“I say to you this morning, that if you have never found something so dear and precious to you that you will die for it, then you aren’t fit to live. You may be 38 years old, as I happen to be, and one day, some great opportunity stands before you and calls upon you to stand of some great principle, some great issue, some great cause. And you refuse to do it because you are afraid. You refuse to do it because you want to live longer. You're afraid that you will lose your job, or you are afraid that you will be criticized or that you will lose your popularity, or you're afraid that somebody will stab or shoot or bomb your house. So you refuse to take a stand. Well, you may go on and live until you are ninety, but you are just as dead at 38 as you would be at ninety. And the cessation of breathing in your life is but the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit.
You died when you refused to stand up for right.
You died when you refused to stand up for truth.
You died when you refused to stand up for justice.”

It struck me because just the night before I had witnessed fear and bullying used to silence the voice of justice. I had bought a ticket to attend Austin’s first ever Fair Trade Film Festival sponsored by Austin’s Ten Thousand Villages. They had gathered local fair trade groups and stores for a very festive market and had rented out a local theater to show three films dealing with trade issues followed by panel discussions. One of those films to be shown was the award winning documentary The Price of Sugar which exposes the abuses committed against Haitians working on the sugar plantations in the Dominican Republic. But that film ended up not being shown after Ten Thousand Villages received a letter from the lawyers representing Dominican plantation owners Philipe and Juan Vicini. The Vicini family has filed a defamation lawsuit against the film after several attempts to stop distribution of the film. The letter implied that if the lawsuit is won then any group that had chosen to show the film would face possible legal action as well. The powers that be at the non-profit Mennonite ministry decided they could not afford that risk and so chose not to show the film.

Another film was shown and we were treated to hearing from a lawyer from the powerful law firm Patton Boggs as she read a prepared statement on behalf of the Vicini family. The family claims the film shows abuses and deplorable conditions and erroneously alleges that they occurred at plantations and sugar operations owned by the Vicinis. Their main argument is that a main subject in the film, the Rev. Christopher Hartley, who claimed to have discovered the atrocities, was "dismissed" from the Dominican Republic by the Catholic Church and therefore is an untrustworthy source. The lawyer actually told us that we should stop defending “sexy” films like this and focus on real issues in the world instead. When questioned she said that her purpose that night was to ensure that the Vicini’s side of the story was represented, but had no comment when confronted with the fact that their legal actions ensured that only the Vicini’s side got told at this film fest. Also when asked why her firm was defaming the Priest Christopher Hartley, she replied that since his bishop dismissed him there was cause to question his word.

I’ll be honest. Her words so enraged me, I was literally shaking. That money and power can bully those trying to bring justice into this world into silence infuriates me. I fully understand why Ten Thousand Villages backed down; they had to decide if they would risk their entire ministry to share this one particular story. But when the people who commit injustice are getting filthy rich off of abusing laborers and then can use that money to silence anyone who exposes their sin, there is something seriously wrong. And when the church takes their side as well, it is heartbreaking.

Father Christopher Hartley spent his early years working with Mother Teresa in Calcutta. In 1997 he was sent to serve the poor in the Dominican Republic, but the more he witnessed the abuses the poor Haitian workers were subject to there, he realized he could not remain silent. Charity wasn’t enough; he had to fight against the systems that were causing the injustices in the first place. He started documenting what he saw and speaking up for improving worker conditions. This of course brought him into confrontation with the Vicini family – the wealthiest and most influential family in the DR. He was rocking the boat; the Vicini’s didn’t like it, so therefore the government didn’t like it, and so therefore the Catholic Church didn’t like it. His bishop removed him from the DR in 2006. Hartley commented, "The family, the government, and I think even the church was tired of me, I don't think the church wanted to endure this constant bashing in every newspaper, day after day after day." So like many priests that actually put into action a theology of liberation based on a deep appreciation of scripture, his voice became too controversial and had to be silenced. He is now working with the Sisters of Charity again.

It is one thing to give charity, but when people start addressing why charity is needed things get uncomfortable. Haitians are suffering from extreme abuses in the sugar fields in the DR, but when such a lucrative money-making enterprise gets questioned, those questioning voices are silenced in whatever way they can. Voices for justice, especially religious leaders who start acting like Jesus instead of just talking about him, face that silencing. Some end up murdered, others are shuffled to “safer” postings, and others are attacked by national media sources. Challenging injustice is dangerous, especially when it questions how people make their money.

It disgusts me that our world plays by the “he with the most money wins” rule. But when the legal system fails us, it is up to the people to work from below to make change. If money is all some people care about, then let’s make this about money. It took a grassroots boycott of sugar from the Caribbean slave plantations for the British government to finally start listening to William Wilberforce and ban slavery back in the 19th century. Almost all the sugar sold in the US comes from the DR, buying it funds the Vicinis and this system of modern day quasi-slavery and abuse. Buying fair trade sugar speaks with the only language these people hear – money – a language that is difficult to silence.

But it is also encouraging to hear Martin Luther King Jr. words. He had to pay the ultimate price for standing up for what is right. In the face of litigation and controversies like this, it is good to be reminded that if we fail to stand up for justice we are already dead.

Apparently in the American church, a star football player can say how he played all his games for Jesus and people respond with "awww, what a nice Christian boy." But say that you are working to put an end to human trafficking in the name of Jesus, and people wonder if you are really a Christian.

Then this morning I was at the gym watching the two TVs in front of me. On one was a story about a rich lady with a huge house who had started a rescue mission for disabled dogs. Each dog is given medical attention, a custom-made "wheelchair", and lots of love and attention so they can live out their days as happy dogs. On the other TV were images from Haiti. A father carrying his young daughter whose face had been partly smashed-in. It sickened me to think that those dogs were getting far more spent on them and far better medical attention than that young girl ever would. Those dogs get to live as happy dogs, while that girl if she survives, will be deformed for life. With a facial deformity, she cannot get education or find a job. If she manages to not be trafficked into slavery as maid/sextoy in a wealthier house (Haiti being one of the worst offenders for child slavery), her only options will be to beg or prostitute herself in order to survive. She will become the "scum and riff-raff" that gets condemned for making poor countries the corrupt and sinful places many Western Christians see them as. We might pity her for the few seconds she is on CNN and maybe even send enough food to feed her for a few days, but we'd rather build retirement homes for dogs than do the radical work to change the system that oppresses her. What is our problem?

And then there are the true scum like Rush Limbaugh or Pat Robertson who have pulled their typical jackass moves in the aftermath of this tragedy. Pat in your twisted rewriting of history you display perfectly the juxtaposition between what Jesus actually said and what you want him to have said. You want to blame tragedy on personal sins. You take an old Haitian MYTH and read it as fact to support your cause. Sure, the Haitians in order to explain all the shit that has happened to them have a myth saying that when the Spanish came to Hispaniola (the small island shared between the Dominican Republic and Haiti) they surrendered Haiti to the devil in order to dedicate the Dominican Republic to God. Maybe it helps deal with the pain of being a slave nation, that once they threw off the chains of slavery had the US lead a worldwide trade boycott of them and France force them to pay them pack for loss of slave revenue, and then who struggled to survive under that debt, and then were occupied by the US military in 1915 who slaughtered thousands of peasants, stripped their forests of valuable wood, and left the country barren, and who had to deal with the IMF and World Bank funding dictators who destroyed their country and left them with debt that was only forgiven a couple of months ago, and then another US occupation in 1994, and then with trade stipulations and tariff-free US goods that have destroyed their local economy. I would try to create a myth to explain away all that oppression too. But to twist it and say the Haitians deliberately sold themselves to Satan and are now being punished for their own sins (like emancipating themselves from slavery), just shows how out of touch you are with not only reality but with Jesus. When asked whose sin made a man blind, Jesus replied that no one had sinned but that this was a chance for him to be light to the world – to restore sight to the blind, to set the oppressed free. So get your history straight, or at least get Jesus straight and use this opportunity to be a light to the world instead of another harbinger of darkness.

But then I see the wonderful outpouring of aid to Haiti juxtaposed against the fact that most of it will never reach the actual people who need it most. The government in Haiti is so corrupt that most aid that is sent to the country gets funneled into special-interests groups. The privileged just keep getting richer while the poor in Haiti are making mud cookies because they can't afford food. So I want to just beg everyone to be careful where your money goes. Any relief that has to go through the Haitian government won't reach the people. So support organizations that are on the ground with the people in Haiti. We've partnered with New Life for Haiti before – a group that works to build schools and clinics in the Marfranc region of Haiti. They are seeking aid now to help rebuild homes that collapsed in the earthquake. Bread for the World has also created a list of trusted agencies working to help the people of Haiti. The system needs to be fixed. We can't put a bandaid on this wound and hopes it goes away. Unless we push for real change, more people will die, children will start being rounded-up and trafficked, starvation will slowly overtake the country, corporations will seize land from its rightful owners, and the 4,000 troops we are sending in will make Haiti a US occupied territory for the third time in a century. Haiti is the only country to successfully stage a slave-rebellion in the name of freedom. We need to help them be free – free from oppression, free from hunger, free from exploitation, and free from poverty.

My heart is breaking over Haiti. I see the state of Christianity in our country and I despair if with our shallow faith and judgmental hearts we can work for good in this world. But as messy and as hopeless as it all can seem, I realize I have no choice but to have hope.

If that pisses you off – it should. Don’t roll your eyes, or say it’s preposterous. Get over yourself and deal with it. Truth is truth even if it hurts.

So be aware. Be responsible. And help put an end to oppression.

Here are just a few really basic ways to get started fighting human trafficking and modern day slavery.

• Encourage lawmakers to stop punishing prostitutes and illegal immigrants. Most trafficked people in the US are afraid to speak up or escape because they fear the government – with good cause. They need to have the freedom to escape from bondage, and we need to be there to help restore them – not punish them.
• Stop buying/downloading porn. Statistically a majority of the people who read this site do. Stop encouraging a system that objectifies women and feeds the idea that they can just be used for men’s pleasure.
• Encourage feminism. Many of the girls sold into sex slavery are the unwanted girls of families in cultures that value males. Selling them is easier on the family than feeding an unwanted mouth. If women were seen as equals everywhere, less men would use them as mere objects.
• Buy only fairly traded clothing and food. Slavery exists in sweatshops and farms. Recently the U.S. government has rounded up slaves in New York clothing factories, Florida tomato farms, and among Katrina clean up crews in New Orleans. Tell companies with your dollars that you only support practices where employees are treated and paid fairly – and allowed to be a free human being.
• Support microloans and charity for education. Desperation and lack of education create the conditions for slavery to thrive. Those conditions must change if slavery is to end.

Or check out sites like What’s Your Response?, Or IJM, or Not for Sale, Or Stop the Traffick. Get informed and start working for change. The truth is if we aren’t doing crap about this – we are complicit in supporting slavery. Let’s follow Jesus and release the chains of oppression instead.

They also hit the (obvious) nail on the head in trying to explain why this happens.  Basically because the demand is there.  Trafficking isn’t just some evil crime committed by sociopaths, it’s done by corrupt and greed guys who know that there is a high demand for human flesh.  If the businessmen at conferences in Vegas weren’t looking for sex on demand then kidnapping, abusing, raping, and breaking women into submissive prostitutes wouldn’t be such a lucrative business.  But evil and injustice continue to exist because we demand it.  From cheap sex to cheap clothes or candy, we demand that others be oppressed for our benefit.

At one point in the CSI episode, the bad-guy of the week, a Russian pimp (played by the amazing Mark Sheppard), tried to justify why girls supposedly choose to be prostitutes.  He said, "inside, [all women] are whores. They will love to hear the things they want to believe – they are so beautiful, so fascinating, so special that they deserve the best of everything, the finest clothes, champagne, and jewels that money can buy.  And you know how you get the whore to emerge? Tell her there is an easy way to get all of this."  His words were ironic coming after the unfolding story of girls being kidnapped, drugged, raped, beaten, and murdered by traffickers.  Instead of describing the girls, they more accurately described the traffickers and the johns.  But they also describe all of us who have found easy ways to get whatever we want even if it is at the expense of others.  We will sell our souls because we believe we deserve the best of everything.

The sad thing is, there are no CSI’s out there working to put us behind bars so that the oppression stops.  We are not going to be punished for benefiting from crimes like human trafficking and slave labor.  And we wont be rewarded either for choosing to step outside of systems of oppression.  There is no carrot or stick when it comes to making a deliberate choice to love others.  We just have to decide that we care enough for someone else’s daughter or son to stop demanding that they be oppressed so that we can have everything we desire.

I'm fine with people disagreeing with me or not liking the book. I get that. But his mindset reminded me of the economic idolatry that has crept into our faith. More and more I find Christians who instead of letting their faith influence their economics, they interpret their faith through their preferred economic system. I've had to listen to sermons where the pastor went off on how capitalism was the only biblical economic system. I've read the books where the guys say stuff like "because the Bible doesn't talk much about economics we need to bring economics to the Bible." I've encountered those who play the "socialism" card at the first sign of any critique of capitalism. And I've heard those claiming that economics are absolute, we can't change the market so we shouldn't bother trying even for good biblical reasons.

I get that's it's complicated. I get that we like to have our pet philosophies. I get that socialism can be evil too. But none of that excuses making economics into an idol. When our economic theory leads us to make excuses for the oppression of workers, we have a problem. When modern day slavery is justified as being "just the way the market works," we have a problem. When making a profit becomes more important that the dignity of human beings, we have a problem. When the words of Jesus Christ are dismissed because they might support an alternate economic system, we have a problem. It is as simple as that. When our allegiance to an economic system has us making excuses for injustices then that economic system has become an idol. And idols need to be torn down.

I'm a capitalist. I'm not anti-globalisation. I don't have any problem with people making money or looking out for their own interests. I don't think communism or forced socialism are better systems. But there comes a point where we have to say to a system that oppresses – this is wrong and must be changed. This is difficult if not impossible if we have allowed economic theory to become an idol and usurp our faith. We need to be able to "See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ." (Col 2:8) Loving God and loving others has to come before Wall Street or Adam Smith – there's no way around it.

So as inspiration to smash the idols that need smashing, I want to include the following verse. Brian Walsh, co-author of Colossians Remixed, recently posted a targum of Romans 1:16-32 over at the Empire Remixed blog, A targum is a means of interpreting scripture by rewriting it for a particular cultural setting. Traditionally a Hebrew practice, some use the practice today to apply the Bible to contemporary life. This Romans 1 targum addresses this affinity to make idols of economic systems. I highly recommend reading the entire piece, but I wanted to highlight this short section -

So here’s the sad truth, my friends:
this empire of greed,
this narrative of economic growth,
this whole house of cards is based on lies and deception.
This whole culture of consumption,
this whole empire of money,
is based on self-willed ignorance.

Creation proclaims a better way
because creation bears witness to a God of grace.
But we have suppressed this truth,
engaged in denial and cover-up.

Refusing to live a life of gratitude,
refusing to live a life of thanks to the God
who called forth such a rich creation,
refusing to honour this Creator God,
and embracing a culture of entitlement and ingratitude,
we abandoned the God of light and embraced the dark.

And in all of our complex theories
in all of our sophisticated and incomprehensible economic talk,
we became futile in our thinking
we ended up with lots of talk but no sense,
theories that are empty,
vanity of vanities.

And we thought that we were so wise,
we thought that we had it all figured out,
but the joke has been on us,
and it is now clear that we have been fools.

You see, that’s what happens when you get in bed with idols.
That’s what happens when you don’t image God in faithful justice,
but embrace graven images,
cheap imitations,
that look so good,
look so powerful,
but will always fail you,
will always come up short
because they are impotent.

Empty idols, empty minds.
Dumb idols, lives of foolishness.
Betrayal and disappointment.
Fear and terror.

My friend Carl knows that simply exposing the slavery in the world today and raising our collective awareness of the issue is the first step in helping bring it to an end. Abolition starts with information. So he has proposed a project to visually tell the story of modern-day slavery to the world. -

I want to help raise awareness to the fact there are more slaves today than ever in history by starting an open-source photography project to combat the horrors of slavery as it exists today.

I want to travel to the countries that are the major sources of slavery to document what the key players in this fight are doing to combat the issue. I also want to photograph local celebrities in these nations to help bring notice to the general public and hopefully to some victims to help them realize there is hope, there is a way out. Finally, I want to photograph business and government leaders who are committed to reducing their dependence on the products and labor of those enslaved.

My project will be the catalyst to a worldwide, open-source photo project. I would like this project to culminate in a photo essay book with all proceeds going to the organizations best prepared to make a difference.

My project would be one of many in which people are joining the movement to become a modern day abolitionist started by the film "CALL+RESPONSE". The documentary started this grassroots movement of open-source activism to end slavery. My project would be another link in the chain to meet the needs as expressed by CALL + RESPONSE…

"There is a sea of change happening in human rights activism. The world’s issues cannot be solved alone by governments and non-profits, but require community-based participation. CALL+RESPONSE is creating interactive field projects for each aspect of human slavery: sex slavery, labor slavery, child soldiers and child slavery."

"Slavery is thriving from the child brothels of Cambodia to the slave brick kilns of rural India to reveal that in 2007, Slave Traders made more money than Google, Nike and Starbucks combined."

I want to do something about this worldwide tragedy because I am an abolitionist.

Will you join me?

He has submitted his project idea to the Name Your Dream Assignment photography contest. But to make this dream a reality, he needs our support. So please drop whatever you are doing right now and vote for his idea. The story of modern-day slavery must be told and we can help him tell a part of it.