My Amendment

So I have been doing research on policy regarding trafficking and prostitution. Surprisingly (or not) there is not much framework within the UN or even many countries dictating a good way of dealing with trafficking. Implementation of any government policy at a local level is even more sparse. As stated previously, I have been looking at how Sweden made it illegal to visit a prostitute. In my zealous state of wanting justice for girls in prostitution, I took off any responsibility that the prostituted women have. The law essentially still makes prostitution legal which is not a place I would want to go. Prostitution should never be considered a business. Although I see that in a lot of ways, the Swedish law makes trafficked victims better able to come forward about their plight by taking the fear of prosecution away, but it has decriminalized the institution of prostitution. I think they thought that without customers the women would be at a lesser risk to be prostituted. In some ways, I think this is true, but trafficking is part of the black market driven by organized crime.. the allowance for one to be a "prostitute" still allows for traffickers to skate around the legal framework. This idea makes it a business.. where the pimps are not responsible.. just the purchasers. I asked a friend what he thought about this and he said that it "was like drug dealers who could deal drugs without penalty."

It hurts sometimes to own and put into perspective that the women who do have a choice to be in prostitution (even if they have been abused etc) are still doing something that is wrong. I so always want to protect them, but I forget that are consequences of ones actions. There has to be a standard of truth to be followed. At some point, I cannot keep falling back on the trauma that led to the woman resorting to prostitution as an excuse for their actions. There has to be some acceptance of personal responsibility. I can have compassion for their plight, but I cannot condone their choice. Its a hard concept to grasp, but I do think its important. I think what makes it hard is the idea of prostitution even really being a choice. What choice did the girl who was raped by her father growing up and thrown out on the streets have? Sometimes the distinction between trafficked and choice becomes very blurry. Is exploitation a choice?

Besides, a pimp or trafficker should be on the top of the list of the ones to prosecute. In regards to the law, it could very well make it easy for the traffickers or pimps say that they were not doing anything wrong.. essentially passing the blame over to purchasers and vindicating them from responsibility. I do believe there needs to be a shift in the focus from prosecuting those that are prostituted and exploited to focusing on the pimps and buyers.. in all this I do believe that prostitution should never be legalized.

So many different thoughts.. sometimes its hard to put them all into order. I will keep writing, but please be patient with me because I am still processing. I may need to amend some statements as I go.

Wouldn't it be nice to be all knowing? The joining of responsibility, consequences, grace, mercy, compassion, justice, law, and absolutes is a hard one. My brain definitely is at war with itself many times. Often, the clash of emotional response and logic is hard to navigate. I have a lot of questions for the God that is fully capable of being all these things at the same time. How much harder would it be to try to understand anything without a godly worldview or a framework stemming from a God of absolute Truth? Or lacking any worldview or framework at all? You know the saying "so open minded your brains fall out". I would probably say it is more like "so open minded.. that your brain has lost any capacity to hold a stance because it has collapsed due to the complete chaos and constant conflict".