Mary Michelet is an ordinary suburban mum. She loves makeup, gardening, keeping up with the latest on Netflix — and lately, organising street protests to end child sex trafficking.
Michelet agrees that the movement is gaining traction politically among many like herself who are "not political" people.
"The narrative currently playing out on social media, and in some mainstream media organisations, is actually extremely harmful for real victims of sex trafficking," she says. She believes disinformation from the online movement has been able to gain traction because it is filling a void of real information and support services for human trafficking victims."No-one knows the real numbers, and this is where the anti-trafficking movement has failed," she says, adding that global numbers from the International Labour Organisation were frequently distorted by not-for-profits for fundraising purposes.
But she cautions many of the "glossy" online groups affiliated with evangelical megachurches "may never have actually served a real trafficking victim".Some secular and feminist groups have allied with faith-based groups on the issue, and have similarly been accused of publishing false and misleading statistics on human trafficking, while being unable to offer any services to help victims.
"They ignore labour trafficking victims to only talk about kids and ignore the issue in its true scope.", founded by Hillsong alumni and anti-porn crusaders Exodus Cry, have emerged from the Charismatic Pentecostal movement — the fastest growing mainstream religion in both the United States and the world.
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