Lausanne World Pulse – Business as Transformation

By Mats Tunehag
January / February 2010

“We don’t require anyone to convert, but we are not hiding who we are and what we believe,” says Katie, a designer of the jewelry the women manufacture. “But we have seen an increasing number of women be totally transformed as they become followers of Jesus.”

About half the women have started quite a unique church. The leaders and members are mostly former slaves of the sex industry. To them, the Christian faith is a life-transforming power, not just a set of theoretical biblical statements.

When you work with prostitutes and trafficking victims, you must be able to answer the question: Out of prostitution, rescued from the sex slave trade, but into what? You need to be able to offer a job with dignity as a sustainable alternative. Here, Christian business people hold keys in combating today’s slavery. There is a definite need for more Christian entrepreneurs with a vision for this.

Need for Cultural Change
Here also lie important issues of culture and a need for changes of culture. Many in Europe and elsewhere naïvely believe that all cultures are equally good, albeit different, and that all should be neutrally accommodated without any cultural custom being challenged.

Sometimes, and sometimes rightly so, Christian mission has been accused of cultural imperialism and imposition. Mistakes will always be made in a cultural encounter, but there are numerous examples all over the world of how the Christian message has transformed cultural norms and customs which have been destructive. The religious practices which undergird oppression of women, and cultural norms which reinforce the sex industry, cannot be accepted. There is a definite need in Thailand for a constructive critique of religion and culture in this respect. But there is also a need for life-transforming alternatives based on human dignity and rights. Nightlight provides just that through its business.