CCM artist Natalie Grant has urged Christians to join the fight against human trafficking, as the Bible commands us to "speak up for those who can't speak for themselves."
While accepting an award on Tuesday from the Gospel Music Association for her work in the fight against human trafficking, Grant revealed she was first exposed to the issue after watching an episode of the popular NBC drama "Law & Order".
"How dare I limit how and where God is speaking," she told the audience "God is always speaking. The question is -- are we always listening? That day, he was speaking to me through 'Law & Order', which led me on a journey which has forever changed my life."
Grant traveled to India, where she learned all about the devastating crime.
"It's a horrific, horrific reality that the most innocent among us are being sold and ravaged in ways that we can't even comprehend," she continued. "It is my privilege - I'm honored to be here to receive this - but first and foremost, I'm just a daughter of God, a wife, a mother to three girls, and my life has been transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ. How could I not stand for freedom? That's who He is. Jesus is freedom, so how can we not stand for the very thing that He is and provides? Though this is an uncomfortable subject, I will not be silent."
The multi award-winning artist, who in 2005 founded an anti-trafficking organization named Abolition International, said she's constantly reminded that Proverbs 31:8 is not a suggestion, but a command: "Speak up for those who can't speak for themselves, for the rights of all who need an advocate."
"It's my greatest privilege to look at girls who are ...in chains say to them, 'Yes you can. You can be free, you have a future and a hope. You can have a new life.'"
According to the Global Sex Trafficking Fact Sheet from Equality Now, at least 20.9 million adults and children are bought and sold worldwide into commercial sexual servitude, forced labor and bonded labor. About 2 million children are exploited every year in the global commercial sex trade. Almost 6 in 10 identified trafficking survivors were trafficked forsexual exploitation.
In 2015, Grant produced "In Plain Sight: Stories of Hope and Freedom," a documentary following six modern-day abolitionists fighting to end sex trafficking in the U.S. The singer narrates the documentary as each abolitionist encounters victims of sex trafficking across six U.S. cities and share their ordeals.
"The reality is that children are being ravaged day in and day out. If you have a heart beating on the inside of you, I don't understand how this couldn't be important to you," said Grant.
