Person Or Product—What Do You See? Discerning the Face of Modern Slavery Just Eating: Environmen- Talism at the Table

PRISMJanuary/February 2013

Person or Product—What do you see? Discerning the face of modern slavery Just eating: Environmen- talism at the table

Be an abolitionist Refugees from (it’s easier than you think) polygamy

When pastors abuse

Return to (a vegetarian) eden

prismmagazine.org PRISM Vol. 20, No. 1 Jan/Feb 2013

Editor Kristyn Komarnicki Creative Director Rhian Tomassetti Copy Editor Leslie Hammond Deputy Director Sarah Withrow King Publisher Ronald J. Sider Assistant to Publisher Josh Cradic

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A Publication of Evangelicals for Social Action The Sider Center on Ministry and Public Policy www.EvangelicalsforSocialAction.org Palmer Theological Seminary of Eastern University

3 Talk Back Letters to the Editor nternational Mission Justice 6 I 16

4 Music Notes © Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts 6 On the Front Lines of Abolition 5 Art & Soul Five contemporary slavery fighters discuss their weapons of choice: law enforcement, Art (and the Gospel) for the Masses media, education, aftercare, and prevention.

34 May I have a word? 16 Fierce Compassion Sharing the Shame An American teenager and her mother discover spiritual kinship with an early 19th- century abolitionist, a bond that opens their eyes to the evils of present-day human 36 ministry matters trafficking. Bringing Jesus to the Streets: Sill Davis of Emmaus Ministries 18 refuse to do nothing Being the right kind of nosy neighbor is one of the best ways to fight modern slavery. 38 Celebrate / Say What? 22 Escape from Polygamy 39 leading ladies Women and children fleeing fundamentalist Mormon communities find hope and a safe Undeterred place to land among the loving volunteers of Holding Out HELP.

40 off the shelf 26 Saving Bathsheba Book reviews When spiritual leaders sexually abuse the people under their care, the entire body of Christ suffers. 43 Word, deed & spirit Blue Like Rock 30 The Dangerous Lie That We Tell A look at the choices we face when dealing with the church’s heretical promise of 44 washington watch earthly euphoria. Mary and Money “I, the Lord, have called you to 45 a different shade of green demonstrate my righteousness. Peace Begins on Our Plates 5 I will take you by the hand and guard you, and I will give you to 46 on being the church Wonder-Working Power my people, Israel, as a symbol of my covenant with them. And 48 Ron Sider you will be a light to guide the Should We Call It Sin? nations. You will open the eyes of the blind. You will free the captives from prison, releasing those who sit in dark dungeons.” Isaiah 42:6-7 Freedom for the Captives

We’re told malevolence that inhabits the world so brazenly in that this slave the form of human trafficking and the satanic bul- “earned a lying directed at the most vulnerable members of great deal our global family? of money for Regardless of our motivation—whether it’s her owners annoyance over personal inconvenience, such as Reflections from the Editor from Reflections by fortune- seeing our neighborhoods uglified by prostitution telling,” but and plagued by exploitative labor practices, or righ- apparently teous indignation at the terrible injustice of oppres- she was so sion—do we turn and confront evil when we see it, distracted by or do we tolerate it as the inevitable white noise of D ealing with various forms of slavery around the the presence of the godly group that she got up a fallen world? world today, this issue of PRISM has been created and started following them around and shouting, I recently learned of a young American wom- to mark the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation “These men are servants of the Most High God, an, barely out of her teens, who is awaiting the birth Proclamation, issued by President Lincoln on Janu- who are telling you the way to be saved!”—over of a baby she plans to place for adoption. From ary 1, 1863, in the middle of his nation’s bloody civil and over and over again “for many days.” The spirit what we know about her life, we suspect that she war. Although woefully limited in its reach—it de- in her recognized these men as agents of God and has been sexually trafficked. She doesn’t know who clared freedom for slaves in the “rebellious states” just wouldn’t shut up about it. the baby’s father is, and we know that she has used but ignored slavery in other areas of the coun- We expect the slave’s owners to be annoyed drugs and already served time in prison. It is not try—it was a critical turning point for the nation. By by the disruption of their fortune-telling business, hard to imagine the abuse and brutality to which the war’s end close to 200,000 black soldiers had but the first exasperation reported comes from she has been subjected in her young life. She’s HIV- joined the Union military so that for the first time Paul, who “became so annoyed that he turned positive and has cancer for which she cannot re- both free and newly freed men fought side by side. around and said to the spirit, ‘In the name of Jesus ceive treatment while pregnant. Bringing this baby While an exciting chapter in history, the Christ I command you to come out of her!’ At that to term and making sure the child is placed in a lov- Emancipation Proclamation is a sobering reminder moment the spirit left her.” ing home is likely her last chance to do something of how the fight for justice is always flawed and Why was Paul annoyed? After all, he was good in the world. She is dying, but in dying she never complete. It would be almost another decade getting free—and truthful!—advertising from the offers her child a life. This broken young woman is before black men had the right to vote and almost spirit in this woman. And why wasn’t the exorcism a victim of terrible injustice, yes, but she is also a another century before the Civil Rights Movement motivated by love for the woman rather than irrita- hero. And in my prayers, this week anyway, she is fought for full integration of the descendants of tion at the spirit? Why didn’t Paul take issue with the the face of Jesus for me. slavery in American society. Today, while slavery is woman’s owners, who were taking advantage of the Let’s remember that our time, too, is limited illegal in every country, the global slave trade is big- poor woman and profiting from the evil spirit that in this world. What good thing do we want to leave ger—and the price of a slave smaller—than ever. inhabited her? behind in the world before we go? Accepting that, But as you’ll see in the following pages, awareness It wasn’t until later, when they “realized that like the Emancipation Proclamation, our efforts will of the evils of slavery is also more widespread their hope of making money was gone,” that the be imperfect and incomplete, in what way can we, than ever, and everyday citizens are enlisted in the owners “seized Paul and Silas and dragged them like this young mother, incarnate Christ by making fight in record numbers. In fact, all of us can and into the marketplace to face the authorities.” The sure that someone—even one person—is safe should be active abolitionists—whether through men were flogged, imprisoned, and eventually from a life of abuse and exploitation because we prayer and financial partnership with groups on the freed, but what about the slave woman? We never sacrificed something to make it so? You’ll find no ground, keeping our eyes and ears open to suspi- hear from her again. lack of ideas in these pages. cious activity in our own neighborhoods, or training Like I said, it’s a crazy story. But it makes me for more direct engagement in prevention, law en- think. As we Christ-followers walk through the world, forcement, or aftercare. are we easily recognizable as K ristyn Komarnicki is in awe of how God uses pain There’s a crazy story about a slave in Acts 16. bearers of light? Is anyone an- to teach us about his passionate love for us. She’d Paul and Silas and a bunch of their pals were go- nouncing, “There go servants prefer that he taught us painlessly, but she’s smart ing to pray in the Roman colony of Philippi, a place of the Most High who know where slavery was a legal and accepted feature of the secret of salvation!” as we enough to know that she’s not smart enough to the culture, when they “were met by a female slave pass? Do we get annoyed at the come up with a better plan than God’s (although who had a spirit by which she predicted the future.” evil that dogs our steps, at the that doesn’t stop her from trying).

2 PRISMmagazine.org @ Letters

I appreciated the recent issue on homosexual- W e write on behalf of Safety Net, a national It’s taken a couple of Talk Back ity. I expect that the articulation of ESA’s posi- coalition of LGBT+ and allied students and weeks to really digest all tion and the proposal of how to deal with it will alumni of Christian colleges, in response to that your “Beyond Labels” have far-reaching consequences in the wider your issue on identity and sexual orientation. issue had to offer, and I’m Christian community. Thank you. We’re grateful for your willingness to model a as full of gratitude to you dialogue where people can be understood as now as I was when I first —Curtis W. Book people and not as opponents in an abstract read it. It took enormous Peace and Justice Coordinator debate. courage for PRISM to delve MCC East Coast Relief Despite your best intentions, however, into the subject of sexual Philadelphia, Pa. we found this issue problematic. Unfortunately, minorities in the church, PRISM/ESA does not seem to be the venue for particularly given that so real dialogue. With the exception of Justin Lee, many professed followers T he “Beyond Labels” issue was fantastic (and we did not feel our voices as LGBT+ persons, of Jesus Christ refuse to not just because my book was favorably re- and particularly as LGBT+ Christians, were represented. Serious believe that there are any true gay Christians in the viewed in it)! It’s one thing to call for mutual dialogue is not unidirectional, and it’s disappointing that PRISM body of Christ. While I would have liked to have seen understanding and reconciliation, and quite an- refused to include those who believe that biblical Christianity can the perspective of a faithfully Christian same-sex other to do it. PRISM’s retreat-style dialogue include sexual intimacy for non-heterosexuals. couple, I commend you for the irenic and informative inspires me to design new forms of dialogue in We found Ron Sider’s gay marriage article a disturbing work tone of the issue. I was particularly struck by the my college classes, asking questions that can of poor scholarship (especially since the American Academy of idea of revival coming to the Lord’s church through help students move beyond stance-taking to Pediatrics disagrees with his beliefs). That this argumentative es- those in it who are seen as, and feel themselves to deep, authentic, embodied engagement with say was left unanswered silenced dialogue around the topic. For be, sexual minorities—lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, people different from themselves. Homosexu- this reason, we’re grateful OneEastern secured a response from and the transgendered. I know several LGBT Chris- ality is not, first and foremost, an “issue” to Dr. Turner to Sider’s article at OneEastern.com). Her response tians who love the Lord with all of their hearts. If be settled or a “problem” to be solved. This highlights our concerns with Sider’s article and cites studies and their intelligence and devotion are a sign of where PRISM issue highlights how sexuality is part of evidence unlike Sider’s claims. the body of Christ is headed, we all have reason to everyone’s life, a wonderful and wonderfully be thankful. challenging dimension of our created, embod- BJUnity (Greenville, S.C.) Your article on the deceptions and fruitless- ied existence. We all benefit from listening, ar- Cedarville Out (Cedarville, Ohio) ness of “ex-gay” ministries was particularly helpful. ticulating, wondering, and journeying together O neEastern (St. Davids, Pa.) I’m quite certain, having first helped with one such toward better understanding of discipleship O neGeorgeFox (Newberg, Ore.) ministry 28 years ago, that the leaders probably and holiness. Kudos to PRISM for taking lead- O neWestmont ( Westmont, Calif.) have good intentions. Unfortunately, their own in- ership! OneWheaton (Wheaton, Ill.) ternal struggles and attempts to compensate for —Jenell Paris them by inviting others to share a “freedom” they Professor of anthropology, Messiah College While I am aware that some in the gay community take excep- themselves have not realized is beyond unwise. It’s Mechanicsburg, Pa. tion to Ron Sider’s article arguing against gay marriage, I have a harmful and, I think, a blot on our faith. It’s time slightly different take on it. If the focus of this issue of PRISM is to seriously wrestle with whether or not the apostle learning to accept differing viewpoints, then finding differing view- Paul was writing in the New Testament about what points represented shouldn’t really be that big a deal. What, we we know now to be true of same-sex relationships, can think them but we can’t say them? given that in his day there was no demographic, nor If we as gays become vocal about what known at-birth orientation, that describes what we c Join the Conversation should not be said, we simply reverse now call a “gay man” or a “lesbian.” @ Email the editor at [email protected] heads and tails on the oppression coin, Even when we can’t agree, or can’t come to f Like us on facebook.com/PRISMmagazine rather than eliminating the coin alto- our own satisfactory biblical conclusion, it’s incum- t Follow us on Twitter @PRISMMag1 gether. For that reason I’m glad there bent upon us to go with what we do know, which is was something in PRISM as articulate our duty in Christ to love those around us and trust e Sign up for ePistle, ESA’s free weekly and forceful as Ron’s article. As Chris- that the Holy Spirit of Christ will guide them into what e-news packed with provacative essays and tians we need to be thoughtful, ana- they need to know just as we who don’t experience practical ideas. lytical, and understanding of positions same-sex attraction expect. Thank you for reinforc- EvangelicalsforSocialAction.org/ePistle. that are different from our own, even ing that the Spirit is more than able and willing to when we disagree. guide all of us into conformation to the character —James Cates of Christ—gay, transgendered, lesbian, or straight. F ort Wayne, Ind. c —Keely Emerine-Mix Moscow, Idaho

3 music—how did that become a bad word?—inviting people This is socialist into an experience of the col- music—how did that lective even as Wimbish sings intimate closet prayers. become a bad word?— His lyrics fixate on hu- inviting people into man depravity and the gift of

Music Notes grace. “Dirt,” which, judging an experience of the from the number of YouTube collective even as hits, appears to be the lead single off the band’s last self- Wimbish sings inti- titled EP, is a blacklist of bibli- mate closet prayers. cal sinners—Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Solomon, David, Peter, Samson, Saul—before turning from a minor to a major key with the stories of grace that redeemed these anti-heroes. “All that I can see is that You can’t see the dirt in me,” Wimbish sings. And those of us in the great nebulous audience of the digital music era—we can’t see the dirt either. What we can see is musical genius, a rare gift, the image of the Creator in his creature. For all the socialism of “The Collective”—this is what people kept erroneously calling them at Wild Goose, and it fits my point better here—it all starts with Wimbish. He doesn’t just strum that mandolin or banjo or guitar and tell everyone to follow him. He played nearly every instrument on the recordings Greater Than the Sum of and scored them all so his friends could read and play their parts. On one song—just one song! —someone else recorded Its Parts the drums, and another person the piano. So Wimbish imag- Finished with their soundcheck under a big, white revival tent at the Wild Goose Festival ined, practiced, and recorded dozens upon dozens of unique last summer, the musicians left the stage and distributed themselves at tables amongst little melodies to serve the whole. the 100 or so people who had come to see them. Like most of those people, I had never How does one person have time to develop proficiency heard David Wimbish and The Collection until that moment. But for me, even with big- on all those instruments? He wants the music to be about the name Christian artists like Gungor and David Crowder and one of my all-time favorites, collective, but he has to lead. To me, that says something pro- Over the Rhine, on the main stage, this set turned out to be the highlight of the entire foundly theological: We may feel called to diminish ourselves, festival. to reflect God’s light back to God and to others, but we can’t The Collection’s guitarist and flutist Tom Troyer came and sat right next to my two deny our gifts; those, too, are mirrors to God, and their passive daughters and me. We’d met at the festival’s open mic the day before, so I figured he was praise may be even more important than our active attempts just coming to say hello and wait for the powers-that-be to call the band to come play. But at piety. then, a few tables away, Wimbish started feverishly strumming his mandolin, and the 14 “I had thought that I could change the whole world with members of The Collection rose from their seats. Troyer gave a couple heralding hits with my songs, but I can’t even make my mind up on who you are,” some drumsticks on our wooden table, and off he went to join his mates on stage. Such Wimbish sings in “Seeds,” halfway through the album. But then displays can sometimes come off a bit self-aggrandizing, but when there are 14 of them, the EP concludes, at the very end of the very last song, “I’ll it’s more like songs emerging from the people. leave the [words] that sound like love ‘cause they must have And that’s the beautiful paradox of The Collection. See, you’ve got these 14 people come from heaven above.” And the whole band, with a big, joy- playing an even greater number of different instruments: keyboards, bowed strings, ous gang vocal undergirded by one of the biggest, most joyous rhythm strings, electric bass, glockenspiel, woodwind, brass, accordion, drum kit, and instrumental peaks of the whole album, just keeps repeating assorted percussion, plus 14 voices composing a ragtag choir. All these different sounds those words: “They must have come from heaven above! Yeah, provide a palate for soul-stirring swells, explosive crescendos, and toe-tapping beats. By they must have come from heaven above! Yeah, they must have the end of the fourth song, my little girl and I just had to get up and start “Dancin’ in the come from heaven above …” Mud,” as the song title demanded. We joined two dozen barefoot 20-somethings who Yeah, that sounds about right. apparently felt the same way. Later in the set, Wimbish sang, “If you could just see a little mustard seed in me, Jesse James DeConto is a freelance writer would you make it grow into your kingdom?” And when the band built underneath his based in Durham, N.C. He also writes, Avett-Brothers-like melody a simple guitar strum joined by banjo, accordion, gentle violin, sings, and performs indie pop with his and then a machine-gun snare rolling into some fat, rocking-chair bass plucks on the band, The Pinkerton Raid. Find out more low end, it was like watching the kingdom growing right before our eyes. This is socialist at JesseJamesDeConto.com.

4 PRISMmagazine.org A rt (and the Gospel) for the Masses Art & Soul

In the book A rt and Soul: Signposts for Christians like organic and mineral pigments dissolved in modern, despite the fact that most of Watanabe’s in the Arts, authors Hilary Brand and Adrienne soybean milk, to create his color washes and printed prints were made in the ’70s and ’80s. Chaplin draw a parallel between modern-day art on handmade papers. The apparent simplicity of Watanabe’s prints, museums and religious shrines: “Go inside any Despite living in a nation where Christians however, should not be mistaken for a lack of skill gallery and the atmosphere is hushed and reverent. constitute less than 3 percent of the population, or forethought. Watanabe’s attitude towards his art If you dare to touch any exhibit, so swift are the the young Watanabe was invited to church by was characteristically mingei in that it was meant attendants’ reprimands that you could almost a neighbor. Shortly after overcoming a severe to be “by the people, for the people,” and his imagine a punishment of instant death... The irony, case of tuberculosis, Watanabe accepted Christ highly accessible style reflects this. Though it may of course, is that as art museums become more like and was baptized at age 17. Throughout his life, hang alongside that of artists like Ad Reinhardt or churches, so churches in their turn become more Watanabe’s faith heavily influenced—one might Ellsworth Kelly, Watanabe’s work refuses to shroud like museums.” In a world in which many look to art even say dominated—his art. Watanabe reportedly itself in the obscurity that makes so much modern galleries as strongholds of truth and transcendence, prepared himself to create his prints, each of which art difficult for the average viewer to appreciate. while thinking of churches as receptacles for stale portrays a scene from the Bible, by meditating on Watanabe intentionally sought to create pieces that and outdated ideas, it’s rare to find a contemporary the texts from which he drew his images. would portray gospel stories in a way the viewer artist whose work is equally at home in both settings. Watanabe’s deep personal devotion in would find intimately relatable. He once stated that Sadao Watanabe, however, is just such an combination with the distinctive mingei influence he most liked to see his prints hanging “where people ordinarily gather, because Jesus T he Woman of Canaan, 1962 brought the gospel for the people.” Watanabe liked For Watanabe, the application of this to see his prints philosophy meant creating art that was hanging “where deeply rooted in his own culture, even if his culture was one that had historically rejected people ordi- and even persecuted Christians. This meant narily gather, art that, though celebrated internationally, because Jesus was originally created by a Japanese man for a Japanese audience. It has been noted brought the that Watanabe’s biblical characters often gospel for the appear in a Japanese context: Many appear people.” to be dressed in traditional Japanese garb like kimonos; his various portrayals of the artist. This Japanese printmaker’s Last Supper include food and table settings work, which portrays exclusively biblical that resemble a typical Japanese celebration scenes, has been exhibited everywhere meal (complete with what appears to be from San Francisco’s Episcopal Grace sushi and sake). Cathedral to New York’s prestigious Whether one is Japanese or not, Museum of Modern Art—not to however, Watanabe’s articulation of the Bible mention the White House, the Vatican through his own cultural lens communicates Museum, the National Museum of a message worth hearing for any Christian: Modern Art in Tokyo, and the Art Institute of of his teachers helped him to produce images that The gospel is equally relevant to and at home Chicago, among others. are refreshingly un-gimmicky. In a Christian visual in all cultures. The God who became human in a Born in Tokyo in 1913, Watanabe dropped landscape so often littered with sentimentality specific Middle Eastern nation—speaking a specific out of school at an early age to become a dyer’s and kitsch, the humble straightforwardness language and living by specific local customs—is apprentice. At age 24, he encountered the work of Watanabe’s simplified figures, with their just as willing to enter into the lives of his followers of master textile designer Keisuke Serizawa at an segmented bodies and limited color palette, today, regardless of whether the wine they drink in exhibit and was inspired by it. Watanabe eventually provide a welcome break for the eye. Watanabe’s communion is fermented from rice or grapes. studied under Serizawa, who taught him traditional prints are characterized by graphic black outlines Japanese techniques like katazome (fabric dying) imposed onto thick momigami (kneaded) or washi and kappazuri (block printing). As a result of the (handmade) paper. The richly textured wood-pulp Whitney Bauck is a influence of Serizawa and other mentors, Watanabe papers provide a striking contrast to the flat, stylized photographer and art became a part of the Japanese folk art movement, figures printed on them in black and highlighted student at Wheaton or mingei. In keeping with the philosophy behind the with three or four colors at most. This combination College in Wheaton, Ill. mingei movement, Watanabe used natural materials, produces an effect that feels more ancient than

5 Glen Miles of Love146

On the FRont Lines of Abolition

IJM’s Saju Mathew Gaz Kishere of Love146

On the FRont Lines of Abolition

Documentarist Benjamin Nolot

7 Modern abolitionists discuss their strategies and experiences in the fight against by Curt Devine global slavery

fter hearing about the horrors of slavery, William Wilberforce How would you compare modern slavery with the kind we stood before Parliament and shouted, “Stop!”, and in 1807 the read about in history books? British slave trade was abolished. Two centuries later, human Mathew: For the people that are being victimized by it, it’s real- trafficking and sex slavery still plague more than 27 million men, ly no different. It’s essentially taking away someone’s freedom. women, and children in 151 countries, and modern abolitionists In the past, slavery was something that was out in the open Acontinue to stand up against this injustice. We talked with five experts about because it was culturally acceptable. Today it’s happening, but their experiences and the different strategies they use—intervention, pre- it’s not talked about and people look the other way. The practi- vention, and media—to combat slavery on the front lines. cal reality is, it’s exactly the same thing—it’s just one person owning another person. Saju Mathew could not ignore the burden he felt for victims of human trafficking. After working as a litigation lawyer in New Jersey for 14 IJM fights slavery by enforcing human rights through legis- years, he joined International Justice Mission (IJM) in 2008, where he lation. Can you tell us about this process? led a flagship program in Chenniai, India, that partnered with police Mathew: IJM’s key approach is to make sure that the laws that and government to intervene on behalf of those who are being victim- are already on the books in developing countries are properly ized. In 2011 he returned to the US to become director of operations enforced. The challenge we see is that countries over time have for all of IJM’s South Asia offices as they attempt to change local justice taken the effort to put these laws in place, but unfortunately the systems to protect the poor from the evils of slavery and trafficking. mechanisms they have don’t deliver what they are designed to do. We respect the laws of the country, but we are just coming “When I see more people getting involved and new legislation, I have hope for the future.”

When did you first see slavery face to face? alongside the government as a resource to assure that these Mathew: I saw it right when I got to South Asia. I met an individual named laws would be implemented more effectively to prevent slavery, Chinapian, and I just saw the fear and hesitation he had, the sense that he trafficking, and all human rights violations. had no rights. His face was covered by a beard, his clothes were tattered, and you could see in his eyes that he hadn’t slept in days. He looked so hag- Can you walk me through the steps of a rescue operation? gard. He and his wife and children were forced to work and live in a rice mill. Mathew: First, we gather the evidence. We want to make sure After we had done the rescue process, the government tried to get there is good documentation [of the crime] before the govern- some background information from him. An official turned to him and said, ment officials come, so that they can act on it. IJM’s ultimate “Tell me how old you are.” He had absolutely no idea. He looked to be about goal is to make sure that the law and the public justice system 30, but he had no concept of numbers or time. The official got frustrated, that are in place in countries function properly. We never go insisting that he give an age, so he blurted out, “I’m 10 years old, sir,” as in without the proper government backing, because we want his teenage daughter stood next to him. You could tell that he had no tools to make sure that the victims are protected. When the police to successfully navigate through the world. I realized then how easily a raid a brothel on a rescue operation, we go along with them person like that can be victimized. as a resource to offer expertise. Acting quickly and efficiently 8 PRISMmagazine.org is very critical. The next thing is to get the victim out of the dangerous circumstance and into a safer location, typically a police station or an official’s office. Often there is a fear mentality in the minds of these victims, so our teams of social workers make them feel supported and listen to their stories. We want to give them confidence to share how they have been victimized, and that is essential for police to have the right evidence to convict the perpetrators.

What advice would you give to a young person who wants to take part in the anti-slavery movement but doesn’t know the next step? Mathew: If the desire is there to want to engage this issue, the first step is to get educated about various types of slavery and trafficking. Once you Mathew (on right) and another IJM staff member visit with are knowledgeable on the issue, you have to spread the news. Everyone has children and families recently released from slavery. IJM partners a network of influence they are a part of, whether it’s a school, church, or with social service organizations to ensure all clients receive comprehensive aftercare. © International Justice Mission dorm. Then, we need advocates working with local government represen- tatives to be voices for new laws and proper measures. When I see more people getting involved and new legislation, I have hope for the future.

Glenn Miles and Gaz Kishere of Love146 strive to stop child sex slavery before it starts. Working as the organization’s director of Asia preven- Glen Miles (back row on right) and Love 146 colleague Jim tion and European operations director, respectively, they use uncon- Ehrman pose alongside army trainers and staff from Cambodian Hope with an anti-trafficking training poster. ventional strategies to prevent injustice in dozens of countries.

From rescue missions to awareness campaigns, there are many ways to fight child slavery. Why did you choose to work through prevention? Miles: There is a story about babies in a river, and it’s quite a good illustra- tion for prevention. There are some people having a picnic, and they notice a baby floating in the river next to them. Somebody jumps in the river to rescue the baby, and then they notice more babies floating, so more people jump in to save them. Then one guy decides to run upstream, and the others ask, “Why aren’t you jumping in to save them?” And he says, “I’m going to stop the guy who’s throwing them in.” Unless we go to the source of the problem, we’ll never put a stop to it. We try to reduce the vulnerability of victims. A range of different things—like poverty, prejudice, and stigma— make children vulnerable to sex trafficking. Our projects focus on educating children and helping them find sustainable work so that they don’t have to sell their children.

Can you share an example of how this works in a country? Kishere: We identified Maldova as both a supply country and a transit country. When the Iron Curtain came down, their economy collapsed and the whole country became a fishing ground for human traffickers. We did some research and found that girls ages 13 to 17 were least aware of being trafficked. As a result of that research, we released E scape Magazine, a 40-page magazine that shows the dangers and strategies of traffickers in a way this age group would connect with. We received permission from top education officials to distribute them in 80 schools plus other communities. We had a letter come back from a 15-year-old girl from one of those schools. She was in a difficult situation where her father, an alcoholic, was trying to get her to travel abroad with her uncle. She was supposed to work and send money back to the family, but because of the magazine she rec- Immediately following a rescue operation with local authorities, Saju Mathew, IJM’s director of operations ognized the significant indicators that she would be trafficked. She resisted for South Asia, and other IJM staff members coor- and stayed safe. This is the kind of prevention we do with education. dinate transportation for slaves freed from forced labor. © International Justice Mission Continued on page 12

9 Slavery: 2011 How far we've come...

13 Amendment cott Robertson S 13th Amendment to the US Constitution making slavery (and indentured servitude) illegal Transparency in

cbcpindia.com Supply chains act In 2010, the California state legislature $ 40,000 Child-bonded labor enacts the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act, requiring retail sell- Average price 1865 Imported goods made by child- of a slave in ers and manufacturers over a certain bonded labors are banned by size to publicly disclose what efforts, if 1809 was the United States $40,000 any, they are taking to eliminate forced (adjusted to 1809 labor and human trafficking from their today’s value) 1997 supply chains. 2009 Declaration of 1948 2000 human rights The Victims of “No one shall be held in Trafficking and Violence slavery or servitude; slavery Protection Act and the slave trade shall be is enacted to “provide $ 90 prohibited in all their forms.” the tools to combat Average December 10, 1948: United Nations trafficking in persons price of General Assembly adopts the both worldwide and a slave in Universal Declaration domestically...” 2009 was of Human Rights. $90.

...or have we?

10 PRISMmagazine.org 11 Glen Miles, right, speaks with Love146 colleague Jim Ehrman and Imagine Goods' cofounder Aiyana Ehrman (ImagineGoods.org) in Soi Nana in Bangkok “The average profit return on a slave is about $25,000...[PROFITS ARE] LARGER THAN THEY HAVE EVER BEEN.”

Miles: In Cambodia we are working with the local army. We are challenging that is just part of the job. them to protect children from being trafficked across border areas, because they are key people who can prevent this from happening. Kishere: This is probably not a funny joke, but I’ll tell it anyway: If you aren’t getting death threats, then you probably aren’t having the impact on traf- Why is sex slavery able to persist so widely in the developing world? ficking you think you are. Miles: You have to remember slavery isn’t just happening in the developing world—it’s in Europe and the US. The average profit return on a slave is Benjamin Nolot knew little about slavery when a woman approached about $25,000. Because of this, along with the fact that the legal risk of him and said, “God told me to give you $10,000 to start an orga- human trafficking is very low, this problem is widely perpetuated. The profits nization to fight human trafficking.” Since that time, he founded the now are larger than they have ever been. organization Exodus Cry and produced a documentary called Nefari- ous: Merchant of Souls. The film, part of a three-part series, brings How do you prevent a girl who has escaped sex slavery from getting awareness to the reality of sex slavery and calls the world to action. sucked back into the industry? Miles: This is a real challenge. In Cambodia there are many shelters where Can you talk to me about the power of media and why you chose to trafficking victims can get immediate care, but in the long term, unless you fight slavery with a documentary? have a reintegration plan, most will go back where they came from. They Nolot: It was a value we bought into early on as we started to combat can’t stay in a shelter forever. We provide them with soft skills, which are the this issue. We did a video in my friend’s basement that instantly got global things that help them function in society, and hard skills, which are the tools exposure, so we saw the impact media can have in conveying a message. they need for jobs. But most of the healing they need really only comes Our perspective is that multimedia is the premier communication platform through relationships, where people walk the journey of restoration with of the 21st century. We wanted to harness that power because there is them. such a global need to draw attention to human trafficking. I’m often asked the question, “Are you a filmmaker or a preacher?” And my answer is yes. How common are threats from traffickers against Love146 and other anti-slavery organizations? You filmed a lot of gripping scenes in this production. Was there a time Miles: I just had a conversation with someone who was horrifically tortured you felt particularly challenged and questioned if you should proceed? while he was involved in an intervention to rescue some victims. Whenever Nolot: In the course of filming, we followed the tragedy of slavery down this you are cutting off someone’s income, people are going to be upset. That’s dark, abysmal bunny trail. We found that there is no explanation for these the nature of the business. We are taking their product and affecting their abuses other than pure evil. So there were certain interviews that were so profit margin. We aren’t at high risk, but that can quickly change. I’ve been vile I didn’t want to include them in the film. To listen to traffickers describe in situations in the past where I’ve been threatened. It’s one of those things the way they transported and abused girls, or to sit with a brothel owner B ecome an Abolitionist

) Join or create a Love146 task force. Learn more at Love146.org/taskforces. ) Adopt a nation through Exodus Cry. Go to ExodusCry.com/prayer/adopt-a-nation. ) Become an IJM freedom partner. Learn more at IJM.org/FreedomPartner. ) Enlist your church or business in Children’s HopeChest’s “community-to-community” model of sponsorship and development. (HopeChest.org/engage) ) Host a screening of Nefarious (NefariousDocumentary.com).

12 PRISMmagazine.org Nolot, right, praying with a former trafficker they are uniquely sexual individuals, but nothing could be further from the in Israel truth. Ninety-six percent of women working in the sex industry have been sexually abused as children. It’s a vast majority. Also, the average age of girls entering prostitution is 13 years old. Those two factors alone are very alarming. If sexual abuse is almost universal among girls in the sex industry and they are entering the industry underage, can you really qualify the choice? At the age of 13, does a girl with sexual abuse in her history really make the decision? Victor Hugo said it best, ”We say that slavery has ended, but this is not true. Slavery still exists, but it applies only to women, and its name is prostitution.”

How do you hope the film will affect society? Nolot: The power of Nefarious is that we didn’t set out to make a film about God theologically redeeming people. We just encountered this in the and listen to him explain how he believes he is helping young women, or to talk with children who have been sold by their parents—it’s heart wrenching. This entire production was done from a deep desperation of wanting to see change, not to just make a cool media project.

There is a scene in the film where you approach a Western man trying to purchase a Cambodian child. What were you feeling at the moment? Nolot: A friend told me the day before that there was a chance we could run into a pedophile or a pimp in the village we were going to. So me chas- ing this guy through the streets, it was such a spontaneous reaction. I just wanted to shake him over and over again until that feeling wrecked him. Before we parted ways, I yelled in his face, “Don’t ever come back here.” It’s such a strange cocktail of emotions. Part of me wanted to crush this guy, and another part of me felt compassion for his brokenness and sickness. It Preparing to film in Amsterdam really made me question what kind of society we live in that produces men who want to fly across the world to violate children. process. We met this girl who was on her deathbed. Her body was filled with Many people view prostitution, sex trafficking, and slavery as three absinthe, and her liver was failing, but Jesus encountered her in a dream. different crimes. Would you say they are one and the same? Now she believes she is the most beautiful girl in the world and is free from Nolot: In my mind they all involve an exploitation of vulnerability. If a child all exploitation. Only Jesus can do that. So part of our purpose in doing the works on a fishing boat for 20 hours a day, seven days a week, getting paid documentary was to bring healing to victims of all sexual abuse. We made a pittance, it is no less slavery just because he had a choice. It’s exploita- this film for them, to show them that deliverance is possible. tion, and the same goes for prostitution. We live in this old-boys-club society Also we hope that the documentary will change laws, laws that un- that wants to believe that prostitutes have chosen the sex industry because derstand the victimization of sex workers and put a stop to it. We want to strengthen the existing abolition movement, while catalyzing a grassroots group of people who haven’t begun to fight. Lastly we hope to raise up peo- "to sit with a brothel owner ple committed to giving and praying for the end of all human exploitation.

and listen to him explain Tom Davis worked as a well-paid youth pastor in a comfortable church, but then everything changed. He led a short-term missions trip to a how he believes he is helping Russian orphanage and learned the shocking truth about child poverty, neglect, and human trafficking. Now, he runs the innovative orphan young women, or to talk ministry Children’s HopeChest as CEO and attacks human trafficking with children who have been on multiple levels. How easy is it to purchase a child in the developing world? sold by their parents—it’s Davis: It depends on the country, but it’s pretty easy. We’ve gone under- cover in places like Moldova and Russia to find underage girls for sale. heart wrenching." At hotels, normally the concierge or the front-desk worker is in on it. The taxi drivers are in on it. They take you to the place, and they get a cut. It’s

13 Tom Davis connects with hundreds of "It’s evil, it’s North American churches each year, inviting them to partner with orphans dangerous, it’s around the world. everywhere. But the success stories keep me going."

unbelievable how these networks have infiltrated every aspect of life. You go to main cities, you tell them what you want, and they’ll take you where to orphanages two or three times a year, but through community web pages you can get it. everyone receives updates about their children on a regular basis. In a Russian hotel where we were staying, a night guard told us the To prevent human trafficking, we provide homes and ministry centers elevators were broken and that we would have to wait for them to be fixed. as a place for girls to go. In Russia for example, kids come out of orphan- He said, “I know some young girls who would like to meet you.” He took ages at age 15 or 16, and 60 percent of the girls are trafficked. But in the us into a bar area, and there they were. The elevators had nothing wrong regions where we work, that number is less than a quarter of a percent. with them, but he deceived us. He wanted to divert our attention to these Why? Because we get to know all the kids, provide housing, tell them the underage girls, who were clearly trafficked. This kind of thing happens all dangers, and get them into universities. Much of this happens through the the time. It’s a network. community sponsorships.

Children’s HopeChest takes a unique approach to fighting human traf- Do you feel in over your head trying to confront this issue? ficking by connecting churches and businesses in America with safe Davis: Absolutely. Because it’s evil, it’s dangerous, it’s everywhere. But the houses abroad. Can you talk to me about this process? success stories keep me going. It’s the 11-year-old girl who we recently Davis: It’s as close as you can come to adopting without adopting. We are rescued out of a brothel in India. That’s why we exist. If we keep a handful trying to do a community-to-community model, meaning we help churches, of kids out of trafficking every year, then it’s worth it. businesses, and online-blogging communities to sponsor families and orphanages overseas. This provides a way for people who are like-hearted to How has your faith influenced your role in the anti-slavery movement? do more than just write a letter to a kid. We try to use all methods of media Davis: My faith tells me that people have value, that we are all created in the to connect people with orphaned children. We’ll take communities of people image of God. That includes you, me, and the little girl who is trafficked and forced to serve 20 people a day. She has value and worth, and God created her for something much better. Additionally my faith tells me that as Christ-followers, we are called to be the hope of the world. God has given us a mandate to go into places of dark injustice and overturn the cycle of events that occur. God isn’t left wondering why there are so many justice issues in the world that aren’t being taken care of. He has given the ideas and strategies into the hearts of his people on how to bring justice, but we must step out in faith. When we do that, the wrongs can be made right.

Curt Devine writes about faith and social justice issues to give a voice to the voiceless. He currently resides in Washington, DC, where he is pursuing a master's in international media. Find more of his stories at CurtDevine.com.

Children's HopeChest President Tom Davis shares a laugh with children in Swaziland, where the organization helps US churches partner with local CarePoints to lessen children's vulnerability to trafficking by providing food, education, healthcare, and Christian discipleship .

14 PRISMmagazine.org 15 Fierce Compassion How a history lesson about abolition became a life-changing book by Jo Kadlecek

1895 a young Scottish American woman moved to San Fran- co-authored by mother-daughter writing team Kristin and Kathryn Wong, is a cisco’s Chinatown to care for orphans and girls rescued from compelling account of an otherwise forgotten Christian advocate who spent Inslavery. She planned to stay a year, teaching sewing and help- her life freeing some 3,000 Chinese girls and women brought to the US as ing as she could in the house set up by missionaries. Instead, she spent her sex slaves. In an age when human trafficking has warranted international life there, taking charge of the mission, leading dramatic midnight rescues outrage from human rights activists and Christian ministers alike, Cameron’s in brothels, and speaking throughout the country on behalf of those sold story links us to the horrific issues of slavery and the inspiring efforts of into slavery and prostitution. She—along with the two dozen or so rescued past abolitionists. Chinese girls she lived with—even survived the great California earthquake It is clear upon meeting 18-year-old Kathryn Wong that Donaldina of 1906. Cameron’s life has inspired much more in this young woman than the writing In 2012 a young Chinese American woman walked down the aisle of of a book. In the young Wong, Cameron has found a kindred spirit across her high school auditorium in Ann Arbor, Mich., and graduated with honors. the decades. Wong is as confident speaking to a group of women twice her A few days later, thanks in part to an internet fundraiser, she flew to San age about slavery in the US as Cameron must have been. And to talk with Francisco’s Chinatown and celebrated both her graduation and the launch her about her life’s goals, about the gap year she is taking before college of her first book, the story of a young Scottish American woman who cared to serve in Haiti and in France, is to get a sense of a vision and a depth for Chinese girls in the early 1900s. Three months later, she moved to Haiti that reflects the “fierce compassion” of women long committed to Christ’s for half a year to care for children in an orphanage, many of whom had mission of setting captives free. been affected by the great earthquake of 2010. Women like her mom. Kathryn, the oldest of four children, started writ- Fierce Compassion: A Biography of Abolitionist Donaldina Cameron, ing Cameron’s story with her mother after her high school history teacher

16 PRISMmagazine.org K athryn Wong snuggles with child in a Haitian orphanage (opposite) and rejoices with her mother, suggested they take her junior year history Kristin, at the publication of their late,” Cameron and her new book. project “a step further.” Kristin had written workers found an “envi- a book once before, a memoir about adop- ronment that increased tion called C arried Safely Home. Shortly af- the demand for women ter their marriage, inspired by reading Ron and encouraged illegal, Sider’s Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, brutal slave traffic.” The she and her husband, Phil, said that they climate, rife with ten- recognized “adoption as one way to live out sion, created constant God’s mandate to care for the widow and animosity, danger, and orphan.” Twenty-three years later, they have disdain. two daughters (Kathryn and Clara) by birth “Throughout much of the 1900s, and two sons (Ben and Josiah) by adoption Chinese girls were abducted and their from Vietnam. bodies were sold. These girls were our When Kristin stumbled across some age—the ages of me and my peers,” footnotes about Donaldina Cameron and Kathryn said. “They were stripped of shared them with Kathryn, they both knew all human dignity and raped dozens of they wanted to learn more. The school proj- times each night. And this wasn’t just ect only whetted their appetite, and they happening far away in the land of Chi- decided a self-published book would provide na, (but) here in the land of the free.” them the freedom and direction they’d need to tell the story, given Kath- The more Kathryn and Kristin studied the times in which Cameron lived, ryn’s busy schedule in school and Kristin’s commitment to homeschooling the more they realized the importance and relevance of her story and felt her other children. So they began a fundraising campaign on Kickstarter. compelled to bring her example into the modern discussion of human traf- com with the goal of raising $3,600 for researching, travel expenses, and ficking. They saw in her a lived theology for freeing the oppressed and a publishing costs. personal devotion to a far greater mission than anything she could have Instead, they raised almost $4,300, and their story-telling adventure imagined, regardless of its costs to her safety, health, or personal life. went from a class assignment to a fully detailed chronicle that includes As they went on to write on their website, FierceCompassionbook.com, firsthand accounts from Chinese girls, historic context, and personal jour- “Cameron barged into brothels and uncovered hidden trap doors to find Fierce Compassion nal entries from Cameron herself. More than once, the Wongs flew to San the terrified teenage girls held behind them. She stood up to threats from Francisco, visited Chinatown as well as the mission (now called the Cameron criminal gangs. She cared night and day for her foster daughters, tending House), and Pala Alto, where Cameron spent her final years. They scoured wounds, wiping away tears, and gradually helping slave survivors live on local archives, primary documents, and news clippings while interviewing their own.” some of the last remaining friends of Cameron, who died in 1968. For two years, the daughter/mother team kept digging, and they kept “I loved the feeling of being a detective putting all the pieces together writing—even in the midst of personal challenges, family obligations, church and learning more and more about the people and stories of intrigue and and school commitments, self-publishing dramas, and preparation for col- rescue,” Kathryn said. “What was surprising, though, was the feeling of privi- lege. Kathryn even went a step further and designed the cover and pages lege that came with being a detective on the trail of Donaldina Cameron. To of the entire book. The day the books arrived, another chapter began for walk in her footsteps, to be just one person removed from my heroine, to them, one that represents countless conversations as they take the book to read her praises in the newspaper—few things have made me feel more conferences and campuses, where together they speak about Cameron and awed and honored.” the staggering terrors of slavery today. The book project also added more purpose to Kathryn’s last two years “I think first it is a compelling story about fascinating people who lived of high school than she ever expected. Given the amount of time she spent in an often forgotten chapter of American history,” Kristin said. “We wrote it writing, researching, speaking, interviewing, building relationships, and because we so wanted more people to know about our remarkable heroine. learning about new cultures, Kathryn came away caring “very deeply for But it’s relevant because with human trafficking, abuse of women, race rela- a place and a people, the Cameron House and the Chinese living in San tions in America, immigration law, we wondered, what happens when these Francisco today, whom I rarely gave a thought to before starting this project. issues intersect and collide? What might God’s people do about it?” Now I think of them almost daily, and The Cameron House is like my home Kathryn hopes the book itself will do what Cameron’s life did for her—in- away from home.” spire others to speak out. It was hardly an easy journey, though, as Kathryn and her mom dug “Out of respect for the thousands of victims, we should be aware of deep into one of American history’s darker chapters. Girls and young women what transpired. We should be enraged by what transpired,” she said. “We were being bought, sold, and brought to Chinatown, forced into prostitution should be full of thankfulness and amazement that one woman was willing to and brutalized if they failed to perform domestic duties. Chinese men had follow God’s call on her life and smash this brutal trade.” been recruited to build America’s railroads, working and living in deplorable conditions, and were barred from bringing their families, for fear of a Chinese Jo Kadlecek is the senior writer and journalist-in-residence at Gordon College “overthrow.” With the repercussions of the Chinese Exclusion Act, legislation in Wenham, Mass. passed in 1882 that legalized racism and forced Chinese men to “assimi-

17 by Kimberly McOwen Yim

18 PRISMmagazine.org “The best defense against modern-day slavery is a vigilant public. Be a nosy neighbor.” —Kevin Bales, The Slave Next Door

old they will have good-paying jobs when they arrive in the United ago, before the Trafficking Victims Protection Act was voted into law, and States, thousands of immigrants, both legal and illegal, get tricked therefore our courts had to wrestle through the rescue and rehabilitation into forced labor annually. Traffickers often deceive these people by of a child domestic slave. Toffering half-truths, saying the individual will work at a restaurant or Shyima was one of 12 children, originally from Egypt, when she was in a hotel. Once these people begin working, they are held captive either sold to another Egyptian family at the age of 8. This family eventually moved through never-ending debt or simple physical immobility. Without knowing to the United States and settled in a gated community in Irvine, Calif. Shyima mages)

I the language or having someone to trust, and under constant threat of slept on a mattress on the floor of the garage and was not allowed to go to physical violence, these workers silently go about working in the back- school. She spent each day cooking and cleaning and caring for the family’s ground of public businesses. three children from morning until night. Her captors told her they would kill her family if she tried to flee or if she told anyone about her situation. They In homes also told her law enforcement would beat her and take her to jail. So rather ick Purser/Getty N Although 80 percent of human trafficking cases in the United States be- than trusting the police for help, she feared them. For two years Shyima

iple ( tween 2008 and 2010 were sex trafficking cases, not all modern forms of lived as a domestic slave in the United States, rarely stepping outside the K slavery are related to sex trafficking.1 A more subtle form of slavery found in door of the house where she worked. Eventually an anonymous tip—pos- indy indy C our backyards is the enslavement of domestic help. “One of the most insidi- sibly from a neighbor—was called in to child protective services, and law ous forms of trafficking—the enslavement of domestics and nannies—oc- enforcement got involved.4 curs under our very noses. Here you must be vigilant,” write Kevin Bales Y ears later when Shyima was an adult she was interviewed for a train- and Ron Soodalter in T he Slave Next Door: Human Trafficking and Slavery ing video to teach others what domestic slavery might look like. She said in America Today.2 Often working up to 16 hours a day, victims of domestic not knowing the language, fear of law enforcement, and physical and psy- servitude make up the second-highest form of slavery in the United States.3 chological threats were what kept her from running away. “Who would I run Book cover design by design by Book cover Most are foreigners and work under threats of violence. Afraid to run away, to? What would I say? There was nobody for me to trust,” she explained. they often work in isolation due to a language barrier or lack of interaction Thankfully, Shyima’s story is a hopeful one. She was adopted by a with others. Domestic slaves live quietly in fear—fear of deportation, fear loving family, enrolled in school, and eventually graduated from high school. of beatings, fear of the well-being of other family members, or fear of hu- Now she is attending college with the dream of becoming a law enforcement miliation. This fear keeps domestic slaves hidden and submissive. officer. She has a special interest in rescuing other trafficking victims. Such was the case in one of the first accounts I heard of in my neck Many stories have been uncovered recently about domestic slaves of the woods in Southern California. This case occurred more than 10 years eventually finding freedom. Some risk it all and run, but many are rescued because of the action of a nosy neighbor. These nosy neighbors are Good Samaritans who reach out to help when something just doesn’t seem right. “Slavery often comes to light because a member of the public sees some- Where to Look for thing odd and speaks up,” write Bales and Soodalter.5 Slavery In fields Here are some common places and situations where slavery is In the United States most workers are protected by the National Labor Rela- known to flourish: tions Act of 1935. This law gives workers the right to organize and protects against unsafe work environments, fixed wages, and health issues. It applies ☛ landscape and gardening businesses to all kinds of work—but not farm labor. Because of reasons steeped in ☛ households in which domestic home workers are present Deep South politics, farm laborers and household servants were excluded ☛ large-scale agricultural operations from full rights.6 ☛ construction sites As you can imagine, this has had tremendous impact on agricultural ☛ casinos work standards in the United States, where competitive prices and cheap ☛ garment factories labor can quickly lead to forced slave labor. Abysmal working conditions ☛ hotels (especially in housekeeping departments) in the tomato fields of southern Florida led to the formation of the Co- ☛ nail salons alition of Immokalee Workers (CIW). Southwest Florida is the state’s most ☛ migrant or transitional communities important center for agricultural production, and Immokalee is the state’s ☛ zones known for prostitution largest farmworker community, with many of these workers coming from ☛ strip clubs Mexico, Latin America, and Haiti. Formed in the 1990s to organize for fair ☛ massage parlors wages and to combat other labor violations, the CIW began to discover well- ☛ domestic violence situations networked slavery operations. The organization continued to fight for fairer wages and labor practices, but it also began to uncover, investigate, and assist in the federal prosecution of slavery rings preying on farm workers.

19 ☛ is not allowed or able to speak for himself or herself (i.e., a third party insists on being present or interpreting) Look for the signs! ☛ has an attorney that he or she doesn’t seem to know or to have agreed to receive representation services from Following are some signs that someone might be a human trafficking ☛ works excessively long or unusual hours victim. Any one of these signs should be enough to raise concern and ☛ is not allowed breaks or suffers under unusual restrictions at work a reason to call the National Human Trafficking Hotline or local law ☛ owes a large or increasing debt and is unable to pay it off enforcement. A person might be a human trafficking victim if he or she: ☛ was recruited through false promises concerning the nature and conditions of his or her work ☛ is not free to come and go as he or she wishes ☛ is living or working in a location with high security measures (e.g., opaque ☛ is not free to change employers or boarded-up windows, bars on windows, barbed wire, security cameras) ☛ is afraid to discuss himself or herself in the presence of others ☛ exhibits unusually fearful, anxious, depressed, submissive, tense, ner- ☛ does not control his or her earnings vous, or paranoid behavior ☛ is unpaid, paid very little, or paid only through tips ☛ reacts with unusually fearful or anxious behavior at any reference to law ☛ has few or no personal possessions enforcement ☛ is not in control of his or her own money or has no financial records or ☛ avoids eye contact bank account ☛ exhibits a flat affect (e.g., doesn’t display emotion, seems blank or empty, ☛ is not in control of own identification documents (e.g., ID, passport, visa) unresponsive)

W orking with the Department of Justice and the FBI, the CIW has helped to progress of the campaign and download a petition that asks others in the prosecute seven major cases, freeing over 1,200 people from captivity and community to join in. In addition, a family action kit is available on the IJM forced labor on Florida’s tomato farms.7 Through its efforts the CIW has site that includes information, games, and stories for the whole family to brought the terrible state of human rights in much of US agriculture today learn and participate in the work of justice for agricultural workers.8 to public light. Although slavery is not the norm in agriculture today, there must be In restaurants a more concerted effort in addressing the demand side of the US food David Batstone, an ethics professor in San Francisco, first encountered the market. Major food-buying corporations are profiting from extremely low— reality that slavery existed in his backyard after eating at one of his favorite often artificially low—cost of produce. restaurants outside of Berkeley. Not long after dining at the restaurant, he In the summer of 2012 International Justice Mission partnered with read in a local paper that a woman who worked there had died due to a the Coalition of Immokalee Workers for a campaign they called Recipe for gas leak and lack of ventilation in the apartment attached to the restaurant. Change. Recognizing that for decades slavery and other human rights abus- Threatening to reveal their illegal status, the owner of the restaurant had es have existed in US tomato fields, IJM and CIW assert that our local super- forced a number of people to work for him without pay. This revelation markets can help end slavery in the tomato supply chain. Supermarkets can prompted Batstone to look further into the issue of modern-day slavery, join with other companies such as McDonalds and Subway by participating and in 2007 he launched Not For Sale, a campaign whose purpose is to put in the Fair Food Program. (Editor’s note: See PRISM’s May/June 2012 cover a final end to slavery. story for an in-depth look at fair food activism.) My friend Tracy recently asked the woman who cleans her house, Developed by the tomato pickers themselves, the Fair Food Program Elise, how she immigrated to the United States. Tracy learned that Elise establishes a zero tolerance policy for slavery, child labor, and sexual abus- originally came over on a work visa to work in a restaurant in Orange County, es on Florida’s tomato fields. Corporations that join the Fair Food Program Calif. When she began work, the manager took her documents and told her agree to pay a small price increase (1.5 cents more per pound) for fairly she’d get them back after she’d worked there for six years. Tracy voiced her harvested tomatoes and promise to shift purchases to the Florida tomato concern and asked many more questions, but Elise told her it had worked growers who abide by these higher standards—and away from those who out okay for her and her husband; they had worked at the restaurant for won’t. six years and were both able to become legal citizens. “But I do fear for the Although many fast food companies have already joined the Fair Food others still there,” Elise said. “The manager has become more strict, and it Program, some of the largest US supermarket chains have not. IJM’s Recipe is not a good place to work.” for Change campaign is asking anti-slavery advocates to petition super- Tracy asked Elise if she would consider telling the police about what markets to do their part and join the Fair Food Programs. As of December the manager was doing. She explained that it was illegal and that under the 2012, Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods were the only two major supermarket Trafficking Victims Protection Act her friend would be able to get some help, chains that had joined. even if she came here illegally. Elise told Tracy she didn’t trust the police. This campaign is an excellent example of how, with a little bit of knowl- “Where I come from the police often do nothing, or they make it worse,” edge, the consumer has immense power. By going to IJM’s website, you can she said. send a message to the large US supermarkets asking for their participation Knowing that she would not be able to convince Elise to report what in the Fair Food Program. You can sign up to receive e-mail updates on the she knew, Tracy contacted the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force.

20 PRISMmagazine.org ☛ exhibits unexplained injuries or signs of prolonged or untreated illness or disease In addition, a young person ☛ appears malnourished ☛ is under 18 years of age and is providing commercial sex acts might be caught up in sex ☛ is in the commercial sex industry and has a pimp or manager ☛ shows signs of physical or sexual abuse, physical restraint, confinement trafficking if he or she... or torture ☛ has been “branded” by a trafficker (e.g., a tattoo of the trafficker’s ☛ has unexplained absences from school for a period of time name) ☛ is unable to attend school on a regular basis ☛ claims to be “just visiting” and is unable to clarify where he or she is ☛ repeatedly runs away from home ☛ exhibits a lack of knowledge of whereabouts or does not know what city ☛ makes references to frequent travel to other cities he or she is in ☛ exhibits bruises or other physical trauma, withdrawn behavior, ☛ exhibits a loss of a sense of time depression, or fear ☛ has numerous inconsistencies in his or her story ☛ lacks control over her or his schedule or identification documents ☛ is hungry or malnourished and inappropriately dressed based on weath- er conditions or surroundings ☛ shows signs of drug addiction9 we could help right where we were, right in this season of life, right in our neighborhoods—we are the cement in this modern abolitionist movement. We continue to be busy; however, today we live our lives intentionally aware of our surrounding and our neighbors. Slavery still exists in my backyard, but I know now I have resources and power to fight it. She was put in touch with a law enforcement agent who took down all the details. A few months later Tracy followed up to see how the case was com- Kimberly McOwen Yim is the founder of Abolitionist Mamas in San Clemente, ing. “Let’s just say it was a very good tip,” the officer said. He couldn’t tell Calif. She has worked with Women Who Stand, an advocacy group affiliated her much more, but Tracy now understood that she could do something— with World Relief, and writes and speaks on issues related to human traf- that sometimes a small act such as a phone call could make a difference. ficking worldwide. This feature is an excerpt from the forthcoming Refuse to Modern-day slavery is happening right under our noses and yet we Do Nothing: Finding Your Power to Abolish Modern-Day Slavery by Shayne often don’t see it. Do we know what to look for? What questions do we ask? Moore and Kimberly McOwen Yim, © 2013 by Shayne Moore and Kimberly What do “doesn’t seem right” and “something odd” look like? McOwen Yim. Used by permission of InterVarsity Press (PO Box 1400, On page 19 is a list of everyday places where slavery has been docu- Downers Grove, IL 60515; IVPress.com). mented in the United States, as well as signs that someone may be a human trafficking victim. As you read through the list, keep in mind the places and people around your town who work in these types of environments. You may want to mark or copy these pages for future reference. Also, please put the National Human Trafficking Hotline number in your phone and address book: 888-3737-888. It’s true that we are busy. We run to the carpool line, pick up dry cleaning, go to the grocery store, and we often don’t notice the many people we encounter as we go through our days. Despite this, we all have time to Take action call the National Human Trafficking Hotline number if we notice something suspicious. ❶ Put the National Human Trafficking Hotline number in When my friends and I first learned of the millions of people enslaved your phone: 888-373-7888. If a person or situation came in our world today we wished we were young again, when we thought we to mind while you were reading the list of signs of human could take on the world. We were fired up and wanted to correct injustice. trafficking, call now and report it. But we grieved because we thought there was not a thing we could do. We wanted supernatural abilities to fight the bad guys. We may have ❷ Tell one friend about the anti-trafficking hotline and ask even wanted to punch a bad guy in the face. We wanted to personally rescue her to put it in her phone. a child out of slavery and hold her in our arms and tell her everything would be okay. We wanted to save people from this life of terror. After all, we lived ➌ Ask yourself: Are there places in your own community blessed lives. We needed to do something. But as Bales reminds us, “joining that you now wonder might be places where people are the fight against human trafficking means accepting that we each have a job forced to work? to do and that our job might not include being the action hero.”10 Once we got over the desire to find a grandiose response to the in- justices of slavery and to punch bad guys in the face, we moved forward in the small, meaningful actions that are needed every day. We came to realize

21 Escape from godessfae.deviantart.com by Andrea Cumbo Polygamy

ing to leave fundamentalist Mormon communities, Tonia Holding Out HELP offers was a comfortable stay-at-home mom and not looking to shake up her life in any way. But she recognized an opportunity to make good on the promise she’d made God years a new life to families earlier when he gave her more time than expected after a diagnosis of terminal cancer. The full living quarters in the basement, prepared when she was battling her cancer in fleeing fundamentalist anticipation of the need for live-in care, was available to house the family. So after much thought and prayer, the Tewells said “yes.” Mormon households This “yes” ultimately led to Tonia founding and serving as executive director for Holding Out HELP (Helping, Encouraging, and Loving Polygamists), an organization onia Tewell hung up the phone and jumped into action. She and her that helps people transition from lives in closed communi- husband pulled together all the sheets and blankets they could find ties to life in the broader world. Tand made up the beds in their basement. They stocked the downstairs Tewell refers to these people as domestic refugees. refrigerator. “They don’t know how our world works,” she says. Half an hour later, the doorbell rang, and on their stoop stood the Like refugees from other places in the world, these family they were expecting: a woman with her mother and three children, people are entering a new culture, bringing with them very fleeing their own home and ready to begin a new life here in theirs. The few resources and navigational skills. Holding Out HELP provides basic life women and girls were all dressed in simple, handmade cotton dresses, the skills training since many of these refugees, mostly women, have never boy in jeans and a plaid, button-down shirt. At their feet was a box of books before had to do such basic tasks as opening a bank account or finding a and two trash bags full of hastily gathered possessions—all they had been place to live. able to bring from the fundamentalist Mormon community they had just Their transition into the world proceeds in a particular order. First risked everything to leave. the organization receives a phone call, through their secure hotline, from Just an hour earlier, with the children safely at a friend’s home, the someone who wants to leave a closed community. Then they confirm that woman had been packing up their things when her husband came home to the person is sure they are ready to go. (Most people who express doubt find that she had changed the locks. He got his tools and began to take the end up going back to the community.) Holding Out HELP then finds them a door off its hinges. By the grace of God, a friend was driving by at just that host family to live with until they are stable, usually for three to six months. moment, a large man who was willing to confront the husband while she “These places are kind of like stops on the Underground Railroad,” Tewell called the police. The officers could not keep the husband from entering explains. the house, but they could hold him at bay while the wife gathered her things While living in host homes, all the children and adults are assigned a and left to get the children. Now she was here on the Tewells’ stoop, facing mentor of their same gender who will meet with them once or twice weekly a new and uncertain future. to set goals, help them find services, and provide assistance in navigating the new world. Mentors also fill the important role of sounding board, as Domestic refugees 95 percent of those they serve suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. W hen the Tewells were first asked if they’d be willing to host people want- After the individuals are established with a home and a mentor, they can

22 PRISMmagazine.org used vehicles, and educational expenses. Until they Like refugees from other places in the world, are ready to operate fully on their own, Holding Out HELP is there to guide and support. One hundred percent of the financial contribu- these people are entering a new culture, tions given to the organization go to providing food, clothing, shelter, medical care, legal support, and bringing with them very few resources and transportation for people leaving polygamy. Holding Out HELP is not an evangelical ministry in the traditional sense, but the organization follows hard after navigational skills. God by meeting needs as outlined by Jesus in Mat- then proceed down the path of counseling, job training, education, or any thew 25:35—feeding, housing, and clothing. Their mission is to provide a combination of the three. Eventually individuals move into a transitional safe place to land where these refugees “can work out their own thinking home for up to a year. They pay only the utilities and insurance, and funding and faith.” is available for even that if needed. The final step of the process is for the At present the organization has 300 refugees in its system, and the refugee to move into low-income housing and then pay it forward by becom- numbers keep rising. Approximately 30 host families open their homes to ing a volunteer with Holding Out HELP. refugees in Utah’s Salt Lake Valley, while many others are also available out The organization does not stop their work there but continues to sup- of state. The organization receives between one and three individuals or port these refugees with things like passes for public transit, computers, families a week who are seeking transitional assistance.

23 kept in touch and explained that the network wanted to speak to some of the ministry’s refugee youth, and that they intended to pursue the youth with or without the organization’s help. “After negotiating for over a year,” explains Tewell, “our board felt that Holding Out HELP could better protect our youth if we were in control of what was filmed, so we said yes. We also felt it was important to allow the viewers to see the other side, when polygamy doesn't work. Although exhausting, it was a growing process for us all.” When the Brown family heard some of the organization’s stories, they ex- pressed the desire to help the refugees, since they, too, oppose abusive polygamist marriages. Holding Out HELP received national attention last fall when “sister wife” Meri Brown participated in their annual fundraising event, a 5k run. Elissa Wall was also at the fundraiser run. A chief witness in the prosecution of T onia Tewell (left), Meri Brown of S ister Wives (center), and a volunteer during Holding Out HELP's 2012 5k fundraiser Warren Jeffs, Wall escaped an abusive marriage that she entered at age 14. When asked how she felt about Brown’s participation in the run, she told the Salt Lake “ The need is greater than it has ever been,” Tewell says, “and Tribune, "I’m thrilled she’s here. we are helping more people than ever.” According to Tewell, the We’re all here for the same rea- Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) is “imploding.” son—to support the community." “We don’t believe it is for us "Most of those that work A closed community with Holding Out HELP do not to judge,” says Tonia Tewell. FLDS is the largest closed, polygamist community in the country believe that polygamy was what “This journey is so difficult for and is made up of nearly 10,000 members, although an exact God intended, and we are very count of its membership as well as other information about FLDS open about that," says Tewell. the families—if they came practices are difficult to come by, because the community isolates "However, so that those in need itself so thoroughly from the outside world. can find a safe place to land, it out of the FLDS only to find FLDS split off from The Church of Latter Day Saints in the is imperative we don't take sides themselves pressured to be- early 20th century when the mainstream church made pronounce- or get in the political debate. The ments against the practice of polygamy. Since then, FLDS members nonjudgmental, unconditional lieve in what we believe, they have had their own leader, known as The Prophet. At this time their love approach is changing lives. leader is Warren Jeffs, who is serving life plus 20 years in prison for Our board is made up of devout would run for the hills. Instead aggravated sexual assault. Christians who follow the first and we live out our faith through One of the central tenets of FLDS teaching is that men are second commandments of loving to take multiple wives (at least three, according to some sources) God with their hearts, minds, and serving these precious people.” in order to receive the highest form of salvation. Most FLDS mem- souls and loving their neighbor as bers do not own their own property but instead live in houses and themselves. We don't believe it is for us to judge. This journey is so difficult for the operate businesses formally owned by the church, although this families—if they came out of the FLDS only to find themselves pressured to believe ownership is currently being disputed in court. Most of the children in what we believe, they would run for the hills. Instead we live out our faith through in the church are homeschooled on the large FLDS compound that serving these precious people. You should come to our church someday and meet spans the state line between Colorado City, Ariz., and Hilldale, Utah. all the people who have left. It is beautiful to see how free they are now." FLDS now divides its followers into categories—the “most And the healing is happening. The mother and her children who showed up righteous,” who have passed the intense loyalty tests of the new on the Tewells’ doorstep in 2005 are thriving. She has received a masters’ degree United Order that Jeffs has established from his prison cell, and in education and is now developing curriculum and heading up a local school. The those who have been deemed “unworthy.” Church teaching forbids children are healthy and happily adjusted to the larger world—all because a couple the two categories of people from living in the same house, being in opened their doors to people they did not know. All because they gave them food the same room, or even speaking to each other. Families are being and shelter, embraced them, and said, “You are safe, and you will be loved.” There ripped apart by these divisions, as well as by the many confirmed is no better evangelism than that. and alleged reports of sexual assault on the women and children T o learn more and to help support the work of Holding Out HELP, go to Hold- in the church, and FLDS is losing members in higher and higher ingOutHELP.org. numbers. A ndi Cumbo (AndiLit.com) is the author of God’s Whisper Manifesto, which tells the Controversy and compassion story of her small farm in the mountains of Virginia and her dreams for it to be a I n 2010 Tewell and the ministry team were asked to appear on place for respite for artists. S ister Wives, a reality TV show focusing on the Brown family, which consists of one Mormon husband, four wives, and 17 children. At first, Tewell explains, “We said absolutely not.” But the producer

24 PRISMmagazine.org TOOLS FOR ENGAGING OUR WORLD

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Available in bookstores or by calling 800.877.2665. Like us on . Follow Brazos Press on . Follow The Brazos Blog at www.thebrazosblog.com. Subscribe to E-Notes, Baker Academic’s electronic newsletter, 25 L at www.bakeracademic.com. Subscribe to Border Crossings, the Brazos electronic newsletter, at www.brazospress.com. T

252739_Prism_11_12.indd 1 8/27/12 4:38 PM Saving Bathsheba by Rachel Marie Stone

26 PRISMmagazine.org A pril Mansilla ( Abuse at the

A hands of a prilMansilla.com) spiritual leader damages victims in body, mind, and spirit

T he Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Psalm 34:18

“How much responsibility did Bathsheba have in that affair? After all, she was bath- ing where David could see her!” I have heard this line, and others like it, many times in the course of my evangelical upbringing and education—the David and Bathsheba story used as an example of “why women should be modest” and “how temptresses can bring down godly leaders.” But that’s not what the story is about. It’s a story of a woman being sexually abused by a man in power. Samantha Nelson of The Hope of Survivors says that this “blame the woman” emphasis is all too typical: “Seminaries could do a better job teaching pastors not to abuse power. It seems like the emphasis is more the other way—on warning pastors away from ‘predatory’ women.” Nelson’s former pastor used the story in a very different way. According to him, if David could be “a man after God’s own heart” despite being an adulterer and a murderer, then certainly he, her pastor, could be forgiven for abusing her sexually and spiritually, which he did for several years. After recovering from the abuse and earning credentials in Christian counseling, Nelson cofounded with her husband, Steve, an organization called The Hope of Survivors, “a worldwide ministry of compassion providing support, hope, and encouragement to victims of clergy sexual abuse and misconduct.”1 An important part of The Hope of Survivors’ work is to educate people about clergy sexual abuse, which is often misunderstood as simply an “affair.” “The devastation of this abuse is that it is so poorly understood, and survivors are subject to all kinds of insensitive behavior—such as being asked, ‘Didn’t you like it?’ Because of the power imbalance, this can never be a consensual relationship,” says Nelson. “A teacher or a doctor cannot enter into a consensual sexual relationship with a student or a patient. Neither can a pastor with someone under his care.” It’s not that affairs don’t happen, Nelson tells me, but her ministry sees far more instances of pastoral abuse. “We see a lot of predatory pastors. It’s more often the case than not that a pastor will have abused more than one person. Some- times there’s a young, inexperienced pastor who crosses a line, but generally we see a lot of repeat offenders who pick out vulnerable people and groom them for

27 abuse.” Women who have been abused previously or who are enduring health problems are sometimes targets for abusers. Abusive pastors often work by engaging in a counseling relationship with potential victims. A pastor in New York, Reverend Latham,2 told me about two abusive pastors in his small church’s history. “A certain pastor—a Reverend Elliot—in the 1930s and 40s had, according to one of our oldest members, a reputation for ‘fooling around’; he even had a second entrance built onto the back of the parsonage for his counselees to go in and out of.” All God’s Children This pastor’s reputation, according to Latham, was repeatedly confirmed by separate testimonies. A ll God’s Children tells the story of a “An elderly pastor from Long Island once told me a story about my predecessor: There had been a big boarding school for missionary children Baptist rally, and, as the [all-female] choir was singing, Elliot said, ‘How do you like some of the young in West Africa and the abuses the children ones? When they come to me, I don’t know whether to endured there at the hands of missionary pray with them or lay with them!’” Survivors of staff. It took the children decades to Another abuser came to the little church years acknowledge the effects the abuses had later, nearly destroying it in his abusive wake. He also pastoral abuse on their lives. When they finally dared to worked, Latham told me, by “doing a lot of counseling. break the silence and speak out, the church In this way, he got people to reveal their secrets and aren’t simply denied all allegations and refused to help. was then able to threaten people with the revelation of But through years of persistent activism those secrets.” Reportedly, the pastor threatened to turned off the survivors and their parents finally discipline and excommunicate one woman’s entire fam- compelled the Christian and Missionary ily if she would not perform oral sex on him.3 from people Alliance to conduct an investigation and “One of the saddest aspects of clergy sex abuse,” in positions of acknowledge the abuses. writes Christa Brown, a lawyer, author of T his Little Light, The investigation of the Mamou and founder of StopBaptistPredators.com, “is that it not religious power— Alliance Academy was the first of its kind but only inflicts the grievous trauma of sexual abuse but it has since inspired investigations at other simultaneously yanks a powerful resource for healing.” they are turned schools of many different denominations. Faith, says, Brown, “will often serve as a resource for Learn more at AllGodsChildrenthefilm.com. dealing with all manner of life’s travails,” but often not off from faith for those who have been abused by clergy and by other people in positions of religious authority. communities That’s the situation for many of the survivors of the decades-long abuse perpetuated by the mission- when those ary staff at Mamou Alliance Academy in Guinea, Africa. communities Some of its alumni were the first to speak publicly about the physical, emotional, sexual, and spiritual abuse that fail adequately occurred there—and in other Christian and Missionary Alliance schools that the children of overseas C&MA to engage their missionaries were required to attend. Their story is documented in the film A ll God’s Children (see sidebar wounds with on left), and a number of them point out how the abuse caused them to lose—or come close to losing—their compassion and faith. One remarks that he would need “a Damascus Road experience to be saved.” Another, Rich Darr, who understanding. eventually became a minister in the UMC, says that for years he “could not walk into a church...[without experiencing] tremendous anger.” Some researchers point out, perhaps rightly, that male clergy are no more likely to commit abuse than other males,4 but pastors who abuse violate what Nelson calls “a sacred trust” that makes the abuse all the more devastating. In Catherine Marshall’s novel Christy, the character Alice describes how the man who raped her at 16—a traveling Quaker minister—“groomed” her for abuse using his clerical office:

That year when I was 15 there was a certain amount of experimentation, what he called “the laying on of hands.” Some of it I thought odd all right, questioned it in my own mind. But the man was so much older than I. And we children had been taught to think of these “traveling Friends” as such divinely chosen oracles of the mind of God that almost every word they spoke was supposed to be inspired.5

28 PRISMmagazine.org It is precisely that reverence that makes healing so difficult for survivors. Indeed, it can be hard even to open the door to healing in situations where idolization of the abuser—or of the abuser’s of- Future Hope fice—makes finding the truth difficult. It took 10 years of writing and calling Christian and Missionary The Hope of Survivors is celebrating its Alliance offices before the survivors of abuse at Mamou Alliance Academy were heard; even after an 10th anniversary. While their website has Independent Commission of Inquiry found that physical, emotional, sexual, and spiritual abuse had oc- thousands of hits per week, they are con- curred among “a significant number” of children at Mamou for at least two decades, one of the alleged tacted by two to three survivors a week, abusers—a man who reportedly raped a student—remained on C&MA staff. There was, they said, or more than 100 per year. Many of these “nothing they could do.”6 are assigned to volunteer support. Sa- When I talked with Christa Brown, she noted that when survivors of clergy sex abuse speak of mantha and Steve Nelson hope to build a their inability to connect with faith communities after abuse, “they usually speak more about the faith healing center—like a retreat—a place community itself rather than solely about the minister who abused them.” Failing to hear and address for survivors of pastoral abuse to recon- the concerns of survivors, failing to initiate a process for nect with God and their spouse; a place investigation and healing, and simply failing to apologize for physical, spiritual, and emotional heal- “Faith all have the effect of revictimizing survivors. ing. No such dedicated space yet exists communities More recently, the blogger Libby Anne7 raised the anywhere in North America. Learn more concern of organizational complicity—or, at the least, at TheHopeofSurvivors.com. must take a indifference—in the wake of The Voice of the Martyrs’ executive director’s suicide. Tom White took his own life as hard look in he was being investigated for molesting a 10-year-old girl, the mirror and but Voice of the Martyrs’ statement does not apologize; leged crimes. It might mean that the Southern rather, it says “none of those in leadership at VOM, includ- Baptist Convention (and other denominations begin to see ing our board of directors, were aware of these allega- and associations) would establish coherent tions at the time of Tom’s death.”8 Baptist Bible College in processes for investigating pastoral abuse, the ways in Pennsylvania has suspended naming a new athletic build- as Christa Brown has repeatedly advocated. which they ing after former Association of Baptists for World Evan- Hope and healing for perpetrators of gelism (ABWE) president Wendell Kempton, not because abuse is possible, says Samantha Nelson, but themselves Kempton himself was accused of abuse, but because he her ministry has found it difficult to work with appears to have poorly handled a case of missionary-per- them. inflict egregious petrated sexual abuse. ABWE terminated Donn Ketcham in “We have tried to include offenders as additional 1989 after a confirmed report of child sexual abuse but part of our ministry, and it hasn’t worked well. made no further investigation. Some also suspect Kemp- Most are looking for some kind of excuse.”11 wounds ton of neglecting to investigate another possible case of F or as many as use King David’s story to ex- missionary perpetrated abuse.9 cuse themselves and to blame Bathsheba, through “It is a huge blind-eyed mistake,” says Christa fewer, it seems, are willing to make as full a complicity Brown, “for faith communities to seek to explain the harm confession as David. Perhaps worse, too few of clergy sex abuse by focusing only on the clergy-per- faith communities seem as willing to speak and through petrators. Faith communities must take a hard look in the into situations of abuse as boldly as Nathan mirror and begin to see the ways in which they themselves did. a failure of inflict egregious additional wounds through complicity and Lord, have mercy. compassion.” through a failure of compassion.”10 Survivors of pastoral abuse aren’t simply turned Rachel Marie Stone (RachelMarieStone.com) - Christa Brown off from people in positions of religious power—they are is the author of E at With Joy: Redeeming turned off from faith communities when those communi- God's Gift of Food (just out from InterVarsity ties fail adequately to engage their wounds with compassion and understanding. The often misused Press). She currently lives with her husband story of David with Bathsheba offers an interesting perspective here: When, in 2 Samuel 12, the proph- and two young sons in Zomba, Malawi, where, et Nathan confronts David with what he has done, he promises that the violence David has perpetrated as a mission co-worker with the Presbyterian will “never depart” from David’s house. “...You did it secretly,” says Nathan, “but I will do this thing Church (USA), she teaches writing at Zomba [enact violence against David’s household] before all Israel, and before the sun.” It’s then that David Theological College and studies approaches confesses, “I have sinned against the Lord.” to maternal health from a faith perspective. Leaving aside the enormously problematic question of retributive justice, it appears that what made David’s sin possible was secrecy, and what brought forth his confession of guilt was the threat of exposure. For the sake of justice—and for the sake of healing—faith communities must acknowledge that compassionate attention and full apologies are needed. This means that, for example, The Voice of the Martyrs should issue an apology regardless of whether or not they were aware of Tom White’s al-

29 The / dura-artspace.com A .R. U . Dangerous D Lie That We

Tell by E mily A. Dause long the route of my first half-marathon, the well-meaning or- getic voice was that of a metropolitan ganizers had posted signs with sayings to encourage, or at evangelical mega-church pastor. He least cheer, the runners. Although my fellow runners and I ap- asked listeners if they ever felt guilty preciated the thought, it struck me that the messages did little and weighed down by life and whether Ato actually help our bodies perform at the level needed to run over 13 miles. they ever wished they could push the One sign in particular caught my attention: “In every wall there is a “delete button” on their past and their door.” Before this past year, I would have believed the cliché. I may have burdens. He proceeded to enthusiasti- even generalized the saying to my “faith journey.” I would have related it to cally explain that Jesus has a “delete how God will resolve every situation (read: to my satisfaction). Furthermore, button,” and if they accepted Christ, while he was at it, God would endow me with an incredible serenity accompa- he could delete the scars of their past nied by a sense that all in life fits exactly as it should. Suffice it to say, that is and present. An internet search quickly no longer my reaction. I realize now that when we hit life’s walls, sometimes turned up similar messages, in which there is a door, and sometimes there is not. When there is a door, the way it the pastor proclaims that Christian- takes us is rarely what we expect or prefer. ity gives us the secret to success in I grew up attending churches that fit comfortably into the typical evan- life and that being in relationship with gelical mold. There is much I could write about what was good and right in Christ is like winning the ultimate lottery what these churches taught. However, my purpose here is to highlight the of peace and happiness. dangerous lie that we, as Christians, communicate to each other and to our As a member of the 20-some- neighbors. The lie takes many forms, but at its root is this message: If you thing age group—that elusive demo- are a Christian and follow [insert steps], you will achieve a sense of long- graphic leaving the church in droves— lasting, inexplicable fulfillment. In A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, Don- I have experienced how destructive this ald Miller describes the lie as a “promise for earthly euphoria,” something fantasy can be in my own life and in the of a new incarnation of the health and wealth gospel. lives of my peers. While the lie does not There is a key difference between this euphoric promise and the affect my generation uniquely, its influ- twisted messages of generations past. This lie of earthly fulfillment shies ence does seem more pervasive here away from claiming physical prosperity, instead focusing on an emotional than in older generations. This phe- gratification. I heard a disturbingly perfect example of this lie packaged nomenon may be due to the church’s in a 60-second radio advertisement aimed at secular listeners. The ener- desire to match worldly messages,

30 PRISMmagazine.org 31 which mass media make shiny, concise, and persistent. If this is the church’s ing God’s will, but also that as a result of your striving, you will be satisfied. goal, however, all we have managed to do is fight lies with lies. Second, believing Jesus is going to solve all your problems is not help- The lie, however, is not limited to radio sound bites or to a particular ful to you or to others who are truly struggling. Often this means you elevate pastor or church. It stems from sermons explaining that because the trap- your desire to cling to a flawed belief above others’ needs. I once overheard pings of this world are not bringing you fulfillment (popular culture, alcohol, a conversation between several women after a church service, discussing take your pick), you should become a Christian (‘ask Jesus into your heart’) a mutual friend and church member whose parents had just been killed in in order to finally feel lasting joy and meaning in your life. It emanates from a tragic motorcycle accident. One of the women commented that the group Sunday school lessons promising you will always be physically safe and proof friends needed to ensure that the tragedy did not cause the bereaved tected as long as you remember to pray and memorize your verse of the friend to turn her back on faith (read: the church). Another woman kindly week. It flows out of youth retreat sessions in which attractive young men but firmly interjected that supporting the grieving friend should be their with trendy hair gel solemnly describe how broken and desperate our non- priority. Jesus’ first concern was—and ours should be—people, not main- Christian friends must be in comparison to us, because we are Christians. taining an image. Then, we grow up. We find our doubts and questions do not decrease; A third danger in living this lie is that it misrepresents Christianity they multiply. We feel more confused, not more fulfilled. We begin to experi- to unbelievers. Acting out the distortion perpetuates the fallacy that Dan ence deep emotional pain. We encounter physical trial and witness inexplica- Allender and Tremper Longman pinpoint in T he Cry of the Soul: Christian ble tragedy. When we look around us, people of the world sometimes seem circles act as though “you are godly if you can handle difficult trials with a happier and more content than we are—not desperate or broken as we detached and apparently unruffled confidence.” If others believe your act, anticipated. Personally, I reached the point they do not think they can become Christians, because they could never be where reading Christian authors nauseated The most as stable and peaceful as you seem to be. If they do not believe your act, me and opening to a familiar Bible passage they label you a hypocrite. Or they believe your act and decide to become dissolved me into hysterical sobs. (My coun- beautiful a Christian, then go through the same process of disillusionment you are selor said these reactions were a sign of my now experiencing. growth, which made me think maybe he was truth is the one who was nuts.) Choice #2: Accept the Lie, Condemn Yourself In the wake of realizing the contradic- that God You believe the fulfillment ideology is true. After all, Romans 8:28 says that tions between what we have been told and “God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called ac- what we have experienced, we have a choice knows we cording to his purpose,” and you have heard the verse quoted in sermons to make as to how we will react. Herein lies as proof that things will work out for you as long as you are faithful. By the danger. We can have essentially one of are broken your standards, however, things are not working out, which means there four reactions to the lie that says becoming must be something wrong with you. You are either doing something wrong a Christian guarantees you earthly fulfill- people, and or something about you is intrinsically wrong. Other Christians are doing ment: just fine, so why has God not fixed you yet? However, the fact that there is he accepts something uniquely wrong with you is shameful and strange, so you hide it. Choice #1: Accept the Lie, Deny Reality You act the part and put on the perpetual smile that you believe comes by The lie is what you have always known and is us in that other Christians naturally. possibly a foundational part of your conver- I spent years on this path, nodding at the right times, giving the ex- sion. You find it more convenient and sus- state. pected answers, and following the rules, all the while secretly “knowing” I pect it is less painful to ignore your doubts, was unfit. The pretense was the equivalent of a slow spiritual and emotional ignore the contradictions, and simply continue living and believing in the death. If you choose this reaction to the lie, you will probably become de- same manner as you always have. This choice, however, is dangerous for pressed or so frustrated and despondent you move on to choice #3. several reasons. First, it can cause you to make unwise decisions. This may take the Choice #3: Reject the Lie, Reject Faith form of accepting a job or role simply because it is applauded by Christians, This reaction is all too common. Failing to find a way to reconcile the even though you know it does not suit you. As a 20-something, denying church’s teaching with your experiences, you leave your church and eventu- reality often means prolonging an unhealthy dating relationship or even ally your Christian faith altogether. Likely you will seek a faith system or a way marrying someone who cannot match you as a life partner. Your reasoning: of living that acknowledges pain and suffering and seeks healing. Your new If the other person is a Christian and you are a Christian, then God must life may not satisfy either, but at least you have escaped the disequilibrium want you to get married, and he will make everything okay, right? Speaking for the time being. As one young woman confided after choosing to abandon from my own experience, I spent close to two years in a serious (but im- her Christian faith, “I’m not happy without God, but I am relieved of the dis- mature and unhealthy) relationship with someone because I believed I was sonance between church and reality.” supposed to marry him. After all, I could check off all the Christian boxes on my list, and I was pretty sure God had told me I would marry him. I am Choice #4: Reject the Lie, but Tell the Truth grateful that situation is behind me. However, many young Christians are As I realize the dangers inherent in the lie, I am saddened by its impact pursuing and entering marriage based on the false principle that striving while at the same time ashamed at how often I have perpetuated this false after anything with a Christian label guarantees not only that you are follow- promise for earthly bliss. There is no easy fix; if I pretended there were, I

32 PRISMmagazine.org would be replacing one lie with another. Life is messy, so there is no “neat” he looks forward to getting solution. However, there is a place to start in dispelling this lie: Tell the truth. to meet the people who will The truth is that we are broken people. We struggle, we sin, and we understand the album— encounter trial. I heard Shane Claiborne say that the world is not waiting for people who have experienced the church to be perfect; the world is waiting for the church to be honest. hardship and have unanswered With other Christians, we need to enter into genuine relationships that share questions. I suspect Haseltine our faults, feelings, and questions in an atmosphere of caring, not judg- will be surprised at how ment. Before unbelievers, we need to expose ourselves as the ones who are large an audience he will broken and desperate. In T he Reason for God, Tim Keller explains that God garner, an audience made shows us grace and does not require us to be clean in order to come to him. up of believers (myself As such, we can expect the church to “be filled with immature and broken included) craving genuine people who still have a long way to go emotionally, morally, and spiritually.” attention to the In contrast, so many people believe they cannot be Christians because they issues that his are not “good” enough. How have we managed to encourage that belief band seeks to when Jesus’ first disciples were unschooled fishermen and tax collectors? address. The truth is that the Bible showcases broken people. We can look On a personal to major biblical figures and recognize, not brush over, the ugly parts of level, I have experienced their stories. The Old Testament, full of scandal and terribly dysfunctional how meaningful and families, paints a picture far from heartwarming and perfect. The story of helpful it is when fellow Judah’s daughter-in-law, Tamar, serves as an example. Tamar’s husband, Christians have spoken the Judah’s eldest son, dies. God kills Judah’s second son for shirking his re- truth to me in times of trial. sponsibility to produce an heir with Tamar. Fearing for his remaining son’s When I called my pastor from life, Judah does not fulfill his obligation to give his youngest to Tamar in the hospital late one night to marriage. Left with no other options to produce an heir and thus no way tell him my father had passed away, he did not tell to provide for her own security, she disguises herself as a prostitute and me it would all be okay. He did not patronize me with bland seduces Judah himself. As a result, she conceives. Realizing what has hap- proclamations that I just needed to trust God and the pain pened and acknowledging he has denied Tamar her right, Judah declares and shock would go away. He told me that God was Tamar “more righteous” than he. Tamar gives birth to twins, one of whom is with me, and while I was probably having a hard time in Matthew’s genealogy of Christ (along with Rahab the prostitute, Ruth the feeling God’s presence in such a traumatic foreigner, and Bathsheba, the woman with whom David committed adultery moment, he would believe it for me for now. while making sure her husband was killed). We rarely hear these stories Others gently and truthfully reminded me that through an honest lens, but we need to encourage one another with the Jesus knew my pain, having grieved the loss truth: God’s family is and always has been full of people like us—broken of Lazarus, even when he knew he would raise and longing for more. Lazarus from the dead. Jesus comforted Lazarus’ The most beautiful truth is that God knows we are broken people, sister with these words: “I am the resurrection and and he accepts us in that state. He never promises he will completely fix us the life. The one who believes in me will live, even or that we will arrive at a plateau of peace and satisfaction on this side of though they die, and whoever lives by believing heaven. As Miller explains in A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, while Jesus in me will never die” (John 11:25-26). can and will make things better, he is not “going to make things perfect… This promise is why we have hope, and 1 not here and not now.” Jesus guarantees his disciples that they will encoun- Peter 3:15 urges us to be prepared to explain the ter trials (John 16:33), but also encourages them with the knowledge that hope that is within us, not our contrived unflappabil- he has overcome the world and sends his Spirit to guide them. Paul offers ity. Jesus said that the truth would set us free. When further comfort, reminding the Roman church that Christ intercedes for their we set aside our pretensions of having all the answers justification and there is no power or created thing in heaven or on earth and living perfectly satisfying lives, we are free to that can separate Christ’s followers from his love (Romans 8). accept God’s grace, to extend his grace towards Communicating these truths about brokenness is the only way others, and to knock down the artificial walls to act against the lie that becoming a Christian leads you to unwaver- separating us from meaningful relationships with ing emotional satisfaction. There are believers already taking powerful one another and with people who have not chosen to follow Christ. After steps towards that end. Dan Haseltine, lead vocalist of the contemporary all, as another sign at my half-marathon pointed out, “Humpty Dumpty Christian band Jars of Clay, recently posted a bold message on his blog had wall issues, too.” Thank you, Humpty, for telling the truth. declaring his latest record to be his “self-imposed eviction notice from a religious community that is unfit to live in.” He explains that his newest A graduate of the Messiah College Honors Program, Emily Dause is a record reflects his band’s experiences of what life around them is really full-time public school teacher and an emerging freelance writer. She like. He predicts that the evangelical community will not be able to accept hopes to use her writing to challenge and encourage believers and the band’s new focus on themes of love, pain, loneliness, and hope, but educators as they engage with the world around them.

33 bly transactioned by their families at a very in which those voices can be formed and Sharing young age in exchange for some sort of heard. When people’s souls have been lac- commodity. The violation these girls experi- erated by the wrongs done to them, individ- ence in the brothels, where they are expect- ually or collectively, openness to their voices ed to service multiple men a day, impacts all requires humbled attentiveness. levels of their being. While Mauy carries deep shame for The other's perspective becomes our own, and the what has been done to her with her family’s our love for them brings them into a new form consent, she secretly longs for her parents. of being. Attentiveness to the other is a pathway May I Have a Word? But at 14 she is still viewed as a potential towards their rehumanization—and our own. source of income for the family and is still But taking on the trauma cannot be an end in dependent on them to decide her life’s itself. Bearing the suffering of the other should course. So she periodically returns home ultimately inspire us to find the grace to trans- Shame to beg for permission to stay in school. If form it, a task that is more powerful and effective the staff is not successful in re-persuading when done in community. Mauy’s father that the professional training We must face the brutality and ugliness of they provide will grant better income in the child sex exploitation. We must face the terrifying long run, she will have to return to her origi- realization that on some level we are as vulner- I am in a van with five teen girls and a house nal “occupation” in the brothels. able to that brutality and ugliness as the girls mom from the New Life Center (NLC) in Chang Girls like Mauy spend their youth sus- are and as capable of the same brutality as their Rai, Thailand. We are going to a small rural vil- pended between innocence and brutality, parents and perpetrators are. Confronting the lage bordering Myanmar to visit the family of trapped in a life they have neither the power shame of sex slaves entails exposing our collec- Mauy, age 14. Bringing rice, clothes, and gar- nor the right to refuse or escape. They were tive shame and requires taking responsibility for dening tools, we hope to negotiate with Mauy’s born in a place where young girls are ex- the acts of our fellow humans. father so that he’ll allow her to stay another six pected to provide for families that not only The acknowledgment of shame does not months at the center. abdicate their duty to protect them but in fact mean self-indulgence in a virtuous morality nor At the NLC, Hilltribe girls rescued from sex deliver them into dangerous and humiliating another opportunity to get stuck in passive re- trafficking have the opportunity to resume their contexts. morse. It is, rather, the stepping stone to a new childhood in a loving environment that offers Confronting How can possibility of being—for us as active witnesses them education and vocational training. Mauy the shame of we know about and for the victims of trafficking, who, once freed has been at the center for a year, but every so sex slaves ... such violence from invisibility, can be healed within communi- often her father sends for her. An opium addict and fail to ties responsive to the injustice they have been with six other children to feed, he wants his requires taking partake in the dealt. By owning up to our dose of shame we daughter to fulfill the customary role of support- responsibility shame these can imagine a world in which we may one day ing the family. for the acts girls feel and share an uncommon humanity with the op- It is because of this sociocultural expecta- of our fellow the shame the pressed, in a life beyond shame. tion that Mauy was handed over to the sex in- humans. perpetrators For Mauy it looks something like this: Every dustry at the age of 8. Within a couple of years, do not feel? so often, she can return to her village, where Mauy was moved to bigger brothels, lost con- Paradoxically the shame we feel as witnesses everyone knows what was done to her in the big nection with her family, and experienced enough can serve in the process of restoration. Be- city, and, accompanied by her house mom, she brutality and violation to make her think that she ing traumatized by the stories of girls like can bear to negotiate with her dad for another would soon die or, worse, never again be wel- Mauy is an authentic, legitimate, and neces- six months of schooling and training at the New comed back to her village. Though she has done sary response. A radical identification with Life Center. In doing this, she herself bears wit- nothing of her own volition, the scars of abuse the oppressed and a willingness to take on ness to another way of life, models courage make her feel unwanted and ashamed. What their pain would prevent us from ever discon- and a new possibility of dignified self-sustaining keeps her alive now is the longing to be back in necting from their suffering. As philosopher work out in the world, and ultimately interrupts her simple village with her parents and little sis- Raimond Gaita writes: the chain of inevitable surrender to cultural vio- ters, although she dreads the thought that they lence. What a powerful cycle-breaking model for will end up in similar “jobs.” If one saw others as another perspective the whole community and for us! The story of Mauy is common to almost all on the world, as one is oneself, … one of the 98 girls living at the New Life Center. They could not bear to tolerate the brutality F rancesca Debora Nuzzo- are all of Hilltribe origins—an undocumented, to which they are subjected. That means lese is professor of spiritual destitute, tribal people living in pre-civilized con- that we must be open to the distinctive formation and pastoral ditions along the Thai border. Targeted by the voice of others, which in turn means care at Eastern University’s local sex industry, they were all sold or amica- that we must encourage the conditions Palmer Seminary.

34 PRISMmagazine.org 35 to cold water and a snack in the summer; to be willing to pray and talk and not make a judgment. The drop-in ministry center is a safe place away from the streets where they can shower, wash clothes, and get

Ministry Matters a family-style meal six days a week. We provide pastoral counseling and assistance for mental health, addiction issues, and other social ills. Many of our providers come on site to provide a service.

What are some cultural- specific challenges that you encounter in working with the men? The challenge that I find the most difficult is getting an understanding of the different cultural and subculture issues. For example, when a man comes to the ministry, he may have any number Bringing Jesus to the Streets: of issues, such as mental health, HIV, homelessness, or gang involvement, or he Sill Davis of Emmaus Ministries may be an ex-offender. These all represent subcultures, F or 20 years Emmaus Ministries (Streets. with family or other support structures, and so do age and race. Each drug has its org) has reached out to men in prostitution are poorly educated, and have few market- own subculture as well. While there can be on the streets of Chicago—men who sell able skills to offer prospective employers. overlap, each subculture has it own issues to themselves to other men in order to survive. They feel trapped in their circumstances and deal with, and each man will perceive them Through nightly outreach teams and a day- will return to the streets if they are not of- differently. The subcultures change as the time drop-in center, Emmaus staff and volun- fered hope and the tools to change the direc- main cultural attitudes and laws change. The teers build relationships of trust with these tion of their lives. greatest challenge in all of these issues is to men, working together to help them get off At Emmaus we seek to make Jesus be able to listen and not put everyone into the streets and develop a life-transforming known on the streets by walking alongside the same box. The other challenge is to avoid relationship with Jesus Christ. these men in their present circumstances pretending that you know or understand an Ministry Director Sill Davis has served and loving them where they are with Christ’s issue. If you don’t understand an issue, you Emmaus in a variety of roles for 15 years. unconditional love. We stay with them through need to ask questions in order to get an the ups and downs of their personal jour- understanding. Tell us about the men you work with at neys, inviting them to step away from the Emmaus and what holistic ministry looks streets and recognize their God-given dignity, How do you encounter Christ in the people like for you. giftedness, and purpose. you serve? Men who resort to prostitution are at great Outreach is the first point of contact The men we serve have experienced and are risk. They have typically grown up in environ- with many of the men. Teams of two go out still experiencing situations that most people ments that include physical or sexual abuse, seven nights a week year round to be a pres- could not imagine, yet they have a giving family alcoholism, drug abuse, and genera- ence on the streets to the men, to be a listen- spirit. I have seen a man give another man tional poverty. They have very few resources ing ear, give some food or a cup of coffee; to a pair of socks when he has only two—or to draw on. They typically have no contact give seasonal items, from coats in the winter give the coat off his back, saying that he can

36 PRISMmagazine.org handle the cold better than the man he just gave his coat to. I also see God in the wonder of the human body. When I see a man walk in eWORTH REPEATING the door who has HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C, cancer, diabetes, and high blood pres- sure and yet is still alive and still has the power to overcome all sort of issues and problems, I marvel that God give us so much grace to change. My Jesus is Black Because he carries the hope of his people on his What is the most exciting transformation you’ve ever witnessed in your back work? And became whatever it was we lacked There is one man who I have watched God work on, and I’ve seen him fight to Our future is sutured within his scars change. He was drug-addicted, homeless, and in and out of jail or prison. One One day he will melt the bars day he went home with a man to have sex for drugs; he said he knew when the Of every prison because we are forgiven man locked the door and turned and looked him in the eyes that he was go- He is bringing an army with him ing to kill him. He jumped naked out of the second floor window, landing on a Equipped with books for ammunition fence and breaking his arm; he ran, bleeding, several blocks to Emmaus to get So that when black kids shoot each other it's help. Today, he’s been clean and sober for six years and is helping others into with equal education recovery. He cuts the hair of the men at Emmaus and another ministry in the He knows who we are and he is that with us Uptown area one day a week each. He is a strong male role model for his nieces He is Black because he is with us. and nephews whose fathers aren’t around. He has started his own cleaning - From spoken word poet Anthony Grimes’ “Black Like Me” business to help support himself. (AGrimes.com) Watch the whole poem @ PRISMMagazine/Black-Like-Me. What Scripture has guided you most through the years? “He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases “You may choose to look the other way power. Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble but you can never say again that you badly, yet those who wait for the LORD will gain new strength; they will mount did not know.” up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not -William Wilberforce become weary” (Isa. 40:29-31). I like that when we get tired and older on our journey, when we wait on God “I have observed this in my experience of slavery—that he will give us the strength to grow and go to greater heights. whenever my condition was improved, instead of its increasing my contentment, it only increased my desire Tell us about one mistake you’ve made in your years of doing ministry and to be free, and set me to thinking of plans to gain my what it taught you. freedom. I have found that, to make a contented slave, it I used to want change for those I served more than they wanted it for them- is necessary to make a thoughtless one. It is necessary selves. When I did I sometimes overwhelmed them and actually interfered with to darken his moral and mental vision, and, as far as the change process. When you give them more information or help than they possible, to annihilate the power of reason. He must be can—or want to—handle, it will cause both you and them anger and frustra- able to detect no inconsistencies in slavery; he must be tion. made to feel that slavery is right; and he can be brought I have learned that healing is a journey and not a destination and that the to that only when he ceased to be a man.” timing and a person’s place on the journey are between them and God. I need -Frederick Douglass in Narrative of the Life of Frederick to ask God what my role is on their journey—is it to guide or be a companion, Douglass or am I to be there at all? “You can’t hold a man down without What is one piece of advice that you wish someone had given you before staying down with him.” you started in ministry? -Booker T. Washington That yes, while I can do all things though Christ who strengthens me, that doesn’t mean I need to do it all and try to be all things to all people. I wish “You follow a God who is moved by your prayers, and someone had told me to seek God more and do or serve less. We need to seek your tears, just as you would be moved by the words and God on the work of the ministry he wants us to perform; otherwise, as Charles tears of your own child. And when God is moved, you Stanley puts it, we risk doing good work, not God’s work. look up and over whatever giant is standing in your way, because God will move him. “After all, God can move mountains. Why would he Ministry Matters gets into the hearts and minds of innovative holistic hesitate to remove a mere giant?” ministry practitioners. The March/April issue will feature Nancy Sleeth of —Christine Caine in Undaunted: Daring to Do What God Blessed Earth. Calls You to Do (Zondervan, 2012), which tells the story of how she founded the anti-trafficking organization The A21 Campaign

37 The latest victories in Celebrate important justice battles SYA WHAT?

End Trafficking in Government After-birth abortion? Contracting Act: Congress heard This January marks the 40th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade your voice decision that women have a constitutional right to abortion. The US has a zero-tolerance policy In 2011-2012, more than 140 pro-life laws restricting abor- on human trafficking, yet more than tion were passed, and the number of abortions in the US has 250,000 people have been trafficked shown a slight decline over the past decade. But when bioethi- to work on US government contracts in cists consider the legalization of “after-birth abortion”—with Iraq and Afghanistan over the past 10 straight faces—and get published, we see just how much years. Unscrupulous, unregulated labor progress remains to be made. recruiters have profited an estimated In an article published last year in the Journal of Medical $625 million from illegal recruiting to support work for the Department of Defense in Iraq alone. Ethics, Alberto Giubilini of the University of Milan and Franc- The victims (both men and women) are often third-country nationals from South and South- esca Minerva of the University of Melbourne argue that: (1) east Asia hoping for a better salary. Promised a safe job in a non-combat area like Dubai, these work- “The moral status of an infant is equivalent to that of a fetus, ers accept large debts to their recruiters that they expect to pay off quickly. But many are deceived that is, neither can be considered a ‘person’ in a morally rel- and find themselves actually working on a US military base in Iraq or Afghanistan. Their passports evant sense”; and (2) “It is not possible to damage a newborn and immigration documents are held for “safekeeping”—leaving them trapped abroad and vulner- by preventing her from developing the potentiality to be a per- able to fraud and abuse. The workers are paid minimal wages and live in substandard conditions. It son in the morally relevant sense.” Thus: “The moral status of takes them years to pay off the excessive recruiting fee, and they have no means of escape. an infant is equivalent to that of a fetus in the sense that both The newly passed End Trafficking in Government Contracting Act (S2234 and HR4259) pre- lack the properties that justify the attribution of a right to life vents and deters this labor trafficking. It requires government contractors to take full responsibility to an individual.” for the actions of their subcontractors and recruiters. Contractors must notify the inspector general Minerva, who says she is against infanticide and that the if they receive credible evidence that a subcontractor has engaged in illegal conduct and must report article was purely theoretical, received multiple death threats those findings publicly. The act also extends criminal prohibitions against fraudulent labor practices, from pro-lifers. It’s hard to know which part of this story is the including trafficking, to contractors and subcontractors overseas. most absurd. This legislation is a critical step towards protecting the thousands of third-country nationals currently serving on US military bases overseas. We’re grateful this issue was a priority across the The worst toy of the year US government in 2012. The House acted on this legislation last May, President Obama announced Each year the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood an executive order to “strengthen protections against trafficking in persons in federal contracts” in (CommercialFreeChildhood.org) elects a winner of the TOADY September, and in November the Senate passed this legislation as well. (Courtesy of FreedomCom- (Toys Oppressive and Destructive to Young Children) Award. mons.IJM.org) The 2012 award went to the Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn Ap- ptivity Monkey, a stuffed primate with an iPhone in its belly, Landmark victory against gun companies who which “lets babies enjoy their very own apps while protecting supplied traffickers mom or dad's iPhone or iTouch.” Illustrating mounting con- In October, the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence cerns about the push to get very young children to use screen announced that in a landmark decision a New York ap- media, the Apptivity Monkey violates pediatrician recommen- peals court unanimously held that a gun manufacturer, dations to keep children under 2 away from any screens. Pass distributor, and dealer could be held liable for supplying the battery-free sock monkey, please. a gun trafficking ring with 181 Saturday Night Special handguns, one of which was used to shoot Daniel Wil- liams, then a high school basketball star in Buffalo. The Appellate Division, Fourth Department decision in W illiams v. Beemiller held that a gun lobby-backed federal gun industry shield law, signed by President George W. Bush in 2005, did not provide immunity to gun companies who violate gun laws by illegally supplying gun traffickers. This is the first case in which a court has held that a gun manufacturer or distributor may be held liable under the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act for supplying gun traffickers and facilitating a criminal shooting. (Courtesy of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence; BradyCenter. org)

38 PRISMmagazine.org single moms—we have to always Leading Ladies find a way. I have had to make timpson

S Undeterred career and life choices based Judge Renee Cardwell Hughes sat on the bench on the best interests of my son. of the Philadelphia Common Pleas Court for When parents—moms or dads— 16 years before taking the position, in 2011, don’t do right by their child, they heryl Mobley- C of chief executive officer for the American Red will ultimately have to look God Cross Southeastern Pennsylvania Chapter. As in the face and give an explana- a woman of color in the white man’s judiciary tion. Every time I look at my son’s world, Judge Hughes learned to listen for God’s picture, I know that I’ve done the direction, which helped with clarity and discern- best job possible—I’m so proud ment. Hurricane Sandy presented challenges dif- of him. The message that needs to ferent from those faced during murder trials, but be communicated to other women human suffering was the common denominator. is one of hope and encourage- At the height of the storm, Judge Hughes ment—stay the course, get it could be found directing area operations, over- done—in the end, you’ll be proud seeing the deployment of hundreds of volun- that you did.” teers, and procuring groceries to feed victims. Hughes sees her greatest PRISM caught up with her just a week after the strengths as “energy, good health, storm, and, in spite of a rigorous schedule, and a strong mind. God has given Judge Hughes emitted a spirit of calm. That me the tools I need.” She’s deter- calm, we learned, is nourished by a strong and mined to use those tools to make abiding faith in God and a genuine desire to sur- a difference in people’s lives. “I render and serve. work in disaster relief and her work on the believe that every day I wake up I get another “Faith is an integral part of how I live,” judicial bench. “In both positions, the goal is chance to be better. I didn’t get here by myself, says Hughes. “I’m inspired by the Bible and to make a difference in people’s lives. On the so I have an obligation to make it better for oth- firmly believe that all things are possible with bench, I made sure that the Constitution was ap- ers. I pray that my legacy will be that others got God.” She opens her closet door to reveal a plied without regard to race, age, gender, or so- to see in me ‘the possible.’” quote inspired both by the Bible and something that Muhammad Ali once said: “Nothing is pos- "My experiences have taught me to believe sible if you don’t have God…With God nothing is impossible…Impossible is not a fact, impossible that I have to be the best at what I do. It is, is an opinion, impossible is nothing.” Hughes therefore, critical that I love what I do." explains, “These words encourage me every morning. I have a need to believe, but I don’t cioeconomic status—so that justice was done. As far as disasters—natural or other- necessarily have a need to see. I pray every day In my role as a Red Cross CEO, I have an oppor- wise—are concerned, Hughes is committed to and constantly throughout the day in order to tunity to lift families up. In both environments I’ve maximizing the preparedness of Southeastern stay anchored and focused. This helps me not been able to make a difference—especially in Pennsylvania, a region that is home to 140 lan- to be deterred by what I am able to see, which the lives of women and children, who are often guages. could otherwise be a barrier.” adversely impacted.” “To this end,” explains Hughes, “we are With an ethnic heritage that is half Chero- Hughes, whose only child, son Alek, is a looking for multilingual volunteers, more males, kee, a quarter African, and a quarter European, student at the United States Military Academy at and more partnerships—across all demo- Hughes has faced some significant challenges West Point, worries about families in this country. graphics. Storms will come in life. The question in the workplace. “Long ago,” she says, “I de- “A full one-third of African American males be- is whether we are prepared to navigate those cided that I had no control over the actions of tween the ages of 18 and 34 are under the su- storms when we’re hit.” others but would instead use these negative pervision of the criminal justice system—wheth- circumstances to my advantage. People want er on probation or parole or incarcerated,” she to underestimate me and think that I don’t have notes. “And the fastest-growing population of what it takes, so I make sure that I am prepared those being incarcerated is women. Both of all the time. My experiences have taught me to these facts have an impact on our definition Cheryl Mobley-Stimpson holds believe that I have to be the best at what I do. It of families. degrees in education and law. is, therefore, critical that I love what I do. I find “The responsibility of the mother is to She is currently enrolled in the joy every day in surrendering my life to service set the standard and not deviate because MDiv program at Palmer Semi- and to God’s will.” of circumstances. There are plenty of cases nary of Eastern University, Hughes finds comparisons between her of successful men who have been raised by where she is a Sider Scholar.

39 Poor Economics in reducing poverty. For example, many devel- by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo opment economists now strongly advocate for Public Affairs building savings habits rather than borrowing. In other words, what your grandmother told you More Than Good Intentions about managing money may be more important by Dean Karlan and Jacob Appel for the poor than the latest microfinance scheme. Plume The authors follow studies that show simple ac- Off the Shelf Off cess to savings banks and reminders to save Reviewed by Bruce Wydick may have powerful impacts on the welfare of the poor in developing countries. The use of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in development economics in Duflo and Banerjee also present evidence that what are often labeled the last decade has had enormous impact on our understanding of world pov- “sweatshops” are surprisingly associated with significant reductions in erty and our evaluation of programs that try to eradicate it. These two books poverty. This unpopular idea has been the focus of research in recent years by top researchers at MIT and Yale are essential reading for anyone who has by top researchers who have found that low-wage factory employment in enlisted in the war against poverty. Both offer keen insights into the results India has accounted for greater income growth among households than the of dozens of RCTs around the world that have explored the effectiveness of highly touted “Green Revolution” in agriculture. Another study they review microfinance, educational programs, agricultural programs, and health inter- shows that in Mexico, children of poor women with steady jobs in border ventions. As a development economist working in many of these areas and sweatshops (“maquiladoras”) were taller than the children of mothers with- thus familiar with many of the research projects reviewed in the books, I still out this opportunity, the effect being so large that it reduced the stunting found the summary of this larger body of work to be compelling, especially the gap between children of these poor households and the Mexican average. commentary of the researchers on their own and others’ work. A third theme is that a more complete view of economic behavior While one might think that the academic nature of the is necessary for understanding books would make for a dry review of scientific studies in im- Many of the high-profile the plight of the world’s poor. All penetrable jargon, both books, particularly Good Intentions, programs, those that gen- of these researchers are part of a target a popular audience and are written in an engaging behavioral economics movement style that welcomes the reader into the innovative new world erate the most excitement that studies economic choices be- of 21st-century development economics. They are page- among donors in rich coun- yond the bounds of the traditional turners, and anyone interested in the issues—especially calculated economic rationality. development practitioners and those who give generously to tries, often yield a higher Self-control, reminder “nudges,” poverty programs—will find them highly engaging. ratio of fuzzy feelings for and aspirations are studied, taken Several themes emerge from these books that should into account, and allowed to shape influence the way we approach our efforts to help the poor. the buck than effectiveness policy. The first is that many of the high-profile programs, those that for the buck. Yet despite the enormous generate the most excitement among donors in rich countries, advances made in development often yield a higher ratio of fuzzy feelings for the buck than economics during the last decade, effectiveness for the buck. Both sets of authors contend that microfinance there is a sense that in some respects it still lags behind the more holistic may be one such example. Both books point to RCTs that have been carried view of human beings that has been traditionally held by faith-based devel- out on microfinance in places such as South Africa, the Philippines, and India. opment practitioners for many years. While the new work that incorporates The studies reviewed in both books appear to show that microfinance is behavioral economics into development economics is commendable for its effective at stimulating entrepreneurship and smoothing incomes but seems important advances, it still tends to measure human beings and their suc- to do little to significantly increase incomes. Some researchers (including my- cess by dollars and health statistics. It aims to generate these successes self) remain unconvinced that these studies offer the conclusive word on the through the manipulation of policy variables rather than through a focus on impacts of microfinance. Subjects in both treatment and control groups in the individual development of character, values, aspirations, and commu- these studies had other access to microfinance, meaning that while the rate nity. This approach to working with human beings in poverty has been long of treatment was higher in the treatment groups, there is reason to believe upheld by some of the best Christian NGOs in their daily work with the poor that the average impact of credit taken from the “marginal borrowers” induced in the developing world. While development practitioners working in faith- to take microfinance in these studies is not representative of the impact of based organizations will learn much from reading these excellent books, microfinance as a whole. Even more recent studies carried out in areas in the authors of these books would learn much from their work as well. which microfinance was available for the first time to a population show bigger and broader impacts. Yet their general point is well-taken: We need to care- Bruce Wydick is professor of economics at the University of San Francisco fully evaluate even the most popular programs—indeed especially the most and a contributing editor to PRISM. popular programs—before billions of dollars in resources are allocated to programs based on good intentions and what we believe ought to work. A second theme running through both books is that it is often the unpopular and the mundane aspects of economic life that are the most effective

40 PRISMmagazine.org Heresy versy, is a significant strength of Coren’s work. by Michael Coren Such is not always the case in works offered to McClelland and Stewart a popular audience rather than to the expert. Arguably his most insightful work is done Exposing Myths about Christianity in Chapter 8, “Christians Oppose Progress by Jeffrey Burton Russell and Change.” Coren offers several examples InterVarsity Press of shifts in cultural attitudes and practices that were precipitated by Christians. These Reviewed by Kenneth H. Miller examples include antislavery champion Wil- liam Wilberforce and antidiscrimination leader In recent years atheism has taken on a decidedly aggressive tone toward be- Martin Luther King, Jr. Regarding the latter, the author demonstrates the lieving people in general and Christians in particular. While little, if anything, incomprehensibility of King without his specifically Christian motivation. He new by way of argument actually characterizes the “new atheism,” it is a was not “simply” a cultural change agent for a race; he was a Christian, and stridently militant stance assumed by Dawkins, Dennett, Hitchens, Harris, et it is a great deception to minimize the fact. al., in their campaign to marginalize, if not eradicate, Christian belief. In E xposing Myths about Christianity: A Guide to Answering 145 Viral But the direct challenges to Christian faith are not the only ones apolo- Lies and Legends, Jeffrey Burton Russell writes a different book, yet one gists have had to manage recently. Perhaps in a more subtle way, the cred- pointing in the same direction. He systematically takes the reader through all ibility of the Bible and its portrayal of Jesus have been called into question 145, organized under eight headings. The arrangement offers the advantage through Dan Brown’s popular work, T he DaVinci Code. Assumptions concern- of a reference volume, with answers readily available for believers encounter- ing vested interests and ecclesiastical power as the major contributors to the ing specific objections to the faith. An extensive chronology constitutes the shape of the Bible as we know it have found their way into common accep- bulk of the book’s introduction, giving further value as a reference volume. tance by people who will never read The God Delusion. How should Christians After refuting the idea that Christianity is dying out and that its death is respond to both types of challenges? What resources might be on offer to a good thing, Russell turns attention to ideas made more prominent by Rich- bolster the confidence of believers who are asked about the reasons for their ard Dawkins, namely that Christianity is anti-environment, sexist, homopho- continued faithfulness to a supposedly discredited story? bic, racist, antidemocratic, destructive to the minds of children, promoting of Michael Coren and Jeffrey Burton Russell have offered such resources. slavery, and responsible for the existence of war itself (to name just a few of Though coming from different vantage points and likely appealing to differ- the alleged malignancies). In many cases the lies and legends are exposed ent readerships, these authors list the specific challenges and demonstrate as fraudulent charges simply by spelling out their premises in clear fashion; either their fictitious character or their irrelevance to the debate between for others, such as the charge of anti-Semitism, more extended treatment is belief and atheism. And while the number of alleged lies the respective au- given due to the seriousness and the long history of the question. thors wish to expose varies greatly (10 and 145, respectively), there is broad Russell’s list of lies and legends goes beyond those stemming from agreement about the topics in greatest need of clarity. Each addresses not nonbelievers; he also includes a segment of “intramural” misunderstandings only such traditional apologetic concerns as the status of the Bible, theodicy, and accusations, particularly under the heading of “Christian Beliefs That the plausibility of miracles, and the challenge of religious pluralism but also Have Been Shown to Be Wrong.” These include charges and countercharges more recent concerns such as the alleged anti-scientific bias of Christianity from both fundamentalist and Catholic or Orthodox popular beliefs. While not and the culpability of Christianity in a variety of the world’s ills. everyone will agree that he has handled each such legend properly, he does Let’s look first at Coren’s H eresy: Ten Lies They Spread about Christi- so evenly and fairly. anity. For those who haven’t heard of him (which means most of us outside The section dealing with science and the supposed opposition to it Canada), we’ll begin with a word about the author, since his own spiritual from Christians is helpful as well. The most extensive single refutation deals pilgrimage explains in some measure his interest in getting the facts of the with the charge that nature offers no evidence of intelligent purpose in the case correctly. Born Jewish, he converted to Catholicism, then to evangelical universe, and it is well informed both from a scientific and a philosophical Christianity, through which he was eventually reunited to the Catholic Church. perspective. The issue concludes with an appeal to philosopher Antony Flew, He is a journalist by training and profession, active both in print and on the longtime atheist who late in life changed his mind, based on the evidence television with a provocative style designed to garner attention. His views are he had evaluated throughout his long career. quite well informed, drawing from sources familiar to both evangelicals and Each book has something to offer. Both give satisfactory accountings conservative Roman Catholics. for the truth regarding the early development of essential doctrines; both Coren begins, however, with an introduction crafted to raise the level of offer readily accessible answers and resources for the most common chal- passion for that which follows, offering anecdotes from around the Western lenges to the faith. Coren’s book provides by far the better narrative of the world to illustrate the detrimental effects that Christian people and Christian subjects he covers; Russell’s encyclopedic approach assists readers with proclamation have suffered from the lies he will address. He is angry, and he specific questions. believes we should share that anger. He then proceeds in a fashion that takes One objection, though a minor one which may be better attributed to full advantage of his journalistic training, taking on attacks on the life and the marketing of the books, is with what could be understood as incendiary person of Jesus by quoting sources inside and outside the church in the first language in the titles and subtitles. Do the words raise unnecessarily the four centuries. That same interest in sources contemporary with the ques- defenses of those who might be given to some of the lies and legends? tions at hand, whether the time of the Nicene Council or the Galileo contro- They sound angry, even if what follows is not. Anger is in ample supply in the continued on page 47 41 Being Church Speaking of Dying by John Alexander by Fred Craddock, Dale Goldsmith, and Joy Gold- Wipf & Stock smith Brazos Press Reviewed by Maria Kenney Reviewed by Jenell Paris and Janel Kragt Bakker In Being Church: Reflections on How to Live as the People of God, John Alexander maintains Each of us was born; each will die. In our society, it that churches have been “playing the wrong is easy to anticipate and celebrate the former but game.” hard to even acknowledge the latter. Speaking of “We have a sense,” he writes, “that Dying: Recovering the Church’s Voice in the Face there must be something more than we’re experiencing, more than we’re of Death addresses that difficulty, offering churches—leaders, in particular— seeing around us.” Alexander, former pastor of the Church of the Sojourn- case studies, theology, and examples from Christian history that encourage ers, addresses a fear of commitment and accountability in our attitude more forthright and compassionate treatment of dying persons in their midst. towards church, attributing this to what he identifies as FIRES (freedom, in- In the first part of the book, the authors explain society’s difficulty with dividualism, rights, equality, and self) and the increasing emphasis on one’s dying. Among other challenges, dying invokes the fear that proximity to dying personal relationship with Jesus. He further maintains that the mission of may prove contagious, and contemporary religion has “outsourced” dying to being a reconciled body of believers—what he calls the sacred vocation of medical professionals. Instead of offering rich stories, rites, and communities the church—has been abandoned. that support the full span of human life on earth, churches often wither to a more To clarify the game Christians should be playing, Alexander proposes restricted role of service-provision related to death. Ten case studies of dying “a different model of how to turn towards the world.” pastors are offered—stories in which pastors and congregations respond to “The ministry of the church,” he declares, “is to be the church for the a pastor’s dying in various ways. These case studies are regrettably underde- world.” He contends that the form taken by the church matters, as “you veloped; a summary chart tantalizes with promise of rich narrative that goes win people to what you win them with.” Small groups within large churches, undelivered. Theological reflection is the unifying thread in the book, and the house churches, and religious orders are viable options for faithfully “being case studies drift away shortly after being introduced. church,” but “live-in church” is the most fruitful model for the sanctification The second and longer part of the book elaborates theological resources of the people of God. available in the story of Jesus Christ, in the transformed lives of Christians, and Distinguishing between membership and commitment, he emphati- in the public witness of the church. One particularly insightful approach is using cally grounds the “cost of discipleship” in the depth of grace, love, and the last words of Christ to explore what the dying might want to say within their forgiveness that are revealed in God. Only this, he maintains, enables fallen religious communities: words of lament, forgiveness, hope, expression of physi- humanity to model God’s love and thus be a light to the world. Indeed, this cal needs, care for others, commitment of oneself to God, and acceptance of the love is one of the primary marks of the church, along with unity and speak- end. In the case studies, speaking clearly about dying was extremely difficult for ing the truth in love. Through God’s love we are empowered to play the pastors and congregants. right game—living in reconciliation and grace—and to forgive one another The authors suggest that being formed by the language and stories of when we inevitably drop the ball. Scripture may help congregants to become those who have “experienced disci- Alexander’s position raises some concerns. Making a stark distinction plining that creates the habits, thoughts, and practices of faithfulness, concern between the spiritual and the secular, he states, “People are doing God’s for others, and patience with life that can be used in times of affliction.” Stories work in direct proportion to their faithfulness in using their gifts in a local from Christian history show that the church has long held a vital, direct, and church. And insofar as they are not doing that, they are not doing God’s unsentimentalized role in the lives of the dying—something that, with effort and work.” Maintaining that “all problems are at heart spiritual” and the solu- intention, may be reclaimed today. tion to them is the reconciled church, he finds “limited value” in trying to S peaking of Dying has an extremely narrow focus on dying itself, dedi- address a problem such as AIDS by trying to find a cure for it. “The real cated almost entirely to the dying person. The apparent reality that dying is need,” he writes, “is to end promiscuity and drug addiction, and those are inextricably linked with others, and also with death, grief, and lament, is barely spiritual problems in the domain of church and not in the domain of medical acknowledged. The book would be richer with Christian theology and the narra- research.” tive of Jesus’ life and death tied to the experience of loved ones and community Understanding such concepts as “serving” and “calling” as related members who are witnesses and companions with a dying person. Additionally, solely to the life of the local church, he insists that “those serious about the the book largely assumes that dying is something the individual is cognizant of; it church won’t be available at work for repeated 50-hour weeks.” Alexander doesn’t explore the dying of children, sudden death, or other instances in which is right to question the valuing of career over church; yet our problems are reflection upon one’s own dying isn’t fully possible. not completely spiritual, and nor were the healings provided by Jesus or the The book offers valuable encouragement toward reflection and spiritual early church. (The examples of neurosurgeon Ben Carson and C. Everett formation, even in the process of dying, and emphasizes the promise of hope Koop also come to mind.) This belief is perhaps connected to his equating and resurrection. But on its own this approach seems to overemphasize death the local church with the kingdom of God, wherein believers simultaneously as a natural event deserving acceptance. A counter-theme might be death as call people “into churches” and “into the kingdom.” Although they certainly tragedy, both in general and in specific instances. Responses will vary to aspects are connected, they are not identical. of dying that seem natural or humane, as opposed to those that seem untimely, continued on page 47 continued on page 47 42 PRISMmagazine.org Blue Like Jazz, the if you compare it to other “Christian movies”). to come to terms with the caricature of God that Word, Deed & Spirit movie? That was my Regardless, the cosmic struggle with faith, his church proclaimed, I had to come to terms B lue first response to the which felt like a matter of life and death in the with the empty lies of the world. And while Blue news that Donald book, seemed to be reduced to a relatively brief Like Jazz as a title works to convey the smooth, Miller’s bestselling spat with God. introspective mood of Miller’s return to grace, I Like memoir had been made But whether you read or see Miller’s would have opted for something more like Blue into a feature film. But autobiographical musings, it ultimately doesn’t Like Rock, conveying wide-eyed passion and upon discovering that matter. In any form, Blue is a beautiful, messy, screaming intensity as boy meets God for the Rock former rocker-turned- honest, human story of Christian faith that first time. Plus, I never did like jazz. I still don’t. film producer Steve doesn’t resolve—like good jazz, like divine And yet, when the disillusioned churchgoer Taylor was behind the project, I simply had to mystery. And yet after reading the book or and the spiritually ignorant pagan cried out see it. watching the movie, one feels strangely confident to God in search of truth, authenticity, and So I scheduled a movie night at my house, that the way of Christ, which may or may not align meaning to this life, they both ended up in microwaved some popcorn, and watched it with just right with your church’s version, is worth essentially the same place—in the open arms a handful of friends. Miller’s story of spiritual our pledge of allegiance. Open-endedness and of an infinite, loving God. God is good, the gift struggle and eventual triumph of faith—amid confident commitment are not mutually exclusive of salvation amazing, his disillusionment with church and his immersion in the life of faith. and the miracle of life into party life at college—made for compelling As with all authentic storytelling, readers/ worth living! There’s Blue is a bluelikejazzthemovie.com drama and meaningful discussion afterward. viewers see themselves in and through Miller’s no formula, no straight beautiful, messy, honest, human story of Christian faith that doesn’t resolve— like good

Everyone gave a thumbs-up in support of the experience. One doesn’t necessarily finish Blue way, no 1-2-3 to God; jazz, like movie. Like Jazz and say, “Wow, Donald Miller is cool” but when you encounter But as much as I enjoyed it, it didn’t (though he might be). Instead, you get positively Jesus, you know it. A divine quite pack the punch that the book had on me blue and self-reflective, thinking thoughts like, peace and a clarity personally. That’s no big deal, because the book “Thank you for my life, God. Thank you for putting overtake your entire mystery. is almost always better than the movie, right? up with me. Thank you for walking alongside me being, no matter where Perhaps it simply couldn’t match Miller’s gift on this journey. Think I’ll go love somebody. Do you came from. At that point, I want to break out of masterful storytelling, or maybe the actors justice. Love mercy.” in a high-intensity song with electric guitar riffs. weren’t that great. Or it could be that the viewing My road to and with God is different from A saxophone won’t do! public is so accustomed to the vivid depiction of Miller’s, and yet his authentic approach at telling sin on the screen that if a film doesn’t contain his story has inspired me to think about my own. a quota of flesh, blood, irreverence, f-bombs, While Miller ran from the god of his upbringing, or a combination thereof, it will come across a I had no real spiritual upbringing to speak of. A l Tizon is co-president bit anemic. I do wonder if a subconscious need While he rebelled toward a hedonistic lifestyle for elect of ESA and associate to be safe plagued the project, as if it had to a time, I “rebelled” to God, defying the hedonism professor of holistic maintain some level of clean so that churches that ran in our family veins. While he struggled ministry at Palmer and Christian colleges could show it without with the ridiculousness of belief, I struggled with Theological Seminary of controversy (even though it had plenty of dirt the meaninglessness of unbelief. While he had Eastern University.

43 “ S tylized Mary” 52churches52weeks.wordpress.com tylized Mary” tegrally related to “hunger” are low non- Mary living wages for soul- and body-crushing work, the poverty of poor housing and education, and lack of medical care. and Safe work and decent housing, education, and healthcare are “good things” that operationalize Mary’s call and hope Money for the poorest. Twenty-five percent of American households live on less than Washington Watch Washington A Balanced Way to $25,000 per year (around 75 million people). Balance the Budget I think Mary thought that God thought each of that of all the food these friends should be filled with good things. assistance provid- The resources for them to have the good things ed each month in they need are actually in the hands (or the bank the US, 94 percent accounts and assets) of the rich. Raising the comes from the minimum wage to a living wage, providing quality government and 6 free public education, universal healthcare, inex- percent from pri- pensive healthy food, and affordable housing are vate sources. Each public policy ways of fulfilling Mary’s prophecy— of the 325,000 and it means legitimately raising taxes on the top churches in the US 20 percent of earners who bring in 50 percent would have to add of US income. Jesus’ mom rocks. In Luke 1, Mary has the nerve $1.5 million to its annual budget to replace the I won’t go as far as Mary went and opera- to say that, because God is at work in the world, government aid that helps keep Americans out tionalize “empty-handed” by claiming that the “The hungry have been filled with good things of poverty. wealthiest should give it all away (as Mary’s first- and the rich sent away empty-handed.” Very few Churches, synagogues, mosques, and born suggested) or be taxed at 100 percent. But people have the courage to say that God is at other religious institutions and people can and if the top 1 percent were taxed at 100 percent work to send the rich away with empty hands. should continue to redistribute and reinvest the and that wealth was redistributed as Mary might Neither Democrats nor Republicans dare talk wealth of their rich into the lives of the hungry. have suggested, there would be a system in place this way about rich people. (Full disclosure: I am But we should take Mary’s prophetic word seri- for this former top 1 percent to be okay. They rich.) ously not only for our individual or institutional would be empty-handed for a minute and then When a young Palestinian Jewish girl in religious lives but also as inspired direction for be welcomed into a society that has systems in occupied Galilee is filled with the Spirit to carry, public policy. We as a society can operational- place so that they and their families would have a birth, and rear the Messiah, amazingly bold ize Mary’s magnificent proclamation by defining living wage, good housing, good education, and things get declared. This teenage phenom from “rich,” “hungry,” “filled with good things,” and healthcare. Even those who give so much are the backside of the Roman Empire made a claim “empty-handed.” not left desolate in a society where the poor are that can be reacted to in at least two ways. These will always be debated, but one of brought up and the wealthy are brought down. First, it can be written off as ridiculous if the least controversial ways to define “rich” is Mary’s view of money is more radical than Amer- there’s really little or no structure or policy in the top 1 percent of income earners (above ica can handle; it’s even crazier than the church place to help this happen other than the occa- $343,000 in annual income). But I want Mary’s can handle. But she was onto something good sional heart change within individual rich folk— voice to have more influence, so I suggest we and true, and we should support the policies that God or conscience or argument might persuade operationalize it as the top 20 percent of in- help any society get closer to it. a few people, but there’s nothing to worry about come earners and wealthy, since the top 20 per- Thanks, Mary (and PS, even if taxes are (or be hopeful for) society-wide. So maybe cent bring home 50 percent of all US income. raised on the top 20 percent, we’ll still be rich). Mary’s crazy. This is every household that makes more than Second, if Mary had some substance or $100,000 per year. In 2010 the top 20 percent *G. William Domhoff, “Wealth, Income, and system to back up this claim, those of us who owned 88.9 percent of all net worth and 95 Power,” www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/ are rich might have something to be concerned percent of all financial wealth in the US (yes, the wealth.html about (and those who are poor might have other 80 percent of Americans own 11.1 percent something to be happy about). Some of us would of the net worth and 5 percent of the financial Paul Alexander is co-presi- say that the church is God’s system for doing this wealth).* dent elect of Evangelicals for redistribution of wealth. The church does share There are in fact 46 million people in Social Action and professor radically in Acts 2, 4, and 6, and Luke claims, poverty and 17.2 million actual literally hungry of Christian ethics and public “There was no needy among them.” However, (food insecure) households in the US. There are policy at Eastern University’s Ron Sider points out in Fixing the Moral Deficit: close to 1 billion hungry people in the world. In- Palmer Theological Seminary.

44 PRISMmagazine.org other? We can choose peanut butter instead of off, and are castrated without pain relief. Cows’ A Different Shade of Green Peace pigs. horns are gouged out of their heads. After living At least three times a day, we can live out cramped in mud, feces, and filth, they are thrown our love of neighbor. Because why should our into crates or prodded onto trucks for a long begins on idea of neighbor end at our block, our city, our and terrifying trip to a slaughterhouse, where nation, our faith, our species? We can choose they are hung upside down and their throats barley over bacon. are slit. Many are still alive and able to feel pain our plates At least three times a day, we can choose when slaughterhouse workers begin to rip the empathy, compassion, and justice, qualities that skin or feathers from their bodies. Every minute At least three times a day, we have the oppor- are set aside when we nonhuman animals dehu- of their miserable lives is marked by violence. tunity to choose nonviolence. We don’t have manize one another to justify war, violence, and At least three times a day, we can remind to face down an enemy carrying a gun, brave oppression. Evangelicals point to William Wilber- ourselves that the kingdom of God has been counter-protestors, or venture into danger to do force as a peacemaking hero, one who worked here, is here now manifested in the Holy Spirit, so. We can simply pick plants over animals. doggedly to end the slave trade in England as and will be here again. We live in the tension of At least three times a day, we have the op- a direct outpouring of his love for God and his the already and the not yet. While evangelicals portunity to choose mercy over suffering. While faith. We rarely mention that Wilberforce was also are increasingly abandoning the idea that “this

______At least three times a g e V day, we can sheville A exercise holy Photo: dominion, instead of human dominion.______

we’re praying and striving for peace, pursuing deeply concerned with the humane treatment of world is not my home” and instead working in reconciliation, confessing our many shortcom- nonhuman animals and was a founding member any small capacity to make this home more accu- ings, and drowning in the midst of a million of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty rately reflect that kingdom ideal, let’s remember things that we can’t control, we can choose chick to Animals. When we choose wheat instead of that our image of what the world should and, peas instead of chicken. meat, we fully embody the qualities that allow us more importantly, can look like is found in Gen- At least three times a day, we can exer- to stand in solidarity with and care for those who esis 1 and 2. It is peaceful. It is nonviolent. It is cise holy dominion, instead of human dominion. are weak and persecuted. the whole of creation fully reconciled to God and Human dominion is power over, for selfish gain. The violence endured by nonhuman ani- one another. It is a world without death, including God’s dominion is reconciliation with, for whole- mals is systemic, sustained, and on a scale that the death of nonhuman animals. It is a vegetar- ness and peace. We can choose tofu instead of is nearly impossible to comprehend. In the US ian world. turkey. alone, 27 billion nonhuman animals are killed S arah Withrow King is the At least three times a day, we can use our each year for food. They are bred, born, and deputy director of Evan- whole bodies to promote peace. Because how raised in conditions that deny every God-given gelicals for Social Action much sense does it make to speak and work for natural instinct. Chickens and turkeys have their and a seminary student the Prince of Peace in one breath and gnaw on beaks seared off when they are days old. Cows with a focus on evangeli- the corpse of a tortured, mutilated animal in the and pigs have their teeth cut out, their tails cut cal animal theology.

45 what was lost or broken but also to cause all Wonder- things to flourish. We don’t spend enough time as Christians looking at the end of God’s great dream, recorded for us in the book of Revela- Working tion. Revelation has become something of an the Church embarrassment to us in recent generations, the stuff of late-night comic book preachers, Power but within this blessed book we see God’s won- Being der-working power in action. While the victory

On inner-city Detroit or an 8-year-old sex against death was won on the cross through the slave in the villages outside Bangkok, blood of Christ, the actualization of God’s victory we have to realize that we don’t have isn’t seen until the dream of God finds its fulfill- the luxury of choosing an either/or Jesus. ment in Revelation 22:1-5: Our world is broken, lost, and in need of God’s wonder-working power. The good Then the angel showed me the river of the news of the gospel is that God not only water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from desires to save us from death and hell but the throne of God and of the Lamb down also desires to save the world from suf- the middle of the great street of the city. fering and exploitation—these desires On each side of the river stood the tree of for God are not mutually exclusive. What life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding I still vividly recall the otherworldly song I first we hear most vividly in the defeated whimpers its fruit every month. And the leaves of the heard when visiting a local Baptist congrega- of those children who cry themselves to sleep tree are for the healing of the nations. No tion as a poor and homeless child: W ould you hungry or cower beneath the red lights and dirty longer will there be any curse. The throne be free from the burden of sin? / There’s beds of brothels can be healed through the of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, power in the blood, power in the blood; / W ould wonder-working power of Christ. We need to re- and his servants will serve him. They will see you o’er evil a victory win? / There’s wonderful ject what I like to call the “knickknack Jesus” who his face, and his name will be on their fore- power in the blood. T hese mystical words, sung hangs on dusty walls of dead churches through- heads. There will be no more night. They will with confidence amidst the smell of old wooden out America—the Jesus who has nothing to say not need the light of a lamp or the light of pews, were the first I heard of sin and evil and about the suffering of the children of the world. the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. blood. Though I would not become a follower of The Jesus we serve is able to save that boy or And they will reign for ever and ever. Jesus until many years later, this strange sing- that girl not only from the hell to come but also ing of another world would from the hell they are The dream of God is a dream of flourish- stay with me throughout my The good news in right now. ing for everyone and everything: water for the spiritual journey. While be- of the gospel is that God The American thirsty; the intertwining of urban infrastructure ing confronted with my fam- church has put far too with agriculture, food, healing, international ily’s struggles with drugs, not only desires to save much emphasis on be- peace—these are the contours of the dream alcohol, and poverty, I us from death and hell ing saved “from” and of God that spans all human and divine history! understood early that any but also desires to save not enough on being Embedded within the otherworldly words of that Jesus worth following at all saved “to”! Christ simple hymn I heard as a child was the truth that needed to be a Jesus who the world from suffering saves us from sin, God’s power is wonder-working; it is capable of could save me from both and exploitation—these death, hell, and dis- changing time and space, continents and coun- the hell I was in and the hell desires for God are not ease, poverty, exploi- tries, and most importantly the worlds of those to come. tation, but more im- who suffer in this realm and who are on their way Unfortunately, as I mutually exclusive. portantly he saves us to suffering in the realm to come. began to follow Jesus as to something as well. an atheist philosophy student at the Univer- Christ saves us to live with significance, make an sity of Michigan years after this first brush with impact in the world, experience his love, and give old-timey religion, the Christian message I kept him praise—ultimately he saves us to flourish! hearing only applied this “power in the blood” to One of the reasons our gospel has become de- our own personal sin and salvation and not to coupled from a both/and view R. York Moore is a national evangelist with the brokenness and suffering of the world. The of salvation is because we InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and the author of good news of Christ’s powerful blood is that it is lack understanding of God’s Growing Your Faith by Giving It Away: Telling the indeed able to both save our souls and trans- ultimate dream. The dream Gospel Story with Grace and Passion (2005) and form the worlds of those who suffer! of God from the beginning Making All Things New: God’s Dream for Global When we think of a homeless black child in was never merely to restore Justice (2012), both from InterVarsity Press.

46 PRISMmagazine.org Heresy and Exposing, continued from page 41 offerings of certain atheist writers; this reviewer On the Editor’s Desk would prefer a gentler answer to turn away wrath. Beyond that, thanks are due to these two who defend the faith once delivered to the saints. Hundreds of books cross my desk each year, far more books than hours to read them, I’m afraid. We K enneth H. Miller is professor of Christian theol- review what we can, I share what we can’t, and I read ogy at Evangelical Seminary in Myerstown, Pa. (eventually) what I can’t bring myself to give away. Below is a list of what’s currently on my desk—my Being Church, continued from page 42 New Year’s resolution is to work through this pile Finally, Alexander has the worrisome habit before 2014 is upon us! of arguing from silence, wherein he finds “the If you read one of these or another title of main argument” for the primacy of the local interest, we’d love to post your review on the PRISM church over other life activities and concerns. website. So let me know about your latest adventures “Most of the things we take seriously,” he in reading by contacting me at KKomarni@Eastern. claims, “are simply ignored in the New Testa- edu. ment.” True this may be, but it fails to suffice as a basis for relativizing the physical and temporal —Kristyn Komarnicki needs of the world. Addressing these points, however, best serves to further engage his thought. Alexander’s reflections on the Christian T he White Umbrella: Walking with Survivors of Sex life are clearly the product of a lifetime of learn- Trafficking by Mary Frances Bowley (Moody, 2012) ing and action and are highly recommended for anyone who would claim—or desire—to be “a Undaunted: Daring to Do What God Calls You to Do by Christian.” Christine Caine (Zondervan, 2012)

Maria Kenney lives in Lexington, Ky, where she A Year of Biblical Womanhood: How a Liberated Woman is a member of Communality, a missional Chris- Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering Her Head, tian community, and is completing her PhD in and Calling Her Husband “Master” by Rachel Held Christian Ethics at Durham University, Durham, Evans (Thomas Nelson, 2012) UK. Understanding Spiritual Warfare: Four Views, edited S peaking of Dying, continued from page 42 by James K. Beilby and Paul Rhodes Eddy (Baker tragic, or horrific. Academic, 2012) S peaking of Dying will be helpful for church leaders who are seeking to better address dying T he Devil Wears Nada: Satan Exposed! by Tripp York within their congregations, and while applications (Cascade Books, 2011) to death, grief, and lament certainly may be drawn, they will be reader-generated extensions of the T he Heart and the Fist: The Education of a book. Though the writing is sometimes poorly or- Humanitarian, the Making of a Navy Seal (Houghton ganized, with flow interrupted with communication- Mifflin Harcourt, 2011) studies jargon, the heart of the book is sound: an encouragement to foster “good dying” among In the Neighborhood: The Search for Community on believers by facing death squarely and offering the an American Street, One Sleepover at a Time by Peter rich resources of the Christian tradition for their Lovenheim (Perigee, 2010) benefit. Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error by Jenell Paris is professor of anthropology and so- Kathryn Schultz (Portobello Books, 2010) ciology at Messiah College in Grantham, Pa. Janel Kragt Bakker is associate director of the Collegeville Innocents Lost: When Child Soldiers Go to War by Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research in Jimmie Briggs (Basic Books, 2005) Collegeville, Minn.

47 2020epmellon.wordpress.com more than the bottom 90 percent. Over the last three decades, the Should average annual income of the richest 1 percent has jumped by $700,000 while the average Joe has actually lost ground. We Call The poorest 20 percent had less income Ron Sider Ron in 2009 than they did in 1979. About 50 million Americans are in poverty. it Sin? Today there is much greater inequality and less equality of opportunity in the US than in “aristocratic” Europe. Making things even worse, some prominent politicians say that our serious budget deficit means that we must slash effective programs that empower poor people. House Republicans have called for cutting $128 billion from food stamps; cutting Pell grants that help poor kids af- ford college from $5,500 to $3,000; and cutting effective foreign aid that saves the lives of millions around the world. At the At a recent conference at the University of Penn- gests at least two limits on inequality. For one, same time, they want to give more tax cuts to the sylvania, Harvard Professor Robert D. Putnam the biblical principle of justice demands that richest Americans. asked to eat lunch with me. I was delighted to every person and family has access to the pro- There are ways that public policy could accept his invitation since Professor Putnam ductive resources so that if they act responsibly move us away from today’s gross inequality and (author of best-sellers like Bowling Alone and they can earn a decent living and be dignified back toward more equality of opportunity. We A mazing Grace) has been called by the S unday members of society. Whenever the extremes should maintain effective programs that care for Times of London the “most influential academic of wealth and poverty prevent some people and empower poor people. We should spend in the world today.” from having access to adequate productive re- enough on minority urban education so that ev- Putnam wanted to tell me about the new sources, or make it difficult, then that inequality eryone, not just white suburbanites, receives an book he is working on and ask me an important is unjust, wrong, sinful, and must be corrected. education that offers vastly expanded equality question. He is appalled by the radical lack of The second limitation on inequality flows of opportunity. We should increase taxes some- equality of opportunity in the US today. And he from the biblical understanding of sin and power. what on rich Americans and tax income from wanted to know if evangelical preachers would In a fallen world, whenever one group of people dividends at the same rate as other income. dare to say what his pastor said when Putnam acquires excessive unbalanced power, they will Yes, we must greatly reduce our ongoing federal was a teenager. In the midst of Martin Luther almost always use it for their own selfish advan- budget deficit over the next five years, but we King Jr.’s great campaign against segregation, tage. need not—and should not!—do it on the backs Putnam’s devout Methodist pastor dared to So how should we evaluate the extreme of the poor. preach that “racism is a sin.” inequality in income, wealth, and power in the US It is time for evangelical preachers to label Professor Putnam wanted to ask me, as an today? American economic inequality today is today’s gross inequality what it is: SIN. If we evangelical, whether evangelical pastors today greater than at any time since 1928 just before believe what the bible says about God’s concern would be ready to declare that great economic the Great Depression. for the poor, if we believe what the bible says inequality of opportunity is a sin. That’s a great In 2004 the richest 0.1 percent had more about justice, then we must denounce the gross question. income than the poorest 120 million. If you di- inequality of opportunity and income in our In my book Fixing the Moral Deficit: A Bal- vided the total US income among 1,000 people, country today as blatantly sinful. anced Way to Balance the Budget, I argue that the richest person (one person!) would have as the Bible does not promote equality of income much income as the poorest 387! or wealth. When laziness and other forms of sin Between 1993 and 2007, more than half result in less income, inequality is appropriate. of all the increase in income in the US went to When parents rightly pass on an inheritance of the richest 1 percent. Between 2002 and 2007, Ron Sider is president of ESA skill and wealth to children, some inequality is 66 percent of all increased income went to the and professor of theology/ proper. When the economic rewards of work richest 1 percent. And in 2009-2010, 93 per- public policy at Palmer Seminary create incentives for creativity and diligence, cent of all the increased income in the US went of Eastern University. He is the some inequality is desirable. to the richest 1 percent. author of the bestseller Rich On the other hand, I believe the Bible sug- The richest 1 percent of Americans own Christians in an Age of Hunger.

48 PRISMmagazine.org PRISM Jan/Feb 2013 Vol. 20, No. 1 Jan/Feb 2013 Editorial Board Miriam Adeney George Barna Tony Campolo Rodney Clapp Luis Cortés Samuel Escobar Richard Foster William Frey G. Gaebelein Hull Roberta Hestenes Karen Mains John Perkins Vinay Samuel Amy Sherman Tom Sine Vinson Synan Eldin Villafane Harold DeanTrulear

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A Publication of Evangelicals for Social Action The Sider Center on Ministry and Public Policy www.EvangelicalsforSocialAction.org Palmer Theological Seminary of Eastern University