Thursday, July 10, 2008

Call and Response

Another uncomfortable and thought-provoking (i.e. good) topic that's been cropping up in conversation lately is the human trafficking sector(i.e. slavery= bad). We've long been fans of International Justice Mission and Gary Haugen, but recently a few documentaries, articles and benefits that we've heard and read about have been getting attention, such as Invisible Children, Call and Response and Cargo. Please check out the links.

I read an article in Canada yesterday about the situation in China, which has more forced prostitution than ever, ramping up for the Olympics and a flux of international clientele. Even the thought of this makes me sick. The police know about most brothels, yet do nothing about them, since druglords rule the roost. The author of the article hid a video camera and went into a brothel, discovering many small rooms crammed with 20-30 girls and young women, waiting to be selected or rejected. I can't even imagine the devastation that does to a soul.

When we were on the bus to the airport in London, I saw 4 guys looking at a porn mag and I wanted to rip their heads off for objectifying women- and that's with women who choose to model their bodies! I can't even fathom the magnitude of the scale of people who would not choose this path for their lives, but have been forced into it! There are 27 million (at least) slaves in the world today, many of whom are children and women. This is double the amount of people in captivity when Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

They have no voices. You do. What will be your response?

Whatever you do for the least of these, you do unto me. -Jesus

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for posting this Casey. It is something very dear to our hearts and we are helping out with the call and response movie. Honestly it is very difficult to work on anything when you stop and think about this and the situation that these people are in. I pray that our generation will be known for ending salvary and hunger and not for the ipod and google.

Case and Los said...

You bet brother. Your blog prompted me, though it's been something on our hearts for a long while.

Kelsey said...

The same thing happened in Athens during the Olympics. I am thankful that some of these new movies and movements are starting to highlight the demand side of things. Wherever there is a tolerance or acceptance of prostitution, pornography, etc., there will be an increase in demand for women and children for exploitation. We do need to rescue and help restore victims, yet if that is our only approach, it's like trying to empty a bucket with a spoon while the faucet is still running water into it. Need to end the demand.

Uh, gee...soapbox? I'm done now. :) Thanks for posting.