Human Trafficking, the Bible, and the Church

An Interdisciplinary Study

Carson

• Publisher: Cascade Books
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781498219303
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

Human trafficking causes untold suffering to millions throughout the world. From a Christian perspective it should go without saying that we ought to work towards the eradication of this evil. The Bible, however, which all Christian traditions recognize as normative for faith and practice, reflects an era in which slavery was regarded as the norm. This raises a question: can it have anything to say to the church about human trafficking, or should it be discarded as irrelevant and anachronistic? Drawing on history and literature to help us bridge the hermeneutical gap between the texts and our own age, this study presents an examination of key biblical material on slavery and prostitution. It suggests that the Bible does have much to say that can inform Christian responses to modern-day slavery in all its forms, including the sex industry into which so many victims of trafficking are sold.

Chapter 1

Introduction

1. Human Trafficking: Formulating a Christian Response

In the 1800s the transatlantic slave trade was abolished, and today, the prohibition of slavery has “attained jus cogens status.”1 In other words, it has been recognized as illegal in international law. Nevertheless, millions of people are enslaved throughout the world. From a Christian perspective it should go without saying that we ought to work towards the eradication of this evil. Surely, the existence of slavery contradicts everything that we understand of God’s love for his people? Certainly, many Christians are involved in tackling the problem. At grass roots level they are engaged in rescue, rehabilitation, and prevention work. At the political level, they are involved in lobbying, campaigning, and policy making.

In order to do this work effectively, however, it is crucial that Christians are able to respond to the issues in an informed manner. Much has been written on the sociological, economic, and political aspects of modern-day slavery as well as the psychology of its effects on victims, and it is right that we wrestle with complex issues such as poverty, criminality, globalization, and migration—all of which have a direct bearing on human trafficking.2 We also need, however, to think through the theological foundations of the enterprise, and since all Christian traditions still consider the Bible to be normative for faith and practice, it is appropriate that we start there.3 Views of the extent to which the biblical literature should inform Christian living vary from tradition to tradition, but all are agreed that as the earliest evidence of God’s self-revelation in Christ, the Bible provides the basis for theological reflection and ethical response to God’s work in his creation. Not only that, it is believed that God continually speaks through Scripture. In the words of John Webster, Scripture’s role is “God’s self-communication, that is the acts of Father, Son, and Spirit which establish and maintain that saving fellowship with humankind in which God makes himself known to us and by us.”4

In the light of this shared understanding of Scripture, the purpose of this book is to ask what the Bible has to say about contemporary human trafficking. In order to answer this, I propose to ask two questions. First, what does the Bible say about slavery in general? How can it inform a Christian response to modern-day trafficking of persons? Second, it is my intention to consider a particular subset of modern-day slavery—sex trafficking. While many slaves find that they are subject to sexual exploitation and abuse, the sheer numbers of women and children who are trafficked into the sex trade to work in prostitution suggests that the current situation is unlike anything that has gone on before. How should Christians respond to this, and how can the Bible help them to do so?

2. Setting the Hermeneutical Scene

Our main method of exploring these questions will be to conduct a survey of major biblical passages dealing with slavery and prostitution. However, it is important that we recognize the hermeneutical prerequisites for such a task. Any interpretation of Scripture for contemporary application requires us to be aware of the current situation with regard to slavery—we need to know the situation into which we are bringing biblically informed perspectives. Our first task will therefore be to give an outline of human trafficking in its various forms throughout the world today. After this, however, we will have to note two very important hermeneutical questions that are often overlooked in discussions of Christian responses to human trafficking—the difference between the situation confronting us today and that reflected in the biblical texts, and the church’s rather checkered history with regard to responses to prostitution.

Contemporary Slavery

It is important to distinguish between trafficking and people smuggling.5 In the latter, individuals pay money to travel illegally from one country to another, usually for the purposes of employment. In other words, they give their consent to the transaction. In human trafficking, no such consent is given, as the definition of the United Nations makes clear. Human trafficking is

the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.6

The numbers of those considered to have been trafficked is generally considered to be enormous, with some estimates at twenty-seven million.7 It is, however, impossible to give exact numbers, simply because of the covert nature of human trafficking. In some cases, the lines between trafficking and smuggling become blurred. For example, someone who starts out knowingly and willingly to go into a line of work can quickly find that his or her situation is impossible and that an apparently safe agreement becomes coercive, fraudulent, or violent. Another problem is that one person’s view of exploitation and coercion may not be the same as another’s. For example, people in abject poverty may be only too grateful to be given the means to survive—even if they are technically enslaved.

There are several different forms of human trafficking today. Chattel slavery, the “traditional” type of slavery in which one person uses another as his or her property, constitutes the smallest grouping and is a feature of warfare.8 One famous account of this is in Mende Nazer’s autobiography in which she tells of being kidnapped as a child from her village and sold into domestic slavery.9 In debt slavery, which is especially prevalent in India, Pakistan, and South America, families find themselves working in domestic work, mines, agriculture, or brick-making to pay fictitious but enforced debts. However, the work they do is never enough, as the “lender” controls the amount to be repaid, and arbitrary interest rates, as well as medical bills and funeral costs, are added to the initial debt.10

In bonded or forced labor, workers find themselves trapped in exploitative and dangerous conditions. Without pension or health insurance, they work in construction sites, mines, and charcoal producing camps, unable to leave. Migrant workers are particularly at risk from criminal organizations. Many are tricked into believing that emigration will lead to an improvement in their circumstances, or those of their families, only to find that they are forced to work for little or no pay. Although bonded and forced labor is illegal in most countries, the perpetrators are seldom caught and punished.

In sex slavery, women and children and some men are forced to work as prostitutes.11 Kidnapping women and girls for sexual use by soldiers is particularly prevalent in unstable societies and in wartime. The most famous example of this is the use of Japanese “comfort women” by the Korean army in the 1930s and 1940s.12 More recently kidnap for the purposes of sexual exploitation has been a feature of Islamicizing jihad in Africa and the Middle East. In East Asia, girls are sold by impoverished rural families to work in city brothels. Throughout south-east Asia there is a huge market in young girls, because virginity commands a larger price. Many girls from Eastern Europe find themselves in a form of debt bondage to gang members who trick them into working as prostitutes. Huge sums of money are to be made by those who provide the women and girls to work in bars, clubs, private apartments, or on urban streets. For, as Siddharth Kara notes, prostitution is relatively cheap to run:

Drug trafficking generates great...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Foreword
• Preface
• Abbreviations
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: The Bible and the Abolitionist Debate
• Chapter 3: The Bible and Slavery
• Chapter 4: The Problem of Prostitution
• Chapter 5: The Bible and Prostitution
• Chapter 6: The Bible and Contemporary Slavery
• Bibliography