{"id":4381,"date":"2025-01-30T08:52:20","date_gmt":"2025-01-30T13:52:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=4381"},"modified":"2025-01-30T08:52:20","modified_gmt":"2025-01-30T13:52:20","slug":"standing-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/30\/standing-together\/","title":{"rendered":"Standing Together"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>

In the 1880s, northern Wisconsin was still essentially an unsettled and untamed wilderness.\u00a0

Teams of lumberjacks worked for years bringing in harvests of virgin timber to supply the needs of America.

Logging camps were not for the faint of heart.\u00a0Like the Wild West, these male-dominated communities tended to be governed by machismo and local standards of justice.\u00a0They also concealed a hidden world of forced prostitution.

Thousands of women and young girls were transported against their will to the camps and mines of the upper Midwest. They populated brothels and \u201cdance halls\u201d where they were subjected on a daily basis to multiple rapes.

Where were the authorities?

They chiefly sided with the logging companies.\u00a0Owners and patrons of the brothels purchased protection from the police. Local doctors earned money by regularly examining the women. Businessmen appreciated the economic boost.

Women who tried to run away quickly discovered they were literally in the middle of nowhere.\u00a0

Escapees who were caught were sometimes publicly executed in gruesome ways \u2013 a strong disincentive to anyone else who cherished the dream of freedom.

These victims of sex trafficking \u2013 out of sight and out of mind during America\u2019s so-called Gilded Age \u2013 had few advocates and little hope.

But they did have Kate Bushnell.\u00a0

Katharine Bushnell was a medical doctor, writer, missionary to Asia, Bible scholar, and social activist \u2013 all during a time when women were expected to do little more than sign off on the agendas of the males in their lives.\u00a0

Bushnell\u2019s lifelong quest was affirming the integrity and equality of women before God.\u00a0That\u2019s how she ended up in northern Wisconsin, right in the middle of the logging camps.

Her goal was justice.\u00a0No local authority, however, would provide assistance or information concerning the status of the prostitutes.\u00a0

So Bushnell did her own investigating.\u00a0Risking her personal safety, she won the trust of dozens of the girls who lived in virtual slavery.\u00a0She carefully documented their stories.\u00a0

Then, to the horror of everyone complicit in the sex trade, she went public.

Wisconsin\u2019s elected leaders screamed denunciations.\u00a0The state inspector general declared that Bushnell was herself \u201cunchaste,\u201d and therefore unreliable.\u00a0

Kate Bushnell was a compelling, even charismatic public speaker.\u00a0But even she was anxious when she was called to testify before the Wisconsin state legislature.\u00a0Having received threats of violence, she was shielded by a police escort.\u00a0Could she trust them?

Standing before a hostile gathering, she felt exceedingly alone.\u00a0She was the only woman in the room.

Then she received a gift.

The door to the legislative chamber opened quietly.\u00a0About 50 women walked in and \u201cstood all about me,\u201d she later recalled.\u00a0\u201cThere were no seats for them.\u00a0They stood all the time I talked \u2013 and I had plenty of courage as I realized how good God was to send them.\u201d

She spoke in the spirit of Psalm 82:3: \u201cDefend the weak and the fatherless, uphold the cause of the poor and oppressed.\u201d

The chamber may not have listened well that day.\u00a0But the nation did.\u00a0Independent researchers poured into the upper Midwest and confirmed Bushnell\u2019s findings. Ultimately a legislative initiative to banish sex trafficking was passed by Wisconsin\u2019s public servants.

It came to be called the Kate Bushnell Bill.<\/em>

Bold action that frees captives and rescues the weak requires courage.\u00a0And perseverance.\u00a0And a yearning for justice.\u00a0And hanging on with all of one\u2019s heart to God\u2019s promises and power.

Even if you\u2019re not the one at the center of such a drama today, look for someone who is.

Then choose to go stand alongside them.
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here In the 1880s, northern Wisconsin was still essentially an unsettled and untamed wilderness.\u00a0 Teams of lumberjacks worked for years bringing in harvests of virgin timber to supply the needs of America. Logging camps were not for the faint of heart.\u00a0Like the Wild West, these male-dominated communities tended to be governed by… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4382,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[94,859],"class_list":["post-4381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-courage","tag-sex-trafficking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4381"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4383,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4381\/revisions\/4383"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}