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Friday, May 25, 2018

A Rose by Any Other Name . . .

Do you recognize the quote in the title? It's from Romeo and Juliet and the full quote is:
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."
Basically, what it means is that what matters is what something is, not what it is called.
The labels on a lot of things have changed in today's world. Instead of tramps we have homeless people. Homosexuality is an "alternate lifestyle." Abortion is a "right to choose." Another one we're hearing a lot about these days is "human trafficking" which is just another label for slavery.
Slavery is almost as old as the hills. We find slaves and slave owners in Genesis. Joseph was a slave in Egypt, and there were slaves long before that. Slavery has been practiced ever since ancient Bible times and never stopped. In colonial days, black people were brought from Africa to America (and other countries) to be sold as slaves. White slaves were Europeans who sold themselves as "indentured servants." Someone paid their passage on the ship and in return they served a specified number of years as an unpaid servant. 
Slavery was one of the main issues in the Civil War which finally emancipated the slaves in the United States. But slavery is alive and well in this country and many others. It's just called human trafficking. 
The International Labor Organization estimates that there are 20.9 million victims of human trafficking around the world—and a $150 billion industry worldwide. An International Labor Organization study indicated that girls are more likely to be trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation and domestic services, and boys tend to be trafficked for forced labor in commercial farming, petty crimes, and the drug trade.
While many people think of human trafficking as a third-world problem, the numbers paint a very different picture, with 2,105 of the 7,621 human trafficking cases recorded in 2016 involving U.S. citizens. Modern slavery touches each of our lives through the clothing we wear, the electronics we use, and the prevalence of the practice in communities across the country. 
I am not involved in sex trafficking, but how can I know if I am contributing to the problem in the things I buy? Our world today has a global economy. When I am making a purchase I usually look at the price, not where the item was made. My comfortable lifestyle may be possible because of slave labor on the other side of the globe. It's a problem I don't know how to handle, much less solve. As a Christian, how should I feel about or respond to this?

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