Powers That Be

There are powerful people, who are aligned with the agenda of the powers of darkness, who are seemingly out to destroy the lives of people of all ages.  By playing off base human lust, even the very young are being entrapped by the deceptive thief of pornography.  And, we must, as the Church, be a voice for purity and godliness.  One of the most hard-hitting chapters in the Bible about sexual immorality has to be 1st Cornithians chapter 6 - there's a passage there that says:
18 Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.
19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?
20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.

Remember this name: Laila Mickelwait.  She made a quality decision to protect her children, and was directed and empowered by God to speak and act.  The God Reports website plainly stated that: "She’s the scourge of PornHub, a 43-year-old mother of two who got the world’s largest adult website to take down 90% of its content. She’s a Christian woman born to a Middle Eastern doctor who fought for human rights."

The article continues:

“PornHub is a crime scene,” Laila Mickelwait told Patrick Bet-David on the PBD Podcast. It displayed underage sex, rape and violence. Prior to her campaign, anyone could upload porn with no vetting. Viewers could download the content and re-upload it, to the horror of the abused who begged to have videos documenting their victimization removed, she says.

The God Reports article notes: "Laila’s years-long drive to hold PornHub executives accountable started with a petition to shut the website down and has now culminated in 25 lawsuits representing 300 victims."

Mickelwait was moved by the story of a victim of pornography.  She was already fighting a battle against sex trafficking and was frustrated by it - her frustration was compounded by the cries of her three-month old who was suffering complications from what the article described as a "difficult birth."   The story continues:

She read of 14-year-old Sarena Fleites, a straight-A student who was convinced by an older boy she wanted to impress to send him naked content. It got posted and reposted endlessly on PornHub. Sarena, whose requests to remove her content were denied and delayed, got addicted to drugs and became homeless, living in a car.

Laila decided to retaliate against PornHub on behalf of victims like Sarena.

To challenge the site that at the time had 170 million visits a day, she launched a petition drive, gathering 2-1/3 million signatures.  The article says, "She exposed PornHub’s evils to politicians, advertisers, the FBI and even the prime minister of Canada where the website is based, she says."

Then the persecution came. She relates: “I had prostitution escort ads made in my name, my face superimposed onto pornographic images being circulated online,” Laila writes on her website. “There were death threats, rape threats and smears. My mother’s home address was posted online, suggesting it was a brothel that could be rented by the hour; my sister’s bank accounts were hacked and drained of money.”

And, the dominos began to fall - a New York Times investigation, a New Yorker magazine story, and the response of credit card companies to cut PornHub off.  The number of downloads has declined - and the lawsuits, according to Laila, might put the nail in the coffin. But, she notes the same team leading PornHub has stayed in power, even through some changes made in the way the site operates. She says, “The truth is what is going to set people free,” adding, "It’s what’s going to bring justice.”

Because we belong to Christ, we have been enlisted for His cause - to love people and to spread His truth.  That can come in many ways - it could be a "mama-bear," as the God Reports headline describes Laila, who is passionately defending and protecting children. She's a mother, so it hits close to home!  

We cannot be dispassionate in this world.  Sure, we can get on the Internet, read our news feeds, and even be upset about the way things are - we can complain to the point of despondency.  Or, we can open up our TV menu, find our favorite streaming channels, and try to escape the real world.  

But, God is calling us to be people of action - to be so motivated to fulfill His mission that we ask, "what can I do? and surrender to His direction.  Sometimes we may not even ask what God wants us to do - He comes to stir our hearts by His Spirit and says, "do this." Then it becomes a matter of obedience.  That obedience + the power of God can equal positive movement, the advancement of the Kingdom of God.