Exodus and exploitation in a rapidly changing world
Rev. Chris Frazer, our Deacon for Social Justice, has been busy co-organising an important conference on human trafficking and labour exploitation. The conference, entitled “Take the Next Step,” brings together representatives from across multiple sectors of our society - industry, churches, government, embassies, and cultural groups. It aims to move our country forward in the important work of ending modern slavery, and Chris has been our representative in this important mahi. Here are excerpts from her sermon at Wellington Cathedral of St Paul on the 7th of March 2021.
Rev. Chris Frazer
A couple of years ago as I was preparing for an upcoming speaking engagement, a cartoon caught my attention. It was of a naval vessel showing the power of its guns, with its commander leaning over the stern looking down at the tiny overcrowded boat below filled with migrants. “Where are you from?” He shouted. Back came the response, “earth”.
As we lean over the stern that is our lives, how do we view and respond to those, who due to their circumstances are hidden well below the periphery of our everyday living?
March 25th will be the 214th commemoration of the ending of the transatlantic slave trade, and at the forefront of this momentous historical event one name stands out, that being William Wilberforce.
Wilberforce was certainly not your typical hero. Short in stature and walking with a limp, he was rather unassuming and freely admitted to being for many years completely self focussed and rather aimless. Yet following his conversion to Christianity, his growing love of Christ propelled him into action and he began his fight against slavery.
Again though, it’s not the classic story book hero who sweeps in making everything right but rather it was a story of defeat after defeat. He first presented the bill calling for the abolition of slavery in 1791 and it was resoundingly defeated, there followed more defeats for a number of years until it passed in the Commons in 1805, only to have it crushed in the Lords. Finally in 1807 the bill was passed.
Yet if we leave the story there we miss a vital point for why William Wilberforce determinedly pursued the path of justice, as did a number of other campaigners in different ways. There was also a growing awareness by the ordinary person in the street of the plight of those enslaved for financial gain.
The notorious Middle Passage trading route and the horrors on board the ships, of which the British public had been quite unaware, was suddenly coming to light as the stories began to surface. With that new-found awareness and knowledge came a groundswell of public opinion against the slave trade that the politicians of the day would have found hard to ignore and impossible to stop.
300,000 people in Great Britain, in protest against the use of slave labour in the production of sugar, refused to use sugar in their cups of tea - and this had a powerful effect. So powerful in fact that those retailers previously selling sugar tainted by slavery were quickly endeavouring to source alternative suppliers, and pasting up large notices in their shop windows declaring their sugar to be slave free.
The reading from Isaiah 58 is one of the many texts in the Bible that refers to justice and our role within it. It makes it very clear we are called to bring justice to the earth. It’s a stark reminder to us all that the faithful loving revealed in God’s word requires action. A true and living faith then will be shown by our love for God and one another combined with a commitment to carry out justice.
Often as a Church we hear the word justice and the term social justice being spoken of, what exactly do we mean?
Alexander Solzhenitsyn was quoted as saying, “Justice is conscience, not a personal conscience but the conscience of the whole of humanity”. I totally agree.
Within Plato’s book’ Republic’ justice is interpreted as ‘giving to each what is owed’. This would be in line with other interpretations that emphasis equity, fair treatment and due reward. There is an inherent goodness expressed in actions that give due regard to the dignity and significance of every human being, that is at the heart of the very nature of God. Justice therefore begins by recognising and valuing each person as being made in the image of God and therefore of infinite worth and equal value.
Belief in humanity, with a particular focus on the most vulnerable, is threaded throughout the Biblical story. Furthermore humanity as portrayed within the Bible is seen within the wider context of God’s creation as a whole and not isolated into the latest campaign or a designated Sunday. Two synonyms for humanity are human race and compassion. Neither definition can be deemed as individualistic, but rather communal. The biblical focus on community calls us to think in terms of we rather than me.
Someone once asked, 'If you were put on trial for being a follower of Christ, would there be enough evidence to convict you?'
The passage from Matthew is, in part, asking the same thing. While there are many and varied interpretations of the parable of the sheep and the goats it is very clear that the message is not simply that of a short-term humanitarian response. Instead it very bluntly states what is required of us, for as authentic followers of Christ we are here to love and serve the last, the lost and the least. A true relationship with our loving and merciful God, therefore requires us to walk in pathways where we don’t seek to be served, but rather with grace, to serve.
Once CS Lewis was asked what makes Christianity different, he replied, “it is grace". In marketing terms grace is the USP, the unique selling point of the Gospel. Mainly the world at large sees grace in terms of elegance- a beautiful woman wearing a stylish evening gown or dancers on a glittering ballroom floor. But for the Christian, grace is far more. It is the gift of God's undeserved forgiveness, unmerited friendship, and unbelievable freedom.'
And it is through that incredible gift of God's amazing grace that we are called to live our lives seeing the face of Christ in all the people we meet.
Mahatma Ghandi once said, 'My life is my message'. If our lives are our message - what are people hearing and receiving?
How does this translate into true compassion towards others? And how does this transmit into action against the crime that is the trafficking of people for financial exploitation?
On Tuesday when I was beginning to prepare for this sermon a news article caught my attention. The heading simply stated, “Exploitation is my destiny”. The article was referring to research which has been carried out over the past couple of years into the plight of those entrapped within situations of labour abuse in our country today. For example, when a temporary migrant worker queried his $8 an hour wage for an 80-hour week job, his employer told him, "We are the citizens here, you can't touch us."
In a series of interviews migrant workers spoke of feeling anxious, depressed and suicidal. They felt trapped in a system of exploitation that in some respects resembled organised crime, with regular pay-offs demanded from workers and potential threats to family in home countries if workers complained.
In July last year, after a complex joint investigation by Immigration New Zealand and the New Zealand Police, Joseph Matamata, a Samoan matai (chief), was found guilty of 13 slavery charges and ten of human trafficking, and sentenced to 11 years in prison. The 25-page court document read at the sentencing makes for a harrowing read, especially when looking at the youngest of his victims. Here is what was said:
“The youngest three victims were aged between 12 and 19 years. You adopted these victims, so no visas were required for them. You were able to exercise parental control over them. You told the victims’ parents they would come to New Zealand for a better future – to work and send money home. This would assist their families. You knew they would not be paid for their labour. In relation to the slavery convictions, the same controls were in place for these three. You retained the victims’ passport and bank cards. You restricted their movement and communication. They worked long hours in the orchards and then completed household chores. Again, you controlled them by actual or threatened violence. ”
What I struggled with as I studied the document was that for over the two decades of offending, all the victims were regularly attending church, yet their plight appears to have gone unnoticed by the parishioners and church leaders. There is little doubt in my mind such criminal activity that is occurring in our own local communities requires all of us to become far more vigilant of what is happening around us. We can make a difference!
Indeed our country’s first ever trafficking conviction began with a parishioner in a church noticing something was not right for a visitor to their Sunday service, so she invited her out for coffee and during the course of the conversation became aware more help was needed and with her permission contacted the Department of Immigration.
The passage in Matthew challenges all of us from all walks of life to walk the talk. We must dare to care – dare enough to push the boundaries of our own comfort zones and then dare to act; for while there are men, women and children exploited to meet consumer demand we must work together to bring it to an end.
My faith demands I play my part, no matter how small, to help bring about positive change to their situation - will you join me? As Jesus said—‘whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers/sisters of mine, you did for me.’
Let’s pray for the upcoming conference on trafficking and exploitation - that plans would progress smoothly, and that as a society, we would make progress in our quest to end this criminal activity.
