Journal: Journal for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood
Volume: JBMW 20:2 (Fall 2015)
Article: When You Indulge In Pornography, You Participate In Sex Slavery
Author: Andrew David Naselli

JBMW 20:2 (Fall 2015) p. 23

When You Indulge In Pornography, You Participate In Sex Slavery1

Andrew David Naselli

Assistant Professor of New Testament and Biblical Theology
Bethlehem College & Seminary
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Pornography is to sex slavery what gasoline is to the engines of motor vehicles. Gas fuels engines. Pornography fuels sex slavery.

Sex slavery and pornography are not two disconnected issues. They are organically connected in the international market for sex.

What Is Sex Slavery?

Most adults and teenagers know what pornography is. It is printed or virtual material that explicitly describes or displays sexual body parts or activity in order to stimulate erotic feelings.

But what exactly is sex slavery? A slave is a person who is the property of another person, and that owner forces the slave to obey them. A sex slave is a person who is the property of another person, and that owner forces the slave to obey them by performing sex acts, usually for money. Sex slavery is sex trafficking, which includes acquiring, transporting, and exploiting sex slaves.2

JBMW 20:2 (Fall 2015) p. 24

Most prostituted women are sex slaves.3 Often a pimp physically and psychologically abuses prostituted women to coerce them to continue committing commercial sex acts. Sometimes people abduct children and adolescent women and force them into prostitution. Most women who enter prostitution have already been sexually abused. Prostituted women are often girls or adolescent women who are insecure and become emotionally traumatized and view themselves as worthless.4

When I was teaching on sex slavery recently in a course on Biblical Ethics, Michel, one of my students, shared a personal story with the class. (I’m sharing it here with his permission.) Michel is from Colombia, and he grew up in Miami. God saved Michel in 2005, and Michel stopped hanging out with some of his high school friends who regularly partied with alcohol and marijuana. Alex (not his real name) was one of those friends, and he moved back to Colombia and began making a lot of money. Alex hired some of Michel’s other old friends to work for him. Michel didn’t know how Alex was making so much money. Then in 2006 one of Michel’s friends who was working for Alex died in a car accident. A few days after his funeral, Alex contacted Michel and asked Michel if he would like to start working for him and replace his friend who ...