Calling Out the Noise Without Losing the Mission

January is Human Trafficking Awareness and Prevention Month, a time meant to center the dignity of survivors and strengthen real solutions. Yet each year, this month also brings something else, heightened noise, division, and at times, politicization within the anti-trafficking space itself.

While awareness is important, it becomes dangerous when it turns into a platform for posturing, comparison, or criticism fueled by envy rather than truth. Too often, this sacred month is used not to elevate survivors, but to elevate organizations, agendas, or egos.

Scripture speaks clearly to this:

“Where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.”
James 3:16

I recently read a post on social media that stirred an important conversation in our field. While I don’t agree with every point made, one truth stood out and deserves to be named.

Too many anti-trafficking organizations are blowing hot air into our communities, towns, and cities.

Exaggerated statistics. Performative campaigns. Leaders are more focused on being seen, validated, and heard than on quietly doing the work that actually changes lives. Survivors notice. The frontline service providers notice. And the damage is real and is happening at alarming rates.

Human trafficking is not a political tool, a marketing strategy, or a competition stage. It is sacred ground. When this work is used to critique others out of jealousy or to position oneself as “more righteous,” we lose sight of who this month is truly for and every day thereafter.

“Let us not become conceited, provoking, and envying each other.”
Galatians 5:26

When Ego Replaces Obedience

There are leaders and boards in the anti-trafficking space for the wrong reasons. That truth is uncomfortable and difficult to admit, but silence and the failure to confront valid concerns with integrity have allowed harm to persist. Confrontation, when done with real care and compassion, is far healthier than talking behind one another’s backs. When ego replaces obedience, survivors pay the price. When numbers are inflated to gain attention or funding, trust erodes. When organizations center themselves instead of those they serve, the mission is compromised.

I share this not as an outsider, but as a survivor who has worked in this field for over thirteen years. My heart is not to divide, but to see greater accountability across all anti-trafficking organizations in this state because survivors deserve integrity, transparency, and leadership worthy of their trust. Jesus did not serve for applause or recognition. He served in obedience to the Father, often unseen.

“Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant.”
Matthew 20:26

Awareness Requires Integrity

Awareness matters when it leads to action. Education matters when it is truthful. Fundraising matters when it is ethical and transparent. But awareness without integrity becomes noise, and noise distracts from both survivors and the voice of God.

“The Lord detests lying lips, but He delights in people who are trustworthy.”
Proverbs 12:22

We need fewer campaigns driven by comparison and more work driven by calling.
Fewer voices that are tearing others down and more leaders willing to examine their own motives before the Lord.

Serving for the Lord, Not Applause

If an anti-trafficking nonprofit claims to be faith-based, or if its leaders and board members identify as Christian and followers of Jesus, they must remember that this field does not need saviors — it needs servants. This work does not belong to them; it belongs to God, and it must be led with humility and obedience.  When the work is done for recognition, it fractures. When it is done for the Lord, it bears lasting fruit.

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.”
Colossians 3:23

A Call Back to Humility This January

Human Trafficking Prevention and Awareness Month should call us back, not to competition, not to politicization, and not to public criticism rooted in envy, but to humility, integrity, and obedience. If we are going to truly help trafficked and exploited children and adults, we must be unified; without unity, we risk failing those we are here to serve, remembering that “a house divided against itself cannot stand” (Mark 3:25).

“He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
Micah 6:8

Because survivors deserve more than noise.
They deserve the truth.
They deserve humility.
In my opinion, they deserve work done first and always for the Lord.

 

Written by Julie Shrader