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The Christian Right's Sex Slaves
23 August 2005Holly Berman writes: "Oversexed," Debbie Nathan's report in The Nation on how a strange alliance of conservative evangelicals and antiporn feminists have joined forces to fight prostitution is so concise, sharp, and important that it's a shame her editors let two ill-informed remarks slip by. Most evangelicals, Nathan claims, are afraid of "foreigners, leftists, and sex." That's absurd -- evangelicals love foreigners. And although they do seem to have some, um, issues about sex, I've never had sex with one myself, so I really can't say. I suspect their attitudes very, which leads me to Nathan's second mistake -- suggesting that there exists a "monolithic" sensibility on the Christian Right. Not at all -- why, some even hate foreigners! But don't let Nathan's missteps mislead you -- overall she's a first rate reporter with a keen sense for sexual panics and the way they drive politics. In this case, fear of "sexual slavery" has so clouded the minds of evangelical activists and allies amongst the feminist left that they've actually made things worse for immigrants forced into slavery -- sexual or, as is much more often the case, otherwise. Nathan's excellent report follows a fine article in the liberal American Prospect on how the evangelical emphasis on prostitution has come to dominate human rights work around the world. Good work, liberal press. But this issue deserves to be mainstreamed. Inasmuch as it has in the past, Nathan points out, it's been in a hand-wringing-yet-lurid fashion. Now it's time to follow Nathan's lead and start doing the reporting that little magazines like The Nation and American Prospect can't afford.
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