Human Trafficking

Human Trafficking

I went to the anti-human trafficking task force meeting Wednesday.  An FBI agent was there to explain to us the work the FBI does for victims.  At one point she said, "Well in last weeks container incident..."  I raised my hand and said, "I know I don't want to know the answer, but what is a container incident?"  The answer, a container was off loaded from a ship and it was full of women and their children being shipped into this country for distribution and sales.  

Women as Property

What can we imagine were the circumstances which brought these women and children to a container  ship in the Los Angeles Harbor.  Did they go willingly?  Were they tricked by promises of good employment in America?  Were they kidnapped?  Are frantic families overseas desperately searching for their loved ones.  Were they sold by families who are so poor they could not take care of them or families who needed money and selling a daughter was an easy way to get it.  All of the above are probably true.  

In the book of Judges 19:16-25 there is a story of a young woman who is offered by her father to a mob of men intent on rape.  It is male guests in the house they want to rape but to protect the guests the father offers his daughter and another young woman.  The daughter is spared but the other women is not and her life is ended. 

Women's Safety 

The video below gives a glimpse into what people in containers may experience.  The most chilling moment is when the man being interviewed say if things don't work out the container can be dumped with the people inside.

The story is horrific.  The betrayal by family is horrific.  How many of the people in that container sailed across the Pacific Ocean with the knowledge that they had been betrayed by their families?  

Human Trafficking

Human Trafficking

January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month.  Ironic that the Super Bowl is played at the end of January.  The city hosting the Super Bowl boasts the largest number of trafficked women and children   in the United States during Super Bowl weekend.

Human Slavery

Human trafficking is modern day slavery.  Slavery has never gone away.  It is more lucrative than drug trafficking because a person can be sold over and over again.  Drugs can only be sold once.

Human Trafficking and Modern Day Slavery

Human trafficking and slavery are in our own neighborhoods, nail salons and farm fields. Slavery isn't someone else's problem.  It is our problem.  Shame on us that it exists.   

Silenced Women

 

The depressing state of things!  

Yesterday I found this on my Facebook page.  I couldn't believe it was true although the UN Women icon at the bottom of each photo did lend some credibility.  I Googled, "women should" and before I even got to the final "d" the drop down menu read; not be in combat, not preach, not speak in church, be seen and not heard, not work (I am guessing they mean outside the home) not run and stay at home.  Check out http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2013/10/women-should-ads

So I Googled, "men should" and got always pray, not get married, wear makeup, not wear shorts and pay for dates.

Speak up!

Blatant discrimination and sexism is always shocking to me.  I want to believe it is only the far religious right of any religion and the lunatic fringe who  cling to these attitudes about women.  I showed the post to my husband and he was not surprised.  "What's new?"is all he asked.  In my last blog I wrote of my experience with attempted silencing. Speak up, speak out, be heard, use your voice. 

Silenced no more.

I looked blatant up in the dictionary. Among other definitions I found, "Offensively obtrusive; coarse. Shrill, ranting, angry, combative, strident and more are terms hurled at women who speak up against discrimination and sexism. Women must not be silent.  In the relative safety of the United States  from which I blog I am able to use my voice.  I am compelled to use that voice for women and their children who are silenced.  

Defining My Passion

Religion, Feminism, Justice, Human Trafficking

I have not posted for many days.  One reason is the wonderful time I spent with my great-niece, family and friends.  Another reason was deciding the direction I want to take with this blog.  I have gotten lots of advice.  I spent thirty years flying under the radar, so to speak.  Now I have a blog, a twitter account, a Facebook page, and am working on creating an author's Facebook page.  The initial reason for this social media campaign was to promote my book, Prostitutes, Virgins and Mothers: Questioning Teachings About Biblical Women.  That is still important but I cannot stay silent about some of the things I have learned on social media.

Human Trafficking

I am working with the Riverside County Anti Human Trafficking Task Force.  One of the questions I ask groups to whom I am presenting human trafficking information is, "True or False, a woman's love for her pimp means that she is willingly choosing prostitution?"  Today I read the new Dreamworks movie Turbo uses the term "pimp your shell" to equate improving or making better.  Do the pimps who sell the bodies of others for profit make anything better? 

Religion

I am a Christian.  It is the faith path to which I have been called.  I am a member of the Mid-Valley Interfaith Council in the Coachella Valley.  We are Roman Catholic, Muslim, Latter Day Saint, Independent Catholic, Christ Science, Jewish and more. I am inspired by the ways God has revealed God's self to the others in the group and I always learn something from each meeting.  Yet I read so much snipping about other faith tradition.  If I think I know all the ways God reveals God's Self the
God I think I know is very small.  Is God so small that God only speaks to your religious group?  I do not use pronouns for God.  God does not have genitalia.      

Feminism

I am delighted there are so many thoughtful feminist sisters and brothers taking a stand on human justice issues.  I am also shocked at some of the reactions I read to that work.  Such fear it seems to me but of what exactly?

Justice, Religion, Feminism, Human Trafficking

So I said all that to clarify for myself the work before me, my passions.  They are interpretation of the stories of biblical women from a woman's perspective, Christian Feminism, the end of Human Trafficking/Slavery, Liberty and Justice for all.  

I Am Not A Guy or a Kind of a Man

Mankind I am Not!

I went to the movies the other day and saw the advertisement below.  I was angry, a car "made for mankind."  That leaves me out.  Then I read an interview by Greg Robinson in which he claimed the ad was meant to be "gender neutral."  WHAT!  Does he know what gender neutral means?  Is womankind gender neutral?  Of course not.  No more than mankind is gender neutral.    

Made for Mankind

It is anachronistic to continue to use male generic language as if it is inclusive language.  It is not. My dictionary says, "Mankind, the human race; man taken collectively."  But Womankind is, "Women collectively." I am not women are not men. A change of language is in order.  

The Levites Violence

Violence Against Women

I came across the story below on a web site titled, All True Bible Studies for Children.  What do you think?

The Story of the Levite's Concubine

Judges 19:10 - 20:48
Just before midnight one night, Beth heard someone pounding on the front door of their house. "Hello in there! Hello! Let me in," shouted a man. "Give me a bunch of money!"
This frightened Beth and she hid under the covers.
A minute later, Beth heard her father come into the room. "Beth," said her father, "would you please go to the front door and see what the man wants?"
Beth was scared, but she knew that it would be a sin to disobey her father. She got up, put on her bunny slippers and her robe, and went to the front door while her father returned to bed.
By the time Beth got to the front door, the man wasn't there any more. She peeked out through the curtains and saw him peeing on the lawn. Then he just walked away.
Even when she was back in bed Beth felt very upset. She started to cry and her sobs brought her mother into her room.
"What's the matter, Dear One?" her mother asked.
"Daddy asked me to go see the strange man at the door," sobbed Beth. "But the man scared me. Why didn't Daddy just go himself and see who it was?"
Beth's mother sat at the side of the bed and ran a hand across Beth's hair comfortingly. "There's a story in the Bible that explains it all, Dear One," said her mother.
And this is the story she told:

One day a Levite and his concubine were traveling through Jebus. It was late and the servant said, "Let's find a place to stay and turn in for the night."
"I don't want to stop in a town unless Israelites live there," said the Levite. "Let's go to Gibeah or Ramah."
So they kept going and didn't reach Gibeah -- one of Benjamin's cities -- until after it was dark.
They couldn't find anyplace to stay in Gibeah so they sat in the street.
While they were sitting, an old man on his way home from work came up to them and said, "Where are you going? Where do you come from?"
The Levite answered, "We're going from Bethlehemjudah to the side of mount Ephraim, where I'm from, and I went to Bethlehemjudah, but now we're on our way to God's place, but there's nobody to take me into his house. We've got straw and food for our donkeys and bread and wine for me and my companions so we don't want anything."
"Peace," said the old man. "I'll take care of you, just don't spend the night in the street." Then he brought them to his house, fed their donkeys, washed their feet, and gave them something to eat.
While they were partying, some men from the city, Belial's sons, surrounded the house and pounded on the door. "Send out the man who's visiting you so we can put our penises in him," they yelled.
The old man went to them and said, "No, brothers, no. Please, don't be so naughty. This guy is my guest, don't be so silly. Look, here's my daughter who's never had a penis put in her and the guy's concubine. I'll bring them out for you to dominate. You can do with them what ever you think is a good idea. Just leave the man alone."
The men weren't really listening. They took the concubine and put their penises in her and beat her all night. The next morning, they let her go.
When the sun was just starting to come up, the concubine fell down in front of the old man's house and lay there.
When it was full light, the Levite got up and opened the door of the house and started to leave. On his way out, he found his concubine lying just at the edge of the door.
The Levite picked up his concubine and said, "Get up, let's get going." But she didn't say anything.
Seeing that she was dead, the man put her on his donkey and took her home. At home, he got a knife and cut her into twelve pieces which he sent all over Israel.
When people saw the pieces they said, "This is the worst thing that has happened since we left Egypt." In fact, the Israelites got so mad that a bunch of them went to Gibeah, killed everyone they could find (including the animals) and burned down all the cities in the area.

"So you see," said Beth's mother, "the strange man might have hurt your father. That's why he sent you to the door instead."
Beth thought about this for a moment. "But in the story the girl who goes outside gets beat up until she is dead."
"That's true, Dear One," said her mother. "But she was only a girl. It's not a great loss. And people from other towns made sure that the people who did the bad thing were punished along with their wives, children, and pets."
"But why do the animals have to die? They didn't do anything bad and they don't even know what's going on."
Her mother smiled. "It's because God is a just God, Dear One, and animals are just animals. Now go to sleep; pleasant dreams." And with that, she kissed Beth on the cheek and went back to her own room.
Then Beth pulled the covers over her head and lay awake all night, hoping that the strange man would not come back with a bunch of drunken friends and demand to put their penises in her. All her questions had been answered.


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Gomer, an Abused Woman

  The verbal and physical abuse of Gomer and her children 

 Gomer, the wife of the prophet Hosea has no voice in the book of Hosea.  What would she say if she told her own story?  She can be found in Hosea1:2-9; 2; 3; 4:1, 5-6, 10.

Gomer tells her story.

I was a prostitute before we were married.  That's how we met.  I had no male family to protect me.  I had to survive any way I could.  I thought his abuse would end with the birth of our first child but it didn't.  As hard as I tried to leave my past behind the abuse continued. 
  
I was so worried about the children.  It was devastating for them to witness the abuse.  When he stripped me and refused to give me food and water I could see the anguish in their little faces.  He told our daughter that he didn't love her and our baby boy that he is not his father.  I finally had enough.  I collected the children and ran.  That got his attention.

He found us and bought us  from the people who had taken us in.  He spoke sweetly to me.  That was a pattern with him.  He would abuse me and then feel sorry until it happened again.  He told our daughter he loved her and our little boy that he was his father.  I had hope that things would be better.

Observations:

Hosea's language of abuse can be problematic for abused women and children.  We do not know why Gomer was labeled a whore by her husband.  In a culture where men are privileged and women are valued for their reproductive abilities, women must be carefully controlled.  The young women who was beaten with an ax by her brother may have been labeled a whore.  We are naturally horrified by the abuse of this young woman.  Unfortunately, spousal and child abuse abounds.  Men are not god and women are not nations deserving of punishment.












Below is a link to an anti-human trafficking coalition.



http://www.fastcompany.com/3008097/where-are-they-now/google-palantir-salesforce-fight-human-traffickers

Riverside County Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force

Greetings,

I attended the anti-human trafficking task force meeting today.  On the day Sister Monesa announced her work with the task force I knew I had to be a part of that work. I felt scared!  She took both my hands in hers, looked at me with her piercing blue eyes and said, "you are strong enough."  I have been trained as a speaker to bring awareness to the horror that is modern day human trafficking.  I learned that the Super Bowl is the "main event" in sex slave trafficking.  I am horrified and sickened.  A short search of Amazon yielded more titles than I imagined would have been written on the subject.  On a search of YouTube I found an amazing assortment of of videos designed to raise awareness to the reality of human trafficking.  Yet, there is so much silence and denial that it is happening in our towns and neighborhoods.   I have included one of the videos I found in the hope of raising awareness.

   

Slavery

Greetings,
I am sorry I have missed a couple of days.  I thought I had a computer problem but it was just something I didn't understand.  Along with my passion for understanding and conveying the importance of biblical women I am committed to the work of eliminating slavery.   I am currently affiliated with the Riverside County Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force.  As I was preparing this blog I came across a video about the selling of young girls and women.  Please watch the video and share your thoughts.
(Note: I have been told that the videos and pictures are not available on some devices.)