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Christian Engagement in US Anti-trafficking Activism: Precedents and Contexts (Part 2)
This is the second of a two-part post adapted from Letitia M. Campbell and Yvonne C. Zimmerman, “Christian Ethics and Human Trafficking Activism: Progressive Christianity and Social Critique,” Journal of the Society for Christian Ethics 34:1 (2014). While Part 1 examines briefly the history and impact of Christian activism on anti-trafficking initiatives in the United States, this post focuses on feminism, evangelicalism and anti-trafficking.
Yvonne is Associate Professor of Christian Ethics at the Methodist Theological School in Ohio near Columbus, OH and Letitia is a Ph.D. candidate and Woodruff Scholar in religion, ethics and society at Emory University in Atlanta, GA. Since 2012 they have been collaborating on developing analyses of and response to human trafficking from a progressive Christian perspective that includes queer, feminist and antiracist commitments.
Political analysts and commentators frequently express surprise at the alliance between feminists and evangelical Christians in the fight against sex trafficking. However surprising to casual observers, this collaboration follows the pattern set by an earlier alliance between feminists and religious conservatives in the anti-pornography movement of the 1970s and 80s. Historian Carolyn Bronstein describes the origins of the feminist anti-pornography movement in grassroots feminist campaigns against images of sexual violence in the mainstream media. She charts the development of feminist alliances with social conservatives in the late 1970s and 1980s, showing how these diverse coalitions worked across pronounced political differences to advance anti-pornography agendas at local, state and national levels. The alliance between secular feminists and conservative Christians on the issue of pornography came to define the anti-pornography movement, and it has had an enduring impact on both the women’s movement and evangelical Christianity. (more…)
Christian Engagement in US Anti-trafficking Activism: Precedents and Contexts (Part 1)
This is the first of a two-part post adapted from Letitia M. Campbell and Yvonne C. Zimmerman, “Christian Ethics and Human Trafficking Activism: Progressive Christianity and Social Critique,” Journal of the Society for Christian Ethics 34:1 (2014). Part 1 examines briefly the history and impact of Christian activism on anti-trafficking initiatives in the United States. Part 2 will focus on feminism, evangelicalism and anti-trafficking.
Yvonne is Associate Professor of Christian Ethics at the Methodist Theological School in Ohio near Columbus, OH and Letitia is a Ph.D. candidate and Woodruff Scholar in religion, ethics and society at Emory University in Atlanta, GA. Since 2012 they have been collaborating on developing analyses of and response to human trafficking from a progressive Christian perspective that includes queer, feminist and antiracist commitments.
The significant involvement of evangelical Christians in anti-trafficking activism and advocacy has been widely noted by politicians, legislators, scholars, activists, and social service providers — sometimes approvingly, sometimes with concern. The historical roots of this involvement are less widely discussed, but they are nonetheless critical for understanding the ways that Christian theologies have shaped the goals and strategies of the contemporary US movement to end human trafficking.
Visually affected. Campaigning the post-Oscar sexy.
At a human trafficking event at the National University of Singapore in September 2012 journalist Benjamin Skinner spoke about the conditions of quarry workers in India to “put a human face on statistics”. He proceeded to tell the audience, “the vast majority [of slaves] are born into debt bondage” and predicted, “in the US, every half hour one person becomes a slave” (I can find no evidence for either statistic). As I sift through post-Award season media reverie commending the success of 12 Years a Slave and the Director’s subsequent recruitment as Patron of Anti-Slavery International and Ambassador of Polaris Project, I am reminded of a similarly unquestioned use of conflating narratives.
The intent of this post is not to vilify campaigners, or anyone involved in the film. It is intended to highlight another missed opportunity to engage in critical discourse with the public about the complications of human trafficking. There are clear lessons to be learned through international and intercultural dialogue, but that dialogue should be inclusive of conversations about weaknesses and differences, not only success. It should also be contingent on cultural and geographic context, mindful of impacts, especially in countries with emerging policy change. In discussions facilitated by this movie, we hope to see the production of evaluations completed by organizations that highlight the outcomes of such campaigns on public understandings of human trafficking. (more…)
Tech Tonic
Digital activism is permeating the anti-trafficking field. In an effort to raise awareness among a broad audience, social media, online petitions and websites such as the Slavery Map (intended to document global instances of slavery) and Slavery Footprint are being created to educate and involve the public in discussions on human trafficking. The latter website, for instance, is an interactive quiz that evaluates the extent to which the participant may be complicit in human trafficking activities in everyday life. Unfortunately, while the website taps into the oft-ignored issue of supply chains, it is accompanied by a “dramatic commercial depicting modern day slavery” that arguably detracts from the message delivered through the quiz. Cue the sex trafficked women and the cameo by Abraham Lincoln.
In any case, other impressive sounding tools, such as crowdsourcing (asking for ideas or donations from a large group of people using Facebook, for example), digital mapping (compiling data to create a virtual image, like the Slavery Map above), natural language processing (enabling computers to derive information from, for instance, advertisements for sex) and facial recognition have collided with efforts to intercept human trafficking. (more…)
Getting organised: the global challenges of collaboration
Libby Clarke is a UK qualified solicitor who has spent the last five years working on various human rights issues, including the protection of asylum-seekers and refugees in the UK (with Refugee and Migrant Justice), the protection of the rights to equality and non-discrimination internationally (with The Equal Rights Trust) and, most recently, as a Senior Consultant to the Anti-Trafficking Programme at Humanitarian Organization for Migration Economics (HOME) in Singapore. With a long-standing interest in, and commitment to, the improved protection of the rights of disadvantaged migrants, Libby is delighted to contribute to the TTRP blog!
In November 2012, over 1,800 activists from more than 50 countries gathered in Quezon City, Philippines for the fifth World Social Forum on Migrations (WSFM). The objectives of the WSFM were broad, but essentially aimed to bring together migrant organisations and activists in order to build solidarity and strengthen unity in resistance against existing models of migration. As a Senior Consultant to its Anti-Trafficking Programme, I had the opportunity to join a delegation of staff, volunteers and service-users from Humanitarian Organization for Migration Economics (HOME) to participate in the WSFM. This post explores some of the challenges which arose during the event and highlights the similarity to the challenges facing migration-related activism, and specifically the anti-trafficking movement, in Singapore. (more…)
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