For All It's Worth

Made in the USA by Alisa Jordheim Child sex trafficking is a despicable practice.  Yet, we often don’t realize is that this activity happens right on our doorstep every day, on our streets, and in our local businesses.  Yes, child sex trafficking is rampant in the good ole USA.  Alisa, founder of the Justice Society and advocate for these young children caught in the heinous web of violence and abuse, has written a book that brings understanding and hope to those willing to look into this awful practice.  Her book, Made in the USA chronicles the practice of child sex trafficking, its victims, and the web of deceit that entangles these young ones. Alisa begins by identifying what the problem of child sex trafficking is, what locations around the world are engaged in the practice, and how this happens right here in America.  Alison writes, “The average age for a girl lured into sex trafficking is twelve to fourteen; for boys and transgen...

The Underground Girls of Kabul: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan by Jenny Nordberg Take a country who rejoices in the birth of a boy and buries one’s face like at a funeral at the birth of a baby girl and you have Afghanistan.  Journalist Jenny Nordberg treads the path of the streets of Afghanistan in search of a common activity in the country, namely bacha posh.  This action taken by many families amounts to treating a young girl like she was a boy all the way until puberty.  She dresses like a boy, eats like a boy, and even carries herself and all her mannerisms like a boy.  What seems like a terrible and frightful thing is in fact, in some circumstances, a way of shielding one’s children from harm. In the begging we meet Azita, whose fourth daughter Mehran, is turned into a boy.  Azita is very well to do parliamentarian in Afghanistan with a solid education behind her.  Early on, Azita says, “They gossip about my famil...

Post-Christian: What’s Left, Can We Fix It, Do We Care? By Christian Piatt Challenging traditional orthodoxy and the viability of the church, Christian Piatt brings a message of hope to his readers in his new book, Post-Christian.  I had a quite visceral and painful reaction to the book after I first read through its contents, but after going back through its pages, I appreciate much Christian has to say in the book.  The main thrust of Christian’s argument will certainly ‘piss you off’ but it also is supposed to bring ‘hope, love, and inspiration,’ not forcing our hand to go to church but causing us to lead lives of importance in following after Jesus. Christian raises some very provocative and telling questions in the first chapter entitled The Gospel According to Kerouac.  After spending some time critiquing how our society is ever so hungry for meaning and tries to avoid loneliness through technology, he writes, “For decades, evangelists in ou...