Human trafficking/slavery can be stopped without the help of religion or religious organizations. Indeed, many might argue that religious organizations have contributed to the propagation of slavery, not only throughout history (which is definitely true) but even today.
I would argue that religious organizations do not contribute to slavery today but that religion does. Being religious myself, about to be appointed as a pastor in the United Methodist Church, how can I say that? Well, religion does accord a person the opportunity for hypocrisy: "If I believe this and do these things, then I am good; it doesn't matter what I do in my personal life." The concept of religion opens the door for a person to have two separate beings: to structure an external life around the principles of the religion, feel good and justified for having done so; and then to ignore, because of the external image, what is going on inside the person's mind and heart. Ignoring what's going on inside one's head and heart leads even the best of people to live a secret life, without ever feeling guilty about that secret life as long as it remains a secret. For as long as the secret life remains a secret, the person's better half literally won't be able to comment on the secret personal life. It may sound like I'm describing a mental illness, but I'm not--this is a natural occurrence that all people deal with on some level. Religious people may be more susceptible to the phenomenon of tearing ourselves in two, but the vast majority of people of all faith backgrounds perform the same binary fission. Religion may play a different role, but all people will have to deal with themselves at some point in the pursuit of ending human trafficking.
Of course, on the other hand, all religions that I know of ask for a person's heart and mind. While some people may use religion to split into two halves--the half that is devoted to a god or belief system, and the screwed-up half that the first half can't see--faith and religion are meant to reconcile the two halves of our being into one. The first half of our being must acknowledge that the second half exists, and the second half of our being must declare that it wants to begin the arduous journey to hook up with the first half. The vast majority of us love the idea of power and lust and greed, so bringing the two halves together is not an easy task. Faith and religion, and philosophy, are the tools by which bringing the two halves of our being together becomes easier.
As anyone who reads this blog or has read my book should know, I truly believe that changing our attitudes, thoughts, and everyday actions can change the world--specifically, put an end to human trafficking. The last few posts should make this rather clear: men are particularly good at tuning in to exploiting little girls in other countries and then shutting off the computer to go off to their "normal" lives without ever thinking about what they just did; we laugh at or condemn pornographic actors without ever thinking about how we are jealous, envious, lustful, degraded ourselves. So, pulling together our two halves is, I think, of the utmost importance. And yes, one can reconcile oneself without religion if that person has a great passion for human equality, freedom, and dignity, and at the same time recognizes their own humanness. Yet I do think that religion gives us the proper tools for this task. At the very least, religion gives us the language for the task of acknowledging who we are and how we might end slavery.
With that said, let me share with you the "Sexual Abuse" and "Sexual Harassment" sections of The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church Social Principles. I'll write the "Sexual Harassment" section first, though it is listed second. Notice in both of these principles how sexual misconduct, according to the UMC, is related to power, as I have argued long and hard in my book. Notice also, particularly in the "Sexual Abuse" principle, that personal sexual behaviors, that we might otherwise overlook as personal, are directly linked to and escalate quickly into the worst form of sexual behavior: the use of sex slavery. As I have said again and again, our attitudes can lead to bigger and more dangerous behaviors, and while we may think that we would never watch pornography or never use sex slaves, we shouldn't be so sure. Our second half may have a small beginning, but once the separation occurs in our being, the second half can run rampant without our ever chastising it. The language and theology and philosophy to deal with these problems has always existed, as we see in The Book of Discipline, we just haven't been thinking about it properly or using it.
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