Café addresses commercial sexual exploitation in May 2007 issue

by Frank Imhoff, ELCA News Service

The award-winning e-zine of Women of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America (ELCA), Cafe, addresses commercial sexual
exploitation in its May 2007 issue. Elizabeth Hunter, associate
editor, The Lutheran, wrote the cover article, "Human retail:
Commercial exploitation and the everyday." She said she worried
that the sometimes-not-so-subtle messages one receives from
magazine covers in the grocery store checkout line could easily
lead a naieve teenage girl into commercial sexual exploitation.
Hunter listed "Seven things you should know about commercial
sexual exploitation," including "What it is," "Why it's not a
choice" and "It can happen to anyone." She offered four answers
to the question: "So what should you do?"

Dr. Mary Streufert, director for justice for women, ELCA Church
in Society, wrote "Faith reflections" for the issue, based on
"The Levite's Concubine," a story in the Old Testament. "Judges
19 reveals a terrible scene with a horrifying outcome. We
discover that the unnamed woman's relationships are defined by
betrayal for the good of the other party," Streufert said.
"These same factors are at play in modern-day forms of commercial
sexual exploitation, in which female sexuality is usually what's
sold as 'human retail.' Examples of human retail are both
extreme and subtle, but they both deserve our critical eye and
our prophetic resistance."

Women of the ELCA adopted a resolution in 2005 to "continue to
provide information and promote resources that assist women in
combating commercial sexual exploitation, both domestically and
globally." It produced an eight-page resource, "A Day Full of
Light: Ending Commercial Sexual Exploitation," as an introduction
to commercial sexual exploitation or sex trafficking. The
organization's Web site draws attention to the ELCA message on
"Commercial Sexual Exploitation."