This past January, director Lisa Arnold released a movie entitled Caged No More. IMDB summarizes the plot of this riveting film:
Inspired by real events, CAGED NO MORE is the story of Aggie Prejean, a grandmother on a desperate search to find her two granddaughters, Skye and Elle, who have been kidnapped by their sinister father. As the details behind the girls' disappearance begin to unravel, it's discovered he has taken them overseas to be sold into slavery to settle his drug debt. Aggie enlists the help of the girls' uncle, a well-respected local philanthropist, and his son Wil, who is former Special Forces. A global hunt ensues, and the team will stop at nothing to see the girls safely returned home. CAGED NO MORE is a drama meant to engage and educate audiences on the realities of human trafficking.[i]
This film surprises us because it sheds a light on something that most people in our community would rather not know: that slavery is real, and it is happening today. Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, and as far as many Americans know, slavery was abolished. Yet today there are more people enslaved on the planet than at other time in human history. According to the Washington Post, there are 29.8 million people around the world who are living as slaves right now. Max Fisher writes: “This is not some softened, by-modern-standards definition of slavery. These 30 million people are living as forced laborers, forced prostitutes, child soldiers, child brides in forced marriages and, in all ways that matter, as pieces of property, chattel in the servitude of absolute ownership.” [ii] The top countries for slavery are Mauritania, Haiti, Pakistan, and India. Globally, about nineteen percent of enslaved people are for the purpose of labor, and eighty percent are used for sexual slavery.[iii] Boys and girls at an average age of twelve are forced into the sex trade, and are shipped all over the world to service clients. Yet slavery exists in every country in the world, including the United States.
We think it’s a problem for another country, for another area. Yet “according to USA Today, an estimated 100,000 to 300,000 American women, some as young as 12, are exploited in the U.S. sex trade alone. The Huffington Post estimates that U.S. sex trafficking generates $9.5 billion annually.”[iv] Inplainsight.com says,
“While the term trafficking may conjure images of desperate illegal immigrants being forced into prostitution by human smugglers, over 80 percent of victims in 2011 confirmed sex trafficking cases in this country were American citizens. Or, maybe, you heard about the recent case in Ohio where three girls were kidnapped and kept as sex slaves…and you thought it was just one guy with a serious problem. Think again. It’s happening in plain sight, and you probably don’t even realize it.[v]
In the US, many abductions happen just before major sporting events. In fact, every year, the Superbowl is the largest human trafficking event in the United States, where thousands of girls are brought into cities where the event is being held, to service men who have come to see the game. Journalist Chelsea Gomez tells the story of one such victim:
Clemmie Greenlee, 53, is a former victim of sex trafficking who was gang raped by her captors at age 12. She told the Times-Picayune that the trafficked girls who come to large sporting events are told how many acts they must perform each day. Greenlee recalls having to go through 25 to 50 men a day.If the girls don’t make that number, she said their captors punish them with repeated rapings and torture. She says that the worst form of torture is having to watch another girl be punished because she didn’t make her quota for the day.
Greenlee said that she along with about eight other girls were injected with heroin and handcuffed to beds. She was once stabbed in the back for attempting to escape.
The A21 Campaign which works to end human slavery worldwide is trying to educate people through social media, and the discussion is growing on Twitter.[vi]
You may shake your head at these facts and say, “That’s terrible,” wishing you could forget what you’ve just learned. You might think of Joseph and say, “I’ve read the final chapter, and I know that Joseph’s tale ends with forgiveness and peace. You might quote Joseph who told his brothers, “What you meant for evil, God meant for good (Genesis 50:20).” Or you might be both hopeful and flippant, quoting Romans 8:28 which says, “All things work together for the good of those who love the Lord.” But this kind of attitude overlooks the fact that, in enslaving Joseph rather than killing him, the brothers chose for him a fate worse than death. This kind of attitude forgets that while the last chapter of Genesis ends well, the very next page begins the book of Exodus with an entire nation in bondage. Slavery leads to more slavery, and injustice to more injustice. But Jesus came to abolish all that.
When the Lord spoke before the synagogue in Nazareth, He quoted from the prophet Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed (Luke 34:18 NASB).” This was Jesus’ mission, but it is also the mission of all who follow Him. I pray that you’ll take this mission seriously, that you’ll be like Jesus, and you’ll help to set people free.
How can you do that? First, by praying for enslaved people everywhere. It does more good than you know. Second, by learning more about the topic so that you can be informed and aware. Third, by giving to those whose work endeavors to set people free in this country and around the world. Visit A21.org to learn and donate, so that you can help set prisoners free.
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