A guest post from B. D. Lawrence
The anthology Every Captive Freed is about human trafficking. My novella, “Sara’s Story,” included in the anthology is about sex-trafficking. I realize this seems like a heavy subject for Christian fiction. Why write about something so brutal and evil? It’s an interesting question. I’d like to address both why from a Biblical perspective and why personally I write about sex-trafficking.
It’s possible some Christians believe that being a child of Christ allows us to live in a sheltered, rose-colored-glasses kind of world—one where everything is love and hope and nothing terrible ever happens. This isn’t reality. We live in a lost, fallen, and evil world. I don’t believe all Christian authors should write only about love and hope, shying away from darker topics. Is the Bible written that way? Not at all. In the Bible, we see stories of murder, adultery, rape, betrayal, slavery, and every kind of evil under the sun. Therefore, why should we, in a world today that is as evil, if not more so, then when the biblical authors wrote, avoid these topics? We shouldn’t. But, in telling these types of stories, we need to also show the hope that Christ brings. And that’s one of the purposes of “Sara’s Story.” It’s dark. It’s evil. Sara is subjected to things no human should ever have to endure. But in the end, it’s about Christ’s redemption and hope.
Another reason to write about dark, evil topics is to show why Christians are exposed to such darkness and evil in real life. “Sara’s Story” reflects 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, where God comforts us in our afflictions so that we can comfort others in the same afflictions. This is Sara’s story. She is brought out of the life to help other girls leave that life. God uses her for His plan. Yes, she suffers, but who better to comfort a girl who has been trafficked than one who was trafficked herself and rescued by God? Christian authors can use darkness and evil to show how God works in the lives of those suffering to be a light for others.
For me, writing about sex-trafficking was inspired in two areas. First, I read a book back in the late ‘90s by T. Jefferson Parker called Where Serpents Lie. This is a dark novel about a serial child abuser and, as the book description says, “one man’s quest to protect the innocent.” This story has stuck with me for thirty years. It’s become the theme of much of my writing: a hero whose charge is to protect and rescue the innocent.
The second inspiration came from working in a church youth group for eleven years. The thought of those kids being trafficked haunted me. I believe it was God working on me, crafting this series. I started on the wrong side of my beliefs about sex-trafficking. The first short story was about Lefty Bruder, the one-armed detective. However, it was a murder mystery about him investigating the murder of a prostitute who was a friend of his. Like most of America, I believed that prostitutes were women who had chosen that line of work for a myriad of reasons. But God worked on me, and when I became a Christ follower and did the research, I learned that these girls are not selling sex by choice. More than ninety percent of them are in the life by force, coercion, or manipulation. They are trapped. I used that short story as a springboard to launch the One-Armed Detective series. The revised short story is part of the prequel, A Vigilante and a Two-Armed Man.
Finally, why Sara? I had already written Lefty Bruder’s origin story. But it was Sara’s story that allowed me to highlight the many faces of sex-trafficking. As my author’s note says, I hope not one girl goes through all that Sara goes through, but those are real avenues of sex-trafficking. And it only scratches the surface of this societal blight. I’ve heard it said there are more points of sex for sale in this country than there are Starbuck’s. There are over 60,000 places where people can buy sex from mostly teenagers trapped in that life.
The most compelling reasons for me to write “Sara’s Story” were to bring to light this horrendous issue and because ten percent of all the sales are going to an organization to help fight sex-trafficking—The Tim Tebow Foundation. So, if you want to help in a small way, purchase the anthology. And if you want to help even further, purchase my books in the One-Arm Detective series. Fifty percent of my royalties go to Where Hope Lives, a Phoenix-based organization dedicated to helping girls get out of sex-trafficking and back into a safer world.
I hope you’ll read this anthology. The other two stories in it are fantastic. And all three stories show the hope of Christ even through the most brutal of situations. Christ is a light to the world. No matter where someone finds themselves.
One-Armed Detective Series link
About B.D.
Ironically, B.D. Lawrence’s worst subject in high school was English. But as an adult, sitting in a master’s level computer programming class, daydreaming about vigilantes, he decided to give writing a try. Four unpublished novels later (don’t worry, they’ll be reworked and will surface someday) he’s decided to plunge into the deep abyss of publishing. Well, book publishing anyway.
B.D. Lawrence has published more than twenty-five short stories some time ago in magazines that probably no longer exist. Many of these stories featured the themes of justice, vengeance, and redemption. Many of which will be available on this site, reworked and updated.
The Lefty Bruder novels center around a major worldwide problem that seems to get little press attention. Human Trafficking. Wanting to help in some way, B.D. Lawrence wants to give away half of his profits from Lefty Bruder book sales to organizations that help fight against this scourge.
