Red lights

Why do we have anywhere between 50,000 and 200,000 prostitutes in Mumbai?

Because there are men who will use them. Every night there are enough to keep the trade going.

One called me up recently. He has HIV. He struggles with temptations. He promised to start afresh this year.

He has given in twice already.

Over the phone we talked about what it means to really ask Jesus for forgiveness. And what it means to make steps that walk in the fruit of repentance. And what it means to receive the assurance that our Lord can clean us up. But also the great price that He paid for this. And the wonderful opportunity we have to live our lives pure.

Its something that we face everyday. Every Man's Battle (the title of a book on the subject). A silent struggle with sexual temptation - which so often is given into.

The oldest book in the Bible shows evidence that lust is not new. Job says that he has 'made a covenant with his eyes, not to look lustfully at a woman.' Ancient decisions still needed today.

Billy Graham is said to have mentioned that he can't avoid the first glance - but he certainly can the second.

This may all seem pedestrian - infantile even for so many to whom sensuality is king. But here at Jeevan Sahara Kendra we deal day in and day out with one of the most bitter fruits of our lack of self-control. Whatever fantasies exist in the male mind - the reality of HIV/AIDS cannot be wished away. The young man who called me on the phone after his latest fling with a prostitute has HIV. He will continue to spread it as long as he is unable to control himself.

We applaud the path-breaking work being done to stop the trafficking of women into prostitution. There are some amazing folks out there doing things to change the face of modern sexual slavery that would make Wilberforce proud. We must fight for justice and truth.

But what about the overwhelming silent epidemic in our minds? What about the meek surrender to the pornographic and widescale titillation that goes under the guise of being cool / open-minded / with it (insert your favorite nom de jour here)? What about the total lack of any sense of regret in using each other like so much meat? The foul crude torrent of so-called liberated sexuality that we are so enslaved to?

Supply side my friends. And the missing ingredient is that rarest of modern virtues - self-control.

50,000 - 200,000 women are in sexual slavery tonight in the greater Mumbai area because of the power of the male mind.