As his recent and moving testimony before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee reveals, Ashton Kutcher seems to be doing some great work combating the horrendous evil of worldwide sex trafficking.  His testimony was hailed by conservative and liberal media alike.  I wish him much success, and I hope he continues his efforts for many years to come.  However, I challenge Mr. Kutcher to go farther when it comes to battling evil in the sexual realm.

As he began his speech, Kutcher passionately declared that he was there to "defend the right to pursue happiness."  He was referencing the U.S. Declaration of Independence.  However, he made a couple of mistakes in declaring that the "right to pursue happiness" was "bestowed upon all of us by our Constitution."  I thought perhaps it was simply an error in semantics.  However, Mr. Kutcher doubled down on his misunderstanding of our rights and in his next sentence said, "I believe that it is incumbent upon us as citizens – as Americans – to bestow that right upon others."

Mr. Kutcher's biggest mistake was not in referencing the Constitution instead of the Declaration; it was in his misunderstanding about where the rights of humans originate.  Our rights are not "bestowed upon us" by any human being or any document created by human beings.  As the Declaration of Independence reveals, we are "endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable [indisputable and irremovable] rights."  In other words, our rights come from God and not from man.

The job of men and women is to provide good government that guards those rights.  (Kutcher later declared himself a product of our public school system, so I suppose we should cut him some slack here.)  Mr. Kutcher's current "day job," as he described it, is as the chairman and co-founder of Thorn.  Thorn's motto declares the company to be the "digital defender of children."  Thorn works to prevent the sexual exploitation of children by fighting human trafficking and the proliferation of child pornography.  This work is what got him an audience with the U.S. Senate.

In addition to his work at Thorn, Kutcher declared that another part of his day job is to be the father of his two young children.  No doubt his role as the father of a two-year-old daughter and a two-month-old son has greatly enhanced his passion for fighting the scourge of human sex-trafficking.  If Mr. Kutcher really wants to stand up and defend his children and rescue and defend other children, he would do well to note that there are other dangers beyond sex-trafficking and child pornography lurking in the sexual realm.

And as horrific as are child pornography and the child sexual slavery that is the result of sex-trafficking, far more children are ensnared into a different type of sexual slavery – one in which Mr. Kutcher himself has had a hand.

Ashton Kutcher would almost certainly not be in this position (technology entrepreneur/investor) if it were not for the tens of millions of dollars he's made from his TV and movie career.  Tragically, much of this career has involved "entertainment" that presents and promotes a wide array of sexually immoral behavior – everything from teenage sex to adultery, fornication, pornography, and the like.

Two of the television shows that prominently featured Kutcher – That '70s Show and Two and a Half Men – were regularly labeled as some of the worst programs on television by the Parents Television Council (PTC).  Writing about That '70s Show in 2005, the PTC noted:

Frequently included on the PTC's Top 10 Worst list, this series once again earns a spot for its casual and irresponsible treatment of teen sex and drug use, which are depicted as risk- and consequence-free.  Frequent references are made to pornography and masturbation.  In one episode, for example, Kelso [Kutcher's character] decides that he has to start respecting women, so he gives Fez his entire collection of pornographic magazines.  Jackie says that giving Fez a "box full of nudie magazines" is like giving a monkey a loaded gun, to which Fez replies, "No, it's not.  A monkey with a loaded gun can hurt a lot of people.  I can only hurt myself."  When they see Fez later, he looks exhausted because he has done nothing but look at pornography all day.  Episodes also endorse smoking marijuana as harmless fun. 

Sex traffickers and child pornographers aren't born; they're made.  As those on the front lines of the battle against child pornography have often noted, almost all adults who are engaging in child porn got their start with adult pornography.  As was noted at The Witherspoon Institute several years ago (emphasis added):

The link between adult and child porn is observed globally, and it is nothing new. Fifteen years ago, at the 1996 World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, Margaret Healy stated in a paper titled "Child Pornography: An International Perspective" that "with the emergence of the use of computers to traffic in child pornography, a new and growing segment of producers and consumers is being identified. They are individuals who may not have a sexual preference for children, but who have seen the gamut of adult pornography and who are searching for more bizarre material."

Likewise, almost all who are ensnared in the illicit world of adult pornography were first tantalized by what could be called the "soft porn" (or at least sexually graphic) images that exists in large numbers of TV sitcoms, dramas, motion pictures, music videos – even television commercials. For decades now, Hollywood has lied about sex and promoted the raunchy, perverted sexual agenda of modern liberalism. Sadly, for much of his professional life, Kutcher (along with Mila Kunis, his current wife and mother of his two children), has been right in the middle of this smut.

With multiple generations of American youth exposed to such sexual immorality, it is little surprise we live in a "hook-up" culture, where women and men both are often seen as little more than a means to a selfish sexual end.  Put another way, men and women across the U.S. have become objects to be used – as Kutcher put it to the Senate – "for the momentary happiness of another."

The tragic results of this are detailed nearly daily: tens of millions of helpless children have been slaughtered in the womb, and tens of millions more are born out of wedlock and immediately thrust into broken and dysfunctional homes.  Among many other tragic outcomes, in his testimony, Kutcher himself notes that children in foster care (almost always at least partly the result of a broken home) are four times more likely to be exposed to sexual abuse.  Kutcher called this a "breeding ground" for trafficking.

I don't how many more times it needs to be said, but here it is once again: broken families – families without a loving and married mother and father – are a "breeding ground" for a wide variety of sad outcomes for children.  In addition to sexual abuse and prison (something else Kutcher mentions), there's physical abuse, drug abuse, poor health outcomes, poor education results, and so on.  In other words, in spite of the best efforts of liberals and their like-minded allies to ignore or explain away what common sense and sound morality have always revealed, the biblical family model produces the best results for children.

So, Mr. Kutcher, if you want to be a complete advocate for the health and well-being of children the world over, abandon your notions of "social liberalism."  (Kutcher has described himself as a "fiscal conservative but a social liberal." Another note to Mr. Kutcher: If you're a "social liberal," then you're a liberal.)  Support, live, and defend what the Bible reveals on the family and sex.  The God that bestows upon us the right to pursue happiness that you so passionately defended before the U.S. Senate has also clearly revealed His plan for the family and sex.

Trevor Grant Thomas: At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.
www.trevorgrantthomas.com
Trevor is the author of the brand new book The Miracle and Magnificence of America.
tthomas@trevorgrantthomas.com