2GC@PDX

A detour on the road to retirement

2011-02-23T21:17:00.000-08:00

They’ve never asked for a handout and till now never needed one. “Bob” and “Mary” have that expression in their eyes, the look of “we were headed toward our preferred future when a very different future just broadsided us from out of nowhere.”

He’d had a comfortable job and a growing retirement fund. An illness forced him into a way-too-early retirement. He still has his retirement, but can’t touch it for several more years. Unable any longer to handle the skilled work he had been doing for so long, he has found a thirty-some-hour a week job without benefits.

He’s thinking about going back to college to get a master’s degree in a different field, yet isn’t sure how to support his family in the process. And by the time he graduates? Though age discrimination isn’t allowed, it is hard to hide the fact that he is early-mid-fifties, that black hole of an age category between too-old-to-hire and too-young-to-retire.

Mary was a stay-at-home mom who kept busy with various church and service activities after the kids grew older. When Bob’s illness came on, she started looking for work thinking her general college degree could be of some use. However that was just when the economy took a swan dive and all she could come up with was a part-time barely-above-minimum-wage job, also without “bennies”.

As they open up about their struggles, I ask about health insurance. This is way past the usual questions, but I sense they need to talk.

“After Bob lost his company insurance, we checked into OHP (the Oregon Health Plan), but it is a totally random lottery” (for getting into it that is, except for minors). And Bob’s pre-existing would only be covered if he was in a group plan. Don’t the new laws change the pre-existing requirements, I ask? Well, yes, now, but now it is either health insurance or everything else. They can’t afford both.

What about extended family? “My father died years ago,” Bob said. “My mother lives nearby and does okay, but she can’t help us. I’ve got a brother who is on disability. Mary’s parents live [out-of-state] and haven’t talked much with us since …”

We sit quietly for a few seconds until I manage to shift topics. I explain how our food program works. We’re open three days a week – Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays 1-4 pm. They can come any day we are open for produce and bread and three times in a six-month period for an emergency food box.

They keep their eyes low, rarely allowing direct contact with mine. I ask for their identification, not required, though we ask anyway. It helps, especially with the majority of our clients not speaking English as their primary language. That is not an concern with Bob and Mary, though the official ID ensures greater accuracy on the part of the intaker. I type in their address from his driver’s license and get their names, ages, birthdates.

“Anyone else in your household? Kids?” It affects how much food we can provide for them – 3-5 days of food or about 20 pounds per person.

An older daughter found a job in Seattle back four years ago and is doing okay. A son in college lives at home. I can provide food for the son as well, I tell them, and we add his information to the database. I mark the boxes concerning ethnicity (Caucasian) and household relationship and ask them if they want to visit our clothing room as well as get the food. Maybe we’ll look and see, they respond finally giving me solid eye contact. Bob could use a decent pair of pants for an upcoming interview – he’s still looking around for a full-time job or additional work.

I explain our gently-used clothing room is better stocked for women and infants than men and children and throw out my standard crack about gently-used men’s clothing being an oxymoron. I am awarded the typical response – smiles all around. They relax a bit. When we have enough clothes, I explain, we allow four items per family member, otherwise just two. I think we are back up to four now, but I can’t really remember and wander off into useless trivia that even I don’t care about.

We’re about done with the intake interview. It doesn’t usually get this involved and we have a crowded waiting room, but I sense they need this slower pace. Asking for help is just not in their emotional DNA. They keep telling me they are used to donating food, clothing and money, not asking for it. “I understand,” I say, and I mean it.

Their savings are depleted and the inadequate income from their jobs leaves a gap that grows by the month, in spite of their best efforts. They really can’t see past the next few weeks, but maybe we can help them keep going one emergency food box at a time until he can land that extra job or their ship comes in.

“Come on down.” I lead them out of the intake room and down the cemented slope to our food pantry. “One of our volunteers will walk you through. Thanks for coming in.

An Invitation to Breakfast

2011-02-14T17:37:00.000-08:00

For those who live in the greater Portland, OR, area, I am inviting you to breakfast on March 30 to hear about our work in the Northeast Emergency Food Program. Among those sharing will be a couple of our clients, one of which I highlighted in the previous post.

This event, our 1st Annual Sustainers Breakfast, will be held at the Grace Memorial Episcopal Church, 1535f NE 17th Avenue, Portland, 7:30-8:30 am. We'll also be hearing from Patti Whitney-Wise of the Oregon Hunger Task Force, and the band, "Homemade Jam." John Elizalde, our former program director, will MC.

Jeni Broussard, my assistant, is arranging some great displays to emphasize our theme "Spreading the Net." Our goal is to expand what is already a great network to keep up with the need - we gave half a million pounds of food to 11,000 people last year.

Consider hosting a table of your friends, coworkers, or church members. Email Chris Siems at csiems@emoregon.com or call him at 503-221-1054 to reserve a seat.

Headed for his own home

2011-01-26T17:15:00.000-08:00

It was 3:00 am and frigid with a five mile walk on a fractured leg, but he was warm and happy inside. He was going home.

Brad and Cindy had come into our Northeast Emergency Food Program toward the end of summer, their eyes red and hazed with exhaustion and hopelessness. Seeing the toddler in Cindy’s arm, we asked her what they needed most. “Diapers,” she whispered. Of all the days, our supply was totally gone.

Way short on volunteers that day, we had decided to keep the clothing room closed. But when Brad and Cindy arrived, Jeni, my assistant, quickly threw it open. Brad had lost his job months before, then the home they were renting, then all their belongings were stolen from the place they’d been stored. Just about everything was gone.

Mabel, an occasional client of ours, had opened her home to them and they were sharing the sofa. Mabel, who lives close to our previous location, still comes in once or twice a year when finances get too tight to manage. She brought them on the bus that day to see if we could help them.

We did as much as we could, except for the diapers. With them loaded up with a five-day supply of food and whatever clothes we could find to fit the three of them, they all headed out the door. About to run an errand in my pickup, I broke policy and offered to help get them home. With the baby, there was no way they were even going to make it to the bus stop four blocks away. So I took Mabel and all the food and clothing, while Brad, Cindy and June rode the bus.

Brad had gone to college on a basketball scholarship, a dream that had ended before the first season began when his leg was fractured in practice and, without the scholarship, he’d had to drop out of school. He’d drifted to the West Coast and wound up in Portland getting paid disassembling cars until he was laid off and life spiraled down.

After Mabel brought them to us, he came in again until he’d reached his quota (3 times in 6 months). One day concerned as to how they were doing, I went looking for them. I knew where Mabel lived because of that earlier drop off. She said they’d stayed with her a month and had moved into one of those cheap hotels over on 82^nd. I found the place – “cheap” meant everything but the price: $1,600-a-month for a rat-infested mini apartment. The one bedroom they sub rented to a friend while they slept on the living room floor, a tiny kitchen and a bathroom completing the place. But at least it was warm and dry as winter came on.

Brad, ever looking for a better place to live, had no money to pay the first and last month rent, so they kept eking by five days at a time. With the friend splitting costs, Brad made up the rest with unemployment benefits and selling his blood for $64 a week. Nothing was left for food or diapers. They received food stamps, but those didn’t last the full month and they didn’t cover diapers. Brad kept looking for work and resorted to begging on the streets on more than one occasion.

He started coming in to volunteer for us. Through telling their story, I’d already brought in a lot of diapers, so I told them to get some – on the house! He made it clear he wasn’t volunteering to get, but gratefully took my offer anyway.

One day out looking for work, he was crossing at an intersection. A motorist, texting, looked up too late and hit him. An officer saw the whole thing, couldn’t stop it from happening. Brad showed up the next day we were open, walking with a brace, his leg fractured in two places and with permanent nerve damage. He’d come in to volunteer, walking two miles each way.

Funds were getting tighter. Unable to sell his blood because of the injury, he started running out of money before the rent was due. He called me one day, his voice quietly desperate. “No,” I said, “we don’t have resources to help with rent, but I’ll see what I can do.” I shared his story with a friend, who supplied the $120 they were short to pay their rent the next day.

Someone called and asked if we knew anyone who needed a lighted artificial tree for Christmas. I knew just the home for that tree – June‘s eyes lit up as much as that tree did.

Days before Christmas, they hit bottom. Unable to come up with $300 for the next five days, the owner said they’d have to leave. They pleaded to no avail. I found someone else who could cover the gap. It was the first time I’d seen Cindy smile. They were good through Christmas.

A long-time NEFP volunteer took them a Fred Meyer gift card on Christmas Eve. Then they got word of a duplex for rent where they wouldn’t need the last month’s rent and the owner would give them time to catch up. The owner called me to verify their story. Two days before the end of the year, my sons and I moved the family and their friend to that lovely, fixed-up two-bedroom with a fenced-in yard in a quiet SE neighborhood. All their belongings fit in my pickup and my son’s car. Except for the friend, who gladly took a bus.

The one job Brad had found was a one-night-a-week stint as a hotel desk clerk just down the street from their old hotel. It was five miles from where they now lived. But Brad was thrilled to walk the distance.

Brad, still looking for work, is back to selling his blood. Now settled in their clean rental, they’re almost keeping up – with unemployment benefits having been extended. June, drinking milk like crazy, is almost out of diapers, and at 19 months is growing “like a weed.” I miss seeing him come in now that they’ve moved further away. I keep praying he’ll find the right job, one accessible by bus. And I give thanks that Mabel brought them to the right place.

Names of all clients have been changed.

The Plight of the Nassars and Me

2010-06-03T10:59:00.001-07:00

I take my blog's name, "2GC@PDX", from an expression coined by my friend Stephanie Mathis. In this blog, I write about how I should live out the "2GC" (her expression for both the two Greatest Commandments and the Great Commission) in my own back yard, Portland, Oregon, or PDX. As always, whether in Waco Texas, Xi'an China, or PDX, my desire is to think globally while acting locally. And sometimes that also means acting globally as in aiding the ongoing work in China, helping a friend in Africa, or supporting my sister in Crimea or my nephew in Panama.

So what should I do with this request from my friend, Paul Alexander, a founder of the Pentecostals and Charismatics for Peace and Justice? I have great affinity for PCPJ and its passion for peace and justice. PCPJ has returned the favor by carrying my blog on their website. Paul and I have both extensively researched the rich and now mostly forgotten heritage of Pentecostal pacifism.

Two weeks ago Paul forwarded me an appeal from Reverend Alex Awad, a pastor living and serving in Israel's West Bank. Tony Nassar, a Palestinian Christian and a former student of Bethlehem Bible College, had just called to say that the Israeli Military Authorities were challenging Tony's family over their right to use their land as a camping and retreat center for international peacemakers. The Military Authorities were threatening to raze the buildings in a matter of days.

Pastor Awad says the Military Authorities are "doing this to support the Jewish settlers in their bid to ethnically cleanse the land from its Palestinian inhabitants," including these Palestinian Christians. Such Palestinians are not allowed, apparently, "the most basic developments on his or her land if the land happens to be in a zone that is coveted by Jewish settlers." According to Pastor Awad, Tony's family land, which has belonged to the Nassar family from before 1924, has been coveted by Israeli settlers for many years.

Pastor Awad is asking me through my friend Paul to "stand against this injustice" by sending emails, faxes and phone calls to the appropriate Israeli diplomatic personnel in my country, to show that Tony and his family are not alone. So, my question is, how do you think I should respond to this appeal? And on what basis should I choose to respond or not respond?

First, I believe that to take no action is to take action of some sort, as the Scriptures do not excuse me for negligence or omission when it comes to acts of righteousness and justice. So the next question, if this is a matter of justice, is whether I personally am obligated to help.

I do not know Tony Nassar and have never met him. But I have agreed to stand with Paul Alexander and, though I don't respond to every request, I am obligated through that agreement to seriously consider his appeals. Aside from the fact that through such extended relationships I am linked with Tony Nassar, he is also a brother, a fellow Believer and in much danger.

My obligations aside, what of Tony's plight? Is Pastor Awad correct in saying that a serious injustice is being perpetrated on the Nassar family? Maybe we should tell the Nassars to act out their peacemaking by just lying down and letting the Israeli soldiers take their land. But the Nassars stand for other Palestinians – and their own plight, while paling in comparison, is linked. If their land is taken, where do they go?

Even if I choose to do nothing, and I do not feel guilty if I don't respond to every appeal, what am I to think of this situation? How am I to react to the plight of Palestinians, Christian or otherwise, who are being removed from lands they have owned for generations? What is my "final solution" for the Palestinian problem as reflected in the story of the Nassars?

The Palestinian "problem" is complex, but complexity does not excuse me from thinking thoughts of peace and justice about this situation any more than distance does. For if I have the means to act and I see a brother in need, I must consider two things: 1) What should be done in this situation? and 2) What is God calling me to do, if anything? [I do not have the right to say "it is inconvenient" or out of hand to say "it is not my concern", so "therefore I will ignore it."]

People who base what they do on the Bible or the Holy Spirit or the Community of Faith (the Church) are often called naïve in the "real" world. Be that as it may, if I do not base my daily actions on this trinity of guides, what do I base them on and of what value are these guides to me otherwise? So what does the Word, or the Spirit, or the Church have to say on such matters?

What do you think I should do about Tony Nassar's plight? And why?

Rooms with a View

2010-05-27T11:04:00.001-07:00

Funny, these potheads are some of the friendliest, most courteous people I've encountered in my door-knocking U.S. Census enumerating. I call them potheads for lack of a better term. Being thoroughgoing libertarians, they have a live-and-let-live approach to life, including their roommates.

"Is this person male or female?"

I hate asking that question, especially when asking directly to the person who has answered the door, as in "are you male or female?" One can never presume, especially when said interviewee is 90, wears her/his white hair short, wears nondescript slacks, has a sunken chest, and speaks with a gravelly voice. I usually brush through that question in a mumble or pose it with a twist of humor. 90-somethings tend to be hard-of-hearing anyway. Why do parents give their children gender-neutral names? It only frustrates census enumerators every ten years.

These potheads are closer to 19 than 90 and they are definitely guys. The unseen roommate is another matter.

"[Roommate] was a he, then changed to a she." Pothead One is speaking.

"Or was it the other way around?" Pothead Two is speaking.

I calmly reply, "What I need to write down is how this person self-identifies now."

I'm answering the friendly potheads who are deliberating over the gender identification of one of their roommates. But they are gracious and engaged with me and I am grateful that they do not seem the gun-wielding type. Gender angst is not near as threatening to my doorbell ringing as Second Amendment angst.

Apartment complexes are different than sprawling neighborhoods mostly in that you can cover a lot of Narfus (non-response follow up) in one stop. This complex seems to be full of 20- and 30-something males footloose and fancy free on a midweek afternoon. They tend to work – and party – at night, so daytime is a good time to find them home and somewhat coherent.

Whoever laid out this complex had his own to deal with – complex, that is. It is a sprawling non-sequential mess that must make every pizza stone cold upon delivery.

Ah, but the view. Three massive Cascade mountain beauties on the clearest of days and a front row view of the prevailing rains otherwise.

But do they know their neighbors? Not any less than the more secluded (and wealthier) types higher up in the West Hills who work days and sleep nights while these footloose guys lower down the hill clean and guard the office buildings of the upper-crested people.

Potheads One and Two are firm. They don't know anybody, not even their gender-angsted roommate, but especially not the condo next door. Suspicious-acting clean-cut kid verifies his neighbor moved out months ago – and good riddance. He agrees to be a proxy, as if that act could somehow wield vengeance. Maintenance man with a funny European accent won't give me his name to put down for proxy – besides, he suddenly can't remember what he just told me about those tenants.

Proxy is when you stand in for someone else.

As in this apartment is vacant and I, Census Guy, can't vouch for it even though it's obvious through the windows that there's not a stick of furniture in the place. You see, I am the enumerator. I report. I don't verify. I can't be a proxy on my own report.

Neighbors verify. As in we live in community and we care about our neighbors. As in we're willing to take risks and stand in for our neighbors. Nice theory that doesn't work uphill or down.

Guy-in-B2 is quick to tell me his neighbors are there only once a year and otherwise they are in Mexico, or so he says with a where-they-belong sneer.

"Can I put you down as proxy to verify this Mexico place is vacant?"

"No, I don't know anything about the place."

Like a good neighbor.

I try to reassure B2 that any information I take down is strictly confidential for 72 years and I and any of the hundred other people who will handle this apartment information have sworn on oath and turning over of first-born (tempting sometimes) not to divulge. Not that anyone cares except maybe your descendants 72 years from now – if you have any descendants, that is.

Supervisor (later): "Put B2's name down as proxy for his neighbor anyway." He won't know for 72 years.

G4 has big dog, live-in fiancé, no kids. When I left a notice of intended visit yesterday, he told his fiancé he would pull a Saturday Night Live gig on me about census takers. ("80 people live here.") Thus the friendly smirk when he opens the door.

I tell him he can say anything about me as long as he doesn't divulge my actual ID information for at least 72 years. (No such rule applies to my ID, but what does he know?) I'm returning the favor to him as I write. Nice guy. Big dog. Great view. I can't vouch for the fiancé. She wasn't home.

Maintenance guy: "We have 20 illegals in the basement." He doesn't know anything about SNL, but he does know he doesn't want to be proxy. He's pulling the humor-evasion #27 technique.

Funny how few of us in this modern day are willing to proxy for our neighbor. Would make a great parable. Samaritan, anyone?

The road to a comprehensive HT bill – Part III

2010-05-13T08:24:00.001-07:00

This afternoon the Human Trafficking Legislative Planning Group will convene once again. This team, tasked with developing comprehensive human trafficking legislation proposals for the 2011 Oregon state legislative session, is a diverse body of key government and non-profit personnel. They will be working through the summer to come up with proposals by September when more legally minded hands will begin molding the material into billable form. Stephanie Mathis, Executive Director for the Oregon Center for Christian Values, is coordinating this team.

More is required than just preparing legislation. At the state level, bills do not move through the Legislature unless citizens speak up. This is where advocacy kicks in and OCCV is ready. OCCV's Human Trafficking Advisory Committee will launch next month (June) its HT Point Leader Plan of Action with a Point Leader training workshop. We are calling it "10 x '10" – ten leaders for 10 groups of 10 persons each to be recruited and trained in advocacy by the end of 2010.

The HT Advisory Committee is currently recruiting 10 Oregonians as these point leaders. We are looking for 10 people from 10 different congregations, particularly from Washington, Multnomah and Marion/Polk Counties, though other parts of the state are also welcome to participate. These point leaders will attend our training workshop in June. They will then work between June and October to find 10 other people each (from their congregation and otherwise) who will be willing to train and work with their point leaders to advocate on behalf of the HT legislation endorsed by OCCV.

In October and November, these point leaders will each sponsor a training session with their team members in preparation for the 2011 legislative session. The goal is that by the time the legislative session opens in January 2011, we will have over 100 citizen advocates to help push through the HT legislation and have it signed into law by June 2011.

Bryan Colbourne, Stacy Bellavia and I will be serving as coaches for these 10 point leaders and their teams. And we are making the following commitments to each of these point leaders:

We will pray for them in their work.
We will keep them abreast of all developments in the HT legislation and process.
We will maintain regular contact with them, encouraging them and helping them in their process of developing their point teams.
We will work to connect them with the key legislative players and also with their own legislators during the months leading up to the 2011 legislative session.
We will help point leaders arrange experts from the legislative planning group as guest speakers for their training sessions.
We will coordinate a rapid communication system with these point leaders to mobilize their point persons as advocates as needed.
We (coaches and point leaders) will meet regularly as a group during the fall season and during the months the legislature is in session for prayer, reporting and encouragement.

In addition, I am personally looking for 100 other people who will commit to pray for these point leaders and personnel and for this legislative process.

As Psalm 68:5 says, God is "father to the fatherless." There are thousands of such fatherless children, our brothers and sisters, who are in desperate need of God's protection and deliverance from the bondage and exploitation of human trafficking. The verse that follows says that "God sets the lonely in families." I can't think of anything more lonely in our day and time than being trapped in slavery and trafficking. I like to think that each of these point teams will become families, who through their advocacy will be sheltering these lonely and fatherless modern-day slaves, who have no one else to advocate for them.

We want to do more than rescue those who are currently trapped. We want to shut off the demand and trafficking channels themselves. This legislative process will move us a giant step forward toward that goal and we are looking for 10 good citizens of Oregon to join us by signing up as 10x'10 Point Leaders.

If you want to be a point leader or you know someone who could serve in this role, I'd like to hear from you. If you want to be one of the 100 to commit to praying for this team over the next 12 months, I'd like to hear from you, too. You can go to my website, http://hnkconnect.com, to send me your name and contact information. Please let me hear from you today.

Aunt and Uncle for a Weekend

2010-05-04T17:01:00.001-07:00

No real names have been used for the kids in this article

Dana, a pint-sized whirlwind of energy and bubbly emotion, doesn't slip in the door; she invades our house, commanding even the walls to open their hearts to her. Sam comes in quietly, slides into a cushioned chair without ruffling the air molecules.

We've been doing respite foster care for Morrison Child and Family Services the past few months, giving our hearts to each kid passing through our home. Some come time after time, some only once. Some live with a biological parent on the edge, others have stable foster homes or live with extended family. Some have no idea where or what "home" is.

Yvonne stayed for a week with us last summer before transitioning back to her biological mother, who after a couple years of working through issues was deemed capable of having her children back. We've had no communication with her since, but we cannot forget her ever-frantic pace and her hungry, pensive feel about returning home.

Two kinds of kids are assigned to us. Jill is in therapeutic care with Morrison, a program for kids who've suffered extensive abuse – physical, sexual, emotional – and who require special year-round education and intensive care. Bob is in regular foster care in the state's Department of Human Services. All have "issues" – the stuff that's been shoved into them comes out in all forms of acting out and garbled, porcupine-prickly cries of "love me!"

The needs of these kids, all who have experienced trauma in one form or another in their short lives, can overwhelm all care givers, so we provide much needed respite for those who do the caring – and for the kids a fun visit to the Kenyons. We share our home, our own kids, our chickens and our cats, our garden, our membership at the Community Center swimming pool – and our love.

Kim and I are not experts. We have been through many hours of training for this assignment and are required to complete ongoing training. We also attend a monthly gathering with fellow respite care providers led by our fearless leader, Buddy-with-the-Boston-accent. Mostly we just know how to open our homes to kids who don't have one.

At three, Billy lost his father in an accident. He never knew his bio-mother who was just a passing interest on the part of his dad. From infancy, he's been raised by his devoted grandparents, who at their advanced age cannot keep up with his special educational and emotional needs. The regular respite care we and others provide helps keep Billy at home with them. Their greatest concern is whether they will live long enough to make sure he reaches adulthood intact.

Jana, who doesn't remember her parents either, has been in many foster and group homes since the age of four. Yvonne hurts herself trying to deal with the pains and anger inside. Bob passed through our lives on his way back to a mother he had mixed feelings about. We watched Dana's world fall apart and felt her anger at a mother she clings to even as she knows her mother struggles to love her.

They come in all ages until they age out of the system at 18. The kids I've described are between 8 and 14, often emotionally and academically three or so years behind their peers. The majority are white, though other races are represented. We pray for these kids, whether or not we see them again. And we turn our worries about their futures into prayers that God will somehow give them a miracle – a successful entry into adulthood.

Friends ask if any of these kids can be adopted. As a society we put limits on what the state can force parents to do. And separation from biological parents, even abusive ones, is trauma that experts are only beginning to fathom. Even though these may be lovable kids, loving them full time is a stretch for most families. So much pain has been poured into these kids, it takes a village to raise them and love all that junk out of them through therapy, education, medical care, and just plain wholesome family warmth. Obviously stability is a priority concern and as respite foster parents we can help maintain that stability by being an occasional oasis.

Commonly as these kids pass through our home, we say to each other, "Maybe we should keep this one." They've been separated from their real mom (where are the dads?) or they're having to be transitioned out of their foster family. But we know our mission for each of these kids is to be the respite foster parents whom they visit monthly or occasionally or for a week in the summer or maybe even just once. We take them swimming, play board games with them, shoot some hoops in our driveway, let them feed the chickens and pet the cats, eat our food and talk with us. We let them experience "normal" for just a few, short hours and pray they'll come to know the Father's love that will never fail them.

Since our program started a year ago, Buddy reports that respite care nights per month have shot up to over 100. We are among a small but growing number of respite foster parents, a mere handful for a metro area of a million, and more are desperately needed. If you or someone you know in the Portland area can get involved in either the fulltime Therapeutic or the Crisis Respite programs, call Buddy Cushman or Roxy Wendland at 503-736-6699 and tell them Howard & Kim sent you. And Roxy would love to come speak at your church's mission groups, small groups, or community organizations. After years of being Mom to such kids, does she ever have a story to tell that will crush your heart!

Listening to Perkins Ramble

2010-04-22T13:53:00.001-07:00

Listening to Perkins ramble is like sitting under a cool waterfall on a blistering hot day. I'd heard of John M. Perkins for years, read his Let Justice Roll Down ages ago, but had never heard him in person until recently. Just shy of being 80, he has led a long life as a Believer and a Civil Rights Activist.

Representing the Oregon Center for Christian Values, I attended a forum sponsored by Multnomah University's "New Wine, New Wineskins" where Perkins was one of the featured guests. The topic was something along the lines of justice and microenterprise, two concerns of great interest to me. But I was really there just to listen to Perkins.

"The American church has lost its prophetic witness," he started as if winding up a baseball pitch on a muggy Mississippi day. "We who are people of Christian faith are so fragmented. The world has wrapped us up into little ideological bundles. So many pieces cannot make a collective witness." Moreover, he added, there is a lot of bad ideology going around and the bad ideology consolidates hate. With this bad ideology, you don't have to hate an individual, just have to hate a group.

Perkins is glad we are starting to welcome justice back into the church. That's what Jesus intended, that the church become a catalyst by which he could speak through them, and in Perkins' understanding that is what is the meaning of the signs and wonders that shall follow them. I think about the signs in speaking truth, love and justice to the powers of this world, the wonders of seeing people freed from political, economic, cultural, relational and spiritual bondage.

I watch Perkins slowly shift back and forth in his seat, less uncomfortable with the chair than stirred by inner thoughts and passions. The issue of justice is at once collective and individual. He quotes Booker T. Washington who said, "Let your bucket down wherever you find yourself." But if anything his sense of justice is deeply rooted in his faith and in the Word, not in mere pragmatism or secular theory.

Perkins' voice begins to rise in volume. He's sitting down and he's no longer young, but the preacher is oozing out in him. "Kadesh-barnea," he says. The way he carefully pronounces the place name "Kadesh-barnea," it is as if he is handling an ancient artifact, a priceless family heirloom.

"Kadesh-barnea." He may be addressing a room full of preachers and professors, but he's really talking to no one in particular, only intoning a name that conjures meaning and context for him – and he assumes for his listeners. He continues. God equipped the people over about a two year period to prepare them to go into the Promised Land and they got to Kadesh-barnea. "The greatest failure in the Bible…" His voice trails off as if images were projecting before his eyes, mesmorizing him into silence, as if that failure were being played out again in that conference room. You can see a generation of Israelites dying off right there on that hotel carpet.

"Don't receive God's Grace in vain."

"They came back the second time [to Kadesh-barnea]. We [I assume he means America or the Church today] have failed like the nation of Israel has failed. We are at Kadesh-barnea the second time. God is molding a new group of people – a post-racist group of people." You sense that there is a lot of meaning and depth between each period and the start of the next sentence.

Suddenly Perkins jabs with his verbal right hook. "The poor white cracker has nothing but his meth and sex. No Jesse Jackson. No Al Sharpton. He doesn't even have the Pentecostal Church because it has gotten rich."

Eventually he winds down and the next (young, Caucasian) panelist speaks more succinctly. Has good things to say. The conversation opens into Q&A. Humble thinkers and doers rise to raise a point or pose a question. Some of the Puppies (Pompous Upwardly Pushing Professionals) speak out as well.

"Justice is a stewardship issue … an economic issue." I don't recall the question that gets Perkins rolling again. God called mankind to subdue the earth. Jesus. Luke 4:18-19. Good news to the poor. Like reading from Cliff notes, Perkins reels off Scriptural high points. "Matthew 25 – did we do it?" He's referring to the sheep and the goats. The Old Testament Jubilee set the poor free. That's the wholistic approach. Jesus came proclaiming healing and salvation.

Perkins responds to a question from a participant who has noted two streams of thought in Perkin's reflections: poverty eradication and evangelism. The man wants to address the former for a moment, but Perkins doesn't let him go there. "This reflects a dichotomy. That's a theological misuse." You can't separate them.

There's another theme that runs through much of Perkins life and writings. Community. "We need to decide how high we want to go on the economic ladder." We need to create community and not worry about going up the ladder. His focus is on how we treat others when he says we are to pay people a living wage and not a minimum wage and my mind goes to so many people who live in my area who cannot keep body, soul and family together on minimum wage. I know I can't.

"We can't leave mad capitalism mad – it's drunk!" He verbally punches the air with that last word. This former share cropper is no socialist. "Capitalism is the best production method in the world. But it needs help. Without checks and balances, our system is getting drunk. Legislators are becoming lobbyists and inside traders."

His concern is not just about politics. He's speaking to a room full of pastors, professors and non-profit heads. He's afraid of the way we raise money these days, that we might have shut off the prophetic voice. You can't raise money and then speak truth to those who gave you that money. You have to see that your source is God.

We (meaning humanity) have always suffered from greed. But now that suffering from greed that has led to addiction. What's the solution? It's back to values. Life is not in what you possess, but is in people.

The theme of the conference is on owning the pond together. Perkins retells the familiar line. "Give people a fish and you'll feed them for a day. Teach people how to fish and you'll feed them for a lifetime.

"It's a lie!" His tone has punched the air again, drawn blood. "Who eats the fish depends on who owns the pond." The Church has to come up with collective action, has to teach the people and help them get control of some of the resources. Otherwise this poverty will turn people into terrorists if we don't do something about it. The terrorists now are those who are rich and disillusioned with their parents. He's alluding to the Detroit terrorist from Nigeria who had planned to blow up that passenger plane. The next wave, he says, will be those who feel trapped and no way out, who, I assume he means, can't get near the water to stick in their fishing pole. I understand in some small way. I know what it is like to hunt for work and not find it, to be in depression and unable to hold down a job that could cover the cost of raising a family. "The pond has a fence around it."

He returns to his thoughts about community. The solution is in community. The modern church is so weak because it is a commuter church with no place. It is a place, alright, a place of worship, not of community. The ideal is to plant churches with a parish concept. We live in community in parish. But we today do not live in community. We are commuters who live as individuals.

Perkins is winding down this two-hour session, the first in a weekend of conference. Later the same day he will address a multiracial reconciliation service as Portland attempts to find healing after several fatal shootings by police, including the one most recently of a mentally disturbed and unarmed man.

"I'm not talking about the church conquering the secular world," he concludes. "We should live at peace with all people. Becoming the prophetic voice to society."

The road to a comprehensive bill – Part II

2010-04-15T22:29:00.001-07:00

2010.04.15

This coming Monday, April 19, we convene for the first stuffing at the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) in Milwaukie (OR). We need 30 volunteers to be at 9079 SE McLoughlin Blvd. Portland, OR from 10 am until noon. A press conference with State Representative Bruce Barton is scheduled for 10:30 am. If you cannot attend, we ask you to lift up this time in prayer.

This event is one small, but critical step in raising awareness of our goal to end human trafficking in Oregon. How achievable that goal is we haven't stopped to ask. We simply work toward total abolition because not one human being, created by God, should be treated like property. Freeing these modern slaves will take all kinds of endeavors, including rescue and long-term recovery, and ending the economic, legal and social conditions that breed enslavement, trafficking, and slave marketing.

In regards to fighting human trafficking, our role in the Oregon Center for Christian Values (OCCV) is to advocate for changes in state law. These changes are needed in order to provide sentencing, prosecution and treatment of perpetrators; close legal loopholes; treat the slaves as victims instead of victimizing them all over again; provide needed funding to make all this happen; and make slavery in Oregon totally unprofitable and undesirable.

We achieved a significant step this past February when the state legislature passed HB3623, requiring "the Oregon Liquor Control Commission to include informational materials regarding human trafficking with certain license renewal notices, if materials are supplied by nonprofit organization." Funds have come in for the materials and the Polaris Project already sponsors the hotline (1-888-373-7888).

Four times a year, the OLCC sends out license renewal notices to a fourth of the 11,000 businesses in the state that sell alcohol. We will be stuffing an informative cover letter and a sticker with the national human trafficking hotline number in each of those envelopes, this time about 2,500.

By passing this highly symbolic bill unanimously, the 2010 legislative session has set the stage for a bipartisan and much more comprehensive bill in the 2011 session. Between now and next January, three important processes will be underway. One is the preparation of comprehensive legislation, a task which has already begun. Two is the distribution of these hotline stickers to 11,000 businesses throughout the state which starts with Monday's stuffing. And three is the education of the state's population to this crying need, the press conference on Monday being a key step in that direction.

So please pray with us for the following:

That we will have an abundance of volunteers (30+) at each of the four "stuffings" in the coming year.
That all 11,000 businesses will post these stickers in prominent places (the mailing is required, the posting is voluntary).
That the Christians of this state will galvanize behind this important cause and work with us to raise awareness of the plight of thousands of those among us trapped in human slavery and trafficking.
That starting with Monday's press conference, our efforts will capture of the attention of the media, officials, and the residents of this state so we can generate strong awareness of the plight of trafficked and enslaved victims.
That the OCCV's human trafficking advisory committee will find 10 point leaders from 10 different congregations and 10 point persons for each leader willing to be trained over the coming months for advocating for this legislation next year.
That we will see the needed groundswell develop between now and January 1 to make comprehensive human trafficking legislation and funding (what we call a "Cadillac" bill) top priority in the 2011 session.
That 100 people will commit to praying for these priorities from now until the legislation is passed into law next spring.

This last point, finding 100 people to commit to prayer, is my personal request. Regardless of where you live in this wide world, if you want to join that prayer effort and be notified of developments as they happen, write me at howard@hnkconnect.com. I'll make sure the OCCV office puts your name and email address on our human trafficking mailing list and I'll personally notify you whenever specific prayer is needed.

The road to a comprehensive bill – Part I

2010-04-08T12:46:00.001-07:00

2010.04.08

What can compare with the misery of those going through hell on earth as modern slaves, trafficked victims, whether 12 year old kids sold for sex or adults trapped in forced labor? But I have a sense of great hope. There is a building momentum in Oregon at this very moment over ending human trafficking in our state.

Oregon got its first law defining human trafficking as a crime on the books in 2007. In '09, the State Legislature passed a bill granting confidentiality to victims in shelter. This year they unanimously passed a Polaris Project hotline-posting bill that is moving ahead with an army of volunteers and the full cooperation of the Oregon Liquor Commission Control (OLCC). The bill was a "heat and light" generating act that is already proving its worth. Meanwhile, our own state's U.S. Senator, Ron Wyden, has been leading the push for much needed Federal funding for victim shelters.

Deputy Keith Bickford of the Oregon Task Force has been a tireless advocate in moving us as a state forward on this issue. Multnomah County, thanks to the leadership of Commissioner Diane McKeel, is developing a "John school." Local agencies and various nonprofits such as "Door to Grace" are gearing up for rescue and recovery operations. The Oregon Anti-Crime Alliance is pulling together much needed hard data on the whole trafficking picture. And other groups such as Oregonians Against Trafficking Humans are streaming out a nonstop education campaign.

Now key players are beginning a bipartisan push to pass a much more comprehensive and desperately needed bill in the 2011 state legislative session. The legislative effort is already advancing on multiple fronts.

We are working with Legislative Aide James Barta of State Representative Brent Barton's office to line up a major press event and "stuffing brigade" as volunteers convene to assist the Oregon Liquor Control Commission in placing hotline stickers in 2,500 license renewal packets. The first of four such "stuffings" scheduled for the next twelve months will occur sometime in the week of April 19.
The first Human Trafficking Legislative Planning Meeting was convened March 24 at the Northwest Health Foundation. The meeting, convened by Stephanie Mathis, Executive Director of the Oregon Center for Christian Values (OCCV), included 15 government and nonprofit sector personnel. The group laid out plans to introduce comprehensive legislation in time for the 2011 Oregon Legislative session. This bipartisan group included legislative aides to three state representatives (Carolyn Tomei, Jefferson Smith and Brent Barton) and one state senator (Bruce Starr).

Drew Olson of Commissioner McKeel's office pointed out that Washington State passed a bill the week prior, spearheaded by Shared Hope International, that 1) creates mandatory diversion for first time offenders, 2) allows for exploited children to be detained for up to 15 days without charging them (and treats them as victims), 3) increases sentencing and fines for Johns and Pimps; 4) impounds the cars of offenders with a $2,500 charge to get the vehicles back; 5) provides for such revenue to go for shelter and recovery for victims; 6) disallows offenders to claim they did not know the victim was underage; and 7) requires law enforcement to come up with a model and training before January 2011.

It was agreed that, while one thing this new law leaves out is money for the D.A.s, all this is much better than anything we have in Oregon. California is working on a ballot initiative that will include money for D.A.s. The money factor for these initiatives is important and is the primary concern in whether comprehensive legislation can pass in Oregon next year.

This group will work together over the coming months to prepare the comprehensive legislation, giving priority consideration to meeting or exceeding the level of enforcement and service provided in California and Washington, our neighboring states.
Meanwhile, the leadership of OCCV's Human Trafficking Advisory Committee is gearing up on the grassroots level for an intense advocacy push. Bryan Colbourne of Salem, Stacy Bellavia of Portland, and I met this past Monday to tool out plans for the coming year to present to OCCV's Executive Committee for approval. Plans include recruiting ten point leaders from local congregations who will in turn recruit ten point persons each. The HT Committee will provide the training and logistical coordination to prepare these point persons for advocacy work with the advent of the legislative season next January. We anticipate we'll have our kickoff training session for the point leaders on Monday, June 7.

It is no exaggeration to say that lives are at stake. Scripture is adamant that we as Believers have an obligation to rescue those in bondage among us. Reminding the Israelites that God had redeemed them from slavery, Moses commanded the people, "Do not deprive the alien or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge." (Deut. 24:17) Doing justice, according to Jeremiah (21:12), means rescuing "from the hand of his oppressor the one who has been robbed," in this case rescuing those who have been robbed of their humanity, their dignity and so much more.

Anyone having questions, needing information or wanting to help can contact the OCCV office at info@occv.org or call 503-222-2072.

Why I believe in Social Justice – Part III

2010-04-01T12:56:00.001-07:00

[If you missed Part I or Part II…]

I think I understand where Glenn Beck and others are coming from who don't like the term "social justice" and who think that churches and websites (like mine) that mention this term are (perhaps unknowing) foils for Communism and Socialism. In their minds, I am guessing, social justice speaks of radical restructuring of society and the Big Brother type of government that freedom-loving people everywhere abhor. On top of the usual suspicion of government, the current economic times engender a pervasive edginess among everyone, even Believers who talk about the Rock of Ages being their "cleft." Seriously.

For me the question is not, Who is the enemy (as in big government or Communism)? It is not which party to join or what cause to fight. It is not even trying to figure out which catch phrases and sound bites should be treated with suspicion.

The questions that need to be asked, the concerns we need to be concerned about, have all to do with what the Word says, regardless of what someone else is saying. And as I've written before, the concept of "justice" is a very, very good one, being one of the most pervasive in the Bible.

Buried in the heart of a Mosaic passage about good governance is this gem of a verse: "Follow justice and justice alone, so that you may live and possess the land the LORD your God is giving you." (Deuteronomy 16:20) Look all around that verse and what you see is a mix of instructions about properly structuring worship (religion) and government (politics). They go hand in hand more than we sometimes care to admit, for the expression of God's rule in our lives is as much about how we relate to each other as it is how we relate to God. Thus, Jesus says, the two greatest commandments are to "love God with your whole being" and to "love your neighbor as much as you love yourself." (Matthew 22:37-40; Deuteronomy 6:5; Leviticus 19:18).

Loving one's neighbor as much as one's self is all about relating to parents, children, siblings and friends. It is also all about how nations get along and how people get along within nations. Justice is part and parcel to how we express our love toward God and toward each other. Let me explain.

Many languages have word couplets. Chinese has a zillion of them. English has its share as well. Like "sound and fury" – each word has meaning; put them together with the "and" in the middle and the two-for-one phrase as a whole takes on a special meaning of its own. As with English and Chinese, Hebrew has its share of these coupled terms, what is called by techies a parallelism. One of the most striking in the Scriptures is "Justice and Righteousness" (sometimes written in the reverse).

I don't want to get too technical here because the goal is not to impress you (or to embarrass myself). So let me state it simply. The words we translate "justice" and "righteousness" are really a two-for-one that defines our understanding of God's justice, which is, by the way, central to God's vision for all that He created and called good. The word we usually translate as "righteousness" has at its root the meaning for norm or standard, in other words, "what is right". Makes sense, doesn't it? So you could say righteousness is what God intends for us. The word we usually translate as "justice" means governing or judging and has to do with judicial or governing activity at every level – or the actual act of doing righteousness or doing right. When you see justice in light of these two words coupled together, what you get is the idea that God's justice is all about putting things right according to God's way.

So, as Stephanie Mathis says, "Justice is love in action." For God is love (can't get more basic than that with God), and God's way (righteousness) of expressing that love is doing justice, or making sure that God's righteousness gets carried out properly. So justice is God's expression of love towards us.

Now I have a feeling that so far we have everyone on the same train, Beckies and anti-Beckies alike. So where does the train tend to get derailed? We'll save it for next week. [Tune in next Tuesday to "Part IV" at my "Ethics for the 21^st Century" blog or find me on Facebook.]

Meanwhile, in all soberness and thanksgiving, let's all commemorate our Lord's death and resurrection this weekend by pondering what it means to give due honor in our nation and world to what our Lord has done in bringing God's justice to earth just "as it is in heaven."

[Thanks to two great resources that anyone can check out: Kingdom Ethics: Following Jesus in Contemporary Context by Glen H. Stassen and David P. Gushee (IVP, 2003) and Old Testament Ethics for the People of God by Christopher J. H. Wright
(IVP, 2004).]

To be continued…

Evaluating our State Legislators - Part II

2010-03-04T16:20:00.001-08:00

A reader's comment earlier today provides the perfect segway to this week's posting:

"I agree--we do have a duty to evaluate our leaders and ensure they are accountable.… With the increasing complexity of lawmaking and politics, finding time to do a thorough evaluation that gains a fair understanding of what is really going on is next to impossible."

You're right, Brian, it can be a daunting task, which is why so few people even start or, if they do, they rely on sound bites and dubious cheat sheets (political parties or PACs being the most dubious). So let's take this one step at a time. As I said last post, we are not in this process alone.

No one evaluates legislative decisions with a blank slate. To make any assessment, you have to have some a priori foundation or point of view from which you begin. For example, a state-level advocacy organization such as the Oregon Center for Christian Values (OCCV) has already narrowed its task considerably to only legislation at the state and local level in Oregon.

Furthermore, OCCV is a Christian organization. Whatever does that mean? (I say that emphatically because Christian as a defining term these days defines very little.) But at least it serves as a starting point.

The challenge before us is to make certain we choose the right reference points to help us. Some people rely on particular columnists or TV personalities or even religious publications to do the work for them, but while we can rely somewhat on others, we have to know where they are coming from. Proven Christian scholars (whether biblical, ethical, or public policy experts) can be helpful. Determining where these reference points line up on the usual left-right political spectrum is not the way to start, however, for the political spectrum itself has to be evaluated and it is an unreliable reference when it comes to Christian concerns.

For all of these references and experts, the questions that must be asked (always) are: 1) What are the criteria by which they make their assessments? And, How do their criteria line up with what I believe is right?

As an ethicist I like to say that "Ethics is living out what you believe." The writer of James puts it this way: "I will show you my faith by what I do." (James 2:18) In other words, how we live and act springs from what we hold to be true in life. We cannot really live differently than we believe. We may say we believe something, but if we act differently, we don't really believe it.

So ethics, whether personal in action or public in policy, has to be grounded in a belief system. For me as a Christian, that belief system has a triple foundation: the Christian Scriptures (the Bible), the Community of Faith (the Church), and the Holy Spirit – all (hopefully) working in tandem. I doubt the Holy Spirit can make a mistake, though I can misunderstand what the Spirit is saying to me. And the same is true for the Bible, which I take (by faith) to be a reliable authority as long as I interpret it correctly (2 Timothy 2:15). The Community of Faith, well, that is trickier, but I do believe that at some level the Spirit speaks through God's people, and I consider OCCV in that category (meaning "community of faith" and "God's people").

All this is very basic, no doubt too basic for you, Brian, but as I have a mixed audience, I want to make sure everyone stays on the same page. So, to use a phrase from the OCCV's vision statement, we will work on these state and local issues as "Christian citizens" who are "rooted in the word". I'll capitalize Word, if you don't mind, so that our readers know we are talking about the specific written Word of God, as opposed to scriptures or texts from other religious or non-religious traditions.

But what does what the Bible say about issues from thousands of years ago have to do with whether Oregon bans plastic bags in grocery stores or provides health care for foster kids who age out of the system at 18 but are in legal limbo until they are 21? In The Scandal of Evangelical Politics (2008), Ron Sider states, "Every political decision should be grounded in fundamental beliefs about morality and the nature of persons."
Every political decision, which certainly includes decisions about shopping bags and health care for aging-out foster kids.

He adds, on the same page (41), that Christians "derive their normative vision from biblical revelation." We're not talking about proof-texting here or relying only on key justice or pro-life passages. For Sider, a biblical view of the world as a whole and persons specifically comes from the whole biblical story. He talks about "Biblical Paradigms", which are "comprehensive summaries of biblical teaching related to many concrete issues." And we apply these biblical paradigms and use particular Scriptural cases to illustrate a general principle, basically the same process a good sermon uses.

Now, fortunately, we don't have to go through this every time a legislative bill comes up as these paradigms apply to a broad range of issues. But we do want to start with these paradigms, making sure that we actually do base our actions and decisions on the Bible.

We'll pick this up again next week...

Evaluating our State Legislators - Part I

2010-02-25T09:11:00.001-08:00

The Oregon State Special Legislative Session ends today. As the session winds down, various media spokespersons, experts, and citizen groups will be discussing the merits of the legislators' work. But I wonder how I as a Believer in Jesus Christ am to evaluate their month of concerted effort on behalf of Oregonians.

The intention of the legislators to go home early has been hampered by some minor controversy over a plan to make these sessions an annual affair. Constitutionally they are to convene every other year, but can if need be also meet in the off-year, which they have done regularly in the immediate past. In a time when significant events such as our current Great Recession can impact so many lives so suddenly, a more regular if not full-time presence of the Legislature makes sense. But what they do with those sessions is another matter, one that cannot so easily be written into the State Constitution or evaluated in media sound bites.

From a Christian perspective, the role of government is at minimum found in the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans 13:1-7. Our authorities, which certainly include our 30 State Senators and 60 State Representatives, have been established by God, according to Paul, to do us good, which includes but is not limited to making sure that wrongdoers are properly punished. For this reason we pay them our taxes and revenue, Paul says, as well our honor. One could proof text from verse 6 that they are be working full time, but be that as it may, they are, whether they know it or not, God's servants, for "there is no authority except that which God has established."

Obviously these 90 public servants are but one segment of the civic authorities in our lives, but how are we -- and they -- to account for the past month? How have they done as far as doing us good?

In recent weeks I have been working on an assignment for the Oregon Center for Christian Values (OCCV), helping to delineate the theological foundations for their advocacy work on the state and local level. The Scriptures do have much to say about good governance and the role of Believers in helping to shape that good governance. Paul's brief admonitions in Romans 13 are but the tip of the biblical "iceberg."

Ron Sider, in The Scandal of Evangelical Political Engagement (2008), writes that "Evangelical pronouncements on the role of government are often contradictory" and he calls for a commonly embraced, biblically grounded framework for doing politics." He proceeds to articulate in the erudite fashion we have come to expect from him how that framework should proceed. In so doing, he delineates how "every careful political decision requires four different yet interrelated components of a normative framework, a broad study of society and the world, a political philosophy, and a detailed social analysis on specific issues."

OCCV has already determined what it believes to be a political philosophy founded on the Scriptures and out of that has given much focus and effort to three specific bills in this legislative session which it believes fulfill Paul's teachings concerning "doing us good." Two of these bills it has endorsed and testified concerning: HB 3623 and HB 3664. On a third, HB 3703, it has given careful consideration. These three bills concern themselves with public safety and public health, specifically fighting human trafficking, promoting the welfare of children in the care of the state, and providing food safety for small children. For more information on OCCV's positions on these issues, you are welcome to go to www.occv.org.

On each of these bills, OCCV followed its usual pattern of careful research and analysis, evaluation, and effective advocacy, all with its political philosophy clearly in focus. That focus is threefold:

Our vision for Oregon is rooted in the Word and its understanding of Christ's vision for humanity.
We as a community of faith are called to shape public policy for the common good.
We shape public policy by advocating for biblical justice at a structural level in society.

OCCV's concerted efforts had a significant impact on getting HB 3623 and HB 3664 passed, which it determined according to this vision statement clearly warranted such an endeavor of faith.

But what of all the other bills that the State Legislature has wrestled with? What of the bills it has passed into law or rejected? How do these laws and actions line up with the biblical mandate to do us good?

As an individual citizen, I am to do my civic (and biblical) duty in closely examining and evaluating the work of the Legislature. As a Believer, I am to do so according to the Word and its mandate that government is instituted by God to serve the common good. In fulfilling these obligations, I pay due honor to my authorities. Fortunately, I don't have to do this work alone, for I am part of a great Community of Faith with which I can fulfill my supreme obligations to my God and to my neighbors (Luke 10:27).

To be continued...

HB3623 – On to the State Senate

2010-02-18T09:33:00.001-08:00

The human trafficking hotline bill passed the Oregon State House unanimously last week as reported in the OCCV news release that follows. This past Tuesday I picked up my son, Stephen, from college and we drove once again to the state capital in Salem where I presented testimony on behalf of OCCV to the Senate Human Services Committee. After hearing several testimonies – including from the legislative sponsors, and two people who have been spearheading this fight against human trafficking in Oregon, Sherriff Deputy Keith Bickford and County Commissioner Diane McKeel – the Committee unanimously passed the bill.

Stephen and I then helped Stephanie Mathis, the OCCV Executive Director, visit every one of the 30 State Senators' offices and ask them to vote for the bill when it comes to the Senate Floor later this session. Stephen and I dropped in on to see our own legislators, Senator Mark Hass and Representative Tobias Read, and their great Aides Ryan and Eva. I also introduced Stephen to Legislative Aide James Barta. James works with Representative Brent Barton, one of the chief sponsors for HB 3623. James and Stephen both have something in common, as James was previously a high school math teacher, a career to which Stephen aspires.

Hopefully, the bill will come up for a vote on the Senate Floor sometime today or tomorrow, but for sure before this brief session ends later next week. We are hoping for another unanimous vote, believing that this bill can serve as "heat and light" for an issue in our state that demands even far greater attention from the legislators in next year's full session.

Most people have no idea human trafficking is a significant issue in our own state. Human Trafficking was written into the state's law books only as recently as 2007. Last year, the State Legislature passed SB 839 which among other things granted "confidentiality status" to victims of human trafficking. This year it is HB 3623 which promotes a human trafficking hotline number and sticker through the Oregon Liquor Licensing Control Commission's license renewal mailings to 12,000 retail centers. Next year we are praying for legislation to be passed that will be much more comprehensive.

What more needs to be done? Human Trafficking is on the law books, but are there any teeth to the law? What kind of sentencing provisions are provided, if any? What can we learn from New York's Safe Harbor Act and similar laws in California? What can we learn from the example of how Dallas, Texas, treats victims as victims and goes after the pimps and traffickers as well as the johns? Laws need funding to function, a point New York's Safe Harbor Act has made painfully clear.

In our own state, Bickford, McKeel and others are leading the way in changing the way human trafficking is understood and dealt with, particularly in Multnomah County. But with the I-5 and I-84 corridors, HT is a statewide problem. And it is not just a concern of rescue and recovery, but finding ways to shut the door on the entry end of human trafficking. Most crucially, human trafficking is all about supply and demand. Cut off the demand, make human trafficking unprofitable and painful even to the perpetrators and the supply will dry up.

Already plans are being laid to work toward the 2011 legislative session as soon as this session closes next week. There is a whole year to get ready. Unfortunately, for those enslaved or about to be, a year is a long time to waste in the life of even one victim.

For now, we are grateful for all who are helping HB 3623 become law. If you are a resident of Oregon, please contact your State Senator and urge her or him to make it a unanimous vote in the next few days. Send a message that Oregon cares about all of its citizens, even the "least of these" among us (Matthew 25:45).

***

Two other bills in this legislative session are also of concern. HB 3703 bans the use of Bisphenol A, a ubiquitous toxic chemical, which disproportionally affects the most vulnerable among us, namely our children. Since the 1960s, BPA has been used to make hard plastic polycarbonate bottles, like Nalgene, sippy cups for toddlers, and the linings of food and beverage cans, including the cans used to hold infant formula and soda. HB 3703 basically bans BPA from being used in containers intended primarily for consumption by children under three years of age. The bill is currently in the House Rules Committee, where Dr. Andy Harris has presented written testimony on behalf of OCCV in support of this bill.

HB 3664 is a bill that would extend health care benefits to foster children who age out of foster care, but who have not yet reached age 21. I wrote a member of the Ways and Means Committee this morning: "As an individual voter, I am very much in favor of our state extending health care to foster children who have aged out of foster care until they reach age 21. I believe that we as a State have a responsibility to these children to help them achieve full adulthood. As the father of four children ages 14 to 21, I well understand that none of them are ready to be on their own by age 18. As a Christian, I believe that we as a society have a responsibility to care for the fatherless and orphans. As a citizen, I am concerned that when we do not fulfill our responsibility towards the weak and the vulnerable, we pass on one generation's injustices to the next and we as a society pay for these injustices one way or another. In that an ounce of prevention is always cheaper than a pound of cure, I urge Representative Barker to vote for HB 3664 extending health care to age 21 for foster children who have aged out of foster care."

***

OCCV News Release:

Human Trafficking Bill Unanimously Passes House and Senate Human Services Committee

The Oregon Center for Christian Values mobilizes advocates to support State Anti-trafficking bill.

The Oregon State House and Senate Human Services Committee unanimously passed HB 3623 which allows the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) to include informational stickers with the National Trafficking Hotline Number to all 11,000 licensees across the state.

The estimated average age for a victim's first encounter with forced prostitution is thirteen. Because of the I-5 corridor, Oregon has become a hub for traffickers moving victims along the West Coast.

The bill's sponsors, Representatives Barton and Smith, praised the help of Multnomah County Commissioner Diane McKeel who launched the anti-trafficking campaign, the Polaris Project, which sponsors the hotline, Representative Tim Freeman (R-Roseburg), and the Oregon Center for Christian Values (OCCV). "This bill is a small first step to begin the fight against this problem," said Representative Smith on passage of the bill.

A months-long anti-trafficking advocacy effort by OCCV culminated last week with a hearing before the House Human Services Committee. At the hearing, Stacy Bellavia, member of OCCV's Human Trafficking Advisory Committee, presented testimony and introduced more than 20 OCCV members and friends from other organizations in attendance. These volunteer advocates then fanned out to visit the offices of all 90 of Oregon's state legislators, urging them to vote for the bill that could save trafficking victim's lives.

OCCV returned to the Capitol to testify before the Senate Human Services Committee with local anti-trafficking advocates and governmental officials. Senate Committee member, Senator Winters profoundly noted that trafficking is another word for modern day slavery.

"I have a lot of passion for justice," said Amy McDonald, one of four George Fox University students in the OCCV delegation. "Being able to go to the capitol and shake hands with people who have a direct impact on making changes in the vein of what I'm passionate about is incredibly encouraging to be a part of."

"It was so powerful when we all stood up in the hearing to show our support for the bill," said Lexie Woodward, Not for Sale's Co-Director of Oregon. "I feel there was and is a direct link between our organizations and the Capitol. I feel very encouraged by this and that my input was and will be heard."

OCCV's Human Trafficking Advisory Committee has served as a legislative facilitator for a host of other groups fighting human trafficking. This organizational network will coordinate efforts to recruit volunteers to help with the first mailing of the hotline stickers later this spring.

"While some bills are solutions in search of a problem," said Representative Barton, "this bill will save the life of at least one girl who would otherwise become the victim of human trafficking."

HB3623 – Before the Committee

2010-02-04T10:11:00.001-08:00

There we were outside of the House Human Services Committee hearing room, praying together that God would bless our efforts that day on behalf of thousands of human trafficking victims in our state. We filled about a third of the room as James Barta and Stacy Bellavia testified briefly and then asked all of us with OCCV to stand.

James is the very capable Legislative Aide to Representative Brent Barton, who is sponsoring HB 3623, the "HT Hotline" bill we are advocating. Stacy, who served for two years in India with the International Justice Mission (IJM) and now works for the DHS hotline, is a very active member of our Human Trafficking Committee.

Only one member of the committee had a question, a good one, in fact, asking if the Department of Agriculture could become involved. The bill authorizes that hotline stickers be sent to all businesses authorized to sell alcohol (posting them is optional), but the agricultural department can help with gas stations and truck stops. Already the state's rest stops are being covered.

In all we had 22 in our number, filling a third of the hearing room and looking very impressive, especially when we all stood. All were there in response to our appeal from the Oregon Center for Christian Values, several representing other organizations also fighting HT, including OATH, Door to Grace, Not for Sale, along with some students from the IJM chapter at George Fox University.

After the hearing we connected with Representative Barton as well as Representative Jefferson Smith, the other avid sponsor of this bill, and then fanned out to visit every single office of Oregon's 90 State Senators and Representatives. I went to visit my own Senator Mark Hass and Representative Tobias Read, and also dropped in on the office of Representative Jeff Barker, the other representative sharing Senator Hass' district.

We'll keep close track of this bill as it winds its way through the Assembly and on to the Senate in the next few days. Meanwhile we are gearing up for making this bill effective once it is passed. There is no opposition to the bill. At most, some legislators are not familiar with the issue. The greater concern we have is that while this is a legislative bill, it depends entirely on private funds and the work of volunteers to implement.

In the next few months we trust we can find printers willing to donate their time and effort and individuals willing to fund the printing of 11,000 hotline stickers (Polaris Project, which runs the hotline, provides the initial batch of stickers). We already have lots of interest from friends wanting to volunteer to stuff the envelopes at the OLCC. ("What did you do over spring break?" "Oh, I worked at the Oregon Liquor Control Commission!") The first of four annual mailings gets prepared in April. Meanwhile over this next year, we will talk with businesses who sell alcohol to make sure they are posting the sticker.

The sticker itself is currently being designed, with input from Polaris Project, Representative Barton's office and Stephanie Mathis, OCCV's Executive Director. The sticker is about the size of a dollar bill. Hopefully very soon, people will be noticing it showing up all over Oregon.

Oregon is affected by this problem more than most states. With our location on the I-5 corridor, Oregon has become a hub for the smugglers and pimps who are forcing these victims into prostitution and other forms of modern slavery and moving them north and south to cities all along the West Coast. If you want to read through more of our OCCV talking points, check the post from this past Tuesday for the link.

As I wrote my legislators, "As a Christian, I am keen to head the call of Psalm 82:3, which says, 'Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.' Not all human trafficking victims start out poor, but they all end up that way and all are greatly oppressed with no way out, their minds and bodies raped for the financial and power gain of others. I am compelled as a Believer to do all I can to speak out for biblical justice and to set the oppressed free."

If you live in Oregon and want to help, write your state legislator today, or for more information contact us at info@occv.org. If you live outside of Oregon, find out how you can make a difference in the lives of the world's 27 million human trafficking victims. Let's commit ourselves to releasing the oppressed (Luke 4:18) and making this world HT-Free!

HB3623 - Preparing for Tomorrow's Rally at the Capital

2010-02-02T10:59:00.001-08:00

There are many steps we have to take to make Oregon HT-Free. While HT (human trafficking) is very alive and all too well in our state, concerned citizens of all theological and political persuasions are coming together to fight this endemic problem on every level. While other organizations are working to develop much needed rescue and recovery operations, our own Oregon Center for Christian Values (OCCV) is leading the way in advocating with our state legislature.

Last Wednesday, January 27 our OCCV Human Trafficking Advisory Committee convened a meeting at George Fox Seminary here in Portland and invited Legislative Aide James Barta to speak to us about HB 3623 and the reasons Representative Brent Barton has chosen to sponsor this bill with Representative Jefferson Smith. Our own executive director, Stephanie Mathis then walked us through the advocacy process. Bryan Colbourne, who co-chairs the HT committee with me, MC'd the meeting.

The Oregon Legislature meets for only a short month during its off year. That brief session started this week. The hearing in the House Human Services committee is scheduled for tomorrow, Wednesday, February 3, in Hearing Room D at 8:00 am. Since we met last week, we have been getting the word out for everyone we know to come to that hearing. Stacy Bellavia will be testifying for OCCV on behalf of HB3623 if there is time, but at the least we hope to fill that hearing room to let our representatives know that we as citizens of Oregon are deeply concerned about this issue.

In the January 27 meeting, several key anti-HT entities were represented. These included Oregonians Against Trafficking Humans (OATH), Door to Grace, Women of Vision (World Vision), International Justice Mission (IJM), OAASIS (Oregon Abuse Advocates and Survivors in Service), local churches, George Fox Evangelical Seminary, and OCCV.

The next night I represented OCCV at the IJM chapter at George Fox University in Newberg, Oregon. This chapter, led by students Amy McDonald and my son, Stephen, is affiliated with IJM which fights trafficking on an international level. On state and local issues, the Fox chapter partners with OCCV. About 20 students and faculty attended as I shared with them about HB3623 and encouraged them to write their representatives. As a result of that meeting, Amy is bringing a carload of students to the state capital tomorrow.

Over the weekend, the OCCV board held its annual retreat. Among other matters, Bryan reported for our committee on the progress we have been making against human trafficking this past year, starting with SB 839 last spring, which passed in part because OCCV advocated on its behalf. That bill protects Oregon's youth by defining and including "Victims of Human Trafficking" as a person eligible for the Address Confidentiality Program. Senator Bruce Starr thanked OCCV, "We couldn't have done it without you! OCCV is a true representation of God's mercy and love and the positive impact we can have on our cities and state when we work for the good of his plan."

In this weekend's retreat, we also took a look at our task to develop OCCV's theological foundation, a project that I have been assigned to coordinate as a theological consultant for OCCV. Our organization has had several key successes in recent legislative sessions on issues dealing with health care and poverty as well as human trafficking. It was great meeting with the board to which I was elected only late in 2009. OCCV is a wonderful place for me to call home missionally, a place I can work with great people fulfilling God's vision in our society for the common good.

So now we are preparing for tomorrow's hearing, writing letters to each of our Assemblymen as well as to our State Senators and scheduling appointments with them. If the House Human Services Committee votes to send HB2623 to the Assembly, a vote by that larger body will likely come up by this coming weekend. Then it is on to the Senate where we pray it will also move quickly through committee there, and on to be passed by the Senate and then to the governor for signing.

HB3623 should pass because it requires no state funds - and who would be FOR human trafficking? But we need much heat and light to come out of this bill so that we can generate private funds to pay for the needed 10,000 hotline stickers and to generate concern for a more substantial bill next year.

What does HB3623 do besides plaster a Polaris Project human trafficking hotline number wherever alcohol is sold in this State? It begins to let the people of Oregon know that there are thousands , yes, thousands of victims in this state who are trafficked in prostitution and other forms of forced labor. And it tells people that we as concerned citizens want to end oppression in any form in Oregon. One step at a time we march toward making Oregon HT Free!

For OCCV's "Talking Points" on HB3623, see: http://www.occv.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/hb3623-talking-points.pdf

HB3623 - The Groundswell Begins

2010-01-21T15:49:00.001-08:00

Last week Stacy Bellavia and I represented the Oregon Center for Christian Values (OCCV) at a hearing of the Human Services Committee of the Oregon State Legislature. The Committee was accepting testimony on HB3623, known as the "Trafficking Hotline Bill" in anticipation of the bill being introduced in the State Legislature's upcoming Special Session in February.

Stacy was able to present written testimony along with verbal testimony from Keith Bickford, head of the Oregonian Human Trafficking Task Force (OHTTF), and Multnomah County Commissioner Diane McKeel. They were introduced by the two sponsors of the bill, Representative Brent Barton and Representative Jefferson Smith.

The bill is likely to pass as there is little perceived opposition to it and no funding is attached, but OCCV and its Human Trafficking Advisory Committee that Bryan Colbourne and I co-chair are intent on generating a groundswell of support for this bill as we see it as a great opportunity to shed some high visibility on a problem that has gone unnoticed for far too long in our state.

At the hearing, Representative Carolyn Tomei, the Human Services Committee Chair, called HB 3623 "the first legislative step in Oregon's extended fight against sex and human trafficking." In actuality the bill really is just a first and partly symbolic step, as it is strictly voluntary and requires no funding, a key to getting it passed in this year of severe revenue shortage. What the bill does is to authorize the Polaris Project to distribute, through the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, stickers that carry Polaris' human trafficking hotline number along with a letter asking businesses to post the sticker in a prominent location. Over the course of this next year, the sticker will be mailed to almost all 10,000 alcohol license holders, with the cost of the sticker and the cover letter defrayed by Polaris and volunteer groups.

We want to shine as much light and heat on this bill as possible, hoping to make Oregonians aware of this severe problem in our own back yard. Moreover we hope to change the image of "prostitute" to that of "victim" and by doing so start to treat these individuals as people in need of rescuing and rehabilitating from their life of physical and emotional bondage. Oregon and especially Portland are on a major West Coast sex trafficking circuit and there are other forms of human trafficking in our state as well.

As was discussed at the hearing, we are intent on seeing much more legislation and coordinated effort unfold in the next several years. Such extended effort hopefully will include a future bill modeled after the New York Safe Harbor Act. Our own U.S. Senator Ron Wyden is introducing legislation at the Federal level (SB2925) to fund safe houses, which are critical to rescue and recovery operations. While OCCV does not do advocacy at the Federal level, we will be watching to see what we can support on the state and local level. At the same time, we want to focus on the front end of this trafficking problem, finding ways to stop the intake of victims through education, fighting poverty, and improving the state's foster care program. But all this is down the road at this moment.

Last night we had a meeting of our HT committee. With Stacy Bellavia (who formerly worked with the International Justice Mission in India), Wynne Wakkila, Executive Director for Oregonians Against Trafficking Humans (OATH), Jill Sherman of Women of Vision, and Shelea Molerstuen, we developed an advocacy plan for helping pass HB3623.

The next step is a meeting we are convening at the George Fox Evangelical Seminary (Portland Campus) on Wednesday, January 27, at 7:30 pm. Among the speakers will be James Barta, Legislative Aide to Representative Brent Barton, one of the bill's sponsors. We will also be explaining the legislative process, how advocacy works and what Biblical Justice is all about. Representatives from various organizations advocating against human trafficking as well as other groups, agencies and local churches will also be participating. Stephanie Mathis, OCCV's Executive Director, calls this meeting "a great opportunity to learn about and mobilize support for this important bill," to be introduced in the upcoming Special Legislative Session in February.

We have had some great colleagues on this committee, including Jim and Paula Wesphal who are stepping down to establish the nonprofit "Door To Grace" with the goal of establishing a safe house for victims of sex trafficking. Wynne is our link with the OATH campaign which is the volunteer, public awareness, education and outreach branch of OHTTF. The OHTTF represents frontline law enforcement, federal, state, and local government agencies, investigating bodies and other organizations that are actively involved in combating human trafficking in our state of Oregon. Women of Vision (related to World Vision), represented by Jill Sherman, is also a key player in the fight against human trafficking.

These and many other organizations are working on many fronts to combat human trafficking in Oregon. Our organization, OCCV, which focuses on issues such as poverty, health care and creation care, is primarily an education and advocacy group. While other organizations will focus on tasks such as rescue and recovery for trafficking victims, OCCV's primary role is in advocating at the state and local level for changes in laws and for funding for improved public security, victim shelters and other resources to combat HT.

Not all of these organizations we work with are religious in nature, obviously, but they all have a commitment to do whatever can be done to stop a very sinister form of human slavery in our own midst. OCCV, which is a Christian organization, takes on this advocacy, education and coordination assignment with the clear sense that God has called us to this task of Biblical Justice. We heed the call of Psalm 82:3, which says, "Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed."

National Human Trafficking Awareness Day

2010-01-11T13:22:00.000-08:00

Today is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. Stop and think, just for one moment: what does this mean to me?

Biblical Justice & HT - Part III

2010-01-07T11:41:00.001-08:00

January has been declared National Slavery and Human Trafficking Month. How fitting that it coincides with the national birthday celebration of Martin Luther King. How tragic that a century and a half after Lincoln liberated our African-American slaves and 50 years after the U.S. Supreme Court began forcing society to accept the advances of the Civil Rights movement, slavery still exists in the United States of America. And right in my own back yard.

I hear of a nearby pastor friend who counseled a worker from India here on assignment, a virtual slave with his every move controlled. Somehow this kind of shadow slavery in our midst doesn't seem as critical as pubescent girls trapped in sex trafficking. But I think of what I read in my devotions yesterday morning in Isaiah 3:15. The prophet's imagery haunts me: "What do you mean by grinding the faces of the poor?"

Really, the Indian worker used for his labor and the girl sold for her body are victims of the same grievous sins - greed, lust and idolatry. I hear it in the words of Isaiah when he proclaims, "Their land is full of silver and gold, there is no end to their treasures. Their land is full of horses; there is no end to their chariots. Their land is full of idols; they bow down to the work of their hands; to what their fingers have made." Isaiah concludes by saying that "man will be brought down low and mankind humbled" as a result (2:7-8). And he counsels God not to forgive such proud and materialistic people, whom he adds increase their properties, joining house to house and field to field, until they "live alone in the land," (5:8) in direct disobedience to the Mosaic laws of Jubilee.

But do we really "grind the faces of the poor"? It is a grotesque description. I doubt I have ever met anyone that would deliberately grind a poor person's face. Ok, I've met a few now that I think about it, their souls as ugly as their deeds. Then I read the Scriptures talking about the sins of omission, and I realize we share their guilt by not rising to rescue the poor who are losing face -- who are made to feel like just another cheap commodity on the market.

And yet there is something even deeper at work here. Most every Christian I know would deplore the sex trade and its exploitation of young kids, whether in the USA or in Uganda. Just as they are inclined to cry out against the worship of the human body in modern society, also a form of idolatry. But what happens to that trafficked girl and that Indian worker are really the same, whether sex is involved or not.

What makes sex trafficking or human trafficking or worker exploitation of any sort detestable in God's sight is what it does to the crown of His creative energy -- humankind. Like the loving Father He is, God made man and woman in His own image so that He could delight in them, cherish every last one of them as His own sons and daughters. As with the shepherd in the parable of the one lost sheep, God goes to extreme lengths to rescue even just one of His own children.

So when we exploit our fellow man for financial gain, when we put down a woman for the sense of power it gives us, when we trade a child for sex, what we are doing is treating God's own as just another commodity, something to be bought, sold, discarded at will -- our will.

It is so easy in our modern, fast-paced world to see people as robots, never relating to that person who is bagging our groceries or handling our customer service call or waiting at the light in front of us. When we do not see people as God sees them, we treat them no differently than the pimp or john who uses human beings only to a different degree, not a different kind. When we understand that God has provided all we need, we do not need to use people to get what we think we need.

So in this month in which the plight of the slave and the trafficked is spotlighted, I hear the words of Isaiah when he declares, "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow." (1:18) And he continues that Zion will be redeemed with justice. We are, he says, to seek justice and rebuke the oppressor (1:27, 17). Let freedom ring!

Biblical Justice & HT - Part II

2009-12-17T09:00:00.000-08:00

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.

Biblical Justice & HT - Part I

2009-12-10T09:00:00.000-08:00

You are thinking that no one is possibly FOR human trafficking (HT). Maybe people assume it is far, far away from their world or they don't think at all. Only scum like pimps and johns and exploiters and kidnappers and other kinds of lowlife are really FOR trafficking of human beings.

You and Bryan Colbourne, your fellow co-chair on the HT advisory committee of the Oregon Center for Christian Values, are working on a draft of your committee's Action Plan. You've been tasked to put together the section on biblical justice.

You think about that. If no one is FOR HT, why does it even exist? Sure, you've heard vague and pitiful stories from exotic places like Southeast Asia and Africa and occasionally some hint of it here in America with women being smuggled in from foreign countries, right? American women, aren't they into prostitution for the kicks or because they need money? At least that is what people assume. Sad that underage girls get caught up in it, too, but they can always leave that scene -- this is a free country after all. Maybe we do need to rescue them, get them cleaned up and headed in the right direction and everything will be fine. Or so people think.

What is HT anyway? You need a definition for your document, so you go online and you find a couple of helpful explanations. One is from the United Nations, which makes it automatically suspect to some people, but the wording is still useful, so maybe you can call it an "internationally accepted definition": "the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation." Wordy, but its full-court solid.

Next you go to the ultimate source of all knowledge, Wikipedia. There in simpler English, it says HT is "people being tricked, lured, coerced or forced to work with no or low payment or on terms that are highly exploitative." It's considered trade or commerce in people, which has many features of slavery, doesn't require transportation or border-crossing. Victims of HT ... Whoa, stop the presses. There's the key word -- VICTIMS. These people are victims of a crime. Slavery, crime, victims. The words keep coming ... "prostitution, forced labor (including bonded labor or debt bondage) and other forms of involuntary service" -- and also "the sale of babies and children for adoption or other purposes." Whew.

Victims. Not prostitutes. Not laborers. And not just little kids. Cradle to grave, these people, every last one of them, are victims of greed. When the trafficker looks at these human beings, he (why is it always a "he"?) doesn't see persons, individuals. All he sees are dollar signs, like stuff you buy at Wal-Mart for 5 bucks and trade on E-Bay for 500.

HT exists because there is a market for the product. The product happens to be humans or, more precisely, human bodies or parts thereof. Lots of pretty girls and some pretty boys, too. But also human machines, little kids or adults that can make clothes or provide kidneys or farm fields or do really cheap labor because you and I assume they are better off than they would be otherwise. 27 million of them according to those that count such things, but nobody really knows. Because it is all underground. Out of sight. Often right under our noses, like right here in God-love-it America and super-sophisticated Portland.

Looking for Home

2009-11-19T09:00:00.000-08:00

The boy, barely 13, huddles in the night, backpack and bedroll behind, sign in front, looking for anything - cash, a job, shelter, a friendly face. I reach in my pocket for a bill I've placed there for just such an encounter.

I'm outside Portland's Lloyd Center, mega-crossroads and site of far too many pre-teen girl entrapments by cunning pimps. This boy, he's no safer. Though fewer boys are trafficked for sex, there are plenty other forms of bondage laying in waiting.

Any kid sitting out on this night in this cold with a little bit of gear is not doing this for fun. It's no Boy Scout outing, this. Why does he sit there huddled against the pillars out of the rain and not in some nice, warm home surrounded by loving parents and siblings? Kids don't just up and run away from secure love. They tell me there are 1,500 street kids in this modern, prosperous city. Countless more are stuck in hellholes of "homes" wishing they could be anywhere but.

These most vulnerable among us have a snowball's chance in Tucson of making it to a prosperous and healthy old age, captured for posterity in one of those multigenerational family photos. The odds are extremely high their lives will be hell-filled with selling their own or others' bodies, selling drugs, numbing the pain with drugs or drink, living day-by-day on crime and the halfwits of their minds left over from all this abuse. Having escaped one hell, they will enter another. They've been lied to, beaten up by, cheated on by, and kicked out by all sorts of big people from parents to pimps to pushers to preachers to politicians. And they know they can trust only Number One.

We, who will sit in our comfortable homes and watch remakings of Dicken's tales this Christmas, are tempted to think such a dismal underworld is a thing of the distant past. But the ghost of Christmas Present comes to show us that countless little Oliver Twists and Orphan Annies remain among us -- only for them there are no Daddy Warbucks or Roses or Mr. Browlows to save them.

Or are there? A growing chorus of carolers rehearses, bent on doing something concrete to rescue, better yet preserve, these kids. Some work the nights serving them on the streets. Others plot complicated rescues of sex trafficking victims. Still others plod on bravely to heal broken families, provide foster and respite and rescue homes, and find ways to break the multigenerational cycles of poverty and abuse that feed these ravenous streets.

Education and advocacy of our citizens and public servants to stir them all to action are key. This past Monday the Oregon Center for Christian Values, dedicated to just such education and advocacy, invited me to join its board. I felt as if I had found "home" wrestling tough matters of systemic suffering and public policy with them. As co-chair of OCCV's Human Trafficking Advisory Committee the past few months, I've been helping a small team forge a plan of action, complete with well-crafted statement viewing the HT nightmare through the lens of biblical justice. No one I've met is FOR human trafficking, but it will take more than mere intentions to end it.

Last week, Stephanie Ahn Mathis, OCCV's Executive Director, was invited to an important press conference. Senator Ron Wyden, Oregon's senior U.S. Senator, announced plans to introduce a bill authorizing federal funds to set up rescue shelters for sex trafficking victims. Local organizations, raising funds for just such a shelter in our city, have been hampered by a dismally weak economy and high unemployment. Federal funds are woefully short as well. But we sell these kids over and over again whenever we refuse to act. And so Stephanie represented OCCV at that press conference because we believe that the time to act is now, not after some future recovery.

Meanwhile that boy huddles somewhere in our city tonight waiting for more than a handout. No kid picks that life as the life of choice. Sin has gotten him to that place - sins of family, of society, of those who do nothing. Repentance is in order, a repentance that includes serious changes in the agendas of this state's Communities of Faith and of "we the people" ourselves.

Veterans Day PDX-Style

2009-11-12T09:00:00.000-08:00

My pacifist son, Stephen, warmly greets his older brother, Robert, on Facebook, "This is the last Veterans Day you won't be a veteran." In January, Robert joins the United States Army.

As people across the nation salute those who have served in the Armed Forces, my mind goes to a stat I heard on the radio. One out of three veterans is homeless. I tend to be skeptical of statistics, especially in a country such as ours where statistical abuse is one of the leading forms of rantings. Apparently, the problem of homeless vets was getting better until five years ago, with the situation worsening since. But one out of three?

There are lots of factors in such grim reports. A leading concern of struggling veterans is PTSD or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, the bane of combatants and sexual abuse victims. While we didn't hear much about PTSD until Vietnam, even the "Greatest Generation", as they call those who fought in the Big One, had its full share of veterans who came back with their insides torn up, even if their outward, physical selves looked whole and robust.

We stereotype people, not the least those we identify as homeless. The number of people without their own homes -- rented or owned -- has skyrocketed the past couple of years, as much the fault of catastrophic medical bills as of the preferred suspect -- financial mismanagement. But not all the homeless are on the streets or in shelters. Many hole up with family, friends and strangers or make do otherwise. Here in Portland, there is a division of labor with the city serving the single population and the county working with homeless families. Kids, through no fault of their own, account for a high percentage of those homeless stats. 1,500 alone are street kids, without guardian as well as homeless.

I wonder how many of the non-vet homeless are also victims of PTSD and other trauma-induced disorders -- poverty and abuse often, but not always, go hand in hand. And as much as we want to blame our current social breakdown on more recent culprits, a perhaps surprising fact is that multigeneratonal abuse and poverty go a long ways back. If we didn't heal the wounds in 1900, we probably were dealing with the effects of those unhealed wounds in 2000.

I was early for my appointment with Naomi Lambertson, co-chair of the Oregon Center for Christian Values. Veterans Day closings were creating an extended morning boom at Peets' Coffee Shop in the Lloyd Center district, the holiday encouraging a more leisurely attitude among coffee drinkers.

A woman was peddling a local paper. The rag -- "Street Roots" -- is published by an organization with the same name, an organization by the homeless promoting the concerns of the homeless. "Jan" graciously answered my questions, explaining how out of every dollar, she was able to keep 75 cents. Jan was aggressive in a very charming sort of way and she answered that 9 out of 10 people she approached responded warmly, even if they didn't buy a paper. Occasionally a heavy tipper more than made up for the other 10%.

Prompted by what I hoped were my nonintrusive questions, Jan shared about her son, apparently quite a scholar, studying political science at a college in California. He was obviously the star in her otherwise dark world. I have no idea the causes of her homelessness. She did venture that sometimes she slept outside and sometimes found a welcome in someone else's digs. Jan is not a war veteran, at least not a foreign war. But she's obviously fought some battles of her own and keeps on fighting through some unnamed inner resolve, perhaps because of her son.

We chatted amiably until Naomi showed up. As Naomi and I walked away in search of a shop with vacant seats, I thought of Jan, reminding myself that in this cashless age, it is still good to carry some pocket change. I also thought of all the war-ravaged "veterans of foreign wars" as we called them when I was a kid -- and of all the veterans, young and old, victims of other wars closer to home, the wars on poverty, abuse, indifference and hatred. And I thought of my sons -- and daughters -- and prayed that, whatever might come their lot in life, they would follow Jesus by never growing calloused toward the poor, the so-called "worthy" or otherwise.

A Time for Action

2009-10-20T09:00:00.001-07:00

Amazing to think that the difference between a bill passing or not passing in the Oregon State Legislature this past spring was a push by our tiny team at the Oregon Center for Christian Values. But that was precisely the case with Senate Bill 839, otherwise known as the “Confidentiality Bill,” which in the end passed both houses unanimously.

Simply put, the Confidentiality Law provides anonymity to rescued victims of human trafficking. A lobbyist for another nonprofit with ties to OCCV alerted our leadership who sent a volunteer to testify. Why would the bill not have passed if there was no opposition? Voter interest or lack thereof made all the difference in the world.

That was the start of OCCV’s involvement in domestic human trafficking concerns, an area of vital need we are now addressing alongside related issues like poverty and health care. Last night we had the second meeting of the OCCV Human Trafficking advisory committee. We reviewed various recommendations for a course of action in the next couple of years and decided to meet again on November 9. What we agreed on last night was that in the November meeting we will come up with a specific plan of action to present to the OCCV board for their approval before the end of the year.

We’re particularly interested in pushing through a bill in February’s short legislative session. There is no funding available for anything that is money-intensive, so we are thinking that a simple step low in cost concerns may be the best option for now.

This bill, at least as it is currently envisioned, would require the posting of the Polaris Project hotline wherever alcohol is sold. This national hotline number is 1-888-3737-888. A piece of legislation like this seems so minor compared with the massive need facing us, but every step counts. The ubiquitous posting of this hotline would promote the issue itself, much as the amber alert has done for missing kids, and raising awareness (education) is key to getting more extensive legislation passed in the next session.

A more aggressive approach would be to pass something along the lines of the New York Safe Harbor Act, but there is no way to get such a major bill through the state legislature in this biennium. The problem is not opposition, but lack of state funds and also a lack of time due to the very brief nature of February’s session. New York passed its bill a couple years back and the governor duly signed it, but to this date, there’s been no money to implement it. So the feeling is to push for the hotline bill now and then go for the bigger bill in 2011, when, hopefully, budgeting concerns have eased.

Why is a safe harbor act is so important? The city’s sex crimes unit works along the guidelines of the safe harbor act already, treating minors as victims instead of criminals. However, the police in other units arrest and treat the girls as adults (prostitutes), because it is the law they have to follow. Even if they go light on them, they are not approaching these underage girls as victims.

There are many levels at which we can address human trafficking – national, county and city, as well as state. On the city level, we can advocate with City Commissioner Saltzman to get more personnel into the Sex Crimes Unit. Presently there are three personnel, counting a sergeant, for a city the size of Portland. There is a great need to push for more officers "out there". Apparently it is more a matter of priorities and citizen response in contrast to funding, as the idea is to transfer existing personnel from other units. On this issue, we also do not have to wait for a legislative session to begin.

On the county level, I understand Commissioner McKeel's office is considering a "john school". While this was tried by Multnomah County back in the ‘90s, lessons learned back then could ensure a much better run this time. The idea is to go with something like the D.C. or San Francisco model, with a "school" for first offenders. Talks could be given by the D.A., judges, ex-victims, etc., as a means of showing what impact the johns' actions are having. Each john would be charged a $1,000 fine to attend the school. If they comply both to the fine and to school attendance and they don't commit a second offense within 6 months, then the 1st offense would be kept off their record. A second offense would go on their record.

This school is a way of working to stop the john activity up front. And it seems to be having some effect in these other cities. The fine money in San Francisco is divided between the D.A.'s office to help prosecute the crimes, the Police Department to help them in their pursuit of these criminals, and for victim services. Basically it is relatively cost neutral. It could be done here on a county-wide level to fight prostitution in general and as a way of getting at those who encourage sex trafficking, since the market is consumer driven.

I’ve asked about how we can work on solving the pimp side of problem. What I hear is that, with pimps as well as the victims, the issue is a state problem primarily with the fairly broken foster care system, which produces a high percentage of prostitutes and pimps. But such systemic issues need long-range approaches.

It is so easy to be overwhelmed with the need or to throw up our hands in dismay at how slowly things move. Yet even small steps are better than no steps. It takes time to build a base for advocacy and education, something we as a committee and OCCV are committed to doing.

The worth of a child

2009-09-20T14:47:00.000-07:00

I’m watching my biological daughter and my respite foster daughter, “Sally”, count plastic lids. They are going through our recycling bin looking for lids my wife can use for a school art project. I promised the girls 2 cents apiece for every lid they found, whether my wife needed them or not. Those she doesn’t use will go back in the plastic bin to be taken to the recycling center next week. No cash value, just trying to save landfill space.

Unlike plastic lids, all kids have immeasurable valuable in God’s eyes. I think about the plight of girls the age of my own bio daughters right now doing tricks for nameless johns mere blocks away. How were these children tricked into this hell of a life? Was it the promise of rare love turned into the most garish nightmare of degradation by a pimp, barely older than “his” girls, who had also experienced abuse and violence and hatred that turned him into a fiendish abuser?

But didn’t the girls’ disappearance into the streets, my sheltered heart cries, didn’t it create alarm in the minds of their parents? Weren’t the police called when at the age of 12 or 13 these girls didn’t come home on time after middle school? What about neighbors or friends or teachers? Didn’t anyone in this vast city notice, other than the pimps and their obsessed johns?

Some of these kids – the girls and the pimps both – come from homes where parent or parents have to work all kinds of hours for subsistence wages to keep food on the table and a roof overhead. Somewhere support services and community involvement alike have broken down or been stretched far too thin.

Sadly, far more of these girls come from abusive homes to start with. The reason the pimps are able to groom them is because they already have extremely low self-esteem. Girls who God values beyond measure are treated like trash at home and as worthless pocket change on the street.

I watch my Sally and my bio-daughter playing on our back deck. They are counting up their newfound wealth in pennies. 402 lids = $8.04 each for a special trip to a craft store tomorrow.

Sally is one of several children who call the same woman “Mommy”. Mommy, an overwhelmed soul, is a former foster child herself, who way too young was thrust into parenthood without much warning and even less training.

I’m reading a book about the plight of foster kids who age out, meaning they turn 18 and are suddenly on their own – no family, no support services, nothing. As Martha Shirk and Gary Stangler describe in On Their Own: What happens to kids when they age out of the foster care system, some states do have helpful laws that provide for foster children who want to remain under foster guidance until age 21. But most states don’t. I can’t imagine my own kids suddenly released from protection at age 18 or even 21, let alone these foster kids.

I read the rumblings in today’s paper, those who complain about deadbeat dads and welfare moms. Who decry American socialism. Who insist that social services be cut for “the least of these”. I understand. When there is no money, there is no money. And where we live, almost all state funds already go to public security, education and social services. You cut one and you exacerbate the problem with all three.

So, I ask, why not promote abortion? That seems to be a logical answer. It would solve the problems of unwanted kids, too many kids, street kids, and underage pimps and prostitutes, and in turn it would save all these kids a whole lot of misery. It would also save untold billions in taxes.

I think of the effort going into caring for Sally. We met her counselor recently, a sharp young professional woman who loves Sally and does a lot to help her. There are all kinds of people involved in Sally’s life – and lots of tax dollars and private contributions as well going to make sure that Sally grows up healthy, wholesome, and happy. Whole teams of workers fight to keep the Sallys of this world from those hellish pimps and johns.

Sure, abortion would save money, oodles of it. So would cutting Sally’s support services and abandoning her to the fate of the streets. We do profit when the pimps steal these girls away – we save lots of money in taxes and nonprofit fundraisers. Let the johns who’ve abandoned their own kids provide for these poor girls with their pocket change.

Abortion would be the easy answer if it were not for the fact that these “fetuses” are children God dearly loves. Devalue life at that stage and you go on to devalue life at every other stage, too. Moreover, you cannot work to preserve lives before birth and then abandon them to hell after birth. At least that is what I as a Christian believe with all my heart.

I listen to my girls laugh and watch them lug their coins to their bedrooms and thank God they are both alive and well and brightening my day with their joy. And I shudder to think that anyone could ever abandon or harm them – before birth … or after.

One Elusive Fact

2009-09-16T22:00:00.000-07:00

This morning I sit across from Corie in her office looking out over East Portland and, in the distance, Mount Hood shrouded in morning clouds. Corie Wiren is a young, energetic … bureaucrat. Pure and simple. As a citizen proud to be paying his taxes to support Corie and others like her, I tell her I salute her for the the work she is doing as a bureaucrat. Officially, she is chief of staff for Multnomah County Commissioner Diane McKeel. She is there to serve.

I am in Corie’s office in search of one elusive fact. Stephanie Mathis, executive director of the Oregon Center for Christian Values, and I are presenting at the International Justice Mission’s advocacy training day on Saturday. In this conference focused on international human trafficking, we’ve been offered a few minutes to talk about the local problem, right in our own back yard.

There are few hard facts about human trafficking anywhere in the world. Just endless anecdotal evidence and far too many occasional victims to prove the problem is real and that it is big.

Somehow the victims “over there” are easier to see as victims. Corie talks about the perception people often have of Portland’s sex trafficked girls – that somehow they got themselves into it, that they just don’t fit the nice poster child photo we like to have of people we want to rescue. Fact is, these girls don’t even act like they want to be rescued sometimes – angry and fighting off their rescuers. I remember what my lifesaving instructor said years ago, that the drowning victim will often attack the lifeguard come to the rescue.

I think of this when Buddy stops by for his monthly home visit this afternoon. Buddy is our supervisor in the Morrison respite foster care program. A gentle guy with an unblemished Boston accent, he’s talking with us about a very angry little boy who has been in nearly 30 foster homes already, a sad child that those who look after him in the program fear has little hope of making it in life – so much damage from unspeakable abuse when he was younger still overwhelms him and all those who come to his aid.

In the morning appointment, I ask Corie what the key problems are that we need to tackle to solve the local human trafficking crisis. Rescuing the girls today is important, but by tomorrow even more will take their place. It is a demand-driven market. We talk about some ideas and how OCCV can partner with the Commissioner’s office to affect change. But what strikes me is how much our broken system of foster care and messed up homes is churning out tomorrow’s prostitutes and pimps.

As Buddy brings up the same thought this afternoon, Kim and I immediately think of our sweet respite kids. 7-year-old Y___ comes to mind and our hearts weep for her future.

It’s five till 10 am and my time with Corie is almost over. I bring up my biggest question of the day – what hard facts can she give me on the size of the sex traffic problem in Portland? No one really knows those numbers yet, she tells me. The girls aren’t lining up for a census. Actually, the girls don’t stay put very long in any one place. Their pimps move them around on a well-known West Coast circuit – Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and then back to Seattle and around again.

The Portland Mercury reported in February that in a major multi-city sting operation, the FBI netted seven underaged girls in four hours in Portland, making our fair city number two after Seattle in number of “incidents” in this operation. No one questions the problem is here and that it is serious, but no one really knows how big a problem it is.

Then Corie throws a very chilling statistic at me: there has never been a human trafficking case prosecuted in the state of Oregon. There have been cases prosecuted for sex crimes in general, but none for forced prostitution. You can’t convict without a witness and getting a victim to testify against her pimp is nearly impossible, especially when the victim is a kid for whom the world has shown only injustice and brutality from date of birth.

Where do we start?

2009-09-13T14:24:00.000-07:00

Start out with a problem as big as human trafficking (HT) and you quickly get inundated with data and advice. Step back. Focus. Prioritize. What is it you yourself need to accomplish?

All of a sudden it feels like everyone is getting on this bandwagon. Like me and OCCV. Other organizations have been at this issue for a while now and even more are rolling up their collective sleeves. Some think they are called to organize everyone else. I’m inclined to shy away from those kinds of folks. I’ve often noted that the Spirit is quite capable of getting folks organized without a lot of human intervention – as each person does his or her part.

There’s the key, each one doing his or her part. Ditto with groups and organizations.

I’m in this issue through the Oregon Center for Christian Values, an advocacy group, which means we focus on pushing for legislation and educating the general public in Oregon on concerns we feel are crucial that Christians should be concerned about. Like human trafficking right in our own backyard.

So, as the human trafficking subcommittee of OCCV, our first task is to do our homework. As a researcher, I like to start my homework by asking questions. I have five:

1. How extensive is the HT problem on our local level and what forms does it take?
2. What are the causes of the local HT problem and what can be done to fight those causes?
3. Who is already involved in doing something about the local HT problem and what are they doing?
4. What else needs to be done?
5. Of this “what else”, what should we in OCCV be doing?

I’ve been asked to serve with Brian Colbourne of Salem as the committee’s co-chair, particularly to gather the needed data. Then on October 19, we as a subcommittee will meet to make some recommendations as to where as OCCV we should focus our priorities. Since we are an advocacy group, we are particularly looking to see what, if any, legislation we can get behind for the next Oregon legislation session this coming February.

Basically the role of our team in the next few months boils down to these steps:

1. Study resources on HT, including books, other print and online materials, organizations, government officials and other personnel to develop a thorough picture of the problem.
2. Survey the existing HT problem and the work of existing groups fighting HT in Oregon.
3. Analyze all this data and determine what else needs to be done.
4. Pray and determine what shape our role should take in the coming months.
5. Advocate by a) educating, b) pushing for changes in laws or new laws or funding, c) recruiting personnel (volunteers, etc.) and d) raising funds as needed.

When I look at all this, it sounds so sterile, so non-emotive. But I remember what my friend, Dick Foth, has often said, “Do what you can do.” (Emphasis on “can”.) Reminds me of Paul’s words in Colossians 3:23: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart.” That includes all the mundane but necessary stuff like tracking down vital data and figuring out what is going on and why.

How will they be set free?

2009-08-24T12:53:00.000-07:00

27 Million slaves right now in our world. Compare that with 3.5 million in America at the beginning of the Civil War. My mind wants verification. My heart demands action. What I first need, as the TV detective used to say when I was a kid, “just the facts, mam.”

E. Benjamin Skinner, in A Crime So Monstrous: Face to Face with Modern-Day Slavery (2008), agrees with an “unassuming scholar” named Kevin Bales (Disposable People, 1999) on both the difficulty in ascertaining the estimate and on the definition of who those slaves are: they are people (men, women and children) 1) compelled to work, 2) through force or fraud, 3) for no pay beyond subsistence. To be a slave, you have to meet all three criteria. Even if the stats are off a few million, the faces overwhelm.

I wonder if that definition includes those boys in Afghanistan, so abused that they believe their kidnappers’ lies about jihad and no longer want to be freed. Like Patty Hearst, a kidnapped heiress, who joined her captors’ cause in the 70s. They call it the Stockholm Syndrome, a psychological shift that occurs in captives when they are threatened gravely but shown acts of kindness by their captors. As much as they fear their masters, they remain loyal to them.

What about women prostitutes who are no longer minors? It is a question that comes up at a meeting of the Human Trafficking Series sponsored by Multnomah County Commissioner Diane McKeel’s Office and the Clark County Soroptimists Club. In this meeting, Wynne Wakilla, the program’s coordinator, has invited several experts to speak on state, national and international laws affecting human trafficking. During the extended Q&A, one attendee asks who is doing something about the women in local prostitution who are not minors. If they started out coerced at age 13, are they now still victims at age 31? Or are they off the screen as far as those we need to be rescuing whether they want it or not?

Whether they want it or not. The Afghanistani boys, still boys, on the TV, the ones kidnapped and brutally abused by the Taliban, they were freed against their own will, but are now so emotionally brain dead they would yet give their lives for a cause that has all but destroyed them. Some of them, the expert says, will never recover. Does a woman at 31 still give her body to her pimp and his johns because of the money she earns or because she’s an emotionally battered hulk of a person, completely victimized by her masters?

I do “get” how shame and abuse can imprison a person for life unless forces outside of that person intervene to bring healing and wholeness. I do understand as a Christian that Jesus has come to free us from all bondage. As the preacher said yesterday morning, he is our Savior in every need. I do understand that this same Jesus has called us to set others free, regardless of how they understand their bondage, regardless of how their slavery is defined.

Jesus’ inaugural address, taken from the words of the prophet Isaiah, comes to mind: “He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. . . . He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners … to release the oppressed.” (Luke 4:18-19) The preacher last night quoted these words of Jesus: “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” (John 20:21) Jesus goes on a couple lines later to tell us we are to free people as he freed people.

I met with Bryan Colbourne again yesterday afternoon as we map out our immediate strategy for doing as Jesus has called us to do. Bryan is the chair of the advisory committee on Human Trafficking for the Oregon Center for Christian Values. He’s organizing a meeting in Salem, the state capital, hopefully in October.

I’ve got some other basic nuts and bolts stuff going – contacting some leads, surveying what is already happening, following up on those who say they want to be involved. Doesn’t feel like we’re setting anybody free yet. But information gathering, networking, educating and advocating are all steps in the process. As necessary as they are mundane.

What else did Jesus say in John 20? Oh yeah. We are to do it, mundane tasks and all, in the power of the Spirit.

The First Step

2009-08-20T09:00:00.000-07:00

“Human trafficking.” The phrase conjures up kidnappings and slavery and all sorts of sordidness in far away exotic places. Outside of the sinister, sleazy types who profit from human trafficking, who wouldn’t oppose it? Truth is, we all profit from it. And it goes on all the time and in some not so very far away or exotic places. Like 82nd Street and lesser known alleys in my town. With kids not unlike my own respite foster children and classmates of my own biological teenagers.

In the movie, “Amazing Grace,” the British politician and antislavery crusader, William Wilberforce, is getting to know the woman with whom he will soon fall in love. In attempting to show how closely she has followed Wilberforce’s cause, she talks about how she has altogether given up sugar. Antislavery activists of the day, mostly staunch Christians and equally staunchly secularists, were working hard to show how such commercial treats as sugar were directly tied to the abominable slave trade. They finally won their epic battle by bringing the cause home and by learning how to understand their political opponents.

Great epic movements can be captured in ninety minutes of cinematography, as “Amazing Grace”, “End of the Spear” and “The Mission” have shown. But what is cut out and left on the editing room floor because it will only put us to sleep are the countless hours of mundane discussions, committee meetings and numbing processes that go into making the great moments of these movements screen-worthy. Rosa Parks sitting defiantly on the wrong seat of the bus is forever etched in our cultural memory. But there were a lot of far less dramatic hours leading up to that standoff that made that standoff possible.

Monday night I attended the initial meeting of a subcommittee on Human Trafficking. It was by no means a cinematic moment. Seven of us gathered in the poetic “Earth Room” of the First Covenant Church in Northeast Portland. We were volunteers summoned by the Oregon Center for Christian Values to sort out what the OCCV, an advocacy group, should be doing about human trafficking in our home state.

Brian, the committee chair, and Karen represented the board of OCCV. They, with other OCCV leaders, have been drawn into the human trafficking cause as part of the organization’s larger commitment to advocating on behalf of the poor in our state. Three others who showed up, all women, are already deeply involved in various other organizations fighting human trafficking. Juan and I filled out the group as wannabes.

I had met with Brian the day before at a local coffee shop (I drank passion iced tea with sugar). He asked me about my background – missionary in Asia, Pentecostal/Charismatic, Evangelical to the bone, thorough-going theological conservative. His eyes got big. Isn’t that some sort of an oxymoron, a Pentecostal committed to social justice?

I smiled back. He has similar roots, but as he is young can be forgiven if he is a bit out of sync with those with whom he worships. I, on the other hand, have been both committed to my community of worship and to social justice longer than he’s been alive and am now at a time in life – closing in on senior citizen discounts – when I am supposed to have life neatly sorted out. Perhaps oxymorons are not supposed to age.

Pentecostal social justice advocates are few and far between, or so it seems, as I return from twenty years overseas to adjust to the current American religious and political scene. Fact is, I’ve been waiting decades to find likeminded activists with whom I can celebrate the other half of my spiritual heritage, the heritage that was lost in the Great Divorce a century ago. [“Great Divorce” draw a blank? Stay tuned.]

As I explained to the committee, I see the cause of fighting human trafficking as a bridge between Christians who fight personal sins and suffering and Christians who fight corporate sins and systemic suffering. Girls do not get into the “world’s oldest vocation” because they “just want to have fun.” I, a cross-cultural agent, want to be a bridge builder. But it starts with nuts and bolts like extensive, boring research, endless committee meetings, and mind-numbing canvassing.

We’re still a long way from rescuing the girls down on 82nd Street. But we have, as the Chinese saying goes, made the hardest step.