Ten years ago, at my church on the north side of Portland, we had a \u201cmission\u201d moment.\u00a0 This moment of mission was not what I had expected.\u00a0 It was not missionaries from some foreign country or inner-city project; it was different than I had ever heard.\u00a0 Three young women got up from their pew and stood in front of our church, talking about their mission to help women and men within the sex industry.\u00a0 They call their non-profit The Cupcake Girls.\u00a0 I was instantly drawn into their mission:<\/p>\n
The Cupcake Girls provides confidential support to those involved in the sex industry, as well as trauma-informed outreach, advocacy, holistic resources, and referral services to offer prevention and aftercare to those affected by sex trafficking.<\/p>\n
We provide nonjudgmental support to empower our program participants in their pursuits through respect, resources, and relationships.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n When I volunteered, I became a cupcake maker.\u00a0 And in true Oregon fashion, it was vegan.\u00a0 What they do is have a trained group of women who enter into strip clubs with cupcakes for the workers, the bouncers, bartenders, and strippers.\u00a0 There was NO AGENDA other than to tell the women they see them and to earn trust and rapport with those working there.\u00a0 The volunteer force was people like me making the cupcakes, professional counselors and social workers in the clubs, the legal team for any issues for the workers, dentists, accountants, doctors, etc.\u00a0 It is a beautiful organization and has changed many lives.\u00a0 Some women and men get out of a situation they don\u2019t want to be in and stay in sex work as empowered individuals; some leave and get into careers they want, regain custody of children, or find confidence in who they are as one in imago dei.<\/p>\n In Tom Holland\u2019s book Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World, <\/em>the author provides a thorough history of the path of Christianity and how it defines the West.\u00a0 Even the very definition of secular vs. Christian is seen through a Christian worldview, as that is how the modern Western world is set. \u201cAnd even now, when most of the educated classes have abandoned Christianity and when religion is in sharp decline among the populace, Christianity has such an enduring, pervasive influence that we cannot condemn the church for its failures without invoking Christian teaching and beliefs in order to do so.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n I first was listening to this book via audiobook through the library, but it lost me in the preface, though I bounced around a bit more.\u00a0 I was walking around a grocery store preparing for Thanksgiving when I was audibly digesting the horrors of torture and crucifixion.\u00a0 Whew\u2026that was NOT light reading, and I turned it off when encountering a friend in the produce section who is fighting stage 4 cancer.\u00a0 We had a mid-produce hug and cry fest with a blessing involved.\u00a0 This is the freedom to express love, concern, and prayer over a couple. I know I struggle, and will probably always struggle with, religion and most of the violent ways it has gotten us here as described in this book, but what I have not lost is faith.\u00a0 I believe that God is moving on this beautiful earth she created, and faith asks where I am in that movement.<\/p>\n I am always drawn to how women fit into the narrative.\u00a0 In A Synopsis of Tom Holland\u2019s Dominion, by Phil Mitchell, I was captured by the beginning of the summary of chapter 11 when Mitchell noted:<\/p>\n Christianity continues in this chapter as a revolutionary cultural force and nowhere more than in the arena of sexual ethics. The medieval church struggled with its evaluation of women. On the one hand, they were temptresses who brought sin into the world. On the other hand, they were created in the image of God, and the Bible is full of references to their humanity and worth before God. For example, no human being had ever been raised higher than the blessed virgin.[3]<\/a><\/p>\n The great paradox is that we are temptress and, simultaneously, pure and virginal.\u00a0 I grew up in the purity culture.\u00a0 I remember being given a plastic pop bead at the beginning of summer camp in high school, and at the end of camp, we were to return it for something.\u00a0 It turned out to be a pearl.\u00a0 We girls were to treat ourselves and our bodies as pearls.\u00a0 We were not to dress or act in a way that made our brother stumble\u2014so much pressure on these young women in a culture of purity.\u00a0 I remember hearing the phrase \u201cboys will be boys,\u201d but no such grace was given to the girls.\u00a0 Even to this day, boys gain social cred or \u201crizz\u201d with sexual conquests, and girls are led into a \u201creputation\u201d that is not so forgiving.<\/p>\n I have my moral code and understanding of what I believe now around sexuality, which is why I believe in an organization like the Cupcake Girls: Support, love, non-judgment, and resources no matter what.<\/p>\n I am attempting to raise feminist boys.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure I\u2019m winning against the culture; social media, especially young men who post on youtube, are loud, both literally and figuratively, and are a lot of times on their way to being incels. (involuntary celibates).\u00a0 How do our boys even have a chance, and what does this do to our girls?\u00a0 How do we adjust our Western Christian worldview to find humanity, not rid us of the worldview, but adjust\u2026I think it needs a little adjusting.<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> www.thecupcakegirls.org<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n [2]<\/a> https:\/\/www.the401stprophet.com\/a-synopsis-of-dominion-by-tom-holland#_ftn15<\/p>\n