PeaceBang

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1. Marjorie Spiegel’s short book The Dreaded Comparison presents a provocative angle to your topic. Alice Walker wrote the forward. http://tinyurl.com/4p48ad

   You can find a lot about it online through Google.

   Good luck on your sermon!

   Comment by Charlie Talbert — April 4, 2008 #

2. PB, I am going to pass on your request to a member of my congregation who is in the MRP at Meadville. She wrote a paper on contemporary slavery, which turned into a sermon, which turned into her winning the big fat sermon award a few years ago (the year it was limited to seminarians). I will ask her to send you her paper (or sermon).

   Comment by Judy Welles — April 4, 2008 #

3. You might try http://www.iabolish.org/

   Hope this helps! Good luck!

   Comment by Rich — April 4, 2008 #

4. There is (or was last time I looked) a bunch of good stuff on contemporary slavery on the feminist sexual ethics site at Brandeis U.

   Comment by Jane R — April 4, 2008 #

5. You can look here. Surely some of your church members saw this on PBS tonight.

   http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/414/girl-slaves-nepal.html

   (And I’ll look at the organization behind it for possible donation.)

   Comment by Scott Wells — April 4, 2008 #

6. For yet another angle, widening the concept of slavery, try the marvellous chapter on slavery in Theodore Zeldin’s book “An Intimate History of Humanity”. There’s 10 good sermons in that book anyway! And the Chapter on modern slavery is particularly thought-provoking, something our congregations actually like! Whoohoo.

   Comment by juffie — April 5, 2008 #

7. Take a look at this http://www.un.org/events/slaveryremembrance/factsheet.shtml
   and read through for additional documentation regarding contemporary slavery.

   The United Nations website is actually quite good for a whole host of documents, research, etc. on many contemporary international policy issues.

   Good luck!

   Comment by tom — April 5, 2008 #

8. Try http://www.antislavery.org It is the website of Anti Slavery International

   Comment by Pigwidgeon — April 5, 2008 #

9. Hi PB,
   You are welcome to this sermon I preached on this topic a year ago:
   http://possiblewater.blogspot.com/2007/04/amazing-grace-movie-not-song-sermon.html
   The stuff on contemporary slavery starts about half way down. I like the story of Zach Hunter, a teenager who calls himself a modern day abolitionist. His book “Be the Change” is a simple but not simplistic exploration of the subject.

   Comment by juniper — April 5, 2008 #

10. Check out the website http://www.notforsalecampaign.org and the book by the same name Not For Sale

    Comment by Tony Lorenzen — April 5, 2008 #

11. PB, here’s the link to the Beyond Slavery conference, courtesy of the Feminist Sexual Ethics project at Brandeis:
    http://www.brandeis.edu/projects/fse/
    Tons of useful stuff there for you and very accessible.

    Comment by Jane R — April 5, 2008 #

12. This is one of two issues that lay closest to my heart (the other being the plight of Christians in the Holy Land.) Anyway, I’m glad you’re preaching on it.

    For fast resources, check out Enslaved: True Stories of Modern Day Slavery, with a forward by Gloria Steinhem.

    Google has a wonderful online preview: http://tinyurl.com/4vp5kb

    And the book’s website has several helpful vignettes (and access to speakers who can come to your church for an event, say):

    http://www.iabolish.org/enslaved/

    Comment by KRS — April 5, 2008 #

13. Mende Nazer’s memoir (written with a journalist) recounts her life story. She was enslaved in Khartoum in Sudan, and then “lent” to relatives of her captors. These relatives were in the Sudanese diplomatic corps in the UK. She was taken as a nanny to London, where she found help, escaped, and sought political asylum.

    The last chapters discuss the British government’s response to her asylum claim and her labour exploitation by Sudanese government officals.

    Comment by Kate — April 5, 2008 #

14. Sorry- the title of the book is “Slave.”

    Comment by Kate — April 5, 2008 #

15. from Hannah Wallace’s Blog: 31 March 2008
    Modern-day Slavery/ a conversation with Benjamin Skinner

    Reading Benjamin Skinner’s book “A Crime So Monstrous,” was a sober experience, yet I couldn’t put it down. It’s a well-written, thoroughly reported investigation into modern-day slavery (or as the Bush Administration euphemistically calls it, “Human Trafficking”) with first-hand accounts of the slaves Skinner got to know on his four years of travel across the globe—from Haiti to India and Moldova to, yes, Miami.

    The book gave me nightmares but it also inspired me to call attention to this subject—I plan to write my senators (one of whom is still running for president) as well as make donations to Free the Slaves, the abolitionist group run by Dr. Kevin Bales, a slavery scholar and author of “Disposable People.” As Samantha Power, who blurbed the book, says: “A Crime so Monstrous is the rare book that doesn’t simply expose these harms; it also explains how and why decent people inside and outside the U.S. government have averted their gaze, and it showcases those who have devoted their lives to curtailing a shockingly prevalent crime against humanity. Skinner has written an anguishing book, but also an inspiring call to action.”

    Oddly, reading Skinner’s book and talking to him for this Q&A in Salon coincided with my watching the second season of “The Wire,” which revolves around the unsolved mystery of a shipping container of Eastern European “Jane Does” who Jimmy McNulty thinks were intentionally suffocated before being inducted into a (no doubt slave) brothel in Baltimore. Slavery, which before I read “A Crime so Monstrous” was invisible to me now seems to be lurking around every corner.

    Start by buying Skinner’s book–you’ll be just as appalled and enraged as I was.

    Comment by Mariah — April 6, 2008 #

16. Hi,

    I’ve been reading your blogs for ages, love it!

    I don’t have any suggestions for you, but I did attend a conference on Human Trafficking (I work for a non-profit that provides support for homeless families.)I learned a great deal at this conference, especially in the area of “and so what do we do?” I can send you the websites etc. that might be of interest to you. Just let me know.

    Your blog has inspired me to start a blog. I’m not a minister — but am in the process of clarifying and articulating my own beliefs and values. I am an episcopal in the process of getting my degree as a therapist. Anyway, just wanted you to know you are one of those who inspire and make me laugh all at the same time!

    Comment by Suzi Shyloh — April 6, 2008 #

17. http://www.ciw-online.org/

    Comment by Jeannie — April 6, 2008 #

18. Harriet Jacob’s Story: a google’ing of “harriet jacobs” or “harriet jacob’s story” will send you pages of the most haunting slave story i believe i’ve ever read..

    http://www.lkwdpl.org/WIHOHIO/jaco-har.htm

    http://www.nchumanities.org/publications/newsletter/newsletter03b.pdf.

    i discovered the life of harriet when i wrote a paper about slave women in seminary. because i chose to tell harriet’s story, i had to re-write the paper, specifically on “slavery”… but no matter….. to this day, i am haunted and empowered by the life of this courageous woman and her community.

    the night i discovered harriet, i was looking at an exhibit from the univ of north carolina, an exhibit of slave stories written in their own words, in their own hands. there were even pictures of some of the slaves. i especially remember the women for that was my focus, regardless of what my professor thought. i remember sitting at the computer screen in the dorm room at the GTU in the “People’s Republic of Berkeley” and being carried back in time, back beyond my haunted MS roots. there was something other-wordly and awe-inspiring to see the handwriting. for too few slaves read or wrote.

    i’ve preached this story, too. be prepared: stuff kleenex in your cuffs. i had to stop several times, my heart was so full and my voice so full of tears. not only tears of overwhelming grief but also tears of the power of life and love, and the will to survive and to live.

    a very brief bio: this woman,a slave, was the focus of an obsession by her white master. so focused and obsessed and stalking was he that harriet was forced to hide in a tiny crawl space for SEVEN YEARS… that is just the very tip of the ice berg… i’ve dreamed about harriet so many times. and in times of great trial i’ve called on her as i call on a saint, for she IS a saint and a shero and one brave, strong, powerful, awesome woman.

    please send me a copy of your semon, regardless of your topic. i’d love to read it.

    en la lucha
    oonie

    Comment by The Revd. oonagh Ryan-King — April 6, 2008 #

19. oh, shoot, well nevermind. you said 21st century. duh. i need to put the contacts back in. lo siento, rev’d peacebang… oonie

    Comment by The Revd. oonagh Ryan-King — April 6, 2008 #

20. i wonder if my shero chung hyun kyung offers accounts (i hope you’ve seen that amazing video of the WCC gathering in australia calling to “han ridden spirits” 1991 i believe)…

    you might try global exchange’s sites on the banana republics and the atrocities of the banana business. i see it; i hear the stories. chiquita murders; the bananas on your breakfast table are fertilised by the bodies and blood of workers. feel free to email me. i used to have pictures of banana processing. the first time i went to take pictures the guard (with automatic big serious weapon) came to grab and destroy my camera. the next time i went, i hid with a zoom. those pictures and all my notes were destroyed in my recent computer crash, thanks to Chiquita Power and Light. there are US unions here trying to organise; i’ll give you those resources if you like. but not on a blog…

    oonie

    Comment by The Revd. oonagh Ryan-King — April 6, 2008 #

21. If you have access to the New York Times online archives, Nicholas Kristof has written a lot of columns on contemporary slavery, especially sexual slavery, in the third world.

    Comment by fausto — April 7, 2008 #

22. Contemporary slavery, especially in US farming communities:
    http://www.ciw-online.org/slavery.html

    Comment by Jeannie — April 7, 2008 #

23. PS I can’t get to Beauty tips for ministers for some reason- it keeps bringing me back here…

    Comment by Jeannie — April 7, 2008 #

24. UU World’s cover story on twenty-first century slavery was published in 2004: “Bitter Harvest.”

    Comment by Philocrites — April 7, 2008 #

25. Not a book but . . . Sara Groves’ new CD has several songs related to her experience with human trafficking. I really love “Say a Prayer” and “I Saw What I Saw” and “The Long Defeat.”

    Comment by T — April 8, 2008 #

26. PB, I just encountered your site tonight. It’s a little late for Easter…but for your reading, give yourself a couple of days with Lawrence Hill’s *The Book of Negroes*. Here’s a link to his site: http://www.lawrencehill.com/the_book_of_negroes.html

    This book haunts me.

    All the best…

    Jaliya

    Comment by Jaliya — April 10, 2008 #

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