STOP began in a required first year course at Mercer University called "Engaging the World." The class began by studying Judeo-Christian ideas of ethics and justice, reading from the Bible, as well as authors such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King Jr., and Theodore Heschel.
We heard Isaiah's call to "loose the bonds of injustice, undo the thongs of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free" (Isaiah 58); and we heard Jesus call us to "do unto the least of them in as much as you would do unto me" (Matthew 25).
And then we looked around Macon. And we saw with new eyes.
And we began to ask questions about injustice.
We explored issues relating to poverty, education, and race. . . and then we took a new look at those billboards dotting our highways.
We began to do extensive research on massage parlors, and we found an injustice that few in town spoke about. We learned of voiceless women and children who were lured by fraud, deception, and coercion into a life of prostitution.
We wrote essays; we wrote pamphlets; we wrote blogs. And then we realized that this was no longer a class project. Real women were suffering, and we might be able to help them.
The movement quickly grew beyond a class assignment. Students in the Women and Gender Studies department and the Baptist Collegiate Ministries began volunteering their time, and a diverse movement was born--all of us connecting our lives with women being held as slaves to be raped for profit.
Eventually, we came together in the Spring of 2008 with the purpose of forming an official group by the next fall.
The group plans to raise awareness both on a campus level and a community level by working with media, political leaders, congregations, community groups, and schools.
Our primary mission is not first and foremost the simple closing down of these spas. We want first and foremost to help rescue and restore women whose lives have been irrevocably harmed by sex slavery. We want Macon to have the reputation as being on the forefront of aftercare for trafficked persons.
And, beyond that, we want to establish the kind of community where trafficking of any sort is unimaginable. We want other cities in Georgia and throughout the South to look to Macon as a model of how to transform a city of spas to a city of conscience.
With a supportive Mayor, Sheriff, and City Council; and with the vigilance of Macon's strong faith community, its many colleges and schools, and an informed community of conscience, now is the time for change.
Feel free to contact us with questions or suggestions at stoptrafficking@gmail.com