ORU Screens Documentary That Exposes Sex Slavery Horrors

For some, the screening hit too close to home, as Oklahoma is one of the largest hubs for the crime.

Sunday, November 11th 2012, 10:35 pm



The federal government said human trafficking is the fastest growing criminal industry in the world.

Oral Roberts University on Sunday hosted the Oklahoma premiere of the film exposing the truth about sex slavery.

For some, the screening hit too close to home, as Oklahoma is one of the largest hubs for the crime.

"It just makes me so sad for the condition, the moral condition of our society," ORU student Christie Weakley said.

"Nefarious: Merchant of Souls" is a three-part film exposing horrific details of the modern day sex-slave industry.

It's being shown around the globe. Chris Hopkins is with the group behind the initiative.

"The UN says there are 32 million people enslaved and about 80 percent of those are involved in some sort of forced or coerced prostitution," Hopkins said.

Weakly said she's enraged that so many young girls are not only losing their childhood, but also their innocence.

"That just breaks my heart for those little girls that maybe have never known anything different, that don't know what it's like to be valued and to be loved and to be respected and to have their bodies respected," Weakley said.

Hopkins said the United States is now the world's No. 1 destination for sex trafficking, and it's happening to our children and in our own backyards.

"A lot of these girls are being brought up [Interstates] 35 and 44 and it's really a big problem in the state of Oklahoma," English Professor Barbara Law said.

Law watched Nefarious for the first time at home.

The anger she said she felt following the film is what spurred the screening at ORU.

"You may choose not to do something about this, but you can never again say you didn't know," she said.

For Law, hearing from the sex-traffickers themselves was the most appalling perspective.

"With drugs you make one sell and you're done," Law said. "With a girl you could have her for seven to 10 years and you can turn her over seven or 10 times a night, so you're making a sell every single time you do that and it was said as though she was nothing. She was nothing. She was something to be used for profit," Law said.

And by showcasing the very real side of sex-slavery, Law's hope is to help save just one person.

"It seems like such a vast insurmountable problem, but you have to start somewhere," she said.

If you know someone who may be victim of sex-trafficking, here are two ways to report the crime:

Stop Child Trafficking Now

Federal Bureau of Investigation

 

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