Biblical Justice & HT - Part II

Even if human trafficking (HT) really exists -- even in Portland -- and all these millions of people are victims of heinous crimes, of crass greed, does it really affect you? After all you are not promoting this stuff and you're certainly not going out to buy anybody. Never have. Never will.

What is Edmund Burke supposed to have said, but nobody is certain? "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." Something like that. The sin of omission.

Keith Green's song comes to mind, the one about the sheep and the goats, and you remember he was quoting Jesus out of Matthew 25. How in the last days, when he comes in his glory and sits on his throne, all the nations will be gathered before him. He will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

The sheep are those who do all kinds of good things and don't even realize they were doing all that good. To them, King Jesus says, "Come on in and enjoy my kingdom."

So the goats get to thinking something nice is going to happen to them, too, when all of a sudden, the King says to them, "Depart! Go away. Hell is your reward. For I was in desperate need and you didn't help me. In need like sick, hungry, thirsty, an alien, without clothes, in prison even, and you did not look after me."

Then the goats respond," When did we see you like this and did not help you?"

And the King replies, "Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me."

There it is again. Just doing nothing is enough to damn you to hell.

OK, so maybe the poor and needy and aliens and HT victims really are your responsibility. And you are just as guilty as con-artists and kidnappers, pimps and middlemen, johns and end-users if you don't do something about these people.

But if you are going to draw up a statement on HT, it has to say something more specific about HT, like people being captured and bought and sold and freed. And you wonder about this, because the Bible doesn't really come out and say that slavery is wrong, does it? Why even the New Testament writer, Paul, tells the slaves to submit to their masters, though it stretches the theological brainwaves to think he wanted little kids to submit to rape by their Roman owners. Maybe something else is going on in Paul's thoughts at that moment, more like what you are supposed to do when you find yourself trapped as a victim in human slavery and no way to get out. Perhaps his message of submission is not directed at the masters and what they should be doing about your well-being.

After all rape is victim status to the do-ee, even though you feel very spiritually and emotionally dirty afterwards. You tell yourself it is your fault and you notice other people blame you too, but it isn't something you've done. It's something that has been done to you, no matter what you were doing before it happened. And that is what happens when you are caught in human trafficking whether it is sex or labor or body parts, right? Someone's trapped you, snared you, lured you -- treated you worse than dirt. You just wish others saw it the same way.

But what about when you are a free person, a citizen with rights even, and you find someone else a victim? Jesus' famous story known as "The Good Samaritan" comes to mind, the one where a man on his way to Jericho is ambushed by thieves who beat him up pretty badly, steal everything even his clothes, and leave him to die on the side of the road. A couple of religious leaders (what is it with Jesus and religious leaders?) come along the road thinking nothing worse than self-preservation, see the victim lying there and decide to steer clear and move on quickly.

Then a Samaritan (something like an African-American in Alabama circa 1964) comes along and rescues the victim, fixing him up, taking him to an inn, telling the inn-keeper to look after him and that he (the Samaritan) will cover the entire bill. At which point, Jesus tells his listeners to "Go and do likewise."

That is not goat-like victim avoidance.

Stephanie Ahn Mathis, our OCCV executive director, adds that when you are going down that road to Jericho and you come to your hundredth victim, you begin to think that something is wrong with the road and maybe you ought to do something about it.

Something like what happened to Jeremiah when God called him to speak prophetically to the nations, "See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant." (1:10) Talk about building a new road. The prophet intends to build a new nation - a safe and just nation.