The brief
book of James near the end of the New Testament packs more into its five
chapters about the difficulty in living a Christian life than any other part of
the New Testament except maybe the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. The
author points his finger in your face and demands your walk match your talk.
It’s hard to read James and not feel guilty.
The last two
verses of the first chapter are a good example. “If anyone thinks he is
religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this man’s
religion is vain. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father
is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself
unstained from the world.” (RSV) In reading this I had to ask myself, “Would I
recognize a widow or orphan if I passed one on the street?” The answer of
course is no. They don’t normally wear signs on their chest or have a special
mark on their foreheads.
The same is
true of people who are victims of human trafficking. They don’t wear big name
tags identifying themselves as slaves in a free society. Yet they are all
around us: sex slaves and labor slaves. They work in the agricultural fields,
in our restaurants, as hotel workers, as house servants, as prostitutes, and in
the pornography industry. We can point to the horrid conditions oversees, but
these are slaves working here in America, in our state, in our community, next
door.
No, they
don’t wear signs or walk around shouting, “Unclean! Human slave!” They are just
as real, however, as the widow, the orphan, and the illegal immigrant in our
midst. Often they are the same person.
My home
state of North Carolina is one of the largest offenders in our country. Read
these statistics from Triad Ladder of Hope (triadladderofhope.org):
What
Is Human Trafficking?
Human trafficking is the recruitment, harboring,
obtaining, and transporting of persons by use of force, fraud, or coercion for
the purpose of subjecting them to forced labor or commercial sexual
exploitation. If the victim is less than 18 years of age, no force, fraud or
coercion is required to prove trafficking.
- There are at least 30 million slaves worldwide, more than any other time in history. 80% of these victims are exploited for sex.
- Human trafficking is a multi-billion dollar industry. The second largest crime in the U.S.A.
- Over 50% of child pornography web sites originate from the U.S.A.
- U.S. citizens account for 25% of sex tourists worldwide and 80% in Latin America.
- A victim of trafficking may look like many of the people that you see every day.
- Over 200,000 youth are victims of commercial sexual exploitation within the United States.
- There is a trafficking victim brought into the United States every 10 minutes.
- Human Trafficking is rapidly on the rise in North Carolina due to military presence, Interstate 95 & 85, coastal ports, agricultural industry and a large immigrant population.
James says
to remember the widow and orphan. The Old Testament is filled with reminders we
serve a God who cares for the helpless in society. (Exodus 22:21-24;
Deuteronomy 24:14-22; Jeremiah 22:3; Zechariah 7:8-10) Jesus tells us the
second great commandment is to love our neighbor as ourselves. (Matthew
22:34-40; Luke 10:25-37)
The old song
says the world will know we are Christians by our love. You will know the human
slave by the fear in their eyes, the helplessness in their posture, the silence
as someone else speaks for them, the loss of personal identity, and their lack
of freely chosen friends. These need to see Christian love in action.
What can you
do? Pray for someone to intercede for these victims. Become educated about
human slavery in your area. Discover your slavery footprint
(slaveryfootprint.org) by becoming aware of how your lifestyle is supporting
human slavery elsewhere. Finally, don’t be afraid to help when you become aware
of human slavery in your community. You may be the answer to your own prayers.
