Where Trafficking Really Starts: Caleb Altmeyer of Helping Captives | LifeSavers Podcast | Episode 38

So I'm excited to have you on because we've been doing this series on beauty from ashes from Isaiah 61, this concept of the Holy Spirit coming, dwelling inside of us, just like it dwelt inside of Christ.

And then him being that person who the Lord anointed really to bring that beauty from ashes and to wind up the brokenhearted.

So obviously human trafficking, there's massive numbers.

Can you tell me just what the latest numbers are in the U.S. and worldwide for human trafficking? if you know what those are.

I

wish I could give you like legitimate answers, but this is one of the hardest questions that you get asked in the anti-trafficking world.

So I know it's about $170 billion industry worldwide.

It's kind of like asking somebody how many drug dealers are in their community.

It's like, you know, you see it, you see the fruit of it.

About half of human sex trafficking happens in North America.

So they would be, they would consider Greenland and Canada and the United States in that statistic as well.

I think it's really interesting that you find half of it is in North America.

I wonder if that's just because we have more income to be able to buy sex.

I mean, I would think a lot of Americans think of Thailand as the place where a lot of sex traffic happens, which obviously it does happen there.

But it's probably mainly because of tourism from North Americans coming there.

Yeah.

So can you tell me more about like what's what is in the U.S. culture? Is it just we have money and so therefore we want what we want and we're going to go out and get it? Or what is causing and driving the sex industry here in the U.S.?

Yeah, I mean, I'll kind of talk to you about what I'm seeing and what we believe as Christians obviously is going to be kind of a little different.

When we really look and as an organization, we kind of study it, look at it.

For us, I think it's just part of culture.

So when you look at like kind of what we will say is that we believe sex trafficking starts in the junior high hallway.

What I mean by that is as soon as a young girl hits junior high, it's almost like she's told by culture the most important thing about her is her body.

And then to a young guy, he's basically told like his value is going to be based off his body count.

They're trying to get him addicted to pornography.

So you're starting to look at women as objects instead of humans.