Bending Towards Justice.

This whole week, thanks to my church Resonate, is "Abolition Week" on the campuses of WSU and U of I. It is only Tuesday and already I am wrecked. How could I not weep when I hear of girls as young as five forced into prostitution? It is unjust. It is slavery. And it is happening all over the world.

During the days of the transatlantic slave trade, before slavery was outlawed, it is estimated that 12 million people were taken from there homes and forced into slavery. And yet today it is calculated that 27 million people around the globe are in some form of modern day slavery. The number is unimaginable, incomprehensible. But this week Mike Hogan from the International Justice Mission, a guest speaker at church and on both the college campuses, did a terrific job contextualizing the statistics, "Twenty seven million people," he said, "is significantly more than even the entire population of the Pacific Northwest."

Imagine that everyone around you was in slavery. Imagine that you wake up everyday forced to move bricks until the point of exhaustion. In doing so you make a mere four dollars a week, but your 'master' charges you five dollars a week to live on his property. When you try to escape you are hunted down and beaten nearly to death, forced to return, and told that should you ever try it again your family would be beaten. Now imagine that your youngest sister, beautiful and innocent, was kidnapped from your home and is held captive in a brothel. She is raped ten to fifteen times a day for the profit of her pimp. She has been forced to have multiple abortions, and her health greatly deteriorating. During the day she is kept underground and has not seen daylight for months.

These imaginings are real. They are not dramatized; how I wish they were. No, they are specific examples that demonstrate the reality of what happens to millions around the world daily. But there is hope. There is always hope.

This evening I had an opportunity to watch a documentary by the International Justice Mission called "At the End of Slavery". Here's the trailer for it.



My favorite line in this documentary is this, "If history shows us that the monster of slavery assumes new forms, it has also shown us that its oppressive systems crumble in the face of those who heartily oppose them. It is our collective responsibility to oppose slavery in the time given to us. History is on our side."

The stories I had you imagine earlier are two individuals who have been freed through the work of IJM. They are living examples that there is hope. The man who was moved bricks now owns a tomato farm and is making more than the twice the national average in India. The girl in prostitution is now a mentor for girls who have been freed from that lifestyle. And stories like these are limitless. Hope is spreading. It may seem to be spreading slowly at times, but it is spreading nonetheless. And one day it will overwhelm us.

I've heard criticism before that a person who thinks too much of heaven is a dreamer. As if it was somehow wrong to daily appreciate the salvation we have in Christ. I think that in reality this is quite the opposite. I think that because we know it all ends well, we can confidently and actively fight for love and justice now.

So what can we do? How can we fight? What is our part? I would first encourage you to write your senator. There is a bill in the house that if passed will double the amount the government is spending to combat human trafficking across the globe. If we, the constituents, show that we care about this issue, no senator will be able to vote no once the bill leaves the house. Also, be informed and be an informer. Here are some excellent links for that...

Sending Justice
At the End of Slavery
IJM
Not For Sale

While there is so much to more write about human trafficking and so much more on my heart, there is little more I can articulate. I hope though that you've been both been made both dreadfully aware, calling you to action, and, with the realization that something can and is being done about injustice in our world, you have been unusually encouraged. Very little of the meat of this post is mine, but it is all so on my heart that I could not fall asleep tonight without sharing. So, in the spirit of referring back to people who are a lot smarter than myself, allow me to end with a brilliant quote by Martin Luther King Jr.

"When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds of despair, and when our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, let us remember that there is a creative force in this universe, working to pull down the gigantic mountains of evil, a power that is able to make a way out of no way and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows. Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice."