Amazing Grace & Slavery

The Evangelical Outpost has a sobering post on Abolishing Slavery in the 21st Century

In 2004, the U.S. Government estimated that of the 600,000 to 800,000 men, women, and children trafficked across international borders each year, approximately 80 percent are women and girls, and up to 50 percent are minors. The data also demonstrated that the majority of transnational victims were trafficked into commercial sexual exploitation. The International Labor Organization (ILO)—the United Nations (UN) agency charged with addressing labor standards, employment, and social protection issues—estimates there are 12.3 million people in forced labor, bonded labor, forced child labor, and sexual servitude at any given time. If the estimate is correct it means that there are more people living in slavery than there are people who live in New York City and Los Angeles combined.

The article concludes:

In the 18th and 19th centuries, British and American evangelicals were the leaders of the abolition movement. It’s time that modern-day evangelicals once again take our place in the struggle against slavery. In order to do that, however, we must become better informed, we must lobby our government to act, and we must raise up leaders who will become the Harriet Tubmans and William Wilberforces of the twenty-first century. We must take up the task of leading the next great abolition movement.

National Geographic:
interactive map of modern day slavery
21st Century Slaves

The really sad thing is that when I have mentioned this in conversation, I end up with bank looks. Are we really so out of touch with what is happening in our world?

On 25 February 2007, the film Amazing Grace [official site], about the life of Wilberforce and the struggle against slavery, directed by Michael Apted, with Ioan Gruffudd playing the title role, is due to be released – the date coincides with the 200th anniversary of the date the Parliament of the United Kingdom voted to ban the transport of slaves by British subjects.