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My car rolled swiftly down First Avenue North away from downtown Birmingham on a rainy, overcast fall morning. To the left, low-income housing testified to the aftermath of the furnace shutdown in the early s. Several blocks later I pulled into our church offices at Cornerstone Christian School, nestled behind the ministries that pass for commercial development in the Woodlawn neighborhood of Birmingham. Here, one day earlier, pastor Joel Brooks broke some bad news.
While many of us last week were still celebrating a last-minute comeback victory by the Alabama Crimson Tide or watching election results, a Birmingham police undercover operation netted 35 arrests , mostly for soliciting prostitutes.
On First Avenue North. In front of our church. One local TV station captured footage of the crime scene while standing next to our church sign. We knew Redeemer Community Church meets in a tough neighborhood. But you could hear the gasps in the congregation when Joel told us the going rate for a prostitute in our neighborhood.
Sex is cheap in Birmingham. Our neighbors are selling their bodies for less than they could earn a couple blocks away working at McDonalds. Lord have mercy. Police worked with local media to publish the names and photos of every man and woman caught soliciting prostitutes. Someone recognized one of the men as a something pastor from another church.
