Today, people around the world are standing up and speaking out for those who have no voice. The 27 million people worldwide who are stuck in slavery- a kind that has many faces and none of them are friendly.There are more slaves today, in 2016, than any time in history. Think about that for a moment; The United States fought a war to end it centuries ago and it still exists, time hasn't mellowed it, by the numbers it has instead gotten worse.
Look at that infographic; There are enough people in bondage right now to fill every professional football stadium 12 times. This vile business makes more money per year than the combined revenue of Google,Amazon, and EBAY.
I used the first image for two reasons;One it is a fantastic picture of a family that means the world to me. The second is what it represents. Those seven hands were they somewhere like India or Africa could easily represent a family that is enslaved. One that right down to the tiniest hand will be in bondage for years if not their entire lives unless slavery is stopped. There are people just like them for whom that is exactly what life is like. Every day they are forced to work in inhumane conditions for pay that for some is supposed to set them free but somehow doesn't ever add up. Others are stuck in a society who says they should be there because of their position in life. Still others are bought and sold like animals into the black underworld of sex slavery. Except the last one happens right here in United States. It happens right here in Chattanooga.
While bondage here might not mean being beaten because enough bricks were not made or cigarettes rolled, it instead takes the face of men,women, and children who are treated worse than animals in a slaughterhouse. For them there is no end, just a continuous stream of being used to make individuals happy however they need that to come about. They are not just adults but young children and here in the United States the average age for a sex slave trafficked is twelve. That means I could walk into Church on Sunday morning and look at the faces of fifty or so students that could easily be trafficking victims caught in the sex slave trade. We can't say it doesn't happen here. The United States isn't in a slavery free bubble. It takes a different form but it still takes a form, it needs to stop.
There are people who need us to help stop it. People who need to know they have worth, that they have hope, that they can have a life free of torture and debasement. If you notice I put the number in parentheses in the title of this post. That was done because we can so easily see a number like twenty-seven million and that is all we catch. We overlook the fact that each one of those are individual people. All of them have names. All of them have stories. All of them need to know the love of Christ.
So today if you see an X on someone's hand there is a reason. That reason is the people trapped in the world slavery around the world. It is to draw attention to the plight of those who need those like us who have a voice to be theirs. To speak up, to shine a light on slavery, and to end it. For good.
Want to know more? Go to Enditmovement.com
