...and justice for all

I discovered early on that, in the words of Swedish Ambassador Harald Edelstam, "I cannot tolerate injustice." This inability to tolerate injustice has brought me to the roots of human misery, called me to engage in the fight for the rights, freedoms, and the dignity of others. - Joan Baez

There are several things in life that I don’t believe in. I don’t believe in regrets. I don’t believe in apathy. And I don’t believe anyone should ever have the ability to take away the free will of another human being. It happened during the time of Moses in the 13^th century BC. It happened at the time of William Wilberforce in the 18^th century. It happened during the time of Martin Luther King Jr. in the 20^th century. And now, here in our generation, it is a rampant crime affecting 30 million people in the 21^st century. Debt bondage, forced labor, sex trafficking, are all forms of modern day slavery occurring every day on a global scale.

E. Benjamin Skinner (author of “A Crime So Monstrous”) says, “Two hundred years after the birth of Abraham Lincoln, there are now more slaves than there were at any point in human history.”

It completely blows my mind to think about how the sale and servitude of human beings is a part of everyone’s life in the Western world as we eat our food, wear our clothes and use our electronics and appliances; a lot of which, if we cared to find out, trace back to forced labor. But it’s not convenient to know, and I am ashamed to admit, sometimes it isn’t cost effective to know, either.

It seems one reality we are fully conscious of when it comes to slavery is sex trafficking. But sometimes I wonder if we really understand the implications of it. We see pictures of sad-faced girls from Cambodia and we watch entertaining movies like “Taken.” Yet if we fully grasped the concept of these vulnerable, innocent girls having their mind, body, soul, future and hope viciously stolen from them, I have NO IDEA how we could just sit back in silence.

Trafficking is, straight up, an extremely lucrative, annually $32 billion business. The sale of humans is a unique industry because, unlike the products we purchase off the shelf never to be seen again by the salesman, human beings can be used over and over and over. No wonder it has now surpassed profitability of arms trafficking in the international crime industry, to be second only to the illegal drugs trade. This reusable nature can be, and is, exploited to its furthest extent.

As in the nature of any business, an incredibly intricate network has been formed to ensure the stability of their operations. There are those skilled at acquiring this “merchandise,” whether it be through kidnapping or deception. Once they have been acquired, they are either retained or passed on to those who know how to market the girls’ “skills” and through psychological, emotional and physical abuse, know how to make sure the girls never leave.

At the other end is the very reliable clientele, their constant willingness to pay consistent with their constant lust for sex. And all along the way are the rich, powerful, corrupt individuals ready to buy off every chain of the legal system. One of the scariest things is the way these operations function on an international level. It is THAT EASY for a girl from South Korea to end up in South Africa, it is THAT EASY for 70% of prostitution in Europe to be made up of women from Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary alone.

You know what is incredible? The realization that the church is a uniquely positioned institution that has influence both locally and globally crossing every barrier known to man whether it be geographical, racial, financial, economical or whatever. Seriously, what other business or organization can say that? There is a gigantic array of vocations represented on any given Sunday morning. WHY AREN’T WE UTILIZING THIS.

When Jesus told us to love our neighbor as ourselves, I have no doubt he meant on both a local and global level. It’s not limited to just our daily interactions with people, but also the people that we DON’T know. What an incredible, perfect illustration of Christ’s love if we advocated for freedom and hope for people who don’t even know they are human enough to deserve it. How many churches are utilizing their resources and influence to do that? Sometimes it feels like the universal church is busier dividing over religious differences than coming together in the Lord’s work.

In addition to the giant issue of profitability we must combat, is the equally overwhelming reality of poverty that many times drives people to be sold in the first place. Parents hoping to give their child a better life, children begging on the streets that get picked up, girls that are tricked by promises of a waitressing or nanny-ing job, are all floundering to stay afloat economically. And here they are shown a way to make money, and lots of it, without needing the training or education that they can’t afford anyway. They actually have something to offer that someone else wants, even though it comes in the form of their own bodies. If the traffickers can be so occupied showing them that, where are we, showing them they are worthy and capable of so much more? How can we incorporate business models like micro-financing to focus on prevention, before people feel desperate enough to sell their child for $25.00?

After attending Not For Sale’s Global Forum on Human Trafficking these past two days, I have taken away two life-changing realizations.

1. There is hope for these people. Up until now I’d felt burdened and overwhelmed by what I knew, but I have now witnessed an incredible collaboration constantly forming between government, businesses, non-profits and the church. It is going to take all sectors of society to win this fight against slavery. But so long as there is Mike McCarthy from CNN, Jeremy Affeldt from the SF Giants, Sarah Ferguson the Duchess of York, Douglas Alexander MP from Britain, Jack Dorsey from Twitter and Dave Morin from Facebook, Larry Wu from Starbucks, Manny Pacquiao of professional boxing, actress Mira Sorvino, John Ortberg from Menlo Park Presbyterian, Pastor Eddy Byun from South Korea, Kindley Walsh-Lawlor from GAP Inc. and thousands of others, there is a powerful movement I want nothing more than to be a part of.

2. I am called to be a part of it. If I wasn’t sure before, I am very sure of it now. As Doug Alexander said, “Strategies change minds but stories change hearts.” Human trafficking is a well-avoided, often times uninformed, horrifically painful reality in our modern age. I really believe that bringing the individual stories to light will eliminate just that much more of the darkness in our world, and foster more enthusiasm and collaboration between the different sectors of society passionate enough to make a difference. I am going to be a story teller, even though that means going back to school, current career unpredictability and letting go of several expectations I had for my life. But at the same time I don’t know how to describe how exhilarated I feel, because so long as God has placed me in this world, I am called to be an agent of change to broker heaven here on earth. I am no longer overwhelmed by the problem; I'm overwhelmed by a sense of purpose.