The Underground Railroad

Do Abolitionists Want Their Freedom... and Drink it Too?

Today is National Coffee Day. As latte drinkers and cappucino sippers and coffee slingers celebrate, I couldn't help but wonder over a bean or two.

Slave labour in the coffee industry has been revealed time and again, especially in the past 10 years. While this hasn't deterred many companies in making an easy profit off exploited labour and consumers alike, organizations like Fair Trade have certainly made a dent in the people exploitation business -- ensuring fair wages, good working conditions, and quality product for all involved. I'll be honest when I say: I don't like coffee. Never really did acquire a taste for it, even before I discovered the lucrative slave business involved. However, my dad is a self-proclaimed "coffee snob". Right now, only Kicking Horse coffee will do (Fair Trade, of course). 

Yet by creating equitable working conditions for people, and taking care of the earth we live on, are we actually changing the world? Or are we simply breaking trail for a new type of "good earth consumerism"? Part of abolition -- when discussing any type of slavery -- is reducing the demand for said "product". Whether it's coffee or sex, inherent in an abolitionist's lifestyle is the commitment to reduce consumption and demand of the things we so voraciously take hold of. It's a call to simplicity, and a desire for "the other's" needs to be met first, rather than our own. From experience, this is far, far easier said than done.

Just some thoughts... are we willing to put down that sixth cup of coffee? Is chocolate really that much of an emotional filler that we've convinced ourselves it's a"need"?

I'm all for Fair Trade and like organizations that promote the humanity and sacred space of God's workmanship. However in all "fairness", I do think we ought to take serious stock of our lifestyles as well. It's one thing to agree: "Okay, yeah... I'll chip in a few extra coins for Fair Trade --- (insert delightful addiction here)", but it is quite another to begin to shift our mentalities and say: "Okay, yeah... I'll chip in a few extra for Fair Trade so wealth is re-distributed better and better as we grow. But you know what? I don't need a cup of coffee today. And that's okay."

Compassion Fatigue... When Does it End?

We all experience it. We all know it's there. Stories of the most evil forms of slavery, brutal famine, violence, poverty, homelessness, infant mortality, child soldiers, natural disasters, youth addictions, domestic violence, cancer... any one person reading this could add pages more of heinous realities in our world today. 

What happens when we are so bombarded with legitimate requests for help? Who helps the helpers? When so much devastation occurs all at the same time in this world, who do we start with? Where do we start? How...? Some days, we feel like the world is more like one giant triage unit and each specific issue in each specific region will just have to wait its turn. The gut-wrenching truth in that pudding is when we choose who waits and who gets help, people still die.

Nicholas Kristof, in one of his timely blog posts, mentions this very condition after describing the worst sort of nightmare for Somali women. On top of severe famine where men, women and children are dying painful deaths, bandits are raping the women -- often repeatedly. It is certainly NOT the Somali people's fault for the famine that has struck, nor is it their fault men of violence are engaging in rape. Help is needed. Empathy is required. Long term life love and compassion are must haves... right now.

During this Weekend of Fasting and Prayer to End Human Trafficking, my frail humanity went straight to: "I can't deal with this right now! God, it's too much! When will it end?" The precious and holy thing about spiritual disciplines is that when you listen, God truly does respond.

Here are some thoughts on Compassion Fatigue:

1. God is still God, even over what seems like the most hopeless and painful of situations. We might wonder why He even allows these atrocities to happen, but we would do better to remind ourselves of how He is already present in the darkness, and being Comforter, Sustainer, and Lover. He is already in those places we know need Him the most. The most forgotten of people are closest to His heart.

2. Isaiah 58 says that if you spend yourself on behalf of the hungry... THEN your own healing will quickly appear. Not only is this backwards in terms of worldly common sense, but it challenges us to give even in our dire pain. Not only will our own healing appear, it will appear quickly. How that healing will look is not for me to say. When people share about it, it seems to be different for everyone but exactly the kind of healing required.

3. We are not God. The call to social justice never wavers, and our hearts are perpetually pelted with the needs of this world, but we can give thanks for this. Jesus tenderizes our once hardened hearts to the needs of His kingdom around us. However, stillness (Psalm 46:10), retreat, meditation, and sabbath are also holy acts too. Without times of refreshing, our kingdom acts become hollow -- without worship -- and our bodies decay in weariness. Prayer and quiet times with God, I believe, break down strongholds in these dark places we cannot seem to make a difference in. We must never "poo poo" someone who says: "I need a break." Yet in that need for breaks, I challenge us all to use those breaks for worship and communion and rest. It is only in direct contact and relationship with God will be healed, renewed and refreshed.

4. We will be broken. We're human. To enter into the fray is to make yourself vulnerable to being physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, relationally, spiritually beaten black and blue. But as God admonished Paul, "my power is made perfect in weakness". If we enter the fray admitting we are weak, and we cannot do any of what we are doing or be anything of who we are without Jesus Christ, that humility will stand us firm. There will be times the beatings are so bad, we feel we cannot go on. We will have to retreat. It is here satan will try and use shame to make our retreat a sinful thing. No! Even Jesus needed to retreat.

5. We aren't saviours. Only Jesus Christ has overturned death, but the Final Day for death's dying has not yet come. Until then, we must weep with those who weep, and mourn with those who mourn. This is not fatalistic. It is real. Our world is broken, just as we are broken. Instead of pushing us back into a stupor of "We can't overcome this", it should really rather spur us on towards those small daily acts of love which change the world. Furthermore, know we must all be as Christ's image bearers together. None of us can do any of this alone. Mavericks and heros make damage. Humble servants together create church prophetic... life. When one of us is down, the others are there to tend and nurture.

6. Turn off the TV. Continual messages and images of hopelessness and despair will rip your heart apart. Do not confuse this with sticking your head in the sand. Be aware of the needs around you and in the world. But you do not need constant RSS feeds of children with swollen bellies burning your retinas to know intelligently what needs to be done. Trust me. When it's too much... turn off the TV.

New Group Site is Up on FB!

As promised, friends, the new Group site is up and running on FB!! It will make communication with members much easier, while still being versatile enough to share with friends, family, and organizations. If you haven't been added already, click here to go to the Group site and request to join!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/244129052300714/

"We Are Troy Davis..." - Signed, The Slave Traders

Troy Davis, b.Oct 09, 1968-d.11:08EST, Sept.21, 2011

"But Canada doesn't have the death penalty. It's not our problem." Political boundaries aside, human life is worth far more than the 49th parallel. What happened moments ago was a sick and twisted example of the sin that permeates both the United States and Canadian systems. Troy Davis was an innocent man, yet innocence nothwithstanding, the choice to take life as a punishment for a crime is idolatrous.

Jonathan Wilson Hartgrove writes:‎ "The problem with the death penalty... was that it forced us as citizens to participate in idolatry. We wanted people to know that Jesus died once and for all so that no one else would have to. More than anything, we didn't want to participate in the idolatry any longer." (The Power to Choose Life, Huffington Post). Even pro-death penalty advocates were crying out for this man's life to be spared.

With the empassioned race to save Davis' life, I've been asked: "What if this was a human trafficker? What if this was the most notorious pimp on the face of the earth who raped, abused, murdered and degraded men, women and children for most of his life? What if it was someone like him on death row, where he deserves to die?"

I won't lie.

I want slave traders and those who commit crime brought to justice.

However, killing is not justice. It is using murder to justify our anger and bloodlust.

Never mind that the death penalty system in America seems to target minorities and people of colour.

Never mind that the death penalty rarely works a crime deterrent.

Never mind that "average Joes and Janes" of the West refuse to acknowledge corruption in our systems, thus letting the oppressed and weak lose it all so the powerful can remain just so.

Perhaps this is cheesy, but have at me... it's appropriate on a night like this. Do you recall a slave trader during the 1800's who chained and shackled beautiful African peoples and transported them as cargo across the ocean to the Americas and Britain? He was white... well-off... and blinded by greed and lies.

But then he saw.

It took a near-death experience on the high seas to see into the eyes of Jesus Christ, but not death itself. And then the amazing grace of our Lord, more potent than any lethal injection, pierced into his soul and confronted him with his crimes.

John Newton.

My human side would have seen that man hanged. The new creation in me sees the cruelty and wickedness in the taking of another life, and the infinite ways our Lord, Saviour, King, and Sovereign God uses to break through the deepest of crimes. His life spared, he went on to sing with another voice -- one that began a long chain of events that still has links being forged today.

So there's my honest truth: the old me would want justice in the form of death for traders. Yet if I were to demand that, I would also have to Biblically choose death for myself. Sin knows no hierachy, even though we create such petty systems. But I, and many others, choose a better Way. We choose a narrow Way. We choose THE Way... and He has died once for all.

Amazing grace
How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost
But now I'm found
Was blind...
... but now I see 

Up Comes the Weekend...

 
On 2011's International Day of Peace, after the 10th anniversary of 9/11, and the 2nd Annual Weekend of Fasting and Prayer to End Human Trafficking (see: https://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=171541606252231), I'm reflecting on the monumental task we are faced with in bringing freedom and shalom to the kingdom.

Some have said it is not our job to change the world, as this is not Christ's vision. The Bible clearly disagrees with this viewpoint; its words embedded with the command, call and desire for both personal and systemic change.

Today as we prepare for this weekend, let us ask for peace within ourselves to not be afraid to see the darkest issues at hand within slavery -- even if those issues point towards us. As we intercede for those in bondage, may we be as ardent in confessing where we have been oppressors, where we continue to be oppressors, and how that oppression in us can end.

Conflict Minerals and Rape Mines

 
This is coltan. If you have a cell phone, laptop, mP3 player or other such gadget, welcome to the slave trade. Our sophisticated electronics cannot run without it (or gold, or wolframite, or... or... or...), and sadly we cannot seem to run without our electronics. Our demand for the newest and fastest toy is no less than gluttonous. Yet we do not see where these minerals come from.

One of the only places in the world that mines coltan is the Democratic Republic of Congo in West Africa. To keep up with demand, contracted companies use slave labour -- adult and child -- to mine the precious minerals needed to make our world go round.

But it gets worse.

Women exploited in the labour trade are often used as sex trade victims in the mines as well. The Guardian explores this reality, and the devastating effects it has on the local women. Often forcibly removed from families and villages, these women are used up and tortured to the point of death. Regional militias make gathering food from gardens and fields dangerous, and rebels are everywhere ready to rape on sight, or kidnap for the mines. It's a booming business. When East Congo is described as "the worst place on earth... for a woman", we need to put down our phones, sit up and take notice.

We can offer all of the reasons we want about how technology has made our lives richer, better, and more efficient. Heck, I couldn't be getting my Masters degree without it! Nor could I be blogging to you to day. Consumerism is a heavy chain that needs to be broken into a multitude of un-fixable pieces, as much as the chains these women bear. If I'm going to take advantage of all these marvelous wonders technology has for me at my fingertips, perhaps I had better start taking responsibility for it too

That includes production.

No phone, no laptop, no online education, or social networking is worth the destruction of men, women and children forced to the brink of extinction through torture and violence.

We do not need our iPhones that badly. If we do, we have more problems that we care to admit to.

Lonely? Just Buy a Wife from The Bear

 
You may have heard by now that Edmonton's 100.3 The Bear radio station as launched is new promo: "Win-A-Wife" contest. Those of you following the UGR probably know my stand already. Honestly, this was just so ludicrous and shallow that I wasn't even going to respond, but then I hesitated... that's just it: it's shallow. It is so entertainment oriented and so driven towards a great big "HAHA!" that men and women around Alberta are telling naysayers to "Shut up already!"

Reasons why this is a fun contest:

1. Russian brides are consenting.

2. It's just for fun.

3. The same thing happens on The Bachelor and Bachelorette TV shows, or Who Wants To Marry A Millionare?

4. If an Italian stallion were being hung out as meat for girls to apply for, there would be no outcry.

Wow...

It makes me sad that people are just that shallow and selfish that they would laugh off a dehumanizing and depraved radio promo involving the purchase of a human life.

1. I have little tolerance for mail-order bride services. Consent from the women, in my practical experience, is driven by desparation to feed family, escape abuse, or save their children. This completely modifies the definition of consent. Men lining up to take their pick is simply boorish. While I was in the Philippines - a hub known for its sex trafficking, including mail-order brides - the dominant mindset was: "You rich people are the ones driving this business. We will not be pimps of our own women."... perhaps we need to take a very blatant hint.

2. Our definition of entertainment is at an all-time low. I've never liked or appreciated dehumanizing shows like the Bachelor, so promos like the Bear's, to me, is not 'just for fun'. Marriage is mocked, intimacy is dragged through the mud, joy and fun (in their truest forms) are mangled by a group of people who think laughing at lonely men and desperate women is hysterical.

3. We let TV and other shows or programs define what's appropriate or not? Seriously? We let The Bachelor become our baseline for what's acceptable? Who else here spots the serious and dangerous flaw in this logic? We finger point at other flesh-selling programming and figure "Well gosh darn it! It's okay for us too!"

4. If the genders were reversed, you bet there would be an outcry -- this voice being one of them. Only we would be shouted down as "kill-joys", "feminints", "uptight-sexually-ignornant throwbacks from the Victorian era".

What's happened is that our culture is so fat with entertainment that when people call it into question, the world simply yells back: "It's just for fun! Quit getting your panties in a knot!"

But that's just the point. Our shallow, insignificant forms of entertainment seem to fill us but are actually causing a good deal of harm. If we're okay with that, then we need to be equally as ready to take the consequences for acting like self-absorbed morons. For me, I'd rather we wake up now and see how much damage we're doing, pull back and perhaps choose a little more wisely the type of things that make us laugh or fulfill us -- before another life of any culture is bought just to make a lonely Albertan boy happy in bed.

Anyone have a good or legitimate reason that this contest ought to continue?

Let's Hear it for the Boys

We don't often hear about boys being involved in the flesh trade. When Hope for the Sold shared this short film made in Atlanta, I thought at first it was about the gay demand targeting young boys. While that is indeed an issue, the film rather focuses on ways the sex trade targets and manipulates boys into being involved on a power level... a financial level... a future level... a pleasure level -- gay or straight.

The hero -- young Jimmy -- has a deathly ill mother and his only means of supporting her is to sell papers for nickels. The shopkeep who hires him seems a rather admirable sort, but still... Jimmy's wage is not enough to make her well. Across the street from the grocery story where Jimmy earns his coin is a Candy Store, where a Wonka-esque Candy Man entertains men, including the admirable shopkeep, to taste his confections.

Eventually, The Candy Man approaches Jimmy and lures him with the promise of money for his mother (yes, the Candy Man somehow knows about Jimmy's private life), of a future, and the dazzling idea that a paper boy possess potential. For boys without any future or potential, those are tempting things indeed.

Jimmy considers the offer. Yet when the Candy Man gets his hands on his friend, Nancy, our hero sees the reality of the Candy Man's 'machine'.

It is a creepy film. The over symbolism cannot be disguised, but it wasn't designed to be. This is a crafted, artistic work to engage the average person about an issue they may not see in front of them. Not only that, it targets an often forgotten demographic when speaking of the sex trade: boys looking for respect, money, and hope for a future. We need speak out not only for our vulnerable girls, but our boys as well. They are not simply porn-beasts-in-waiting, as some would have us believe. There is innocence and nobility here, and we must fight as hard for them as we do for our girls.

Please be aware that the subject matter is mature, and should your children want to watch, do watch with them.

 

The Candy Shop from Whitestone Motion Pictures on Vimeo.