JustThinking | prostitution 3

Gunilla rocks | Danielle Strickland

Gunilla Ekberg the Swedish social reformer who introduced brand new legislation into the country that has upheld the rights of women and virtually eliminated the need for prostitution suggests that two things are necessary to change nations.  Nation changers pay attention:

1. Imagine a better world. You can’t do what you can’t imagine. Every good athlete knows this. Apparently every good social reformer does as well. Mohammad Yunis, founder of Grameen Bank and 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner echoes the sentiment in his acceptance speech.

He believes his great-grand children will have to see extreme poverty documented in a museum… kind of like the time I went to Atlanta and read about slavery in America or the Holocaust Museum in Israel. It will be hard to believe history. Wilberforce did the same thing with slavery. He didn’t just change the law but changed civilization’s acceptance of the practise.

That’s what all the early Salvationists fighting songs were about I think. They were about seeing the world another way. It was about a ‘prophetic imagination’. Bruggeman has some classic theological things to say about imagining a better world.

I wonder when we stopped imagining. When did cynicism break the heart of the dreamers in the Army? I want it back. I’m sick of agreeing with the world. I may be naïve, idealistic and run the risk of being mocked openly (instead of quietly) but I’ll be a dreamer… I’ll run the risk of being a fanatic… if it means God’s Kingdom will come then I’ll lose my mind and let my heart lead me - right through the darkness and into the Kingdom of God. Release the visions again.

2. Understand oppression. That was the idea of the first blog on prostitution. If we really understand prostitution - who they are, what they do and the consequences of it - it’s not that hard to fight against. In fact, it would be ludicrous not too. The downside of this point (and perhaps why it’s not often practised) is it takes work and it gets you dirty. In order to understand oppression you have to get close. You have to get filthy. There is no way to understand oppression from the safety of a boardroom (even in a uniform). You’ve got to smell the stuff.

You remember the scene in Amazing Grace (the movie on Wilberforce) where the rich folk are taking a nice cruise and start to smell a nasty odor? Turns out it’s Wilberforce on a slave ship and he tells them to stop covering their noses… breathe in the smell of death he says… if you are going to support it you really ought to understand what it is. How much of the enemy’s work is done in secret? How much of prostitution is media slick covering the truth of the realities of violence and oppression against women? How many closed brothel doors have we even bothered to knock on in the desperate hope perhaps of believing the lie so as not to have to uncover the truth and deal with the dirty consequences?

Turns out changing a nation isn’t so easy after all. Wanted: crazy fanatics who dream of a better world, willing to get dirty and broken, with friends in low places.

Read part 1 and part 2 of this three part series on theRubicon.

Writer: Capt. Danielle Strickland is currently the Social Justice Director of the Southern Australia Territory. She digs traveling, reading, running, speaking, basketball and movies. Her passion is grace, mercy and justice… and all the stuff in between. Her favourite question is ‘how hard can it be?’ and most of her days are spent answering it.

1 Comment to JustThinking | prostitution 3

1. Thanks Danielle, for the inspiration, and challenge, to keep going for God’s Ultimate Intention for His world - to keep working with Him to see His Kingdom come, His will done, in this and all other areas of life.

   Bernard
Bernard on December 24th, 2008

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