and this avoidance has put the welfare of many youths in jeopardy.

"Churches have not seen as clearly as schools what we're up against," he declares. "Our whole program is aimed at prevention."

Statistics show 10% of the U.S. Population addicted in some way to the sex industry, with 1 youth in 100 ending up in the sex business.

A report by the Minnesota attorney general's office last fall estimated that there are 1,000 juveniles engaged in prostitution in the state. A-STOP believes that at least 1,000 juveniles are trapped into the trade every year in Minnesota, and that in the Twin Cities alone there are 3,000 people involved in the sex industry.   That includes everyone from prostitutes and pimps to operators of strip joints, escort services, and saunas.

Minnesota continues to be one of the major areas from which pimps recruit young girls for prostitution in such entertainment centers as Las Vegas, according to Erickson.

That's partly because of the large numbers of blond, blue-eyed young women in this area that customers of the sex business find desirable and also because of what Erickson describes as the "naivete" of Minnesota youngsters.

These kids are brought up to be nice, trusting, and helpful and have no experience with the con games pimps use to gain their confidence and find an entry into their private lives. From such a simple beginning as a request for directions at a mall or a casual conversation at a party, a skilled, sooth-talking pimp can find some area of dissatisfaction in a young girl's life and exploit it, Erickson says.

The pimp then becomes the friend and confidant who sympathizes with the girl, lavishes attention and money on her, and eventually lures her out of town. Then, usually, the pima claims he's run into a financial crises, and the the girl feels obligated to help him.

That leads to jobs in strip joints, where purchase of provocative clothing is required, incurring of further debts as the girl gets involved in drugs, and finally entrapment into full-scale prostitution. Ashamed to call home and threatened with violence if she does, the young woman becomes a victim who has no way to escape.

"One thing we parents don't understand is that relationships are the key to everything in life," Erickson says. "if you've got a relationship with somebody, you're going to have a hard time putting them off because you've trusted them and put your life in their hands. Kids in Minnesota and the Upper Midwest have no idea someone could be that treacherous and willing to ruin their lives."

Besides naivete, Erickson says, youngsters can also be vulnerable to operators in the sex business if they experience some trauma like physical or sexual abuse at home and run away, or are children living with a single mother who perceive they are not loved at home and long to find a father-like adult male who cares about them.

A conservative Protestant group, Midwest Challenge, first concentrated on rescuing young victims and rehabilitating them. But Midwest Challenge eventually abandoned its efforts in this area and switched its emphases to combating drug abuse.

A-STOP has moved into the gap, Erickson said. "We've gone after the problem in a more Lutheran way, going after the roots instead of trying to pick up the pieces."

Erickson, a 1961 graduate of Luther Seminary, came to Minneapolis in 1982 to start what was called "Grass Roots Ministry"-- an effort to reach immigrants in the Phillips neighborhood and attract them to Lutheran congregations in that area south of downtown Minneapolis.

While living in the Phillips neighborhood and working out of St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church there, Erickson went through the trauma of losing a member of his family to the prostitution racket. As he and his nurse wife Ina attended meetings of a support group, they discovered that, although the juvenile prostitution problem was hushed up and quite invisible, it was pervasive, affecting people in many neighborhoods.

When the outreach program to immigrants encountered frustrations because of the rapid turnover of these newcomers in Phillips, it gradually faded out and its non-profit status was shifted to A-STOP, where Erickson had found a new cause he felt passionately about.

Erickson is convinced that Minneapolis is in a position--and has the responsibility--to take the lead in combating what has become a national evil. With the proliferation of pornographic internet web sites, the problem has exploded.

"Geography doesn't mean anything anymore. This has become part of our culture, like sex is just a form of entertainment. The sex industry has been able to sell this whole thing as harmless adult entertainment, but it's begun to affect a lot more people."

Erickson describes A-STOP's work as "God's project." There's a lot in Scripture about devious behavior, he said, and it's Jesus who comes to free the captives.