ALERT: The new abolition movement and the Beatitudes Society

Submitted by David Batstone on January 20, 2007 - 3:41am.

I totally underestimated how deeply I would be affected by writing my latest book on human trafficking.

Beginning in early 2006, I started a journey to five continents to investigate the mechanisms of the modern slave trade, and sought out those modern incarnations of Harriet Tubman and William Wilberforce who seek to challenge it.

In South Asia I met abolitionists working to free entire families from forced labor in rice mills and brick kilns. In Cambodia and Thailand I went undercover to gather evidence against brothel owners who coerced girls as young as 11 years old to engage in commercial sex. In Uganda, I met young girls and boys who had been kidnapped by the Lord's Resistance Army, the boys to fight as soldiers and the girls to become sex slaves of the commanders. In Europe I was shocked at the brazen trafficking of young girls into the sex industry. In Peru I found street kids abducted to work against their will for all kinds of profitable enterprises. And in the United States I found slavery in the agricultural fields of Florida, domestic slaves in the homes of wealthy American families, and the garment factories of Los Angeles and New York.

Over 27 million individuals on this planet have fallen into captivity, and they need our help. But my journey did not end in despair. The abolitionists I met - many motivated by their religious faith - inspired me to see that "freeing the captives" is not simply calcified biblical text. They are in a modern-day struggle to rescue the human dignity and freedom that God gives each individual as a birthright.

Halfway through the writing, I realized that this would not simply be a contained book project. I felt a calling toward a vocation, to become an abolitionist myself. So I resigned from my editorial post at Sojourners and began preparing an international campaign to end slavery in our lifetime. It's called The Not for Sale Campaign and it will launch the first week of February with the help of two chapters of The Beatitudes Society, at Fuller Theological Seminary and at Westmont College.

On February 6th, I will be speaking at an event on the Fuller campus organized by its Beatitudes Society chapter. The next day I travel to Westmont College for a day-long "freedom day." In the morning I speak to the entire student body in chapel, then at noon I participate in a panel discussion with other antislavery activists. A documentary on sex trafficking will be shown in the late afternoon, and a concert with the band Tremolo will play in the evening. I'm hoping that Beatitudes Society chapters on seminary campuses across the USA will help support our campaign to end slavery. It's a historic moment, much like the time when the Underground Railroad helped free African slaves on these shores.

Maybe you have asked yourself how you would have responded then? Your answer will be given now.

Note: David Batstone will be speaking for the GTU chapter on March 20th in Berkeley, CA.

» David Batstone's blog