[Attacking Trafficking] Did you know more people are enslaved today than have been enslaved throughout history? That law enforcement experts believe human trafficking is the fastest growing criminal industry in the world? If you didn’t, you’re not alone. That’s why January 11, 2013 marks Human Trafficking Awareness Day in the United States. Worldwide, an estimated 27 – 41 million individuals are enslaved, with more than 1,000,000 in the United States! On September 25, 2012 President Obama called upon the Church to help society confront this evil and to apply the resources available to end the scourge of slavery.
What can you do? On January 11, note to your friends, neighbors, co-workers and others, both in the world and on social media, of the existence of slavery through practices such as bonded labor, as forced labor, as forced marriage, and the traditional chattel slavery known throughout human history. Help educate them that nearly 80% of all slaves are female and that half of all slaves are under age 18. And call upon your circle of friends, neighbors, co-workers, and even your politicians to get behind the effort to eliminate slavery in the world today. Better still, those at Attacking Trafficking, an ecumenical effort based in the Quad Cities of Iowa and Illinois encourage you to have your church pray for those enslaved in our midst and for those who minister to them. Time and time again in the Bible, God has moved powerfully through His people to free the oppressed. We believe that He will send the Holy Spirit to empower His church to lead our people in this effort again.
Why? As Christians of differing denominational expressions, we believe that we are in bondage to sin as evidenced by those things we have done and left undone. In view of the bondage of things done, people are bound in body, mind, and spirit and reduced, and believe themselves, to be commodities that are bought, sold, discarded, and even killed at will by those more powerful. In view of the bondage of things left undone, others can, through their own ignorance or unwillingness to “dig a bit deeper,” unknowingly contribute to and fuel the sin of human slavery.
As Christians we believe that we are freed from bondage to sin because we have all been redeemed through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In response to our salvation and justification by grace through faith, we are called to the hope and promise of God’s rule and charged with the task of working that His will may be done on earth as it is in heaven. Whether broken in mind, body, or spirit through the perpetuation of human trafficking or broken in complacency and indifference, we are set free in Christ to work for the deliverance of people trafficked, of people who traffic, and those who knowingly or unknowingly buy trafficked victims or their products of their forced labor.
As Christians, because we are redeemed, we see the image of God in ourselves and others, as people deserving of respect, compassion, and care. And we endeavor to care those enslaved as our Lord taught us to care for our neighbor as ourselves in the example of the Good Samaritan.
Please join us and other churches as we pray for those enslaved in our midst, and those who enslave them, during services on the weekend of January 12 and 13. For more information or for tips in how you can become more active in the effort in your community, please contact us at www.attackingtrafficking.org or through St. Alban’s Episcopal Church at 563-386-4087.
Pray for Human Trafficking
Almighty God and heavenly Father, You have created us, Your people, to do Your work in Your world. Be with, protect, and comfort all those who are in situations of fraud, force, and coercion, especially those ensnared in human trafficking and those who minister to or care for them. Through Your Holy Spirit, open the hearts of this country and the world, and enliven all our minds as we remember those who are sold in our midst, and inspire us to proclaim the freedom You offer to all through Your well-beloved Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who with You and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns. Amen.
I am an Anglican priest working with marginalised women in Canada. I think it is a wonderful idea to highlight the issue of human trafficking as an issue that the Christian Church should be aware of. But then when came to the prayer at the end, I was really taken aback by the way God was addressed as ‘Almighty God and heavenly Father.’ The exclusive maleness and patriarchal power of God is part of the problem in dealing with the trafficking of women and children. It provides spiritual support to a mindset that allows men to regard women as chattels because they are less than godly and do not bear the image of God in the same way that men do. Could you please use more inclusive language for God in the future. Thanks
Rev. Manning, thank you for expressing your distress with such patriarchal language. The message is an important one, but I cannot share it, because the God of love and grace is bigger than mine or any human imagination. Inclusive language for people and expansive language for God, please!
I too was taken aback by the ‘traditional” language of the prayer, which allows us too easily to put it on automatic pilot. The idea of describing God in human terms is arrogant, as always. And Rev. Manning’s point is well taken: human maleness as a divine attribute is a dangerous old concept! “I may be weak and naughty but at least I’m male”, hmm? Even worse than “I may be weak and naughty but I’m only a woman after all” .
“the exclusive maleness and patriarchal power of God is part of the problem in dealing with the trafficking of women and children” — Really? Our Father in heaven, who wants only good things for us is part of the problem? Christians who believe that men and women were created in the image of God and look for those enslaved and try to rescue them are generally not considered “part of the problem” by those who survived trafficking. Usually they consider us lifesavers, angels, and the like and care only that we reached out or offered help. It is the people who buy and sell them unconcerned about their misery that earn their loathing. And, as your work among those enslaved may well be limited, there are also a large number of men enslaved in our midst (boys are usually enslaved in the sex trade at ages far younger than the 12.8 years of age for girls, for example), so we would do well to work to free all and not just some that interest us or are like us.
I am usually not a huge fan of ecumenical efforts to develop prayers because of all the various axes to be ground in such settings, and the obvious difficulty bringing so many perspectives into prayerful harmony, but this one was interesting to watch in its development. The Lutheran pastor provided the Lutheran prayer about human trafficking as a beginning point, and the ecumenical Christian group that has been working to rescue and care for survivors of human trafficking in the QCA took it from there. RC laity, Lutheran & Episcopal clergy, Baptist pastors, and a a couple other self-described “mutts” were trying to fashion a bit of unity in the midst of division.
With respect to your specific complaints about “Almighty God and heavenly Father” perhaps the mindset of of the crafters and the survivors and victims whom we encounter will cause you to rethink your perceived problem. The latter address was chosen simply as everyone agrees that our Lord’s prayer encourages us to pray to our Father in heaven. Such an address reminds the one praying that they are a child of God, and the hope is, of course, that Christians will realize that those enslaved are also children of God and loved just as much. As we minister to survivors, we invariably encounter a sense of isolation, a horrible sense of self-worth, and a reinforced-by-slavers belief that no one cares, let alone loves them. Reminding them that there is a perfect Father who truly loves, who truly cares, and who truly wants to hold them and wipe away all their pain and suffering for all eternity. Many come from situations where mothers or fathers, those whom they should be able to trust unquestionably, were the first ones to profit from their misery and to proclaim to them their worthlessness in the eyes of others. Part of the Good News we are called to share is that there is an eternal Father in heaven who loves them beyond anything they can hope for in this world.
“Almighty God” was specifically chosen because of the powers and principalities that we encounter in this fight. As you may or may not be aware, slavery is the second largest organized criminal activity in the world. Some experts predict that it will overtake the drug trade in the next decade. Billions of dollars in revenues and profits are generated for criminals and other organizations who are enemies of God. It was built up under the very nose of the Church and can be found in the sex trade, factory settings, agricultural settings, organ transplants, and in the hospitality services as well as private homes? How do we explain “good people” allowing the dehumanization of people to flourish under the rule of law in the land of the free and abroad absent the spiritual component? In a country that is a least generally familiar with the basics of a Gospel that gets held up in the form of John 3:16 signs at nearly every sporting event and thought itself rid of slavery after a vicious war in the 1860’s, how have we let human beings be reduced to a $90 (the cost of a human being today) transaction absent the absolute presence of evil in our midst? The Almighty God part reminds those praying that God can accomplish anything, that nothing is beyond His power.
As a last comment and one that I personally think should not be the focus of such an effort in modern times, of the 9 various Christians who tried to pull something together that most Christians could use without feeling too “Catholic” or too “congregational,” 8 were women, and three are ordained according to their particular denominational tradition. One, in particular, serves in a denomination that is not known for its encouragement of women in ministry leadership. There are pockets of sexism and sexist insensitivity in parts of the Church, certainly, but not within that group. We have invited and invited and invited Christians of denominational stripes to join the fight. Thus far, it is mostly women who have heard the call and stepped forward to help lead this effort in our area. All of those who prayerfully crafted this prayer and, in turn, commended it to others in their respective denominations for use this weekend, are adamant that women (and men) were created in the image of God, redeemed by God, and encouraged to proclaim the Gospel in word and deed as a outward sign of the grace bestowed upon them. I don’t know, however, that the focus during this day when this country calls us to mission to free the enslaved, particularly among those of us who point to a Prayer Book that often uses the same very language in its collects, should be on the introduction of a prayer. If you feel more comfortable praying to another title you prefer, I doubt any of us would have any issue. Those of us in liturgical traditions (except the Lutherans who have done this) hoped that our experts would pick up on such work, and work occurring elsewhere, and use it to fashion more eloquent prayers, prayers worthy of the work of the people of God. We in no way claimed to speak for all faithful Christian people on this subject. Most of us can remember a time in the not too distant past when we had to convince people and our various churches and our denominations of the very existence of slaves in our midst. We are simply excited to see that God has so moved hearts that people are focused more on “what can we do to help end this?” and look forward to that day when we can look back on this as we do the Exodus or Return from Exile or even the supposed elimination of the slave trade among those countries on the Atlantic.
Christ’s Peace,
Brian McVey†