The
Musings 23
Monday,
February 4
Read:
Luke 4: 18-20, John 8: 1-11
Finally the
curtains have come down on Super Bowl
and fans of Baltimore Ravens are happy that they are the champions. Last week
we saw countless of fans descending in the city of New Orleans to watch the much-awaited
Super Bowl final. Yesterday it was party time in most of the houses and in most
of the cities especially in New Orleans. However, as preparations for Super
Bowl final was being planned and reviewed, and as people from all corners of this nation
descended in New Orleans, a group named Shared Hope International was also
working along with the organizers of Super Bowl. But they were working on a
different level and had a different objective in mind. More than the game in
mind, their mind was on something
different. The issue of Human Trafficking during the Super Bowl. According to organizers who are working
against human trafficking, major sporting events like Super Bowl, Olympics and
Word Cup are increasingly becoming avenues of sex trafficking and child
prostitution. It is believed that more than 10,000 sex workers were brought in
to Miami for the 2010 super bowl, while in 2011 Super Bowl in Dallas; there
were more than 133 prostitution related arrest.
What Shared Hope International was doing the 2013 super bowl event was
an online advocacy among more than 12 million
Super Bowl related post during the game. The method of advocacy was encouraging
fans and other viewers to share their concern about human trafficking in
Facebook or Twitter. The objective of Shared Hope International is to educate,
equip and empower men to fight against human trafficking and sex industry and
protect families. What happens in big sporting events is that criminal gangs
and rings come together and operate the human trafficking racket. But why does
such huge sporting events become a place for the exploitation and abuse of
woman and girls. As millions of people
flock to these sporting events like super bowl, or other events like world cup,
men come with the concept of having some fun. The need to enjoy, party, drink
and have fun. That is why sometimes during major soccer matches in the World
Cup you have the police fighting with the unruly crowds who has gone berserk,
gone berserk not only because of the passion for the game, but taking the
passion for the game and also fun associated to the event to violent
celebrations. In fact it is this concept of fun that the sex trafficking
industry exploits during sporting events, whereby prostitution is encouraged
subtly thus resulting to an increased case of exploitation of woman and girls. What
is tragic about the whole incidence of exploitation of woman and girls is that
they are often clubbed along with alcoholic drinks that needs to be enjoyed as
you watch and enjoy games. It is sickening to note that woman become a commodity
just like a bottle of alcoholic drinks to be enjoyed, an object that could be
manipulated, degraded or could be used only as a tool for the enjoyment of men.
Just as Shared Hope International is bringing about awareness of human
trafficking at big sporting events, what is also needed is that this awareness also
has to be worked out at grass root levels too, like school, family, and other
social institution. The need to respect woman as person, upholding her dignity,
ending all forms of abuse and exploitation and thus working for community where
the identity and individuality of both men and woman is respected.
One of the focus and the objective
of the ministry of Jesus Christ was not only empowering woman, but also critiquing
the existing concepts that was prevalent in the society, especially with
regards to woman, children and others who were relegated from the main frame of
the society. Both the process of empowerment and critiquing the existing discriminatory
concepts and laws with regards to women is what brought about liberation to woman
and the other exploited class of people. In Like 4: 18, we find Jesus
proclaiming in the synagogue that " The Spirit of the Lord is on me
.......He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of
sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of Lord's
favor. Here is Jesus Christ affirming that He has come to this world to bring
about a society, a reign of God where no human being will be exploited on the
basis of their gender, their handicaps nor on the basis of their social class.
Here is Jesus Christ strongly bringing in the message that in God's kingdom every
human being will be affirmed, respected and each one will have a rightful
place. There is no hierarchy in this kingdom. It is this understanding that
Jesus bring when Pharisees bring to his presence a woman who was caught in
adultery [ John 8:1-11]. Here Jesus deals the issue not only about adultery but
also the issues related to the case of an exploited woman. When Pharisees
brought the woman to the presence of Jesus Christ, they were supposedly standing
on high moral grounds. It was the woman
who was a sinner, while they who were teachers of the law were blameless and
they wanted Jesus Christ to punish the woman for the sins she committed. Here
the exploited and abused is to be punished again while the exploiters and the
abusers were roaming free and also still holding high position in the society.
When Jesus refuses to condemn the woman, he was communicating a message to the
Pharisees that He stands for justice for the exploited and condemnation for the
exploiters and abusers. Here is Jesse not only empowering the woman to live a
life free from sin, but he also critiques the Pharisees with regards to their
lopsided understand of the law. A law interpreted in such a way that woman and other ordinary and common people
were exploited and abused in the name of morality and upholding of the tenets
of law. What is needed today in our society and in our thinking is upholding both
concepts that Jesus preached. Hence we have consciously affirm and respect
every individual so that we become agents of empowerment especially in the life
of woman and girl child. At the same time be a part of the liberating forces whereby
we can participate in bringing the reign of God in this world, where there is
no form of exploitation or abuse because
of ones gender or class. It is when each one of us could grow in this
understanding, will our sporting events become events that encourages only sports
and not becoming venues of human trafficking and exploitation and abuse of
woman.
